Of course, very soon she will have a new thing to blame for the disappearances. That is, if the ritual works.
Which it will. It must.
3. Evening is here again. If there is no sign of success during the night, I will add another stone in the morning. Mayhap the subjects are simply too far away in the mountains, and they need further incentive.
* * *
9 Octis
1. I sent out some agents to gather word in the town. Nothing. It becomes difficult not to despair.
As soon as they returned, I added another stone to the flames. The darkfire is still a good distance away from the cauldron, but I cannot stop worrying that I will overdo it. The heat in the chamber is bad enough, but the oppressive air the ritual creates is far worse. I do not know if I imagine it, but I feel I can even sense it when I leave the building, and for several spans around.
This setback would be more tolerable if I knew why it has happened. It is possible, I know, that there are no vampires close enough in the mountains to sense the ritual’s presence. But all our best research indicated that Lan Shui would be the ideal setting for such an endeavor. Were we wrong in that? Or is this some other failing of mine? Did I not do enough to codify the specifics of the ritual? Did I let the blood sit for too long? Is the degraded cauldron interfering somehow?
I cannot know the answer, and so I can only sit here and wonder, helplessly.
Nothing else to do today but wait, and burn, and pray for some further guidance from the Lord.
* * *
10 Octis
1. I sent out my agents again just after sunup. They returned with nothing, again. No one in the town seems to have been attacked. There have been no sightings of vampires in the area.
The nighttime hours plagued me with thoughts and wonderings of where I could have gone wrong. And I believe I have it. I did not have enough blood. I pushed too hard. The Lord urged me to begin before the ides of Octis, but I acted in rash pride. I thought to impress him by beginning early, when I should have trusted in his infallible judgement.
Father forgives, but I do not want his forgiveness in this. I want only to please him, and to serve him. And I have failed at both. He deserves a better officer than I.
2. I scribble this with shaking fingers.
It has worked.
I despaired because the agents I sent out this morning discovered nothing. What a fool I was. Of course the vampires would not have attacked the town straight away. Instead they attacked a messenger, one sent by the constables to deliver their weekly report to Bertram. The old man was leagues away from the walls when the vampires found him.
Early this morning his body was discovered, and it was some hours before Captain Baolan could go and investigate. When she came back to town she was apparently reticent, but rumor has it that the body was completely drained of blood.
A vampire has come. More than one, if we are lucky.
I will again call off the harvest. The wilds are no longer safe.
This morning I despaired of my service to Father. Now I am vindicated, but I care little for being proven right. I care only that I have not failed him.
* * *
11 Octis
1. Word has spread through the town that the constables have sent another messenger to Bertram. If he should reach the city and warn them of the vampire attack, that would be frustrating, but hardly debilitating. Now we know the ritual works for certain. As long as we are safe here in this town, we will take every opportunity to experiment. The height of the cauldron, the number of magestones, every factor will be weighed, adjusted, and observed to gather more information for use in the coming conflict.
Thus if the redbacks of Bertram should find us here, we will lose nothing, but only be slightly delayed in our discoveries.
For the first time in a very long while, I am nothing but eager for tomorrow.
* * *
12 Octis
1. I write this near the end of the day. There were no reports of an attack in the night. But if there are only one or two vampires in the area, their victims simply might not have been discovered yet. Sky above, it took the constables long enough to discover the folk we were harvesting under their very noses.
* * *
13 Octis
1. The operation is more successful than I could have hoped. Someone discovered the body of the constables’ messenger. He never reached Bertram. He and his horse were slain at night on the road.
No help is coming to Lan Shui. No one shall come to rescue them. We can wait here until the whole town has been wiped free of life, and then retreat into the Greatrocks, leaving the cauldron behind to keep the vampires in place.
The fires dropped somewhat low, and so I added another magestone. Our supply is short—I have only a dozen and a half left—and there is no sign of the fresh shipment the Lord mentioned. I have sent a messenger into the Greatrocks to find out about the shipment and see if it can be expedited.
Speaking of which, I imagine the constable captain will try again to send word to Bertram. I await the results of such an attempt with bated breath.
* * *
15 Octis
1. A second messenger was indeed sent, and she was killed. They found her body this afternoon. The constable captain seems to have come to her senses and advised all nearby farmers to withdraw within the
