Thariel closed the shed door and met Sylka's eyes, "are you gonna tell her?" The Kobold asks, her arms wrapped around one another and her cws protruding. "She knows where they are."

  "I know that..." Thariel murmured in discontent, "but isn't there something we can do to stop the brood from getting killed? It's not like they did anything wrong."

  "They're vampires-" Sylka rightfully pointed out, it in itself is a point. "- and not to mention, your mother hunted them before she conceived you. There must have been a reason for why she did what she did."

  "I guess?" Thariel wasn't sure which one Sylka meant, was it Clyra fighting the vampires or the fact that she somehow got impregnated by one of them? It could even be both.

  "Thariel, can I be honest with you?" Sylka's habits took hold and she sat down to make herself comfortable, "I don't think that defending the vampires is the right way to go about this."

  "So we're just gonna let them get killed?" When she first thought about Virelith forcing her to kill, this type of scenario never crossed her mind. She thought that she had to do much less, like stab a bandit or something, but leave it to the viliness to break her expectations and make her commit patricide as a first act.

  "It's better than getting killed ourselves, at least this way we're just risking the vampires." Sylka argued, "I don't think there are down sides to making that decision,"

  "There are," Thariel replied, "do you feel that antagonizing vampires is a good idea?"

  "... No," Sylka shook her head, "but so is making humans our enemies, it's the same thing regardless."

  "You're saying that it's up to us to pick a side, then?" Thariel gave Sylka a serious look.

  "Yes." Sylka nodded.

  Thariel went silent and thought about it, she can easily go ahead and choose the vilinness but making enemies out of the vampires isn't really something that she wanted to do. Sure the original did it and was mostly fine but that's because the vampires didn't have a reason to hate on her during the events of canon.

  An awakened bloodline meant that she's connected to a brood and if she betrays them then every vampire would consider her as a threat to be killed on site because if there's one thing that they hate the most, it would be traitors within their own race.

  Vampires are immortal so they can easily ignore whatever plots and schemes humans made against them because they have such a short life span but when a fellow vampire does it? It means that they'll have a rival who will guide fast breeding mortals into an eventual uprising that will overwhelm their brood through sheer numbers.

  Vampires scheme against their own kin all the time and are even successful at it, they just don't do it with the intention of helping out humans fight back against their own kin. Which is why a traitor is so dangerous.

  "I don't know who to choose," Thariel groaned, does she go with her original pns to join Virelith and sacrifice the vampires or set out on her own, possibly derailing the plot of the world and make things worse?

  "We can run," Sylka suggested casually. If they did run, what good would that do?

  "We'll only get hunted down by both sides if we do something like that," Thariel denied the idea, "please don't suggest something like that ever again,"

  "I won't." Sylka nodded and kept her peace, "I'm just trying to help you figure out a way out of this, or get you going on an idea at least. Come to think of it, you always have them," to the point that Sylka suspected her friend might be a cirvoyant like Trivok, "what made you pause this time?"

  "I don't know." Thariel did. But what's the point of expining when Sylka wouldn't get it? She doesn't know what will happen and there's the possibility that everything Thariel tells her would change over time.

  Controlled butterflies her ass!

  "You don't know." Sylka deadpanned, "how does that work?"

  "No idea," now Thariel felt like she was avoiding answering intentionally. Which she wasn't! It's just... Hard to expin. Maybe.

  "You're avoiding this." Sylka said what was on Thariel's, the effort didn't get any closer in prying her out of her mental reclusiveness, "why are you hesitating? Are you scared of something?"

  Not something but multiple things. it's plural- Thariel didn't have the courage to say it out loud so she kept her thoughts to herself. She looked at her legs, unsure of what she can say to describe what she's feeling but she couldn't come up with anything. The silence extended until Sylka decided to sit next to her.

  Both of them didn't talk and they sat, Sylka patiently waited for Thariel to say something and Thariel did her best to find her tongue. It was a social stalemate that left both of them in an awkward position.

  Something had to be done, Sylka decided. "How about I make the decision for you? I'm a third party so I'm not biased-" well, she was, specifically against blood sucking monsters. "- and nothing would come out of this if you sit around and not take action."

  "I know that..." Thariel responded in a grave tone, "but aren't you worried?"

  "I am," Sylka nodded, "but I can also see that we need to choose between making either the vampires or the humans our enemy. And I think that you can resolve both if you py your cards right."

  "How?" Thariel asks, she huffed, "it's gonna result in a bloodbath either way."

  "Can Virelith bme you if the vampires relocate suddenly?"

  "Yes she can!" Thariel gave Sylka a look of shock, what does she mean by that? If the Vampires relocate and Virelith knows that they did then she'd kill both of them as well as the entire town of Streamwise!

  "I don't think you get what I'm saying," Sylka replied, "we can give Virelith what she wants and then warn the brood that danger is coming, if she's looking for alchemists then we can work for her."

  "She'll execute us." Thariel shook her head, which she will no longer be able to do after she's pced under a guillotine. And she likes shaking her head damn it!

  "Then we join with the vampires." Sylka suggested.

  "I want to join Virelith." Thariel counteted. Needed to, really.

  "Please make a decision," Sylka groaned in frustration, "you can only pick one, not both."

  "Okay, but what if I need to get both otherwise things go bad for the two of us? Or worse, the world?" Thariel hypothetically asked, "what then?"

  "Then we let them fight it out," Sylka shrugged, "steer clear from the vilge and not interfere. Let it burn and then make the noble and the undead fight we side with whoever wins in the end."

  Thariel sighed, "maybe we should just try convincing Virelith to take us in." She stood up, now that she's hearing solutions from Sylka, all of them sounded nonsensical and she realized just how out of pce her search for them was, why did she even sit around anyway? "I've made up my mind, come on."

  Sylka stood up and followed after her with a smile.