In the study, its walls collapsed, the pale light could neither harm spirits nor bring the living the slightest warmth. The Earl and Countess of Secomel, standing in that light, had completely shed the air of the living and now existed in another form before their only daughter.
Their appearance was so unfamiliar that the hope little Countess Sharon had carried in her heart shattered completely.
Her heart ached, and she nearly wept. Yet the vampire's inability to cry allowed her to retain the last vestige of a lord's dignity. Little Sharon, however, was not someone who would be crushed by a change in mood. After a brief silence, with Knight Valand standing guard at her side, sword in hand, she raised her head and asked:
"You never used to speak like this. Either death changed you, or those bastards who turned you into this filled your heads with terrible things. The whole city is in an uproar, but we should still have a little time.
"Father, Mother, please tell me more of what I don't know.
"About the undercurrents in Secco City, what happened to you after you died, and those bastards who keep hiding in the shadows!"
"Mm, child, you have too many questions, and unfortunately, we have too little time."
The old Earl Secomel spoke with his dry, shriveled vocal cords:
"I can feel death calling from afar. They have noticed the disturbance here, and the evil will soon strip away the last of our lucidity. So let's keep this brief.
"The plague from two years ago was not merely an act of war. We suspect that even General Loren, who ordered the plague barrels deployed, had no idea what they contained.
"He was not innocent.
"But what happened in Secco City afterward had little to do