The Monster Inside: The First Vampire 230 The Star Pavilion

They came from far and wide, though no matter their status, whether or rich or poor, n.o.ble or peasant, all were only allowed one question. One question was never enough.

Envious of the power the Magician wielded, one particularly powerful lord rose up against him, and through a means long lost to history, stole the power to see the future from the Magician and was never seen again. Since that time, the power to see the future was nothing but a myth.

It was believed however that the Magician never stopped trying to divine the future, and he constructed a great Pavilion in order to help him and his disciples. A place that came to be known as the Star Pavilion.

Every child had grown up with the stories of the Magician who could see the future. Even Illai. They all dreamed of seeing the Star Pavilion at one time or another. The place where it was said you could still hear the whispers of the Magician and his disciples, murmuring of the future and what it had to offer. Though, by all accounts, it had been centuries since anyone had practiced the art of Divination.

Still, the Star Pavilion had remained a Sacred place. Sacred enough for it to have its own Knight Contingent that answered to n.o.body but the one who held the owners.h.i.+p rights to the Pavilion.

An owner and contingent that currently stood in Illai's way.
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Illai had done as her Master had asked. She had crossed the Ocean to Eldovia and come to the Star Pavilion. She was not the only spy who surveyed the Fortress that surrounded the Pavilion, though she was the only Magician.

That however, appeared to make no difference.

There was no way into the Pavilion, at least from what she could ascertain from an initial surveillance of the area. The Fortress was perched in the center of a ma.s.sive canyon that followed the direct like of the sun from East to West. In Winter perhaps, when the sun was lower in the sky, it did not possess so much sunlight, but in the middle of summer it was practically alight like a beacon. It's white walls encompa.s.sed the entire Fortress, the internal structure only visible from the cliffs on either side of the canyon that were far enough away that even an air Magician would have trouble controlling the winds long enough to fly in. And that was counting on the fact that they weren't spotted.

The only entrance into the Fortress was via a long bridge that connected the Fortress to a guard station in front of it, which in turn connected it to either side of the canyon. The door, for the most part, only opened when a delivery was being made to or from the Fortress.

It was frustrating. The Knight Contingent's watch was thorough, and they'd clearly been trained against the likes of Magicians as well. Every time Illai had attempted to sneak in through the shadows, she'd been spotted or detected in some way she had yet to ascertain. Three days has pa.s.sed, and the Knight Captain she'd seen patrolling the Fortress walls was beginning to get on her nerves.

Once she got in, he'd meet with an unfortunate end.

Once her surveillance hadn't overturned any stones, Illai had found herself a vantage point and settled to watch, waiting for an opening.

But a week had pa.s.sed by, then two. No openings arose, and Illai began to grow impatient.

But then a thought had occurred to her, something that she hadn't noticed at first, but as she'd changed vantage points over the fortnight, had grown more and more obvious.

The deliveries that went in were not full of Evanine. With amount of charms that were being produced and sent off, surely there should have been ma.s.sive deliveries coming in. But there was nothing.

Even if the Evanine had been stockpiled in the Fortress, surely after two years they would have run out by now.

So only one alternative possibility existed. The Evanine had to be coming through an alternative entrance. So Illai set to work, scouring the Canyon for the entrances that had evaded her.

***

Knight Captain Lync Trevor marched through the Star Fortress, his squire and second at his flanks. The Trevor family, lower cla.s.s n.o.bles at best, had served the owners of the Star Pavilion for centuries, but never had they encountered an owner quite like Falla Startree.

Lync had been serving as the Knight Captain of the Star Fortress for a decade when the Young Master of the Luvien Family, had pa.s.sed the owners.h.i.+p of the Star Pavilion and Fortress to his young wife. It had been quite the scandal. Especially seeing as he died less than a month later. The Luvien family had held the Star Pavilion in their possession for five centuries, something that made them second only in standing to the Kildares in Eldovia. Losing it and their son had been quite the blow to them socially, but none had sought retribution from Falla. Not with the Trevors guarding her and the Pavilion. Lync here in Eldovia, and his brother Layn always by her side.

Falla, true to the belief her late husband had had of her being unable to simply sit and look pretty, had not hesitated to use the Star Pavilion as a smuggling station for her Charm Business. Lync was in no place to disapprove of his Mistress's orders, and for now, the general public simply believed that the Charms were being made there. The Pavilion nor Falla had lost any standing because of it. In fact, it had only seemed to boost their reputations. Lync frequently had to deal with invitations and requests coming in to visit the Pavilion. Something he had to refuse without exception thanks to his Mistress's orders.

Lync entered the surveillance room that sat beneath the Pavilion, and turned to look at the Knight Captain who had called on him, Harrow.

"What is it?" asked Lync, "Is she moving again".

Harrow indicated to the large slab of dark crystal behind him which had been carved with a map of the Fortress and the surrounding area. No one but the sworn knights knew of this technology. Something that had always been with the Pavilion and had been key to them protecting it so easily over the millennium.

Harrow pointed to the spot of white light on the edge of the map, "She is moving on and off the edge of our detection range. Rapidly too. Like she's looking for something again. A change from her movements over the past fortnight".

"She's worked out there's another entrance," said Lync, he knew it had been coming. She was too determined, "Warn those below to keep the torches lit and keep sending reports to them".

"Yes, Captain".