Eliza
October 17, 1786, Realm Timeline, Bratislava, The Slovakian Protectorate
Traveling by train for the first time brought out the inner child in Tristan, a little monster lying in ambush, eager to express himself. Wows, what's that, whys ensued during the trip, except for the half an hour where he fell asleep, and she covered him with a blanket. And no intelligent question whatsoever about how the railway has been constructed and the engineering. An old couple asked her if he was her son, which made her bleep a few times. She didn't look that old!
The four hours to Brno felt like twenty. When they descended on the platform, she felt relief. In the armored transport sent for them, Tristan shut up, intimidated. Reaching the main gate, they passed a checkpoint, where Tristan was obliged to surrender his weapon. When they entered the underground facility, the boy walked tucked into her shoulder like a chick into the hen's plumage.
"Is this… natural?" Tristan whispered, staring at the concrete walls and feeling them discreetly.
"No, it's a special paste that turns into stone and becomes very tough. A nuke… the biggest bomb on Earth couldn't break it."
"Here is the access to the cave where the portal opened," the driver showed them another closed gate to the right. "We built a separate facility and took care not to harm the ecosystem. It's a beautiful cave."
"Sorry, what?" Tristan furrowed his brow. "How can a cave be beautiful? It's a cave!"
"On our Earth, people appreciate whatever part of nature is left unspoiled."
"Aha… I see…" Tristan nodded, with a certain 'You guys are nuts' expression on his face.
"Come, we'll go on by ourselves," Eliza said when the car stopped at the next barrier. The next tunnels were for electric scooters and walking. The first made Trista slack-jawed non-stop.
After passing a third checkpoint, they took the elevator down to the lab. The boy was scared out of his mind, but did his best not to show it.
"Listen to me," she said, grabbing his hand. "There will be some people who will test your magical powers. They might stick a few needles in you. It's nothing to be afraid of."
"They w-won't leave devlish signs, right?"
"Don't worry about that," Eliza sighed. The boy had heard about or seen scars left by antique vaccine shots. The Kingling, either by himself or aided by rogue Outworlders, had developed quite a few.
"Eliza!" the chief scientist came forward to hug her. Eliza didn't remember his name, nor the nickname, which was something related to a villain from the movies. "Sit down, young man," he gestured toward a dentist's chair. It was what they liked to use because it was both comfy and flexible. "Here, have a candy," he said, unwrapping a sweet and offering it to Tristan.
"Hmm… It'sh goooooood," the young man said, then slumped, snoring before one could have counted to five.
"New anesthetic, magic enhanced," the scientist said, using a finger to extract the candy from Tristan's mouth, throwing it in the bin together with its wrapping paper. "Saves so much time and useless conversation. C'mon, peep, move, move," he clapped.
A team of nurses, doctors, and other scientists hurried to open Tristan's shirt and place various sensors. Only one needle was inserted into the young man to extract some blood. Still, a giant metallic claw was tightened around his temples. Eliza sat on the chair nearby, accepting stoically being subjected to the same treatment.
"The body weight has increased, but there are no modifications in the overall dimensions," a lab assistant said.
"You have weight sensors in the chair?" Eliza asked.
"Maybe. Shut up, or I'll sedate you too," the lab chief said, frowning.
The staff busied themselves measuring parameters, or whatever they did. Eliza couldn't understand why the hurry. She and Tristan weren't going anywhere. Fifteen minutes later, the agitation slowed down.
"This is frustrating," Connie, the woman Eliza had befriended, said.
"What is frustrating?" Eliza asked.
"How little we understand."
"It's magic, after all," Eliza shrugged.
"It's magic, after all," Connie made a face, mimicking Eliza's words.
"We need better equipment, and the kind that doesn't exist yet," the chief scientist said.
"When your minion absorbed health, how did it happen? Did you see it?" Connie asked.
"No. I know Tristan has the ability from his Character Menu."
"Hm… So, you don't know if he drank blood or anything?"
"Definitely didn't drink blood. Tristan's religious. He would have complained about losing his soul and shit. Why do you ask?"
"Well, you see… Lifeforce, or Health, or however you call it, it's easier to define in a game than in real life," the chief scientist said. "How does one absorb life force from another being? In a Vampire's case, drinking blood would have been the best answer."
"Ew! Why?"
"It's more… human, in a way," Connie said.
"You’re joking, right?"
"What she means is that drinking blood is easier to understand on human terms," the chief scientist said. "Imagine options A and B. Option A, you feed on blood, and your body has a magic ability to digest it faster and absorb it as healing. Does it make sense?"
"I guess so?"
"Option B, you siphon adenosine triphosphate. It's a molecule that ensures your body has enough energy. You produce your own body weight in it every day, even if it's so small it cannot be seen on the microscope. Light just passes through it. You have a permanent reserve in your body, but it's very small.
"Now imagine Mana interacting with it. Maybe the number of Mana particles that bond will increase the energy you get from it. Maybe you store more ATP, and that's also a cause of your body weight increasing."
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"I don't get your point," Eliza said. All the nerdish talk was confusing and annoying.
"The point is that being able to siphon another being's chemical energy by some sort of telekinesis or teleportation is more frightening than just drinking their blood," Connie said.
"Well, it's Magic," Eliza rolled her eyes. "That's what it is supposed to do."
Connie replied in kind, moving to a console. "Whatever. Time to read the logs. Accessing data… What? He's level twelve already? Impressive… Good stats too. Hm… Strong-willed. Independent. He invested a point by himself. That's suboptimal."
"Why?" Eliza groaned. She hated being in a medical chair.
The chief scientist snorted. "You're allowing him too much freedom. In the end, he's expandable. You must—"
Suddenly, her arm jerked up by itself, grabbing the scientist by the throat.
"Must?" Eliza hissed. "Remember your place!"
"Please, Liz, I—"
"Oh, my God!" Eliza yelped, releasing him. "So sorry! It just moved by itself!"
"This is fascinating," the man said, rubbing his throat, then raising his hand to stop an assistant from pushing a red button. "It's okay."
"Change of personality," Connie said.
"More prone to act on impulses," the chief scientist said.
"Am I going mad?" Eliza whispered, taking her cheeks in her palms. "I'm so sorry… Maybe you should restrain me from now on."
"I don't think that would be a good idea. Your brain looks normal, but changes were theorized; thus the humanity stat, meant to keep you in check. How big is it?"
"It's still twenty-seven."
"Maybe you should increase it a bit."
"Oh, my. This is precious!" Connie gasped.
"What?"
"Come see yourself."
Taking the device off her head, Eliza went to the desk, Connie stepping aside to let her take a look at the screen. The data was confusing, displaying too many notifications she didn't understand.
"Your minion somehow figured out how to use the Journal app. His notes show a strong emotional attachment to you."
"Puppy love?" Eliza sagged her shoulders. The kid having a crush on her was the last thing she needed.
"Here are his Journal entries," Connie pulled forward a document.
"The bleep?" Eliza gasped a second later.
Day three since I was turned. Milady took me on a bounty-hunting job. She said bounty hunting is the easiest way to get XP. We infiltrated a bandit's den. She is very dedicated and hardworking. She disguised herself as a dancer. She struggled a lot, poor thing, but didn't succeed in matching the artistic ability of the other dancers. I saved the day.
"May I ask what kind of artistic ability they displayed?" Connie asked.
"Twerking," Eliza hissed, her affection for the boy changing into repulsion on the spot. Hissing was easier now, with her new pointy canines.
"Go on, it gets better."
Behind them, all the assistants and other scientists were pushing themselves around to take a look. As she read on, Eliza's knees mollified.
Day five since I turned. I'm level twelve. Last night, I saved the little Vlach witch from being picked on by sailors. She repaid my kindness by pretending I tried to force myself upon her. Luckily, Milady believed me. She's a nice person, a beautiful soul in a malformed body. I swore to dedicate myself to her happiness and to do my best to mend the relationship between Sam and Milady, so they can spend their old years together. I'm sure he'll see reason and choose the beauty of the heart over the buxomy Viking.
A heart emoji was drawn above Viking, and Eliza had a suspicion that if Sam returned to her, Tristan would immediately try to woo Penny. That added more layers to her hate.
"She's older than me!" Eliza screamed in the air. "And fat!"
"Look at the bright side, he's not romantic over you," Connie said.
"Yep… No puppy love," Eliza said, banging her fist on the console. She was used to men adoring her lithe looks, and now, some hillbilly from a backward world thought her hideous?
"Auntie Eliza," someone whispered in the back.
"Who said that? Show yourself!" she snapped, turning on her heels, feeling the need to tear that person's throat with her fangs. Take a grip, Liz! You're NOT a Vampire; you're just using a class.
"OK, your tasks are finished; leave us alone," the chief scientist said. "If any of you leaks a word of sensitive or embarrassing information, they'll be on cleaning duty for the rest of their lives!"
"Their extremely short lives," Eliza growled.
"You too, Connie," the chief scientist frowned at the woman, who was evidently thinking that her friendship with Eliza entitled her to stay behind.
As the rest left, some giggling, the chief scientist went to another screen to look at a few charts.
"There is a big spike in adrenaline, coinciding with what I've said about your minion. I have a theory."
"Well?"
"We don't know much about Vampires, but we theorized about the bond, because it's in the stories, correct? What if Vampires are clan-minded? Attached to their minions, and so on."
"It's kind of obvious," Eliza said.
"Then, you were pretty upset finding out his opinion about you. Vampire could also be quite… err… prideful?"
"I'll try to keep myself in check," Eliza promised.
"Why don't you go solo for a while? "Let your minion—"
"His name is Tristan," Eliza snapped. "Oh… What do you know? You were right. Definitely clan-minded."
"Let him go through Orientation by himself. He'll learn the ropes, get used to our ways, and grow his Mental stats. He shows promise."
"A break would do us both good," Eliza sighed. "We'll have time to adjust. Anything else?"
"Not so far we can tell. However…"
"Yes?"
"Two events in which you and Sam participated manifested extreme disturbances. The diplomatic meeting and the bounty."
"You mean we're a magnet for trouble?"
"Thread carefully. Maybe your powers influence probabilities, like an observer for a Schrödinger cat."
"What's a Chopstinger cat?" Tristan asked, popping his eyes open.
"You're awake?" Eliza asked. His resistances must be through the roof.
"A Schrödinger cat is an imaginary experiment," the scientist said. "You seal a cat into a box, with a poison bottle with a mechanism that has a fifty-fifty chance to break the bottle and kill the cat. No one knows if the cat is alive or dead until the box is opened. Thus, the cat exists in two states simultaneously, dead and alive, until it's observed by opening the box."
"This is stupid," Tristan snorted, fidgeting to remove the device on his head. "What kind of cat? Is it a nice kitty, or a bad one? I mean… the cat could break the bottle by itself, right?"
The man remained silent for many seconds, the air filled with the faint noise of the air filtering. "This is… genius. The cat is also an observer. An active participant."
"Hey, my Intelligence grew by three points," Tristan said, his mouth wide open, like a child awed by good news.
Eliza slapped his nape. "Focus. By the way, I'm twenty-nine."
"Sorry?"
"That's my age. Twenty-nine."
"Oh… you're not so old," Tristan said, a bit like 'OK, you're not quite a crone, but not so far from it either.' "Where are the other people?"
"I ordered them to leave," the scientist said. "Eliza and I are in the Council; they're plebs. We don't want them to hear the important information."
"The worst is done, anyway," Eliza sighed.
"Jokes are anecdotal. A local intuitively pushing the limits of Quantum physics is not."
Eliza felt proud of Tristan, even if she still hated him.
"By the way, we have a Council meeting in nineteen minutes," the scientist said.
"I know, I got the message."
"May I watch?" Tristan asked immediately.
"No. You can proceed to the Orientation office and get registered," she poked Tristan's shoulder with her index finger.
"What's Orientation, again?" Tristan asked.
"You'll learn to use our equipment, our weapons, how to work in a team, and so on. It will take a few weeks," Eliza said. "Maybe less, if you're a fast learner." I was a klutz… But he doesn't have to know.
"W-weeks?" Tristan yelped.
"And you'll be on your own. I trust you to behave responsibly."
"On m-my own?"
"Are you a child, Tristan?" Eliza said coldly. "You need me to hold your hand every minute of the day? Consider this a test. Are you able to do it?"
"I h-hope so," Tristan wailed, looking around at the laboratory, which must've represented the equivalent of an alien ship for him. "But where are you going?"
"Not that it's your business to know, but I have to do solo stuff. I'll hunt bandits."
"Absolutely not!" Tristan shouted. "You'll get killed."
"You should know I'm in the top ten bounty hunters," Eliza said. "I'm perfectly able to take care of myself."
Tristan slackjawed. "You? In the top ten?"
"Yes, me!" Eliza rolled her eyes. "I have my ways. I'm an Outworlder, remember?" She lowered her voice, trying to sound spooky. "A vile, old, ugly, deformed witch."
"But I left my horse back in Bratislava," Tristan complained, oblivious to the hint.
"There's a train at midnight. Go, pick your mount, and be back tomorrow evening," Eliza said. "All trains have a carriage for horses. You can take the dagger with you, but leave the spear shaft behind. Everybody on the train looked at us like we were crazy."
"But I have no money for the ticket."
"As Eliza's minion, you are entitled to a salary of an ounce of gold a month, or about ten ducats," the scientist said.
"Ah…"
"Is it not enough for you?" Eliza snapped.
"No, no, it's great," Tristan said. "Twice my salary in His Majesty's service."
"Here's the pay for your first month and your part of the bounty," Eliza said, throwing Tristan a small purse. "I had it prepared, but forgot about it. Come, I'll show you the way out."