Stake? (TW: discussion of fantasy racism)

"So you mentioned something about a stake through your heart?" You raise your eyebrows, tilting your head ever so slightly.

She sighs, "caught that, did you?" She catches the waiter's attention, and orders three glasses of red wine. You raise an eyebrow; she responds, "gonna need more **** in me if I'm going to go into this." You end up apologizing, stating that you didn't intend to go so deeply into the matter. "Nah, but it's important. Society doesn't just become beautiful simply 'cause we ignore its flaws."

Her wine comes; she drinks the first glass in about two minutes, then starts talking while sipping the second glass. "But yeah, stake through the heart. Bit of a fucked up way some of the bolder Zorians execute vampires." "I thought you lot aren't the same as the monstrous vampires." "We're not. But a stake through the heart kills just about anything, you included." Oh. Good point. "But yeah, last I checked — so a few years ago — they would stake a vampire every week or so. You got too mouthy or too successful? Stake within a week." A pause settles over the table; she takes a sip of wine, and you notice that Anzolo's hand is locked with Mierla's.

"Now, granted, it's not as bad as it used to be. Heard tale that back when my mother was a kid, us vampires had to be hidden pretty thoroughly. Then the gnomes came in, and suddenly the humans weren't permitted to just do whatever they wanted to us. And as fucked up as the name they gave the town is, I'm still very glad they're in charge rather than the town being outside the Empire."

"Why are they even going after you all?"

"Ah, that's an easy question. We take the blame for what the Vampire Empire did. Really doesn't help that the fucking shadowsworn are a bunch of culture thieves. Nor that no one has actually so much as seen a shadowsworn in half a millennium."

"Shadowsworn?"

"Yeah, colloquial term for the monstrous vampires. We're naturally infused with energy from the Shadowfell, same way elves are infused with energy from the Faewild, geniekin from the elemental planes, aasimar from the upper planes, and tieflings from the lower planes. Just as there's good tieflings and evil aasimar, the mere energy from the plane doesn't do anything to who we are as people." Huh, true enough you suppose. "The shadowsworn, on the other hand? They're evil through and through. I'm not entirely sure how it happens to be honest, all I know is it involves some sort of pact with dread beings from the Shadowfell."

"But yeah, we still take the blame for what the shadowsworn did back when they were in control over a millennium ago. Doesn't help that some of us were collaborators. None of us today were of course; the few elders we have are all less than 900. Most of us don't even live to see 200, though."

"Wait, how old are you?"

"About forty. Been an adult for a couple decades now." She sees the scrunched eyebrows on your face and chuckles. "Best to think of us as going through childhood at the rate of half-elves and having the lifespans of elves. So basically humans who live ten times as long, assuming we even reach old age."

"Wait doesn't that mean you'll outlive Anzolo?"

"Yeah, probably. Don't really want to think about that though." She frowns, "end of the day I'll probably move to aasimar territory or something if I survive that long."

A pause settles over the table, until you break the silence; "so what brought you up here?"

The downcast look on Mierla's face shifts into a slightly brighter one, eyes lighting up ever so slightly. "Oh, I got out of there as soon as I could once I realized my worth." You raise your eyebrows. "Yeah, Irina and crew came through there a while back on their way to Tono, stayed in town for a couple weeks to rest and resupply. First person from outside the community to treat me as an actual person. Damned good in bed too." You turn to Irina, whose cheeks are now roughly the tone of some tieflings' skin. "Sometimes you just don't have the capacity to see your own value until you see the contrast between being treated properly and being treated like scum."