A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

As soon Emily's voice died down, Erik responded, "Thank you, little shadow."

Then he grabbed Alice's hand and stepped into his dimension, to the great shock of the people around him. In their eyes, he simply disappeared into thing air.

Technically, there was a portal into that dimension hanging in the air now, but only someone with the spatial affinity or overwhelming power would be able to sense and possibly break into it.

Once inside, Erik released Alice's hand, and smiled at her. "Go organize what we took from your childhood home, alright? I need to go to talk to Astrid for a moment."

"Alright, Teacher. Have fun!" she grinned, knowing Erik would enjoy the situation with the Dominion.

Erik chuckled, and shoved her onward, before turning to find Astrid.

Without much surprise, he found her in the training room, where she was practicing her sword fighting against a dummy intended for that purpose.

"Astrid!" he exclaimed upon entering. There was love in his eyes, but it was accompanied with a serious frown. Astrid looked up and pursed her lips with a difficult expression, "Is it time?"

Erik nodded, "It is. I need to know what you want to me to do with the Dominion."

Astrid nodded, but her expression remained conflicted. 'I've been wrecking my brain about this for days now,' she thought wryly. 'I suppose I can't wait any longer. Let's think about this one last time…'

There were two ways this could go, and Erik had given Astrid the choice between them, because it mostly affected her mother and the Dominion.

Without the ghouls, the Dominion was doomed, and if the Enclave shapeshifters were allowed to go on a rampage, many vampires would die. Most of them would deserve it for sure, but there were those that wouldn't.

A lot of the vampires out there right now had been pressed into service by force, some of them after having spend the last year as ghouls, making them and those still in their mindless state more victim than anything else.

Erik could stop that rampage, but the question was if he should.

While many more or less innocent vampires would die if the Enclave was allowed to rampage, it would also allow them a way to vent their frustrations and avenge their fallen comrades with their own hands. Meanwhile, the ghouls, after being turned back, likely wouldn't mind so much if they found out their captors had been slaughtered.

It would certainly make Liv Frost's job a lot easier, as well. Most of the real troublemakers would be dead, after all.

Still, setting aside the innocent lives lost, there was something to be said for allowing Liv Frost to judge her own people. It was a matter of pride and sovereignty. Yes the Dominion had done wrong, but it couldn't be blamed on Astrid's mother.

Finally, there was the matter of turning all those ghouls back into vampires. There was no way to substitute the blood a vampire needed, at least according to any of their knowledge, which meant the only way to turn them back was with actual blood.

Perhaps if the Enclave was allowed to slaughter the non-ghouls of the Dominion army, they could be convinced that the ghouls were victims just like them, and with a little pressure from Erik and his allies, they might donate blood to turn them back.

But if they weren't, resentment would fester, and donations would never happen, leaving Liv with a faction of ghouls and no way to turn them back. No way, that is, except for stepping towards the only faction around with the infrastructure required to provide them with the blood they needed: the council.

In other words, stopping the slaughter, would mean leaving Astrid's mother no other choice but to leave these lands to the Enclave and seeking refuge with the Council. Liv would almost certainly become a councilor, but her sovereignty and the independence of her people would be lost.

Finally, Astrid sighed, and looked her love in his amber eyes. "The Dominion has had it's time in these lands… I know the Enclave deserves vengeance, but please, stop the slaughter. When this is all over, Mom and I will make sure the most guilty are turned over to the Enclave for judgment, but I won't condemn my people to so much death. I just hope my mother will agree with me…"

"As you wish then," Erik smiled at his childhood friend and current love, before embracing her and sipping her lips. "The Dominion will be spared."

"Thank you…" Astrid mumbled, enjoying his touch. Then, she shook her head free from all these depressing thoughts and pushed him away with an excited grin. "Now go! I'm itching to see Sigurd squirming at my feet, and you promised to put him there! I may not have the strength to do so myself yet, something I loathe, but having you do it is the next best thing!"

"Your wish is my command," Erik chuckled and bowed in jest before disappearing.

———————————

"Are you sure everything is set?" Sigurd growled threateningly at the nervous vampire next to him. "It's your head if anything goes wrong… We've spent far too much time here already."

"Y— Yes, Lord Sigurd," the man stammered, fear-sweat trickling down his face. "E— Everything's ready. We can destroy this field on your orders!"

"I hope for your sake that is true," Sigurd snorted with narrowed eyes, before turning towards the town of Kirkenes. "I want this place and those walking blood supplies under my control by the end of the day!"

While Erik's arrival, and his reveal as another third-ranker in the Enclave's ranks, had rattled him a little, Sigurd was still confident in his victory. So long as he could remove those damnable sigils blocking his way, that is.

'Under Lars's control, Liv is quite a powerful combatant, and we outnumber those beasts by two thousand heads…' Sigurd thought to himself, a confident, sadistic grin on his face.

'By tomorrow, I will finally rule all of Finnmark,' he continued inwardly, almost jumping from excitement,' all these shapeshifters will becoming my blood banks, and I'll have at least five hundred of these vampires starved back into ghouls. They may not be good for anything but physical labor, but what else do I need them for?'

Shaking himself free from dreams of the future, he turned to the ghoulified Liv. "Lars, is everyone ready? I want the ghouls to lead the charge as always."

"Yes, Lord Sigurd," came the raspy voice of ghoulified Liv as she vocalized Lars's words. "Everyone is prepared."

"Good, good," Sigurd grinned, sure in his own success and intelligence. He turned towards the anxious second-ranked vampire he talked to before, "Then you may begin."

"Yes, my lord!" he quickly assented and hurriedly ran off to put the plan underway.

—————————

Meanwhile, all the way over in Alta, Emily was chortling cruelly, "I can't wait to see the look on his face when his most loyal puppets betray him."

Next to her, Emma was focusing on very different things. "Do you think the vampires will rejoice the return of Liv, Big Em?" she asked her raven-haired sister.

Rather than Emily, it was the usually indifferent Lars who replied, "With the exception of those in this room, most probably will," he shrugged casually. "Even most of those who aided him in his coup have come to regret it by now. Most of his promises have come to nothing."

Over the last few days, even Lars had grown a little fond of Emma, mostly because she had activated her motherly aura and had been blasting the entire base from the moment she arrived.

It was a far slower method than Emily's enslavement, but also far more insidious. It wasn't really something she enjoyed doing, but it definitely smoothed the process of all this.

———————

Meanwhile, in Frostvik, Erik was leaning against a building on the edge of town watching the vampire's bustle around, preparing to execute their plan. Beside him stood Frostfang, Viljar, Nora, and Anne.

Olaf was missing for the simple reason that he was having trouble containing his anger in Erik's presence, and Erik had promised him, in no uncertain terms, to snap his neck the next time he did something stupid.

As for Frostfang… he and Erik still had a few things to straighten out, but it could wait until after the Dominion was dealt with.

Around them, a hundred other shapeshifters had gathered, worried about the activity among the Dominion soldiers. After all, they didn't know anything about Erik's arrangements. It wasn't impossible that Sigurd had swayed a few of them with promises of survival, so rather than take the chance of Sigurd finding out, they had decided to keep everyone in the dark.

The surrounding shapeshifters shot anxious looks at Erik and his companions, looking for answers from their leaders. Some even dared approach, but their questions went unanswered.

They weren't the only ones with worries, however. "Erik…" Viljar mumbled, careful not to be overheard. "Are you sure those creatures are under your control? If they're not…"

Frostfang's eyes shone as he also perked up his ears.