Goddess

The road Cain was on gradually grew wider as it drew closer to the city. It was obviously well-traveled, and Cain was not the only traveler making his way along the path in the darkest hours. There were likely bandits on the road, too. Cain hoped he looked like a poor target, but there was always a good chance of being jumped when you traveled alone, especially near the larger cities. 

His destination was not the city, but rather a temple about half a day's journey beyond it. That was where the region's largest temple of Brinn could be found. As the goddess whose aspect was said to be related to bonds and contracts, Brinn was an obvious choice for anyone seeking to cast aside one bond in favor of another. Even if the vampire could not earn a bond with the goddess herself, it was wise to seek her favor before attempting to break the bond another way. 

Most vampires who chose not to go the route of demon contracts sought the favor of Brinn. This was because vampires had no god or goddess of their own. They were unnatural aberrations of nature. Some vampires still hoped they could find favor with the gods. Cain had no such hope - he'd never seen a vampire gain a god's favor in his short time as a human, and shorter time as a vampire. But then, even when he had been human, he hadn't held out much hope for the favor of gods to get him through the struggles of his life, so perhaps his problem was less in the witnessing and more in the failure to seek it out. Still, knowing that a vampire's very existence was antithetical to the work of the gods - bordering on heretical, even - there seemed no reason to expect the favor of a god, even one whose domain was that of bonds. Then again, the popular theory was that the bond of thrall and sire was a perversion of those bonds that found favor in the eyes of Brinn. Because of this, many vampires hoped that Brinn would destroy the bond for the simple reason that it was not a bond that pleased her. 

But why should a goddess spend extra effort on such a thing, when it was so much easier to just burn the vampire and end their whole impure existence? The agony of holy flames was something Cain had only experienced secondhand - such as the burn of a blessed blood, or through the bite of a blessed weapon. He'd never felt the purifying immolation of a god firsthand - but he had witnessed it. While he mostly felt irritation and mockery for the poor vampires who sold themselves to demons in an attempt to sever the bond, he felt nothing but pity for those pitiful creatures who attempted to align themselves with one of the pantheon. 

The refining fire of divinity would burn the vampire from within. As they were undead monsters, there was nothing pure remaining in a vampire. There was nothing to redeem, nothing to burn the iniquity from, for there was no soul there. There was nothing in a vampire worth saving, and so the typical method of breaking a bond that was helpful for humans or cursed individuals - swearing loyalty to the goddess and submitting to rites of purification - was pointlessly cruel and useless to a vampire.

As with the demons, there were two options that remained for a vampire to attempt to sever the bond with their sire. The first was to surrender blood, as the bond was carried first in the blood of the sire. Rather than spilling the blood, though, the vampire must allow their blood to be blessed by a priest. The ensuing agony of the blood's purification within their body often turned the vampire to ash right on the spot.

Even if the vampire survived the blessing of the blood, the blood would turn the vampire's own desires against itself. The vampire's bloodlust would become inverted, and the vampire would no longer seek to drink the blood of the living, but rather, in a macabre ouroboros, seek to feed on its own blood. But of course, the blood it drank from iteslf could never truly heal it or revitalize it, for it was not the blood of a living creature. And so, the vampire, unable to find satisfaction from the blood of others, would instead slowly wither away from a slow, painful starvation, even as it fed more and more frantically from its own veins.

Killing a vampire who had surrendered their blood to the goddess Brinn was a swift and terrible mercy.

Sacrificing the eyes to Brinn was not much better. It was closer in practice to the sacrifice a vampire made when dealing with a demon, however, as with the blood, the eyes were sanctified by a priest, rather than removed. Similarly to the blood, the eyes would burn with the purification, causing blindness in the vampire. The burn would spread, slowly, from the eyes and into the mind. While the bloodthirst in a vampire inverted upon the purification of blood, the purification of the eyes led to utter submission. Where the gaze of a vampire had power over all humans, now the gaze of a human had absolute power over the vampire. They became weak and pathetic sycophants, unable to think for themselves or act in their own favor. Their only chance at escape was to hide themselves away - except that their thirst for the blood of the living did not change. They became trapped in a cycle of obedience and prostration, begging to feed, unable to make demands of the humans they once subjugated. 

This, too, was a fate worse than death.

As clan enforcer, Cain often had to clean up the aftermath of these fruitless attempts to break the bond of the sire. It was instructive, perhaps not in the way that Lord Solveig had hoped when he had first sent out Cain. He had known that Cain was a sullen and rebellious thrall, when he was young. And Cain had hated his orders. But he had taken the lessons he learned from his duties to heart. As far as he knew, there was only one path to true freedom for a vampire, and it did not lie with demons or goddesses, but in the truest expression of vampirism: murder. 

Killing his own sire would forcibly sever the bond between them. If a vampire were strong enough to survive the severing, to overcome the strength of their sire and truly kill him, they would be free to live as they wished, untethered from the bond of the vampire who made them. But these vampires that Cain pursued were too weak for that, too afraid of Lord Solveig to ever attempt such a thing. So they turned to powers stronger than themselves, and suffered the consequence.

Cain had long since decided he was not going to turn to a higher power to sever the bond between himself and his sire - it was useless to hope for such a thing. So he had set his sights higher. He fought, and he trained, and he learned, and he grew stronger, for one reason: He was going to kill his sire, one day. Kill him, and destroy the bond that held him down. 

And until that day came, Cain would learn, and grow stronger. He would not allow anything to stand in his way.

Eventually, the road reached the outskirts of the city. Here, Cain had a choice to make. He could enter the city, and hope to find lodging within before sunrise, passing through the populus center of the large tradestown. Or, he could take his chances with the outer edges, and go around the city, avoiding the major crowds, but increasing his risk of being recognized or caught. Rich folks tended to live in either the very center of the city (behind high walls to keep out the riffraff), or in sprawling manor-houses at the very edge of the city. Rich people tended to have a higher presence of guards and night watchmen than the poorer, more crowded districts of the inner city. So, even though there would be more humans around, there was a higher chance of being suspected and discovered if Cain took the route along the outer edge of the city. Not to mention the fact that it was a rather large and sprawling city, and going around it might add two or three nights to his journey. 

Grimacing, Cain proceeded forward - he didn't have time to spare, not if he wanted to catch the missing vampire at the temple. And he was fairly certain at least some of the wealthier landowners in the area would have mages in their employ. Mages would certainly recognize a vampire more easily than a crowd of destitute humans. 

Decision made, Cain started looking for a place to stay - after all, he still couldn't be caught by the sunlight. Poor people tended to be wrapped up in their own problems, but even they would be hard-pressed to ignore a man being burned alive by the rays of the sun. He hoped that the local innkeepers would be as welcoming as the town had been.

He hoped that the vampire he was seeking was really at the temple; he was already tired of traveling, still weak from his last encounter with blessed blood. He didn't want to come into contact with divine weapons or holy water again anytime soon. Hopefully he'd be able to catch the vampire before the fool was able to speak with the priests of the temple. But even if he did have to face the temple, that was a better fate than the alternative. If he scoured the city and the temple and couldn't find the vampire in either place, there was only one other likely source of the vampire's disappearance.

As inconvenient as facing some priests at a temple would be, this city's relative proximity to the Frozen Peaks made it quite likely that the vampire had been taken by one of the winter court. As awful as holy implements were, dealing with the unseelie fae was quite possibly an even less enjoyable experience. And not the least because Cain couldn't drink fae blood - most vampires couldn't. It was like poison to vampires, almost as bad as thrice-blessed blood. No one knew why that was, though Cain had heard it theorized that the reason was due to the fact that the fae realms were otherworldly, thus making any member of the winter or summer court akin to a demigod. Their long lives and immense power certainly lent credibility to the claim. 

Cain reached the first inn with a light burning in its window, and knocked softly. The sky was beginning to brighten, and he felt his skin prickle with anxious tension. It took several long seconds for someone to answer the door, and when he asked about a room, it only took a moment to see from the look in the young man's eye that Cain had best try elsewhere. 

"Thank you anyway," Cain said.

"Try the sparrow district," the young man suggested, indicating the direction with a quick gesture. "They'll likely have something to spare."

"I appreciate the help," Cain said, and meant it. This was only his second time visiting this city, and he wasn't particularly familiar with the various districts. 

"I wish you luck, stranger," the young man said, too earnestly.

Cain nodded, and moved back into the street, following the young man's vague directions, aiming for the next inn with a candle in the window.

It took three more tries, but finally, just before Cain would be forced to abandon this plan and find a dark corner to huddle for the remainder of the day, he was able to find an inn with a small, dark room. 

"It's not much, I'm afraid," the kindly woman said as she pushed open the door. "Not even a window."

"Honestly," Cain said, with more genuine relief than he intended to show in his voice, "I'm just happy for a bed to sleep on. I've been traveling so long…"

"Of course, of course," the woman clucked, looking him over. From the pitying look on her face, Cain must have been a sore sight. "I'll have dinner waiting for you when you've rested up."

"I appreciate it," Cain said, and truly meant it. He didn't even have to worry about the sunlight peeking through the slats in a blind or past a shoddily closed curtain, even! 

"Well, you get some rest, then," the woman said, stepping back and leaving room for Cain to enter the small, shabby space. "I'll see you when you've rested."

Cain nodded, and closed the door as soon as she walked away. Then, with a sigh of relief, he lowered himself to the bed and mentally readied himself for another unfulfilling day of sleep. 

He really needed some blood. Hopefully he'd be able to get some, soon. For now, he was fine. He was saving his flask for an emergency, and his hunger certainly hadn't reached that point yet. He would just have to endure the fatigue. Tomorrow night, he would reach the temple, and hopefully clean up the clan's mess without any complications. 

On that note, Cain shut his eyes, and forced himself into an uneasy slumber.