Chapter 165: Who made this ring?
The table was ready in less than twenty minutes, which said a great deal about the efficiency of the residence and very little about the normality of the situation. Rowena had asked whether there was real food in that place, Victor ordered meat to be brought, and the servants quickly understood that "meat" did not mean an elegant dish with decoration on the side. It meant large platters, thick cuts, bones with marrow, roasted ribs, whole birds, and rare pieces still releasing steam.
When everything was placed on the table, Rowena simply began to eat. She did not wait for an invitation, did not ask permission, and completely ignored the cutlery placed beside the plate. She grabbed a piece of meat by the bone, bit down, tore off a chunk with her teeth, and chewed with such direct satisfaction that even Victor spent a few seconds watching in silence.
He pointed at the knife and fork beside her.
"You know those are for eating, right?"
Rowena did not answer. She kept eating.
"Forks. Knives. Great inventions of civilization," Victor insisted.
She finished chewing, looked at him, and said:
"I am a werewolf."
"That does not stop you from holding a fork."
"It stops my desire."
Carmilla, seated beside Victor, let out a low laugh.
"At least she is honest."
Scarlet was near him, still with her fox ears and tail visible. She did not take her eyes off Rowena for long. Her posture said she was seated, but her intention said she could cross the table in half a second if the werewolf did something wrong. Serafall watched everything calmly, but it was not relaxed calm. It was the kind of calm belonging to someone gathering information before deciding how much of a headache this would become.
Rowena ate as if she were collecting an old debt from her own body. Bones were left clean on the plate, platters emptied, and aristocratic sauces were treated as minor details. When she finally stopped, she leaned back in the chair and released a satisfied sigh, running her thumb over the corner of her mouth.
"Finally."
Victor looked at the table.
"You ate enough to feed a small village."
"I had not eaten in three thousand, two hundred and twenty-three years."
The sentence made everyone look at her.
Rowena picked up a glass, smelled the wine, made a grimace, and pushed it away.
"Vampiric wine stinks."
Serafall ignored the comment and focused on what mattered.
"Werewolves do not live longer than three hundred years."
Rowena looked at her with little interest.
"Common ones do not."
"And you?"
"I am different."
Carmilla let out a short, mocking sound through her nose.
Rowena turned her face toward her.
"I—"
"She thinks highly of herself," Carmilla interrupted, "but she was sealed."
Rowena froze with her mouth still half open. Victor looked at Carmilla, but did not interfere when she took the ring from his finger. He simply allowed it, because he also wanted to understand what the hell he had been carrying on his finger since the Ritual.
Rowena immediately followed the movement.
"Hey."
Carmilla raised the old ring between two fingers. The piece still looked like trash. Darkened iron, rust on the edges, an uneven surface, and an appearance so ugly it did not match the existence of someone like Rowena trapped inside it.
"Quiet," Carmilla said.
"That ring is mine."
"It was on my husband’s hand."
"Because he put it on without permission."
"Your problem for being sealed inside something any curious idiot could use."
Victor raised a hand.
"No fighting during digestion."
Rowena looked at him.
"I am still hungry."
"Of course you are."
Carmilla lifted the ring against the window light and turned the piece slowly. There was no shine, inscription, or visible symbol. Only rust. Even so, her attention became more serious. Scarlet leaned slightly forward, analyzing it too.
"It looks like something from that magical bitch," Scarlet said.
Victor looked at her.
"You will need to be more specific. I know a few."
Scarlet pointed at the ring with her chin.
"The one who likes hiding important things inside ugly objects and laughing after someone activates them."
Carmilla agreed.
"I thought of her too."
Serafall became more attentive.
"Is there a mark?"
"Not yet," Carmilla answered, without taking her eyes off the ring. "But this rust is not here from neglect. It is a covering. Something was hidden underneath."
Rowena went quiet.
It was small, but everyone noticed. Even Victor.
He looked at her.
"Do you know what is there?"
"If I knew how to break it, I would have gotten out."
"That is not what I asked."
Rowena held his gaze for a few seconds, then looked away. It was answer enough to make the room more suspicious.
Carmilla smiled sideways.
"Interesting."
She bit the tip of her own finger. A drop of dark blood trickled out, thick and far too alive to seem ordinary. Carmilla carefully spread the blood over the surface of the ring. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then the rust began to hiss, like hot metal touching water.
Victor raised an eyebrow.
"Why is your blood melting things?"
"Part of my unique ability," Carmilla said. "I can change the consistency and some properties of my blood."
"You could have mentioned that before."
"You never asked if my blood could dissolve magical rust."
"Fair."
Her blood spread over the piece like a controlled acid. The rust did not fall in plates, nor explode into smoke. It melted in dark threads, dripping into a plate Serafall placed on the table before it touched the wood. The outer layer gradually disappeared, revealing the real material beneath.
The ring was not iron.
When the last crust came loose, Carmilla was holding a crystalline jade ring. It was pale, almost transparent, with very thin internal veins that moved when they received light. It did not look like a jewel made to display wealth. It looked like an ancient piece, too clean, too preserved, as if it had spent thousands of years waiting for someone to remove the disgusting mask covering it.
Victor looked at the ring.
"That became more expensive."
Scarlet wrinkled her nose.
"And more suspicious."
Carmilla turned the ring, searching for external marks. There were none. She brought the piece closer to her eyes and checked the inner part. The silence at the table changed. Rowena stopped pretending she did not care. Serafall watched Carmilla, and Victor noticed the exact moment her expression became different.
"What is it?" he asked.
Carmilla did not answer immediately. She turned the ring once more, as if she wanted to confirm what she had seen. On the inner part of the jade there were two initials engraved, small and fine. An easy detail to miss if the rust had still been there, but clear enough after her blood cleaned the piece.
Victor tried to read them, but did not recognize them.
Carmilla recognized them.
She spent a few seconds looking at the letters, then handed the ring back to Victor. The gesture was too calm, and that bothered him more than an explosive reaction.
"Carmilla?" he called.
Scarlet straightened her posture. Serafall looked at the ring in his hand. Rowena looked at Carmilla with irritation, but also with curiosity.
"What letters are they?" Rowena asked.
Carmilla leaned back in the chair and ran her tongue over her teeth, as if holding back a larger curse.
"We are fucked."
Victor looked at the initials again.
"On a scale from one to ten?"
"Eleven."
"Great."
"It is not great," Scarlet said.
Victor shrugged.
"I was being sarcastic."
Serafall kept her eyes on Carmilla.
"Who?"
Carmilla stayed quiet for another instant. Then she pointed to the ring in Victor’s hand.
"This jade should no longer exist. And those initials belong to someone who died before the fall of the witches."
Rowena became serious for the first time since she began eating.
Victor looked at her.
"Do you know?"
"Not by name," Rowena said. "But I recognize the kind of prison."
Carmilla looked at Rowena.
"Then you knew it was not just any ring."
"I knew it was a cell. Not who made it."
Victor placed the ring on the table, between everyone.
"Can someone give me the short version? Because so far I have a hungry werewolf, a jade ring hidden under fake rust, and the two of you making end-of-the-world faces."
Carmilla pointed at the initials.
"The short version is simple. Whoever made this knew how to imprison ancient creatures. Knew how to hide the artifact from vampires. Knew how to pass through barriers. And left a signature because she was arrogant enough to think no one would be able to remove the covering."
Serafall crossed her arms.
"That does not explain why you said we are fucked."
Carmilla looked at Victor.
"Because if this signature is real, then Rowena was not placed in the ring to be forgotten. She was stored."
Victor looked at Rowena.
Rowena did not like the word.
"Stored for what?"
Carmilla smiled without humor.
"That is the part I did not want to discover."
Victor picked up the ring again and turned it between his fingers. The jade seemed light, cold, and too clean. It had none of the rotten appearance the disguise had created. It was something beautiful, ancient, and very inconvenient.
He sighed.
"Of course. Because it would be too simple if it were just a sealed werewolf."
Rowena showed her teeth.
"Just?"
Victor pointed at her without looking.
"Not now."
Carmilla grabbed his hand before he could put the ring back on by habit.
"Do not put that on your finger."
Victor looked at her.
"You know that speaking like that increases my desire, right?"
Carmilla squeezed his hand. "Victor."
Serafall added, "Do not put it on."
Scarlet too. "Do not even think about it."
He looked at the three of them, then at Rowena, then at the ring.
"Fine. I will not put it on. Although it was already on my finger before."
Rowena crossed her arms.
"I hate vampires."
Victor pushed an empty platter toward her.
"But you liked the meat."
She grabbed a bone that still had a small piece attached and bit into it again, if only so she would not concede.
Serafall ignored the two and looked at Carmilla.
"I want the name."
Carmilla stayed quiet for a moment, staring at the initials in the jade. When she spoke, her voice came out low, but direct.
"If these letters are what I think, this ring belonged to Morrigan," Carmilla said. "She was a great witch who liked collecting rare specimens. I spoke with her a few times, but... we were never friends." She paused slightly.
"So if she is dead, why can I not put it on?" Victor asked.
Carmilla released a sigh. "I do not want you to be sealed like us. This thing smells wrong to me," she admitted.
Scarlet looked at the ring more closely. "Now that you mentioned it, yes, it really does have a strange smell."
Serafall sighed. "Let us put that aside. I do not think it matters much now that he has already taken this woman out of the ring."
Victor looked at her. "I did not take her out, no. The ring lets me take her out and put her back." Victor said, then put the ring on. "Go back."
Rowena’s body glowed and turned into energy, returning directly to the ring.
...Silence...
Carmilla sighed. "Well, apparently it is too late. The relic has accepted you as its owner."
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