New discoveries

===Pyre===

"Do you have any idea who could be behind it, then? I am certain that not just a simple person could come up with something like that."

Gareth nodded, as this was truly something challenging to come up with about how it would work.

"It must be the man they call the Professor. He seems to be behind most of their breakthroughs over the last decades since the war started. But we have found little information about who he is, unfortunately."

Gareth seemed unhappy with that report of his.

Pyre put her hands over his shoulder again, and when he looked her in the eyes again, she told him it was ok.

"Do you think we can get them back?"

"They've likely been studying them to understand our abilities," Gareth replied, folding his hands behind his back. "If we recover what they've stored the energy in, there's a chance you can reabsorb it. But I can't promise it'll work. This has never been done before."

Pyre nodded thoughtfully. "Let Vlad and his men investigate the human bases. I trust them to find leads."

Gareth hesitated before continuing. "We're also still searching for your sister… and the King."

Her breath hitched. "They took my father's body, too?"

She remembered that her last memory before awakening at Vlad's camp was of her visiting her father's resting place, which they had made for his body to reside. She and her sister were there; it was the anniversary since their father left them.

Memories of that day surged forward, unbidden and painful. She and her sister had visited their father's resting place for the anniversary of his eternal slumber. Four centuries had passed since he fell into his coma—a deep, unbroken stillness that robbed them of their greatest leader.

They had completed the ritual, reciting a song of praise for him, when a mysterious white smoke filled the room. Then, darkness. The humans had ambushed them, somehow finding the secret location only a handful knew. A traitor. There had to be one among them.

Pyre clenched her fists, her sharp nails digging into her palms. "The betrayal…" she muttered, more to herself than Gareth. "We were so careful, yet someone sold us out."

"You're certain of this?" Gareth asked, his brow furrowed.

"There's no other explanation," Pyre replied firmly. "But I trust you, Elder. You've been at my side all my life. You're one of the few I can rely on."

Then she took a step to collect herself.

"Then I should progress with my Element training. It seems to have gotten weaker after all that time not using it."

Fortunately, Vampires didn't need a Power Shard to use their Element, but they could make one to strengthen it. Losing those Power Shards just weakened their control of the Element.

She tried to use her Fire Element, and she could barely produce some sparks.

It seemed the removal of so many Power Shards related to her Element, and that she hadn't used it for a long time, significantly weakened her control over her Element.

But Elder Gareth also had the Fire Element as she did, and actually, he was the person who taught her how to use it when she was still a youngling. So, since she still knew the theory of how to control her Element, she could use a unique technique with him.

It would allow her to use his Energy Core as hers.

She suggested that Gareth didn't have a problem, as he knew firsthand how experienced the Princess was.

She put her left hand on his chest as he focused on making the connection. It took her a few minutes, which was more than it should, but primarily because of her weakened state.

When the connection was made, she drew some of his Element out and gathered at her other hand.

She formed a ball of fire that continued growing in size and, after a point, changed shape, too.

It formed a large bat, and when it finished creating, it started flying around the room. After a little while, the bat started splitting into smaller bats, and a swarm of fire bats flew into the room.

But soon after the swarm was formed, it completely disappeared.

"I'm sorry, Princess," Gareth said, his voice strained. "This old man can't sustain such energy for long."

She seemed to underestimate how much she could use and forgot that Elder Gareth was a brilliant teacher and researcher but didn't have a large Energy Core, so he couldn't use too much of his Element.

"It's alright, Elder. I pushed too far," Pyre replied, her tone tinged with regret. "But thank you. This was exactly what I needed."

Using her Element like that felt so good. She still had some of the blood she had consumed from that person that she could possibly use to help restore her Element.

When a Vampire consumes some blood, it could either use it to heal itself or store it for later. The more time it was stored, the more it would lose some potential benefits.

She could either use it to heal herself as a whole or to help restore something specific. Using her Element was important, but she decided to use it more to heal her body and so that she could move more easily.

She used everything she had consumed for that reason, and now she barely needed to use the staff for support to move.

"Elder Gareth. Mind leading me on the way to our newest prisoner? Want to check his situation myself."

"Princess, I hope you don't plan on consuming more of its blood. The men shouldn't have much restored and would surely die if you would do so."

There were signs of worry in the voice of the Elder Vampire, but Pyre knew they weren't because he was afraid that the man would die. It would be just a waste of more potential meals and the amount of blood she could get from him.

"You don't have to worry. I know I need to be patient. I need to check something I noticed in our last encounter."

The Elder trusted his Princess and led the way down towards the cells.

On the way there, Pyre was confident that she heard a scream from one of the rooms upstairs. It sounded like the scream of someone relatively young.