The Vampire's Harvest

25

Pulling the handkerchief from your pocket, you place the silken square upon your palm before closing your eyes and beginning the basic all purpose spell Ferris has taught you. It would be more effective if you knew a specific chant, but without that knowledge, all you can do is concentrate upon your desire to tear the ward down and hope the handkerchief is the proper conduit to do so.

You feel heat sizzling along your skin, concentrated wherever the handkerchief touches you. It sears your palm and once the last word leaves your lips, you pull your hands away. As you do,the handkerchief falls to the ground before expanding into a large blanket.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" you mutter in a whispered cry. You bend down to pick up the large cloth, hoping some inspiration will strike you.

"What are you doing?" asks Kinley, who runs down the hall to meet you with drones in tow.

"Kinley," you cry, "you need to leave!"

But it's too late. Just as she registers your command the voices stop from behind the door. Kinley's eyes go wide and, though she looks straight at you, you know she's already peering into the afterlife.

Her chest grows red, her mouth stretches in a scream, and then she bursts into deep red flames. Her skin sears and white bones appear beneath molten muscle. Ashes pile upon the floor and smoke rises in grey, grotesque ribbons. Within a minute, she's gone.

That night the town is liberated. The top echelons of the vampire nobility is wiped out in a single strike. Lower ranking vampires now train a keen eye on the abandoned farm that has no owner or protector to claim it. However, the vamps won't make a move after their numbers were diminished in the massacre, which gives Ferris plenty of time to build an army of mages to defend our home.

Ferris won and he never learns of what happened to Kinley that night. You sometimes consider telling him, in order to relieve yourself of the guilt and to give him some kind of closure. However, you don't dare to destroy his blissful ignorance. Instead you bear the weight of guilt and remorse upon your shoulders. You may be free from the vamps, but you live the rest of your life as a prisoner to your own disappointment.

***

You've found one of the unsuccessful endings for this branch of the story...Why not go back and see if you can find the right tool to use to take down the ward?