The Blood of Vampire: Chapter 12 - The First Ward: Gem of Frozen Tears
They were passing through a narrow gorge when the attack came. It wasn't a physical strike, but a spiritual counter-attack from miles away—a precise strike by Elder Kael aimed at Jatex's core mechanic.
The attack was a Requiem of the Aethyr-Wound—a high-frequency spiritual pitch designed to resonate with the specific, turbulent chaos of Jatex's Shadow-Blood Weave. It was meant to turn his power source against him.
Jatex stumbled, clutching his head. The Requiem felt like a silent, catastrophic bell tolling inside his skull, amplifying the chaotic energy of the Siphon of Grief until it threatened to explode his entire system.
"His power is self-destructive!" Ryn screamed over the sudden wind, her hands clamped over her ears.
Kael's telepathic command echoed, cold and absolute: The sound of your agony is an offense to the Vaelanar Law. If you Siphon, the chaos will shatter your heart. If you stop, you starve.
It was a perfect checkmate. The only way to survive was to perform a Siphon, but the Requiem was designed to make that Siphon fatal.
Jatex had to find a loophole—a way to consume the grief without producing the spiritual noise Kael was using to attack.
With desperate speed, Jatex performed an emergency, internal maneuver: he didn't channel the Grief energy outward to heal his Weave. Instead, he forced the raw, chaotic energy downward, creating a silent, psychic black hole in his own memory center.
He performed a massive, controlled Silent Siphon. He consumed the memory of his recent conversation with Ryn, the feeling of the sun on his face, the taste of water—all the small, human connections that made him Jatex.
The energy was instantly consumed. The Thirst was momentarily sated. The chaotic sound of the Siphon was instantly swallowed by the black hole of his own mind.
Kael's Requiem cut out. Silence.
Jatex opened his eyes. He was alive, but the cost was devastating. He looked at Ryn, but her face was blurred. He couldn't recall her name for a sickening moment. He had paid for his survival with his own psychic bandwidth.
Ryn, seeing the terrifying vacancy in his eyes, understood. He had sacrificed a part of himself to silence the enemy. She grabbed his arm, pulling him onward, providing the essential anchor his fading memory desperately needed.