Chapter 607: Layering and Complexities

Elena’s eyes darted around like she was trying to work out what Caius meant and when it dawned on her, her eyes narrowed which Caius found amusing as he then looked at Athenodora.

"I tried contacting someone in the Acheron Empire and couldn’t," Caius said.

"So?" Athenodora said with a shrug.

"So, is that your doing?" Caius asked.

"It is," Athenodora answered.

"A part of your ploy to keep me here?" Caius asked.

"Keep referring to yourself like a captive and I just might start liking it," Athenodora said and licked her lower lip.

Caius rolled his eyes.

"Ha ha ha," he laughed without any mirth.

"The interference was in place before you arrived. Not everything is about you, Caius," Athenodora said.

"Oh, I’m sure," Caius said sarcastically.

"No, really. I bear a curse that’s sapping my very life force and I have been forced to flee the Empire. Can you not understand why I might want to keep Venuzze out of range of any outside communication?" Athenodora asked.

"Ah," Caius said.

"Yes," Athenodora answered.

"You worry someone in Venuzze will give your location away?" Caius asked.

"Someone native to Venuzze? No. But one can never be too careful in case something sneaks in through the cracks. Though there should be none," Athenodora said.

"How did you manage it?" Caius asked, "What is actually causing the interference?"

"A formation, of course. The very one I gave you the key to pass through into Venuzze," Athenodora answered casually.

Roxanne paused with a goblet of blood at her lips.

"The dome?" She asked.

Athenodora looked at her.

"Yes," she answered, "It’s a multipurpose defence. Keeps out physical and immaterial intrusion."

"But, that would require a lot of complexity, especially with a formation of that scale that surrounds an entire nation. You must have skilled Formation Masters," Roxanne said.

"Yes," Athenodora said, a little smug, "Me."

"You did it alone?" Roxanne said and she sounded awed.

"Couldn’t trust anyone not to fuck it up," Athenodora said with a little laugh.

"I had a fairly good look at the dome when we got close to it. It’s sophisticated work," Roxanne said.

"It is," Athenodora said without a hint of humility, "You must have an eye for Formations."

"Well, I’ve been studying them for about two centuries," Roxanne said and flushed slightly.

"Two centuries. A sound beginner," Athenodora said with a nod.

Roxanne flushed even harder but she pushed on.

"The dome was close to the Acheron border so they had to have noticed something when you were watching the Formation," she said.

"I can be stealthy if I need to be. But also, I never etched any piece of the Formation close to the Acheron Border. That would make it easy to disrupt. Just damaging part of it would be enough to make a crack in the protective dome, so of course, I couldn’t do that," Athenodora said.

"You didn’t etch the formation near the border?" Roxanne asked.

"I didn’t."

"So where did you etch it?" Roxanne asked.

"Right here," Athenodora answered with a gesture at the hall they were in. But something about how she gestured suggested she was actually referring to the Palace as a whole.

"Here?" Roxanne said with disbelief, "But this is—"

"Right at the center of the dome that surrounds Venuzze. If you’ve studied Formations for two centuries, you must know how vital centering can be," Athenodora said.

"Yeah, I know about centering but if the Formation is etched here, how is the dome manifesting near the border? There should be a limit," Athenodora said.

"Limits? Not really. You can layer Formations as much as you want, extending duration, power, and range however you please," Athenodora said. Caius noticed when she shifted from smug and amused to lecturing.

"Yeah, I know about layering but the mind can only handle so many complexities before they inevitably mess up and render the whole thing useless," Roxanne said.

"Yes, if you don’t know what you’re doing," Athenodora said with a smirk.

Roxanne didn’t look insulted. She looked eager and excited.

"So, if it’s all about layering, then, does that mean portability isn’t a drawback? You can create a powerful formation that will retain its stability even without a strong foundation?"

"I suppose. But it would depend on what you’re etching and layering the Formation onto. Formations might be ’limitless’ but the durability of the foundation they are etched on can still falter," Athenodora said.

"But it’s still possible to create a massive range, maybe with a drawback of making the effect of the Formation simple. Like just the recognition of a name..." Roxanne trailed off now and looked at Caius who smiled.

"Is this a specific inquiry?" Athenodora asked when she noticed the exchange.

"We were attacked on our way here. Well, we were attacked multiple times but the first happened at an inn in Revron County," Caius said and he paid attention to Athenodora’s expression, waiting for her to give something away.

She didn’t so he continued.

"We believe the attacker found us because I called your name out loud. He seemed very insistent on finding you," Caius said.

"What was his name?" Athenodora asked.

"He didn’t give one. But he was a Noble Emissary," Caius said.

"That could be anyone," Athenodora said.

"Well, not just anyone," Caius said.

"Okay, there is a prerequisite of vampirism. But unlike here in Venuzze, Vampires are numerous in the Acheron Empire. You’ll need to be more specific if I’m to know who that was," Athenodora said.

"His Emissary designation overpowered my Noble Authority," Caius said.

"That narrows down who can be responsible for sending him but not by much. You’re a Count, Caius. You only surpass a Baron and there are a lot more ranks ahead of you and any one of them could imbue their Emissary with authority that overrides yours," Athenodora said.

"True, but there aren’t all that many Vampire Nobles actually living," Caius said, "Think of one of them who would like you dead, and we should have our prime suspect."

"More than half of the Nobles would like me dead. More actually, they’re just duplicitous enough to not show their intentions. I need more, Caius," Athenodora said with a ’come on’ hand gesture.

"Fine, he was tall. He wore wine-red robes. Brown hair down to his shoulders, a thick beard, and of course, bright red eyes," Caius described.

"Oh, really?" Athenodora smirked at his cheekiness, "I thought you might have fought a unique blue-eyed vampire."

The Leopolds and Elena smiled.

Caius rolled his eyes.

"Does the description ring any bells?" He asked.

"No," Athenodora said promptly.

"Maybe I didn’t describe him well enough," Caius said.

"Don’t bother. He sounds generic and my brain doesn’t do well with those. It’s no one I’ll recognize," Athenodora said with a dismissive wave.

"Hmm, he damn near killed me, but sure, just dismiss him," Caius said, shaking his head.

Athenodora leaned back in her chair.

"My instructions to you were clear; Come here as fast as you can. And what did you do? Got into a bunch of fights," she said with a disappointed shake of her head.

Caius instantly felt defensive.

"How was I to know calling your name would attract a psycho," he said indignantly.

"And the other fights?" Athenodora raised a brow.

"What?"

"You said you were attacked multiple times. Were those also because of my name?" Athenodora asked.

"The key word is ’attacked’. We didn’t go out seeking fights, they found us and we had to defend ourselves," Caius said.

"What happened?"

"A couple of bounty hunters wanted to make money off our heads," Caius said.

"Bounty hunters?"

"Yeah, the Acheron Empire is growing intolerant of vampires," Caius said.

"Yeah, because vampires were welcomed with open arms before," Athenodora laughed.

"Yeah, well, it’s much worse now. There’s a task force, families have been eliminated for so-called vampire relations. It’s a whole thing," Caius said.

"And they caught up to you during your cross-country trip? How? Were you going about shifted?" Athenodora asked.

"Of course not," Caius said, "The journey was smooth at first. But then, there was that attack by the Emissary which we barely managed to survive, and in the process, our carriage was discovered. We didn’t learn of that until we arrived at Northern-Star and were ambushed.

Then it was a race and battle to the border. Your dome actually helped us get away."

"Ah, a happy ending then," Athenodora clapped.

"Yeah, very happy," Caius said sarcastically and a minute of silence passed before he spoke again,

"How is the progress for a cure?"

"You’re all there is for now," Athenodora said.

"Hmm, I doubt that. One doesn’t get to live as long as you have and not have contingencies and ways out of sticky situations," Caius said.

"Thank you for the compliment but this is beyond a ’sticky situation’. Certainly nothing I could have prepared for," Athenodora said.

"You said you had Blood Alchemists hard at work," Caius remembered.

"Yes."

"I’d like to meet with them and see what they’ve tried and what they might have missed," Caius said.

"Does a decade with me appeal so little to you?" Athenodora asked with a teasing smirk.

"Are you willing to trade good health for my company?" Caius asked with his eyes staring into hers.

Athenodora let out an exasperated breath and looked away.

"So serious," she said, "Elena will take you to them. Though I fail to see what you can find that they haven’t."

"Well," Caius said as he took a sip of Beast Blood,

"Let’s hope you’re shortsighted."