Chapter 411: The Story II
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"That was the mark," she said. "Not beauty. Not strength alone. Not blood hunger. Not charm. Not false dominion. The true sign would be this: the real candidate would be able to create blood races other than vampires."
Bat Bat whispered, "Ah."
Her face had the look of someone who had just found the hidden hinge in a locked door.
Sofia kept her eyes on Sekhmet.
"The elders said vampires were too low on the old ladder to rebuild the true blood world by themselves. But a returning center, a real heir, a real vessel, a real Blood God candidate, would break that limit. That one would create beyond the vampire kind. New blood branches. Old blood branches. Altered blood branches. Other things."
Natasha’s dark gaze did not waver. "That was the line no pretender could hold forever."
Sofia nodded. "Yes."
She shifted her weight slightly, and for the first time since beginning the story, some of the old bitterness showed through.
"Many in that meeting did not want such a being to exist."
She continued, "Some asked how they would identify the true one," Sofia said. "Others asked what should be done if someone falsely claimed the role. A few asked whether such a being should be welcomed or controlled. There were arguments. Accusations. Fear. Pride. Old family anger. Hunger pretending to be doctrine."
Bat Bat muttered, "That sounds like normal politics with better teeth."
No one corrected her.
Sofia continued.
"The answer from the platform was simple, though not kind. A false one would fail the bloodline test in time. A false king may gather vampires. A false lord may dominate weak blood. But only the true candidate would create what should not be possible under vampire limits." She paused. "And if a false one appeared and tried to gather loyalty through lies, then such a pretender was to be abandoned, used, or destroyed according to circumstance."
Natasha said, "They did not waste mercy on fraud."
Sofia’s eyes flickered once. "No."
She let that part settle before moving forward.
"In the end, the gathering broke the way all frightened gatherings break. Not with unity. With division."
That felt right.
Of course it did.
"Most left," Sofia said. "More than most, actually. The larger portion of vampire houses present refused the old vow. They wanted independence. Territory. Their own thrones in the cracks of a broken world. They did not want to wait for a returning center. They did not want to serve any blood above themselves again."
Bat Bat frowned. "That sounds stupid."
Natasha answered without looking at her. "It was also understandable."
Bat Bat looked offended at having complicated people introduced into her moral framework.
Sofia went on.
"They left in groups. Some swore they would build new vampire domains and never bow again. Some wanted power without memory. Some simply did not believe the old promise and preferred a lie they could control with their own hands."
Then her voice sharpened.
"But not all of them left."
There it was.
The part that mattered.
"Roughly one part in five remained," she said. "Only twenty percent. The rest scattered. But those who stayed made the vow."
She did not dramatize the next line.
She did not need to.
"They would watch. They would remember. They would preserve what little blood and what little truth remained. And if one day the true Blood God candidate appeared, they would find him, confirm him, and serve him."
Bat Bat looked between Sofia and Natasha slowly. "You mean your side."
Sofia answered, "Not ours alone. A hidden current. A surviving doctrine. Splintered, yes. But not dead."
Natasha’s voice was quieter now.
"We were raised on it."
That line carried more weight than either of them had used so far.
Not because it was louder.
Because it was personal.
Sofia looked back to Sekhmet fully now. No more platforms. No more hidden meetings. No more anonymous elders holding broken law above frightened survivors.
Now it was him.
"Do you understand," she asked softly, "why we wanted to speak to you."
Sekhmet did not answer.
She did not need him to answer, yet.
Her mouth tightened once, then relaxed again.
"We watched what happened around you," she said. "At first, we thought it was a chance. An irregular mutation. A strange expression of bloodline instability. Something rare, but not sacred."
Natasha continued it.
"Lily."
Sekhmet’s gaze did not change.
Sofia picked up from there.
"When you changed her, we thought perhaps it was a fluke. A singular anomaly. A lucky distortion. Powerful, yes, but not enough to build belief on."
Natasha said, "Then Mira."
Sofia nodded once. "A second branch. Different from the first."
Bat Bat’s eyes widened now, because she had finally reached the point where she could hear her own household being turned into myth while standing beside the man responsible for it.
Sofia kept going.
"And now Leaf."
She let the name settle.
"Not a vampire. Not only some stronger strain of it. Not one altered vampire. Not one altered servant. Different branches. Different creations. Different bloodline expressions."
Natasha’s voice dropped lower.
"Lily. Mira. Leaf."
Sofia looked at Sekhmet as though the answer itself had become unavoidable now.
"That is not what false kings do."
The prison side of the Void Land went very still.
Even Bat Bat did not move.
Even the bats on the walls seemed to understand that the story had ended and the accusation, belief, hope, and danger of it had now fully arrived.
Sofia said the last part plainly.
"We believe you are not merely unusual."
Natasha finished it.
"We believe you are the Blood God returned."
Sofia’s eyes did not leave his face.
"Reincarnated," she said. "Or something so close to that truth that the difference may stop mattering."
For one long moment, nothing moved. Not Sofia. Not Natasha. Not even Bat Bat, who looked as if someone had thrown her into a lake of secrets and told her not to splash.
Sekhmet stood in complete silence. His face gave them nothing.
That was worse than anger. Much worse.
Because Sofia and Natasha had both lived long enough to know that some truths became more dangerous after they were spoken aloud. There was no taking those words back now. Not in this prison. Not in this Void Land. Not before the man who had turned his harem, birthed monsters, and planted new bloodlines where none should have existed.
And still, neither woman lowered her eyes.