The Night Castle dreamed in red that evening. Its halls carried whispers too heavy to be words. The banners in the Red Gallery swayed with hunger though no wind touched them, sigils curling into new shapes like mouths practicing teeth. The kennels ticked with Bone Dogs counting time on stone tails. Even the Slave Grave groaned in its sleep, impatient for spectacle.
Selena Draculea summoned them all.
A banquet.
Not of food. Not of wine. The invitation carried in whispers, delivered by ghouls who grinned too widely as they passed between barracks and galleries: "The Queen drinks tonight."
The chosen were not peasants this time. Not feeders marked with paint. Not men broken into obedience by rope and chain. Tonight, it was Lords. The captured elites—commanders and heirs, men and women who had once stood beside banners, who had sworn oaths with polished steel—were dragged into the Gallery and bound upright to the black stone pillars that lined the room. Their armor had been stripped; their sigils removed. They were clothed only in chains and memory.
Selena sat on the long table like it was a throne. Barefoot, gown trailing like shadow turned to silk, she looked not mortal but inevitable. Her eyes burned with a crimson clarity sharper than cruelty—clarity that made the air around her tilt. Her fangs glimmered as she smiled, languid and terrible.
Lucas stood at her side, one hand resting on the table. He did not smile. He watched. His silence weighed more than her laughter.
The ghouls lit braziers of Bone Pitch. The flames sputtered red-black, filling the chamber with a thick, iron taste. Shadows lengthened unnaturally, bending toward the prisoners as though curious. The system purred in Lucas's vision.
[Ding!]
[Event: Sovereign Feast initiated.]
[Participants: Selena Draculea (Vampire Queen).]
[Source: Captured Elite Lords ×4.]
[Yield: +Sovereign Resonance (massive), +Vile Spark, +Mutation Feedback (high).]
[Warning: Risk of overfeeding → feral state.]
Selena extended her hand toward the first prisoner—a broad-shouldered man whose eyes had once commanded ranks with certainty. He spat at the floor, the gesture sharp even in chains.
Selena's laughter rang like crystal breaking. "Spines," she said, "always taste best first."
She rose in one smooth motion, crossed the Gallery without sound, and cupped the man's jaw as though she adored him. He tried to jerk away, but chains are honest things. Her lips brushed his ear.
"You lived like a king," she whispered, voice velvet. "Now you'll die like a vintage."
Her fangs sank in.
The man bellowed, then choked, then shuddered. Blood rushed, hot and furious, into her mouth. She drank deeply, eyes rolling half-closed, moaning softly as if in ecstasy. The prisoner's struggles slowed, then spasmed, then collapsed into shivering weakness. Selena drew until the system chimed.
[Ding!]
[Elite Blood Consumed: Sovereign Resonance +18%.]
[Vile Spark +42.]
[Secondary effect: Crimson Aura expanded.]
She let him hang limp in his chains, lips red, tongue tasting the last traces of his pride. She turned back to the table, hair shining like black silk, and laughed, low and delighted. "He thought himself a commander," she purred. "Now he is wine."
The second prisoner—a woman with ash tattoos marking her as Hollow Flame's kin—tried to scream defiance. Selena silenced it with a fingertip against her lips, tender as a lover.
"Hush," the Queen murmured. "Your fire will burn inside me instead."
When she bit, the woman's scream turned high and bright, echoing against the banners. The sigils above twisted, greedy. Selena drank longer this time, savoring the flame-tainted blood. The prisoner convulsed, ash-smeared skin paling, breath hitching like a bellows with a hole.
[Ding!]
[Elite Blood Consumed: Sovereign Resonance +20%.]
[New trait unlocked: Flame Memory (Selena). Temporary bonus to heat resistance.]
Selena pulled back with a crimson grin. "Tasted like smoke," she said, licking her lips. "Pleasant, but fragile."
She turned to Lucas, her smile sharp with subtext. "Shall I drain them all, my King? Or leave one for your rope?"
Lucas's gaze did not waver. "Drink. They are worth more inside you than on the wall."
The third was already weeping when she approached. He had no defiance, no oaths left to burn. Selena tilted her head, studying him like a painter judging dull color. "Sometimes despair ferments sweeter," she murmured, and bit without flourish.
His sobs stuttered, then fell into silence. His blood was thin, weak, but Selena drank anyway, wringing out every drop as if punishing him for disappointing her.
[Ding!]
[Elite Blood Consumed: Sovereign Resonance +14%.]
[Side effect: Mutation Feedback spike detected.]
Her shoulders shook as she drank—less from strain than from delight so sharp it bled into frenzy. Her claws extended slightly, nicking his skin. She pulled back at last, breathing heavily, blood shining on her chin.
Lucas's hand twitched once against the table. He watched her eyes flare too bright, too hungry.
[Ding!]
[Warning: Sovereign state approaching Feral Threshold.]
[Counter-option: "Blood Restraint Protocol." Cost: Sovereign Command.]
Selena turned to him slowly, licking her lips clean, crimson gaze burning with near-madness. "One more," she whispered, voice trembling with need. "One more, and I'll be perfect."
The fourth prisoner struggled, chains rattling like teeth. He cursed, begged, spat, screamed—all in a jumble. Selena laughed, the sound cracked, wild.
She leapt.
Her fangs sank into his throat with violence this time, tearing flesh, drawing blood in a torrent. She moaned, body trembling, clawed fingers digging into his chest. The prisoner convulsed, choked, screamed into silence. Selena drank and drank, swallowing life itself until the system screamed warnings.
[Ding!]
[Elite Blood Consumed: Sovereign Resonance +22%.]
[Vile Spark +51.]
[Mutation Feedback critical. Sovereign control destabilizing.]
Selena dropped him at last, head thrown back, mouth smeared in red. Her chest rose and fell in sharp gasps. Her laughter turned hysterical, echoing against stone like a hymn to madness.
Lucas stepped forward.
"Selena," he said. One word. Flat. Heavy. Command.
Her body stilled. Crimson eyes snapped to him, trembling, wild. The Gallery held its breath.
Lucas raised his hand, palm outward, as if pressing against an invisible wall. The system obeyed.
[Ding!]
[Blood Restraint Protocol initiated.]
[Sovereign frenzy suppressed. Cost: 12% Sovereign Resonance (Lucas).]
Selena gasped as if struck. Her claws retracted. Her laughter cracked, then fell silent. She staggered, then straightened, her breath slowing. Her crimson eyes dimmed back into clarity.
Slowly, she wiped her lips with her hand, her smile returning—controlled now, elegant once more. "You pulled me back," she whispered, voice soft, almost affectionate. "Always you."
She turned, arms spread, voice echoing like silk and thunder. "Behold your Queen," she declared to the Gallery. "Fed on Lords. Crowned in blood. Stronger than any banner!"
The banners above bent toward her, their sigils curling in reverence. The ghouls hissed. The Bone Dogs howled. The feeders in the barracks wept in their sleep.
[Ding!]
[Event Complete: Queen's Banquet.]
[Selena Draculea's Sovereign Level ↑ (Tier Strength: Elite+).]
[New ability: Blood Chorus (her presence amplifies undead morale ×2 when recently fed).]
[Mutation Feedback stabilized.]
Selena descended the table, swaying like a satisfied predator, and came to Lucas's side. She leaned close, crimson lips brushing the shell of his ear.
"You are my King," she whispered, voice low and dangerous. "And tonight, I am your blade made perfect."
Lucas did not answer. He looked past her, past the blood, past the bodies hanging limp, toward the wall that whispered of watchers. The Judicant's presence tugged faintly closer, clean as law, sharp as knives.
Selena smiled, unaware or uncaring. "Shall I hunt for you, my King?" she asked sweetly.