43 – Vampire Bat

Should really have the staff clean out this place as well, I realized when I opened the door to the attic’s eastern part. I’d told them to leave this place undisturbed until now, since they would scare the bats.

Now, I was paying for my consideration by being in a very dusty, dirty room.

All the bats had cleared out, heading off to hunt. All but one.

My friend was hanging in his usual spot from the rafters, fast asleep. This close, I could feel the process happening in his body in more detail. It was, at its most basic level, similar to my own strengthening. But also different.

To the best of my knowledge, my own body didn’t change drastically since I became a vampire. Sure, I was probably slightly stronger, faster and better in a variety of other ways, but my body hadn’t changed its shape at all.

That wasn’t what I felt coming from the bat. My senses related to this were a bit of a mixed bag. I got some feedback through the bond. My nose could detect subtle differences in his blood’s smell. And my heart detection also showed me a minuscule change with every beat of his heart.

I could also, somehow, feel my blood coursing through his body, becoming part of him while effecting change at the same time. Only about half the amount remained now.

When I mentally called out to him, the little guy’s eyes did flutter open. With a rather inelegant little flapping tumble, the sleepy critter landed on my shoulder. Over which he promptly draped himself and went back to sleep with a tiny yawn.

Cute.

Now that we were in bodily contact, my sense for the flow of blood in his body intensified.

Just like his rat colleague had experienced, his veins were expanding ever so slightly with every heartbeat. Also, his heart itself was growing slowly. Those two changes together made sense, though I also worried about his other organs.

As far as I could tell, his actual size hadn’t changed much. Which raised the question, were his innards shrinking to accommodate the cardiovascular changes? I couldn’t tell. At least he appeared healthy.

Once I was certain his transformation was going well, I found a slightly less dirty spot to sit down. And by that I meant I headed back to the central room instead. There wasn’t much furniture here, just some boxes, but that was good enough.

Seat claimed, I opened the book.

A single oval space invited my finger once again.

When I placed my right thumb on the page though, there was a painful little jolt.

Ah, so we’re continuing the right, left pattern? I was a bit surprised, since I hadn’t actually completed the right hand’s exercise before.

Not wanting to waste time, I replaced my right thumb with my left.

Just like before, there was a small pricking pain, combined with a light drain of mana through the digit. Then I repeated the same thing with all five fingers.

Now that I had previous experience, the mana channels were much more obvious. Almost an exact mirror of my other hand, I noticed. Slight variations in a few spots. I wondered whether that was important. They still reminded me of blood vessels.

I wasn’t sure where exactly the impulse to try and align my channels to the actual veins and arteries had come from last time, but it was back. Something was making me think it would be a good idea. Considering how painful the attempt had been, I resisted the urge.

With the little ‘reminder’ drain over, the page rearranged itself into another puzzle.

Since I wasn’t as pressed for time now, with neither my mana sense nor awareness of the channels truly fading, I went through the effort to find every finger’s appropriate spots.

Once I was certain I’d found every important space, I arranged them into three complete sets based on ergonomics. I’d rather not have to break my fingers to reach the right place.

All the prep-work done, I touched my fingers to the page.

It wasn’t easy to wrangle my mana out through the channels. The right hand had an easier time during the end of last time’s exercise. Though it was easier now than the very first time I’d consciously channeled mana.

As the power flowed out into the page, I had another moment of vertigo. Much less severe than the first, but nonetheless enough to make me take a minute to compose myself. No dry-heaving this time, which was nice.

My left hand’s mana channels were now at the same level of constant awareness as the right. This indicated some kind of ‘activation’ of the channels once I actually used them myself. The outside drain was different somehow.

Anyway, with less time spent disoriented, I checked the page to see the dark spots only about a third faded. Theoretically, I had enough time to finish the test. Do I have enough mana though?

Placing my fingers on set number two, I took a deep breath and concentrated. Mana followed my mental commands, though sluggishly, and flowed into the book. I felt a bit light-headed.

Making sure to lean myself in such a way that I wouldn’t fall over and land on my little passenger if I overdid it, I aligned my hand with the last set.

With another deep breath, I pushed what little mana remained into the woven metal making up the page. The familiar mana-exhaustion hit me, though not quite as severe as I was used to. Maybe I wasn’t entirely dry yet? Still, I slouched in my seat as my muscles refused to work properly.

I could, with some effort, still move. A little bit at least.

Wonder if this is because I have more mana? Or maybe there is a difference between using my mana myself and having it forcibly pulled out? Even just this level of noodle-limbs would be more than enough to get me killed in a serious situation though.

Since I wasn’t entirely disabled, I could inspect the page. It had, predictably, morphed once more. Now, there was a long line of a space down the middle. About the width of the thumb-spaces. I had a sneaking suspicion I knew what this meant.

Next step is probably having to draw a line with mana, instead of just a single point with each finger. If the pattern held, the upcoming version would be a bunch of different lines to draw with multiple fingers.

Also, next was probably a repeat of the test I’d just cleared for the right hand. I hadn’t finished that one yet.

For now, I clapped the book shut and focused my attention more on my sleeping companion.

Mana sense currently at ‘full power’ due to my empty nature, I noticed there were flows of mana inside the bat’s body. To be more precise, it seemed to be contained in my blood. It was also obviously diminishing as said blood was absorbed to strengthen the body.

Or, with closer inspection, the mana was also dispersed into the surrounding flesh and bone. Apparently a major factor in the transformation my blood caused was linked to the mana held within. Which made a lot of sense, since the process was definitely magical.

Interestingly, I could feel this mana much better than normal, even though it was outside my body. When I’d been close to the tree before, the air there hadn’t been noticeably full of mana. Or at least, I couldn’t ‘see’ it the same way as this.

Either my sense got better, or it has something to do with this being my mana. Maybe the bond is helping too. I’m not sure.

Actually… there was a sort of connection there. A mental closeness.

My control was still very rudimentary, but could I reach out and somehow control this mana, even though it wasn’t inside my body any more?

More importantly, what would that do to my bat familiar? And why is there now an impulse to do it? I recognized the nature of this compulsion as external to my mind. It was very similar to the desire to ‘align’ my mana channels and blood vessels.

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On closer introspection, I realized these were instincts of my new body. Similar to when I ‘knew’ how to turn another into a vampire back when I drank that unconscious traitor’s blood.

But why? What would be the purpose? The answer came from these same instincts. Well, a vague answer anyway. I got a feeling of control, of change, of intention.

An interesting, but potentially terrifying conclusion offered itself.