He looked up at the two vampires sitting above him. Both shook their heads. The younger one, Rivel, looked slightly bored. Bamer, the elderly vampire, stared down at Ryoka with a frown but said nothing. Himilt nodded. He turned to Ryoka. And to her surprise, he walked over and held out a hand.
“None. Vampires don’t earn classes. We can’t level up. Mother lost her classes when she became a vampire. Old Bamer thinks it’s a way of keeping balance. Imagine if a high-level [Warrior] were a vampire.”
“We’re alive. I wouldn’t have this stupid cold if I wasn’t. But like I said, we heal quickly. Although we do get sick quite often…Bamer thinks that’s a curse.”
“There’s a bit about vampires you don’t know, Ryoka. A lot of it’s sort of true. Bamer says we used to prey on people and control a lot of Izril—until we were nearly wiped out, that is. We don’t do any of that anymore. And we’re not immortal. Some of us can live into our sixties, or even eighties…but never longer.”
“I was supposed to tell you about vampires. But you knew almost everything. Even more stories than Bamer. Are there really tales about…Dracula, and vampires where you come from?”
“Mist…maybe Bamer would know if that’s possible. He’s the oldest vampire I know. I’ll ask him next time I go back home. As for the rest…I don’t like doing it, but I can. How do you know so much about vampires?”
“No. We get sick. Miss Kelysta’s always giving me free potions because of it. They help, they really do. But it costs a lot, so even though we make a lot, it goes to potions. Expensive ones, sometimes. Mother’s not the only one. Bamer’s sick most of the time, but it’s not often bad. But my father—”
“No. The neck, and other things happen to vampires at they grow older. It gets worse with time. It’s…a thing that happens. Bamer calls it a curse. The neck, the swelling—that happens. Not just to vampires, but that started about six years back for Dad. We just get sick more easily, that’s all. Mom’s had that rash for ages, Rivel’s healthy, but he used to get terrible fevers. Bamer’s coughed all his life. I got sick last month.”
“No. The neck, and other things happen to vampires at they grow older. It gets worse with time. It’s…a thing that happens. Bamer calls it a curse. The neck, the swelling—that happens. Not just to vampires, but that started about six years back for Dad. We just get sick more easily, that’s all. Mom’s had that rash for ages, Rivel’s healthy, but he used to get terrible fevers. Bamer’s coughed all his life. I got sick last month.”
“It’s always something. Something gets you. A bad illness. Or—or something goes wrong and they start going mad. Sometimes it’s like Bamer and you just get…weaker. But that’s the price of being a vampire, right?”
It made Fierre too much at ease around Ryoka. She had to remember the girl was a stranger. Her parents, Bamer, they’d all warned her to stay wary. Stay wary. Fierre bit her lip and changed the subject.
You could argue it was there to give balance. If a Vampire could level, surely they would be [Warriors] without peer, or [Mages] with access to magics beyond normal spellcasters. Vampires had many powers, and old Bamer had told her stories of the Vampires of old, and how they’d tapped into blood magic, shape shifting—even though her father forbade those stories most of the time.
