The following days were hard on Lizzy Dabeltorn. She couldn’t see the reactions to the news of the mayor’s death of most of the people of Riverbel, but she still heard rumors inside the walls of her home. It was more of the same.

“Did you hear the news? The mayor disappeared last night!” a servant said.

“Do you think that it was the vampire lord?” another questioned.

“Of course it was the vampire lord! What else could have it be?”

“How unfortunate, and it has been so peaceful lately!”

It made Lizzy feel guilty beyond measure. They didn’t know that it was her fault. If she weren’t there, the mayor would have returned by now and life would simply continue to happen (being there didn’t make a difference when it came to the orb). She wished to confess the truth, but knew that she shouldn’t. Maybe this was how her father felt all this time, maybe this was why he had secrets that he needed to hide. Did he kill a werewolf before? Is that why certain people never came back even when he was there to protect them? Or did he just failed like her? She wished that she could ask him, but alas he was away on a trip.

A whole month had pass since Marcus Dabeltorn left, and Lizzy missed him every day. She also missed having more freedom, but she had found a workaround for that. Leaving for this long was strange, especially since there had not been any letters or anything. How far could have he gone? What was the important business that he had to do? Lizzy could only guess (and she wasn’t good at guessing, since she wasn’t that interested in her dad’s day job).

Lizzy almost didn’t come back to Paul the following night, but in the end she did. She was responsible for Riverbel now, and Paul was right, there was no one else who would do this job for her. She didn’t know what she was going to do from now on, but she knew that she still had to do something to protect the village. Hopefully, Paul had found another possible location for the orb.

She went around midnight to Paul’s house, like every other night, to see what was coming next.

“Paul! I’m here!” she announced her presence loudly as to not accidentally scare Paul again. She opened the door leading to the rest of the house and found no one. “Paul?” She began to search for him around the house and found him sleeping on a sofa peacefully. For as comfortable as he was, she needed to talk to him to know her next move, so she shook him awake. “Paul, wake up!”

“Eh– What? Oh! Lizzy! I’m sorry, I was just taking a nap. This old man needed his rest after the day he had!” He yawned. He was still groggily, but now he was awake.

“I’m sorry for waking you up, but I wanted to know if you have found the orb yet.”

Paul had spent entire days researching and looking around in Riverbel for the possible location of the Elven Orb, and it seemed that that day was not the exception. Lizzy felt some sort of pity for the old man, forced to explore the most hidden corners of Riverbel to find an ancient artifact in hopes to stop an evil vampire to rule the night. It was clear that he wasn’t lying when he said that he was too old to do it, plus he still had do his usual blacksmith job. If Lizzy wasn’t grounded, she would gladly help him during the day, or even better, she would try to storm the vampire’s castle and put an end to his misery. Too bad her father ordered her not to do that…

“No, not yet,” answered Paul, bringing her back from her thoughts. He groaned in pain, putting pressure on his knee.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, just a bad knee…” Finally, he got up and walked to the study. “Let’s see what we have to do today, lassie.”

The room was in complete disarray, with open books and notes all over the place. All in the name of research. Lizzy found a little corner where she could stand without messing up the place even more and waited for Paul.

“I have been trying to find where the orb could have been snatched, but I had not been lucky. I guess that means that you don’t get to look for them today!” said Paul jovially.

“So, what am I supposed to do now?”

“You should go on patrol, to check if there is someone who is being captured by the vampire.” He pulled out a map from the pile of documents and pointed towards the east. “Around here you can find the vampire’s castle, if you go to the surrounding area you might find out if they have victims to drag to the castle.”

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous? There must be a thousand ur-vampyrs over there!”

“It is a tad dangerous, but it’s also the most effective way to save people… But I won’t make you take unnecessary risks, you can go to the outskirts of Riverbel and patrol there instead.”

Lizzy took a time to think about it. Their enemies outnumbered them, if she were to be discovered it could be the end for her. But then again, it was the best way to guarantee that nobody would be taken…

She decided to go for a reconnaissance mission, to check the surroundings and evaluate how dangerous the zone actually was.

Lizzy followed a path similar to the one she took the previous night to get into the Great Vampire Lord’s territory. Contrary to the rest of the forest, which sounded alive, it was quiet, like all animals refused to approach the dark castle. She didn’t get too close to the castle, though (that would be suicide) but she remained within the zone. She found a favorable position behind some bushes that let her view the castle from a distance then waited. She didn’t brought a lantern again, so it was very dark under the foliage of the trees.

The castle was very big, built with dark stone. It also looked very old, like something made a thousand years ago. She wasn’t one to know much about architecture, but the castle reminded her of a fortress, with its high walls and towers, and very small widows on the side. It was very different from the Dabeltorn Mansion, which looked so inviting.

She waited and waited, but nothing happened. It was as if the place was dead. That ultimately was a good thing, because it meant that nobody was going to become a victim tonight. She was getting tired of waiting — scratch that, she was getting tired period. She didn’t sleep much during the day, which was a grave mistake. She was considering going back home when she heard movement nearby.

She held her breath whilst she heard two ur-vampyrs talk.

“The master won’t be happy…” one said.

“I know! What are we going to tell him?” the other said, looking especially anxious.

“We have to tell him the truth, he won’t be so merciful if he catches us lying.”

“He won’t be merciful if he learns that we failed to retrieve the orb!”

Suddenly this was a very interesting conversation. The vampire lord was still in search for the elven orbs, meaning that he hadn’t gotten all yet (just like Paul supposed). This was great news for her! She didn’t even feel bad that these two monsters were going to be punished for their failure!

“What if we tell them that The Hunter stopped us? Then we’ll have an excuse for our failure!”

“Don’t be a fool! He will skin us alive if we tell him that! It’s better to say that we didn’t find it were it was.”

“What if…What if The Hunter truly got the orb before us?”

“If they did, then we’re in bigger trouble…”

His companion gulped. “Let’s not say that!”

With that say, the duo left for the castle, taking a deep breath before confronting their infuriated master. Lizzy was tempted to kill them, to end their suffering before it could even begin, but decided against it. She didn’t want to raise the alarm, not so close to enemy territory. She instead returned back to their base of operations in a quick and timely matter.

“Paul!” Lizzy called with excitement. She did her best even though she was panting, too tired of running. “Paul!”

“What’s wrong, lassie?! An enemy is following you into the house?”

“No, no!” she laughed. “It’s the orbs! They don’t have them all yet!”

“Really?”

“Yes! I heard the ur-vampyrs tasked to retrieve it talk, they couldn’t get it! You were right!”

“See, what did I tell you, lassie? Everything is going to be fine!”

“Yes, we still have time to get them…”