§ Lady Serera’s aura was very familiar to me, so naturally I was not mistaken. We went out to find her laying unconscious outside Rod’s tent. She had bandages on all four limbs and several spots on her torso, some of them red with blood. I pushed through the crowd of soldiers and royal knights surrounding her and crouched over …

§ My eyes snapped open as I woke this time to Material Reality. Eurybia or the HR manager had closed the Illusory Reality directly, and probably prevented me from experiencing any dreams, to insure that I did not lose anything. The lamp that had been lit in Illusory Reality was dark again. Aunt Elianora was softly snoring in her chair, …

§ With my body still low on pneuma, I needed very little stimulus. By the time Lady Chiara removed her uniform blouse, my fangs were already grown.  She insisted on a kiss first, but I went directly from her lips to her neck and fed. I was frankly still too tired to do anything else. Which was probably good, with …

§ I’m not the original Mireia, My Lady.  My real name is Nan Ankenda Edihaz. My friends called me ‘Daz’. I was older than this, but the years are different here, so I’m not sure by how much. At my age, mothers already have children attending school, so… perhaps around thirty in Huadean years? I had no children though. The …

§ Vampire Command and Vampire Charm have ironic origins. The intentions of the higher Immortals (to the extent that anyone from the Mortal Realm or the Fundamental Realm can understand the intentions of higher Immortals) was the protection of mortal individuals from the dangers that Immortals in their midst could pose. The reasoning (again, see previous disclaimer) goes like this: …

§ Vaguely, I drifted in a universe of darkness, aware but unaware that something was off. I had been in a state like this once before, but I didn’t recognize it at the time, because I didn’t recognize anything at all. It began to hurt. Once I knew pain, I knew something was very wrong. But as I realized something …

§ Clouds of thick Darkness mana and miasma poured in on me from every direction, above, below and all around me, carried within a matrix of billowing Demonic mana. It appeared like a weird black foam, emerging from nowhere, confining me before I could escape. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I instantly poured the extra Earth I had …

§ From the air, I had a much better view of the tactical situation. Tobir the Reladorian archmage and Matthias the sage had set up a magic shield together to protect the carriage and horses, while the other four Reladorians had set up a similar defense for the second carriage. Just before I rose back into the air after dropping …

§ For Ged, Rod and myself, or rather my predecessor, the first Tiana, the central tenet of our education had been the security of the Kingdom. No matter what happened to any individual person, no matter how dear they were, the Kingdom and its people came first. Although I know it is probably not the case in all other kingdoms, …

This is an author’s note, not a chapter, so it isn’t locked. As always, it’s ‘Chapter CD’ as in Roman Numeral Four Hundred. The real Chapter 400 will post immediately after this item. Whether or not there is likely to be a ‘Chapter D’ (Five Hundred), is not clear to me yet, but I suspect not. Difficulties with life really …