Months went by as the weather changed from summer to autumn. Days became shorter and as the winter closed in it occurred to me that winter was the season of the Ascendants. The long night prolonged their reign as they strived in the dark. All except, my own clan who covered under the dark. It would be a difficult task to change our fortune if we cannot play on the same field as the other clans.

Alessandro had begun to teach me his inherited technique and as I practiced it under the moonlight I realized that it was far from the immortality I savored during the day. It could, however, keep me alive in the dark of the night when my power was at it’s weakest.

Alessandro and Carlo had visited me every day but banned me to venture outside as the Anarchists are still at bay and they know my weakness. Leonide and Carlo had found my savior again but he had told them that the Anarchists had gotten away. Leonide had been furious and accused, much to my dismay, Signor D’Amore of being an Anarchist. Carlo apparently stopped the argument and returned to us with the news.

Alessandro had not been pleased and scolded Leonide for failing. I wasn’t jubilant when Alessandro had accused Leonide of failure until he had demanded that Leonide would compensate me by teaching me a technique from the Le Lune. Maybe I should be so pleased with such manners but my eagerness to learn another technique claimed victory and I remained silent while Leonide grudgingly agreed. He would teach me a secret technique from their Codex but only after I had mastered Coronalux.

An agreement was struck and as months went by I could claim such a feat. To be honest, my control over Coronalux was far from impeccable but it was satisfactory for Leonide to teach me his technique. I was eager to start and he took me to the patio. I had not set a foot here since my nonnina died just a few steps away from where I currently stood but the moon was full, and this was the best place for me to absorb the little light there was during the night.

I needed the light and a massive amount of blood to drink as this would take me a lot of strength. Leonide entered by sight with a large leather bound black book. It was locked behind metal and at the cover was a strange carving of a dragon biting its own tail. I looked at it in wonder and confusion.

“What is this?”

“This is the Codex of the Dragon. It belongs to the Order of the Dragon.”

I looked up at him with a frown as the words weren’t familiar to me. “Order of the Dragon? Not Le Lune?”

“You read literature, didn’t you? Never read Dracula by Bram Stoker?”

I shook my head as I never heard the title and Leonide shrugged as he put the book on the table in front of me. “It was written in English so you might not have heard of it but it caused quite the disarray among us of the Moon Clan. Bram Stoker is one of us, the grandkin of Vlad Tepes or Dracula, and he decided to write the tale of Vlad. It may have been a lot of exaggerations, such as burning in sunlight and when touching holy water, but it put us in the public’s eye and the other clans did not like that.”

“Pardon me, but what did this have to do with Order of the Dragon?”

Leonide chuckled. “Everything. Dracula means Son of the Dragon. Vlad's father, Vlad the second, was known as Vlad Dracul. The Dragon. He took that name when he became a member of the Order of the Dragon.“

“But I am going ahead of myself. The Order of the Dragon was in human history a noble order created by the Holy Roman Emperor to combat the Ottomans. Among the Ascendants the history is told differently. With Christianity the Monarchs had a firm grasp on Europe, this changed with the threat of the Ottomans as they were controlled by the Paramours. We of the Moon Clan saw it as an opportunity and went to the Monarchs. We offered to battle the Paramours and they created an order where the leaders were all the strongest among the Moon Clan. This was the Order of the Dragon.”

I gasped as Leonide put a medallion with a symbol similar to that on the book onto the cover. The Dragon’s red eye glowed and it uncovered itself from its tail. The locks on the book opened.

“Then how do you have a Codex of the Dragon?”

“My creator, Emeric de Paren was one of the Order’s members. He had first been a lowly human servant before being honored by being transformed. He initiated me into the order.”

I leaned eagerly over the table to ensure I got a good look at the content when Leonide started to turn the pages. There was a reason why Leonide was so open about the content of the book. It was all written in Latin and though I understood a few words, it remained a mystery to me.

“There are two techniques I had in mind. I could not decide so I will leave it to you, signora. The first one is called Bloodshifting, it allows you to transform into an animal, an ability you seem to envy that Therian. The other is called Blood Arc, it allows you to control your blood after it leaves your body.”

I frowned at the last one. “What good would that do?”

Leonide chuckled and bit his finger. Blood dripped from the wound and I gasped as the blood stopped midair. Leonide turned his hand and the blood formed a bullet. Before I could react the bullet flew into a close by statue and with a crack the statue had been harmed like it had come in contact with a real bullet.

“You can form the blood into needles and bullets which you then can defend yourself. With enough blood, you can also form larger weapons like a sword or shield but it could immobilize you as it requires a large amount of your blood.”

“Can you use another one's blood?” I asked and Leonide shook his head to dismiss my idea.

“No, it must be yours.”

“And the other one? Bloodshifting?” I asked and he pulled a syringe from his jacket. It was filled with a red liquid which I could only presume was blood. I uttered my horror when he stabbed himself in the heart with it and injected it directly into his heart. Leonide didn’t even bat an eye as he emptied the syringe. I covered my mouth when he slowly turned into a crow. It looked painful as every bone cracked and twisted to transmute him into a new body.

I could only stare at the bird crawed at me before it turned back to the man I knew. Unlike, Signor D*Amore’s transformation, Leonide’s had not been instantaneous. He had also transformed his clothes. Leonide’s change had taken longer and seemed to cause a great deal of pain.

“What was the blood you used?”

“The blood of a crow. Quite common in cities. Bloodshifting needs you to inject the blood of an animal directly into your heart. You could of course just blend it with your own but that would take a while before the animal blood reaches your heart and allows you to transform.”

“How did you inject it before a syringe was invented?” I asked with dread as he opened his mouth to answer.

“We dipped a dagger in the blood and stabbed ourselves in the heart. Suffice to say, it could only be done at night when we were at our peak.”

I put my face into my hands and refused to look at him but I could hear him laugh at my expense.

“I can only assume that you choose to learn Blood Arc.”

“No syringe is ever going near my heart,” I proclaimed loudly and with no hints of shame.

“Well then. Let’s get to practice shall we,” Leonide said with an amused look on his face as he closed the codex.

I trained for days before being able to successfully use Blood Arc. Leonide was an aggravating but patient tutor which helped me get further along than I would have otherwise. During this time I was bound up at my mansion not leaving its perimeter but this all changed as Christmas stalked closer.

I went into the lounge to meet Alessandro and Carlo discussing a letter which apparently had arrived at Alessandro’s home. They both looked up at me with gentle smiles on their faces and returned it with one of my own.

“Did anything interesting happened while I was tormented by Leonide during my training session?”

“No naked men, unfortunately! “ Alessandro teased and I rolled my eyes. “ But an invitation has arrived. I have been invited to Palazzo Reale di Torino by the Sovereign for his yearly Christmas Ball.”

“The Royal Palace? Why would we go to a museum? Are we to look at the Shroud of Turin during Christmas? I didn’t think we Ascendants was believed in the Christian faith,” I mused absently and Alessandro chuckled.

“We aren’t religious. At least not in any mortal faith. Besides, though the Shroud is of one of us.”

“It’s the face of Jesus.”

“No, his name was Yeshua of Nazareth, or Joshua as we would call him and he was an Amaranthine. An Immortal. We call them the Knights. They have strong regeneration and if it fails them they have an ability called the Reawaken which allows them to rise from the dead. We are not sure what he was doing in Israel as his kind prefer Asia and Northern Europe but he caused chaos in Israel, so much so that the Monarchs had to kill him. At least they tried but an Amaranthine is genuinely impossible to kill and he rose again though he vanished after his crucifixion but his religion spread. The Monarchs put his cult under their influence and spread it.”

“I remember you being quite distraught by that knowledge,” Carlo said absently and I looked inquiring at him.

“As a human Alessandro was training to become a priest. The Borgia family was quite famous among the Catholic priest after all and young Alessandro was outmost faithful.”

I giggled at Alessandro’s grim expression and he cleared his throat. “Not relevant! The point is that every year the Sovereign invited all the Heralds to the Christmas ball and the Heralds are allowed to have their closest and most loyal with them.”

My eyes started to twinkled as he finished and both of them chuckled as my pleading eyes met theirs.

“Indeed, I thought it was time to present you to the Court of Turin.”

“What am I to wear!” I exclaimed excitedly.

“Your absolute best. We Ascendants are rather pompous and any less would be an insult,” Alessandro replied and Carlo pulled out his wallet.

“Which mean you and me will have to go and purchase a gown for the ball?” Carlo said and gestured to me.

“Preposterous, I can pay. She is my heir,” Alessandro exclaimed with false outrage and Carlo rolled his eyes.

“It’s either that or I will have to purchase a gift for the Sovereign and I have horrendous taste in gifts.”

Alessandro lifted his hands in surrender with a chuckled. “I will not inflict the horror of choosing a gift upon you but I will come with you as your taste in gowns are horrendous.”

“It’s fine!”

“If it was up to you, she would be going to the ball in an attire for Nuns!”

“…Those are some very respectable clothes.”

I looked at Carlo in horror as he seemed to entertain the idea. “Alessandro?!”

“Oh, don’t worry. I will fight off the beast. No heir of mine will show herself in front of the Sovereign as a nun!”