Ilena's Gift

Sir Friedman's lounge was spacious.

The enormous floor-to-ceiling windows were shut tight. Blood-red velvet curtains hung half-drawn across them, with two gold hooks tipped with silver tassels beside them. Beyond the bright windows stretched an endless blue sky, and beneath a few wisps of cloud, a flock of geese could just be made out flying high in the distance.

Unlike in most wizards' rooms, only two ordinary oil paintings hung in this lounge. Neither carried any magic, so neither held the lingering shadow of some old person. Artistically speaking, though, both paintings showed remarkable talent and certainly had what people called "soul." When Zheng Qing first saw them, he nearly threw a few Silence Talismans at them.

But as he followed the witch, he eventually noticed what was different about the paintings. He kept the Silence Talismans tucked away and preserved a little of the composure expected of him.

Ilena did not notice the small stirrings in his mind.

As she led the way, she casually introduced the lounge's furnishings as though it were her own home, which felt rather strange. "Those two oil paintings—the stern old man sitting in the chair on the left is Tony J. Black, Patriarch of the Black Family, which has a very, very long history. The book under his hand is the Moonlight Codex, the basic rules everyone in the Moonlit Parliament has to follow."

"And the handsome older man on the right is John Hugh Callen of the Callan Family, a legendary figure among vampires. The cup in his hand is supposedly the Blood Clan Holy Grail... Though no one's ever proved it. That's just a rumor going around outside."

"And the reddish-brown wooden desk behind you was supposedly made from the boards of a coffin once slept in by a vampire more