I turned to North strapped to her chair, jaw hanging at an unnatural angle. Her eyes tracked me with pure despair and anger sprinkled with obvious pain. The sight made my stomach twist as I definitely hadn't meant for Shady to hurt her this badly.

  "Jesus, North," I said softly, escaping out of Shady’s embrace and crouching beside her chair. "That looks awful. Does it hurt as much as it looks?"

  She blinked at me. Once. Twice. Each blink conveyed agony and the promise of future retribution.

  "Right, stupid question." I gently touched her shoulder, and she flinched. "I'm sorry about this. Shady gets... protective."

  North's eyes narrowed.

  I stood and turned to Kawathra. "Does this Seeker have a 3D printer or fabrication capabilities?"

  "Of course!" The magpie bobbed. "Every Corpse Seeker contains a full set of crystalline-organic assembly units. What do you require?"

  "First, something for North's pain. Then I need to look the part for an interrogation. Can you make me a fancy golden skull mask that modulates my voice? And maybe a cape and a hexasuit that makes me look less lanky? Something properly... imperial."

  Kawathra's eyes lit up. "Calculating design parameters!"

  A crystalline arm slid out of the ceiling, scanning me.

  Then, a wall beside us rippled, crystalline matter flowing and reshaping. In a few minutes, a compartment opened, revealing a small injector alongside items that looked straight out of a supervillain's wardrobe: a golden skull mask with intricate geometric patterns, a flowing red cape, and a sleek black hexasuit.

  "The injector contains a crystalloid-compatible analgesic," Kawathra explained. "The mask contains voice modulation similar to what you had earlier. The cape has slight light-bending properties for dramatic effect. Hexasuit won't work for you fully and won't fold or unfold, but it'll look nice, reshaping your overall figure."

  I took the injector first, returning to North. "This should help with the pain. I'm going to inject it in your neck, okay?"

  North's eyes darted between me and the injector. After a moment, she gave the tiniest nod.

  The injection hissed against her neck. Almost immediately, her rigid posture relaxed slightly, and her eyes lost some of their murder-gleam.

  "Better?" I asked.

  She managed another nod, then gestured with her eyes toward her sister with an expression that implied 'hurry up and get on with it.'

  "Right." I quickly stripped off all of my wet clothes and pulled on the hexasuit while the girls stared at me unnervingly. It felt warm and conforming to my body. The cape attached at the shoulders with magnetic-like clasps. Finally, I lifted the skull mask.

  I slipped it on and it clicked closed.

  When I spoke next, my voice came out as a deep, resonant boom that made Nexxali's ears perk up.

  "Perfect." I turned to face South suspended in the crystalline wall. "Kawathra, free her head only so she can speak."

  The crystal around South's head liquified and pulled back, leaving her gasping.

  “Whaaaaaa…” The vampire let out. Her eyes blinked, refocusing and then she stared at me. “Who the fuck are…”

  “Greetings South. I’m the Emperor of Mankind,” I said.

  Her teenage face twisted into a sneer. "Yeah, right. And I'm the Queen of fucking England. Nice Halloween costume, human dipshit. What is this, some kind of new, stupid Frontenachii interrogation technique?"

  Her eyes told a different story. She was scared… but perhaps not scared enough to be fully cooperative.

  I gestured toward Shady. "May I present Princess Aquillianne Quantivia Frontenachii, my loyal consort."

  Shady tilted her antlered head, silver eyes flaring. "Emperor mine speaks truth, vampire vegetable! Bow to superiority circles or face violence consequence squares!"

  South's sneer faltered. "That's... no. Holy shit. The Frontenachii Princess. Fuuuuck."

  I nodded.

  "Don’t think that you’ll get away with this! My sister will—" she then began.

  I pointed at North tied to the chair who looked at South with a distraught expression.

  "Your sister attempted to kidnap me," I said simply. "My Princess consort took exception to that. Now, shall we discuss your family's operations on my planet, or do I need to be more persuasive?"

  "Fuck you," South spat. "I'm not telling you shit!"

  I sighed behind the mask. "Kawathra, increase the temperature of the wall surrounding our guest. Let's say... ten degrees per second. Say, what’s the reset point of a Crystalloid?"

  "Acknowledged!" The magpie's talons danced across her interfaces. “Crystalloid reset point is 2200 degrees Celsius. After such, internal cohesion is lost and the network is reset, clearing all memory!”

  The wall around South began to glow faintly orange. Within seconds, silver sweat beaded on her forehead.

  "Stop!" she yelped. "That's—fuck, that hurts!"

  "Then talk," I said. "Start with your family structure. Who survived the compound destruction?"

  South glared at me, but as the heat increased, her resistance crumbled. "Just us! Me and North! Everyone else got fucking torched!"

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  "But their consciousness patterns are preserved in you both, yes?" I pressed.

  Her eyes widened slightly. "How do you—"

  "I know many things. I simply wish to confirm what I already know.”

  South gulped.

  “I do wonder. How much of 'you' is actually you, and how much is your grandfather speaking through you?"

  The temperature continued rising. South squirmed in the crystal prison. "It's—shit, turn it down! It's complicated, okay? I'm like... eighty percent converted. North's only fifty. That's why she drinks like a fucking…"

  "Her drinking problem is related to her conversion rate?"

  "Yes. She obviously drinks to shut them up!" South burst out. "The family voices. When you're not fully converted, they're just barely-coherent noise in your head. Whispers. But when you drink..." She grimaced as more sweat rolled down her face. "Alcohol disrupts the non-crystalline parts. Makes them quiet, dilutes the incessant demands."

  I glanced at North, who was watching with pained eyes.

  "And you?" I asked South. "Do you hear them clearly?"

  "Crystal fucking clear," she said bitterly. "Grandfather's been screaming at me since the compound blew. Demanding I bring him back, find a quality host body, rebuild the family."

  "Is that what you want? Or what he wants?"

  "Does it matter?” South growled. “I can't tell where he ends and I begin anymore. Our individuality is just an illusion. We are a tree."

  "So you're what, a philosophical zombie?" I mused. "A meat puppet for your grandfather's consciousness? An expression of your family’s desires?"

  "Fuck you!" South snarled with extreme vehemence. "I'm still me! I still remember being sixteen, dying in that shitty ass hospital. I remember choosing this, choosing to live, choosing to stop the pain, even if it meant..." She trailed off.

  "Even if it meant gradually losing yourself to the collective," I finished.

  "We were supposed to stay somewhat as individuals," South let out. "That's what father promised me! Individual nodes in a greater network. But the longer we exist, the more the boundaries blur."

  "When was North turned?" I asked.

  "2002. She was eighteen, just out of high school. Born in '84. Grandfather picked her because she had latent magical potential, possibly enough to get North back," South laughed bitterly. "Joke's on him. That body's conversion rate is obviously shit. Fifty percent after twenty-plus years? That's pathetic."

  "Or fortunate, depending on the perspective," I said. "She gets to remain longer as her human self."

  "Yeah, well, that 'self' is a drunk goth who cries at sad movies and gives too much shit about humans," South sneered. "Real fucking useful."

  The temperature was clearly becoming unbearable. South's face was flushed, her breathing rapid.

  "Please,” she let out. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know… just don’t erase me! It… it hurts.”

  "Kawathra, reduce the temperature back to normal," I ordered.

  The orange glow faded from the crystalline wall, and South sagged with relief, panting.

  "Thank you," she gasped. "Fuck. That was... unpleasant."

  "Now then," I said, settling onto a crystalline throne Kawathra produced beside me facing the vampire. "Let's have a civilized conversation. Tell me about your family's operations in Cascade. How long have you been here?"

  "Since 1922," South replied, catching her breath. "Grandfather fled here from another Earth after the Frontenachii found us. We've been hiding in this valley ever since."

  “Because it’s more magical, yes?”

  “Yes. He clung to this damned town because it’s more magical.”

  “What was your plan to move forward after you saw that the Frontenachii atomized your family’s hideout?”

  “To head south.”

  “Where south, specifically?”

  “Roraima, Brazil.”

  “Why?”

  “There might or might not be another fault there.” South shrugged. “Either way, there’s nothing left here for us.”

  “How many people have your family killed since 1922?”

  South bit her lip. Shady stared at her, eyes flashing.

  “Thousands,” Shady said in South’s voice.

  “G-get out of my head, Wendigo!” South barked.

  North’s eyes went wide.

  “What for?” I demanded.

  “Artifacts take human souls to create and to power up. It took a lot of death to set up the ward, a lot of good it did us against a fuckin’ Corpse Seeker shot from orbit,” South scowled.

  “So,” I said. “Human souls are real then.”

  South didn’t answer.

  “They are,” Shady said in South’s voice, helpfully prying the secrets out of the vamp’s head. “A basic artifact such as the Philosopher’s Stone can be created by simply grinding thousands of people together, fusing their souls into an artifact.”

  North let out a horrified noise.

  “Why is your sister so surprised?” I asked.

  “Not converted enough,” Shady said in South’s voice. “Grandfather was going to share the truth with North once her conversion reached sixty percent, take her to the lower levels of the compound catacombs. She would remember it herself in time. All the things she did. Who she is.”

  "So the humans you've been harvesting to power up your ward and artifacts? Where did you get them from?"

  "Criminals, drifters, people who wouldn't be missed. Hobos riding the rails. Never locals." Shady said in South’s voice.

  “Get out of my head, you fuck!” South spat.

  “She’ll get out of your head if you confess these things faster,” I said. “So a single human is useless, but thousands of people ground up into paste and compressed are… magical artifact fuel?”

  “Yes. It takes a lot of sacrifice to make a vamp too because of how thick the local Aether is,” South ground out.

  “How many would you have to kill to set up a new base in Roraima?” I asked.

  South bit her lip.

  “Fifty thousand people.” Shady answered for her. “Drug lords and human traffickers are useful for that sorta thing.”

  North's expression became aghast. She made muffled sounds through her dislocated jaw, silver tears streaming down her face.

  "Your sister didn't know about the mass murder plans then?" I asked South, though the answer was obvious.

  "She's still too human to understand the necessity," South said. “Too soft. Not herself enough.”

  "How did a sixteen-year-old dying of leukemia get selected?"

  South's teenage face twisted. "I practically begged for it. I was dying anyway. Father took pity on me, said I reminded him of his daughter. The leukemia actually helped… my compromised immune system couldn't fight off the crystalloid infection as hard."

  “North isn't herself?” I wondered. “What does that even mean exactly? Who are you?”

  “A long, long time ago,” South began. “There was a family of arch-mages. Thirty three humans. The Lords of Nox, servants of the Empress of the Void. Due to a revolt of the White Magi and the death of their Empress, they had to flee their citadel. In fear of getting their throats slit by their former comrades… they bound their souls to themselves, to their husbands, wives and children.”

  North stared.

  “They were all caught by Seer-hunters and executed. But their children were spared. I was spared. South Yon Noxxag, my name,” South sighed, silver eyes flashing at the other vampire. “North Yon Noxxagam, my older sister. Plus our cousins. The magnanimous White mages spared the children. It was a mistake. As North and I aged and also didn’t age… our bodies slowly crystallized. We… remembered things. Remembered the secret knowledge of our parents and grandparents. Remembered the ritual that split thirty three souls across thirty three bodies. Grandfather and others spoke to us in our dreams, demanding we bring them all back.”

  North choked, swallowing tears.

  "So North doesn't remember being North Yon Noxxagam?"

  North shook her head.

  “She will eventually,” South said. “The process is inescapable, inevitable. It is simply slower on this Earth.”