A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

The girl yelped, stumbled back, and fell against a table, where she quickly curled up to protect herself.

Sigurd just ignored her. He adjusted his elegant and dignified clothing so that he was once again fully covered up and rushed out the door, nearly bowling over his personal assistant, Lars, who brought him the news.

"Tell me everything you know!" Sigurd barked as he continued to move through the bunker\'s narrow hallways. Lars, who only barely kept up with his lord, quickly explained what he knew while they moved to the base\'s command centre.

The command centre was where the sigil masters controlled the second-rank ghouls and even the occasional second-rank beast through the beastbinder sigils.

The way this worked was that the beastbinder sigil on every second-rank ghoul would send a signal back to this base when they were about to get into a fight, thereby prompting one of the sigil masters on duty to take control of the ghoul and direct them as if they controlled a drone.

It was a truly ingenious setup that not only proved Sigurd\'s intellect and callousness but also his extensive knowledge in the art of sigil-crafting. Had Elora known all this, she would have likely commended Sigurd on both his ruthlessness and his talent with sigils.

Now more aware of the situation, thanks to Lars, Sigurd stormed into the command centre. Inside were tens of first-rank male and female vampires sitting in front of screen-like sigils that projected the ghoul\'s vision.

These screens connected with a second sigil imprinted on the controller\'s hand, which they used to direct the ghouls.

"Which of you has connected to Astrid?!" he yelled. One of the women in the room stuck up her hand but didn\'t take her eyes off the screen, which clearly showed Erik as he slaughtered ghoul after ghoul. "Me, Lord Sigurd.

I\'ve been holding off on doing anything with her before you got here, Sir, but this unknown werewolf is tearing through the rank-one ghouls like they\'re warm packets of butter. Soon, I\'ll have to act or let her die."

"You did well, Kari!" he said hurriedly. Despite his callous personality, he knew how to keep a small group of people loyal: by treating them with respect, giving them plenty of benefits, and praising where praise is due.

Then, under the astonished gazes of everyone in the room, he used his sharp nails and considerable power as a third-rank Runebound vampire to tear out the piece of wall the sigil was etched on.

Since the sigil drew power from the surroundings and from the sigil master it was connected to, in this case, Kira, it could function just fine this way.

Not waiting to explain his actions, he just told the woman controlling Astrid to follow him and quickly walked out of the room with the piece of wall under his arm and an expression of sinister anticipation on his face.

Both Kari and Lars quickly followed after him. Despite their astonishment at Sigurd simply ripping out a piece of wall, they did realise where they were going. It wasn\'t hard to guess, considering this related to Astrid.

Sigurd and his companion soon reached the maximum security area of the bunker, their steps echoing down a long hallway that ended at a lone door.

With an expression filled with triumphant glee, Sigurd opened the door, revealing a room dominated by a large glass box in the centre, its surface etched with various coloured sigils.

Inside the box sat a woman, Liv Frost. Her legs were crossed, and her strawberry blond hair framed a face marked by the red eyes that characterised all vampires. Despite her appearance, it was clear she was not in her prime; her skin and hair were greying, sagging, and wrinkling – the ghoulification process was taking its toll.

This woman was the original founder of the Dominion, making her a third-rank vampire, just like Sigurd. Yet, despite their supposedly equal rank, Liv was far more powerful than Sigurd, mainly because of her affinity, which was especially deadly for vampires.

Sigurd had managed to dethrone her only a few months ago, upon attaining the third rank himself, by tricking her and exploiting the only advantage he had: his profound knowledge of sigils.

First, he challenged her to a duel for the Dominion\'s leadership, which she accepted without hesitation. With her limited understanding of sigils, Liv underestimated their power and overestimated her own, assuming Sigurd\'s ambition had clouded his judgment. She just figured he needed to be taught a quick lesson before falling in line.

Unfortunately, Sigurd never intended to fight her. Instead, he cunningly lured her into her current prison by disguising the entrance to this glass box as the doorway to their duel location. Now, the very sigils she had underestimated were the only things keeping her confined.

Sigurd knew that if he ever dared to enter the prison, he would not survive, regardless of Liv\'s weakened state.

As Sigurd stepped into the room, Liv\'s eyes snapped open, fixing him with a gaze filled with intense hatred and resentment. Despite her deteriorating condition and the erosion of her reason and critical thinking due to the ghoulification, her calm demeanour and unwavering gaze spoke volumes of her immense willpower and resilience.

"What do you want, Sigurd?" Liv spat, her voice dripping with venom.

Sigurd grinned maliciously. "Why, dear Liv. I come bearing good news! My people found Astrid!"

A glint of despair flashed across the woman\'s eyes, but she quickly clamped down on those feelings and regained her calm. "You\'re lying," she spat with disdain. As it turned out, this woman was not only the Dominion\'s founder but also Astrid\'s mother.

Chuckling, Sigurd presented the piece of wall with a screen sigil on it. "Come now, Liv. Do you think I would come here without proof?" At the moment, the screen only showed Erik and a rapidly thinning horde of rank-one ghouls. There were only about ten left, and a confrontation between Astrid and Erik was mere seconds away.

Yet, since the scene was shown from Astrid\'s eyes, her face was naturally not visible, so Liv simply scoffed. "All I see is some random shapeshifter slaughtering your precious ghouls. I should thank him for putting them out of their misery."

Sigurd ignored her words and turned to Kari, the woman controlling Astrid. "Kari, if you would?"

The woman nodded without much expression. She didn\'t care about Astrid or Liv, which is precisely how Sigurd liked his people.

Kari made some movements with the hand that held the control sigil, and soon, the view of the screen shifted to looking down at the ground. After Erik\'s lightning crash, much of the snow on the ground melted from the generated heat, so there were many puddles of water spread around.

One of these puddles now showed a clear reflection of Astrid\'s ghoulified face, which Liv immediately recognised as her daughter. Before her thoughts caught up, Liv stood up, yelling, "Astrid! What did you do to her?!"

Sigurd smiled victoriously and shrugged, "Nothing yet. Until just now, I had no idea where your precious daughter was, and I still don\'t know how she ended up in her current situation exactly. But frankly, I don\'t care."

He turned his attention to the screen and noticed Erik was done slaughtering the first-rank ghouls and now looked at Astrid with confusion before approaching her. Sigurd whistled, "You\'re lucky this werewolf is a cautious one." Completely misinterpreting why Erik didn\'t just go for the kill straight away.

He turned back to Liv, cruelty burning in his eyes, "You know what I want from you, Liv, and you better decide quickly whether you\'re going to give it to me because I\'m not ordering Kari here to fight back before you do."

Despair filled Liv\'s face as she looked at the werewolf she presumed was about to kill her dear daughter. Yet, what Sigurd was asking of her was a lot. "Y- You still might be lying! This could be a fabrication created from your damn sigils!"

Sigurd sighed and shrugged, "Actually, that would be very hard to do, if not impossible. But I don\'t suppose you\'d believe that. Regardless, do you want to take the risk?"

Liv looked back at the screen and noticed the werewolf\'s claw quickly approaching her daughter\'s face. Tears streamed from her eyes, conflict clear in her eyes, but in the end… she finally gave in. "Fine! Fine! I\'ll give you what you want. Just don\'t let her die!"

Knowing what Sigurd would want her to do now, Kari quickly made a hand movement and, at the last second, made Astrid avoid the claw approaching her face.

Sigurd grinned. "Good choice! Let\'s get started then, shall we?"