#A Tithe in blood

[vnstudioelan]

A Tithe in Blood is out NOW!

As a reserved and unassuming university student in snow-bitten Hokkaido, the personal tragedy which visited Honoka Asakawa leads her to experimenting in a magical art thought long-lost — blood magic. Unexpectedly able to visit the sealed world of Meiji-era Sapporo, Honoka's quickly taken under the wing of the cheerful and bright Lady Yasue, a powerful mage who's remained in this gilded cage for a century.

As their feelings for each other develop, the true repercussions of Honoka's first steps into the secret world of magic and mages are only just starting to play out, eventually leading to catastrophic consequences.

Features...

🩸 a dark yuri visual novel around 70k words long 📖 English script with JP & CN translations 🎙️ full JP voice acting

[arimiadev]

YURI ON STEAM POPULAR UPCOMING !!!

[blerdyotome]

 A Tithe in Blood - Dark Fantasy Yuri Visual Novel is Now Live on PC and Steam

A Tithe in Blood, the latest yuri visual novel from indie developers Studio Élan, has now been released on Steam and itch.io as of June 16th. About A Tithe in Blood A Tithe in Blood is an atmospheric dark fantasy yuri visual novel following Honoka, a university student who discovers blood magic in the depths of her grief. It allows her to travel to a historical version of Sapporo, where she…

[satoshi-mochida]

A Tithe in Blood releases today on Steam. Physical copies can be preordered here.

[papairaart]

[megiddo-ichi]

Tonight's Stream- A Tithe In Blood

Tired? Depressed? Struggling with classes? Trying to unlock the secrets of blood magic?

Then it sounds to me like you might be in the market for Studio Elan's A Tithe in Blood. A "Dark Yuri Visual Novel" about love and grief.

Tonight at 6PM CST.

[Twitch | Twitter | Youtube | Bluesky | Discord]

[adirosa]

play it. wishlist it.

[kallista-dragonsoul]

Sometimes magic comes with a price... Sometimes that price... Is BLOOD! Going live with A Tithe in Blood demo! Waiting room now open, full live at 5pm Pacific!

Link: https://www.twitch.tv/kallista_dragonsoul

[operationrainfall]

Studio Élan Announces Two Visual Novels at OffKai Expo

An exciting weekend for fans of girls’ love visual novels as Studio Élan was cooking at OffKai Expo. The publisher behind the very beautiful Heart of the Woods and Please Be Happy are coming out with a pair of blessed titles. Their names are A Tithe in Blood and Rainbow Valley! The first of which is, in their words, a dark atmospheric mystery written and directed by the great Suriko who worked on…

[vnstudioelan]

Only 6 days until our next yuri visual novel releases!

A Tithe in Blood is a dark fantasy story about meddling with magic and discovering love in the depths of grief. ...And showing off modern marvels to people stuck in the past, literally.

🩸 Play the demo

[probablygoodrpgideas]

The second playable version of Blood Tithe is now public!

Blood Tithe is a TTRPG in which you play a group of Vampires trying to survive and thrive. They will have to defend humans from other monsters but at the same time defend themselves from humans that don’t want to have their blood sucked. Of course, they are powerful beings, and might have ambitions beyond mere survival that they’re trying to achieve. But no matter how powerful a vampire becomes, in the end they are still a slave to their thirst

Check it out if you're interested and come to the playtest discord if you want to discuss the game.

If you struggle to read the white on black text, there's also a version that is black on white

Changelog under the read more

Fixed various spelling and grammar errors

added the concept of associated primary attributes and adjusted starting attributes accordingly

notably you can no longer have more than one 3

added the option to defend engagements with AWR instead of SPD

added roles as a guide to build more balanced groups

added the Mage archetype as well as a bunch of Magicks

the Magick previously called Burn is now Shock and Burn has an entirely different effect

added the Bind sorcery

clarified how Break Free works when you are grabbed with a whip

Added an On Failure effect for Targeted Accelerate/Decelerate and Daze (I think I just forgot them previously?)

Added Perks, the primary way of becoming more powerful as well as another way to diversify your character

now each skill that risks strain mentions this explicitly

Protect and Take Aim no longer risk strain

Reworked Hex’s “can use only body attacks” mode to instead inflict a heavy penalty when using a non-body attack skill

added a penalty to Aim while engaged with a hostile character

Changed Aim and Subdue to be equal to instead of higher than to succeed, which was my intention all along, idk why I screwed that up

Buffed the failure effect on Teleport

Renamed Ranged Defense to Entrenchment

Added Threats, a new category of enemy difficulty

added the Pixie as an example Threat

Added rules for Legends

added the Wyvern of Fire as an example Legend

Added the keyword Fast for skills that affect the current turn 

changed the example for a specific rule beating a general rule in Rule 0 accordingly

Reworked how skills that deal damage based on STR work

this also allowed me to get rid of the maneuver damage cap

reduced the impact of SPD on rolling engagement

reworked how running is resolved to make it much easier to run away

added the option to take a character you’re grabbing with you when breaking an engagement or joining another

added the option to escape

removed the restriction preventing you from using a shield while unarmoured. Don’t remember why that was there in the first place

renamed the engagement roll to the movement roll to better differentiate it from all the other things named engagement

made a general rule for what happens when you roll 0 dice instead of writing the same thing each time

renamed Werewolf Claws and Werewolf bite to more generic names so non-werewolf monstrous enemies can use them too

changed the base attack of Grab or pin to be based on STR so strong character have an easier time grabbing someone while weaker characters have a harder time. 

Added a fly spell and a leap maneuver to deal with the new flying enemies

Added the upkeep phase to combat, which doesn’t really change anything but should hopefully make things more clear

added stealth as one aspect of Awareness so now there’s finally a stat for stealth

[alexissara]

Sapphic Games List Summer 2024

Welcome to the Upcoming Sapphic Games List Summer 2024. This is a series where I the divine goddess of the lesbians grace the video game information I painstakingly researched onto you my humble sapphic audience. This is not a review series or a series of pitches but a best guess series with some amount of impressions and details to give you an idea of games you might get to see yourself represented in if your a person who wants sapphic romance in their life. These are upcoming games so I really can’t promise their quality, the details, and even games with clear cut queer romance could idk pull a shocking homophobic ending or something so remember this is based just on trailers, demos, previews, interviews, and me asking questions to developers. These games are still in development, things can change and some of these are just strong guess although I try to make my reasoning make sense or put it in high probability rather than any other section.  You can check out the last two ones I did of these here and here.

I am making this before whatever Nintendo Direct in June happens, I attempted to wait it out but they hadn’t announced it by the 14th so I decided to simply wrap up this article. To that end I may do a quick extra addition with a few more games as I keep digging, which I am always doing plus whatever has potential from there if there is anything new. 

It takes a lot of research to make these so if you’d like to send any support at all my way Patreon and Ko-fi are the best ways to help me keep making these while I work on making my own lesbian art for sapphics of all kinds to enjoy badass sapphics. 

Action Lesbians

Nova Hearts 

Nova hearts is a magical girl dating sim RPG. While a bit closer to a Visual Novel then say a persona game Nova Hearts still has solid evolving RPG combat paired with social sim mechanics that grow relationships between your main character and the cast both in the party and outside of it.  It's really cute and you can play the first chapter of the game yourself for free with Nova Hearts: The Spark.

Food Devils 

This might be more of a Make Your Own Gay but given the roster has 3 women and 2 men plus an avatar of your chosen gender it’s pretty hard but I guess possible to make it where the game ends in all MF pairings. That said I have a strong feeling that there will be some degree of canon queerness outside of player choice given the game has chosen to default to the female avatar and the main romance they showcase is her romance with another woman. It's an SRPG with base building and it seems like romances will go beyond the devils too and give the player some options to romance maids and butlers as well thanks to kickstarter goals being met. It seems like it's going to have like an interesting twist on some coz vibes of cooking food and romancing hotties. 

Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection

A remake of an amazing Lesbian Roguelike game is in the works and set to be released probably pretty close to when this goes up. You play as sword Lesbian Tama who is willing to do anything to save Koko who eas tragically killed recently. You gain The Sword Of The Necromancer and use that to revive monsters and fight through the dungeon to gain enough power to revive Koko. 

Sword Of The Necromancer: Revenant

The original intended game from Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection, Revenant adds a man to the fold which, yes boo, tomatoes, tomatoes [or at least it seems to] but it keeps our main two adorable lesbians in the plot after their happy ending and brings them into the fold in this new chaotic story remaining main characters. Spoilers for the above game I guess, the lesbians are unburied in one of the possible endings and this game follows that.  We'll have to see how it ends up working but Tama and Koko both seem to be playable in it and so it seems like you'll just have a little party to use in the plot. 

Abyss  X Zero

This game is getting a gay benefit of the doubt. The creators are queer, their last game is queer, I can assume somehow it'll be baked into the story of A and Z probably them being gay for each other despite them both needing to fight the other.  The games a 3d metroidvania with a super nice art style, some level of customization and two Playable characters. They look great and the game looks great, very cool action and really brimming with style. 

BRIGHT RED SONG OF LOVE

A new game being developed by Lily Valeen, creator of Boss Game. Boss Game was a game about girlfriends being gay and working gigs and fighting monsters so and this game looks gay too, so expect some gay ladies doing some cool stuff. All we have is screenshots and it’s probably like omega early in development but I wanted to mention it because lily Valeen made a really cool game and this is a great reminder to follow her and maybe check out boss game on Steam or on your phone or on Itch.io. 

Crescent County 

You ride on a motorbroom and try to make some cash cuz your broke as fuck. You are a gay witch looking for cute girls, new friends and new rivals, maybe all three at once. It looks really cool and fun and she kisses a girl in the trailer so I know it’s gay. It sounds like you might have several romantic options but it doesn’t seem like optional queerness just romantic options. I didn’t have a queer racing game on my bingo card of types of games I’d update y’all on or see but here we are, so cool, I love it. This seems like it has a queer dev team making a queer story in a new interesting way that I haven’t seen many games do. It sounds like the romance system is pretty neat too the dev mentioned that like you need a bed frame to have a girl over cuz she is going to have more self respect then to fuck you if you just have a matress on on the floor. So like, it sounds like a lot of fun.

Unbeatable 

You are a pink haired girl who beats up cops and is in a rock band and the cast seems to mostly be women, if you are not gay in this game I believe it to be a hate crime and I will fight the developers. The game looks incredibly cool and the stunning hand drawn animation is just great. It is a kinda rhythm game I think in a setting where music is illegal and you love doing crime. I’m sold on this game I just need it to be gay, that’s it. I’ve bought it in my heart already but make it gay please, please, please.  Also it looks like it’s tagged as LGBT+ so you know, it’s possible, I believe, I chose to believe. It looks too good to not be gay. 

Make your own Gay

Demonschool 

In This game you do tactical combat against a flurry of demons and build relationships with other characters. I had romances confirmed and well the trailer shows our main protagonist reaching for another woman’s hands. I also had confirmed there is some side stuff that isn’t the main character Faye with someone so there may be some canon sapphic stuff that isn’t just player directed and optional. This is a tactical RPG with shin megami tensei flare but doesn’t play like any other SRPG I’ve played even SMTs own SRPG, Devil Survivor. This game is heavily focused on unit placement and doing things in really tight deadlines. I hope they have an easy mode or something in the full release because I utterly love the social sim elements here and would love a bit more room to fuck up. On the sapphic end the roster seems to have tons of cute girls even outside of the probably intended to be canon romance girl there is a haughty rich girl who seems like a perfect enemies to lovers arc and a cool delinquent girl, there is a lot of range for a lot of dynamics but we’ll have to see how all of those systems work on release. 

Long Story 2

A very kid friendly visual novel type experience. It’s cute, it’s sweet, it’s simple and it’s the kind of soft story you can get excited about if you just want something wholesome to enjoy. You really Get to craft your story so it's very craft it yourself. 

Moonlight Peaks 

We really do not have a ton of details but it’s likely to release in 2026 since that’s when they said it would and have have a pretty strong publisher in Marvlous behind it. This is one of the most exciting farming sims I've seen. You play as a vampire and unlock new vampiric powers over time. It looks as if there will be 7 women who are different kinds of super natural for you to romance in this. Also an interesting talked about feature is the werewolf romance options might shift in personality a little on a full moon and stuff like that which makes for a neat way to push for a different vibe in a farming sims cast.

Monster Prom 4: Monster Con

The 4th game in the monster prom series, the potentially PVP dating sim is back at it again with more goofs, new monsters to fawn over and a new setting.  If you're fiending for more Monster Prom, Camp or Road Trip then you already are gonna be grabbing this but if you're new to hearing about this series or finally wanting to check it out because one of the characters designs it’ll be an exciting jumping on point. Romances are player focused, characters themselves though are canon queer sometimes having same gender exes and stuff. We have a canon queer trans woman as one of the main love interests this time so that is really excited and also a really cool set of two new women. If you come with a full party of lesbians as it stands you’ll have to fight over at least one girl given there is only 3 women to romance and 3 men but if your playing 3 players you can each aim for a different girl in a run if you want to avoid PVPing or simply play in single player for a chiller romance comedy vibe. This is a really silly game series that is all about the bits but there is a lot of good stuff even outside of the comedy. 

Arcadia Fallen II

Arcadia Fallen 2 is the follow up to Arcadia Fallen. The first game let you be sapphic and this game probably will also let you be sapphic as well. I think it’s a safe bet, they say there will be 3 body type so probably the typical choice of He/She/They pronouns with a chose whatever body suits you best choice. This should be a choose your own adventure style visual novel with a magical setting and while I haven’t played the first yet, I am keeping my eyes on this one’s kickstarter to see where it goes. The artstyle is gorgeous and it’s always nice to see artists from across the world making games where you can be sapphic, in this case some awesome Danish devs. 

Sensei! I Like You So Much!

This game bills itself as a fangirl simulator where you create your own favorite characters and geek out with fellow fans, take commissions and gather in community with others. My vine is this game will have no romance however, I feel compelled to bring it here because I mean you can be really into a lesbian ship and geek out with other women who are really into a lesbian ship or so it seems from the trailer. Obviously, like any of these I only have whatever the devs have said and whatever I see in trailers, screen shots, etc to go off of but it looked like you could make a girl and it looks like in the trailer they made yaoi so I am gonna guess you can make yuri. So, here we go, it’s sapphic but like, different than other sapphic games, probably, I’d personally be way more into romancing a fellow fan of something than a lot of other concepts for a dating sim so I’d love to be wrong and there is some secret dating sim element. 

Reanimation Scheme

It’s an Otome visual novel where you can date four men but also there is one sapphic wrote. I hate these kind of gender rations but hey, this exist, it’s upcoming, you should know about it, maybe it’s written super good. The art style is solid and if you like the design of the exactly one woman you can date in the game you can prep for some sapphic fun even if a lot of your time in the game will be interacting with men, You play as a Necromancer which is always really cool and ya, enjoy. 

The Crush House This is a reality show managing sim with a spooky mystery. It’s like putting you managing the sims lives in context where you try and push people to behave particular ways based on audience demands and what you feel like. You can make women be gay with each other and even run a show for Girls for Girls audiences and stuff so there is a lot cooking here for a silly and strange little game. 

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Dragon Age, a little known indie series from abusive publisher EA from Abusive company Bioware now potentially hanging onto it’s last chance for life with a brand new game. Dragon Age is a fantasy roleplaying game where the people who look like lesbians are straight and the people who look straight are lesbians at least that’s the classic Bioware flavor.  This time though, unlike these other games, an actual queer woman is the director [after like 4 directors left] and she seems like a really cool person with good taste so I want her to be successful and for this game to not crash Bioware into the dirt like so many other studios under EA. You’ll likely be able to make a character of one of two genders and have them fill a role in this plot.  We know that every character will be pansexual in the game meaning you’ll be able to romance anyone and if you don’t romance characters they will romance each other. 

Grave Seasons 

Like farming sims, like murder mysteries, want to make sweet sweet passionate kissy faces with a murderer? Then Grave Seasons might be the game for you. You do typical farming sim stuff but a randomly generated one of the NPCs that are romanceable. You need to figure out the mystery, if the hottie you're making heart eyes at is the killer and if they are what you wanna do about it. If it’s not you might want to find the killer and fast lest your cutie get taken out too. At least that’s what it sounds like to me. There should be several women you can romance and it seems like a fun game to replay and a farming sim that puts the romance at the front even for people who want to be efficient because well you don’t want a bunch of people dying do you [unless you do]. 

Freeride

So this one is really making your own gay cuz I do not think they gender proto and proto is just supposed to be a stand in for you but I flirted with a cool looking bunny girl in the demo and she seemed to be into the conductor who was a demon girl so like maybe it'll even be explicitly represented in this. It's hard to know with so few details but you can gift people stuff and everything.  It's a physics based game mostly focused on choices and doing a secret personality test on you. 

Fable 

It looks like this Fable game just has you play as a woman, like I am just taking precedent here to say that romance to some extent will exist and you can in fact marry women. It be weird if you couldn’t so I’ll say that is very likely here. If you like RPGs with big budgets then this might be the one, it doesn’t seem to be as silly as some of the previous games but they weren’t always going for silly so I think the tone seems just about right. 

Narrative Games 

Cage of Roses

Lesbian vampires are always a good time. It's a visual about some lesbian vampires. You're in by the art style and visual novel or you're not. It sounds exciting to me. 

Rainbow Valley 

A game from yuri game developer and publisher Studio Elan. This is a collaboration with a monster high focused YouTuber and you can see the Monster High inspirations in the designs. I imagine this is really going to capture the vibes adult fans of monster high really have been wanting to explore while not being locked down by the big company. 

Tithe In Blood 

Another  game from yuri game developer and publisher Studio Elan. This is a darker yuri story about a woman practicing blood magic after the loss of a loved one.The romance and blood magic lead to a lot of deadly twists and turns. 

The Witch's Bakery

The Witch’s Bakery is a game coming to Kickstarter soon that’s about running a cozy bakery and being a little gay witch doing it. This game is coming to kickstarter at some point in the near future at the time of writing. It has a canon romance so I don’t think you’ll be picking who you swoon and instead you’ll get to play out a soft little love story while you bake, run a shop and make friends. 

Lost Records

Life is Strange and Tell Me Why Developers are back with a new game and the first trailer had the main four women of this plot kissing so it’s gay, that’s like locked in it’s not even like Life Is Strange 1 optional gay it’s just gonna be gay. It seems like a nostalgia trip featuring a bunch of sapphic women in the lead and that seems like the most perfect game for Dontnods main audience. 

Cabernet

A gothic vibe lays over this game, it tickles at horror while also not being terrifying, you are the vampire newly created and enter this society. This is another one that might be more of a Make your Own Gay but it’s vampires and that’s inherently gay so I gotta put it here. I had the devs confirm to me that this game will include gay romance and you can have your girl read Carmilla so as far as I am concerned I think her sexuality has a decent shot at being part of the narrative and not just an option. 

Tavern Talk

This is a game inspired by exclusively other queer games in the same style of those queer games, I am gonna say it’s safe to guess this is a soft little queer game that will take you through an interesting narrative perspective all while mostly being behind a bar and making drinks for people. 

Psychroma

This is a horror game with what seems to be a queer non binary protagonist but it may not be all sunny and rainbows, for sure prepare yourself for angst. The protagonist has amnesia and doesn’t remember who seems to be her girlfriend. This is a cyberpunk horror which is shockingly not a super standard combination despite the clear synergy between the two. It has a sapphic energy, it’s always hard to draw the line on a non binary character and if their sapphic or not before you get the context because well that’s a massive umbrella of genders, identities and feelings. Still the vibe test for me passes as sapphic and I am here to tell you about vibes, that’s the point of this series, I have an extremely high success rate and so I will take the shot here. If you're looking for something creepy and queer then this is for sure it even if the sapphic vibes are a false flag. 

Life is strange: Double Exposure

IDK if they’ll make Max and Chloe canon here or how they will right around it but also like the game studio making this game has a bunch of like allegations against them so I don’t particularly care too much. I do want to find out so I will look around for details but ya know I mentioned Lost Records earlier maybe look to that one instead if these come out around the same time at least. Otherwise, idk you do dialog and stuff in this one and mess with timelines. It does look like Chloe is dead so, you could go to your local library and read Life Is Strange: After The Storm for free instead, a possible suggestion too. 

Love Ghostie

Your a lil ghostie and you play match maker and you can make little sapphic pairings so, ya you can make sapphic stuff happen in this game and it’s like part of the point. It’s a very adorable game with very adorable little monsters and looks to be a great game to cuddle up and just live your best shipping life. 

Sigh of the Abyss Sigh of the Abyss is doing something really cool in the visual novel space and it’s bringing a feature I’ve wanted in games with mix gender romance for a long time to the table. You can in your options at any time say your looking to romance Men, Men and Women, Women or no one. In the game you play as a woman and the game defaults you to being bisexual but you can actually have it where the game simply does not have men push romance on you which is such a relief because it’s one of the world part of mix gendered dating games for me is being here for the women but having to be flirted with by every man and never able to say “Hey, I’m a lesbian.”  How deep these options will go I am not sure but it was really swift in easy in the demo. If you're looking for some dark fantasy story telling this seems like an exciting place to go for a story. 

High Potential 

Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2

I mean it’s got vampires and roleplaying like probably. Maybe it'll be too uptight and serious but we'll see what it's like. 

Sorry We're Closed

The games listed as LGBT and the main characters on the art and stuff are women so pretty clear. It’s a horror adventure and it seems really aesthetically unique, I think this is one to keep your eyes on it might just be a big new thing.

RPG Maker WITH

I mean it just depends on if people make a sapphic game in it and share it. It's like a game about making games. There's a good chance someone will want to make Yuri but also I wouldn't expect it near launch.

Ra Ra Boom

There is a vibe here, it's a beat um up which is a kind of game not famous for it's story but idk the vibe tells me these super cheerleaders are gay.  That’s all I got to say really, it looks fun and if it’s gay bonus points to me.

Fighting Games

So Fighting games are hard to cover on this because fighting game devs are cowards an also don't make their narratives compelling and their mostly about men with women relegated to the sides. I love fighting games though and I don't want to ignore them so I put just a general pin on potential sapphic characters dropping in 2024. Like Skullgirls recently added Marie who has some queer coding with Peacock and she's like a main villain so there's stuff. Guilty Gear Has a season 4 coming out which could add a story expansion and idk confirm Bridget is a lesbian. Granblue's next characters are likely datamined but there is a chance of a suprise appearance and many likely candidates are sapphic characters. Plus a new game might come out, maybe Diesel Legacy will have the cool mobster girl be a lesbian, we just won't know util stuff comes out. 

gillford academy 

This is an rpg putting a lot of emphasis on your choices mattering with characters. The characters are pretty young but there is a chance they might be sapphic at least in a if player chooses the right choices way. 

Mixtape

I think I saw a gay moment in this trailer. It's like 90s nostalgia the game, I have no idea how it’s supposed to play. I assume it's kinda standard narrative 3D gameplay  which I think is always a pleasant time.  I don’t know a ton about this game but I am keeping my eyes on it in the future that’s for sure. 

---

If you enjoyed this post and want to help me do the level of research I put into these please, please, please consider funding me on Patreon or giving me a one time donation over on Ko-fi. I am a writer for a living so that means being professionally poor and any bit of money really helps so much. Every dollar helps me make new sapphic art myself from making TTRPGs to working on my own game project and lots more. If you don’t have cash following me, sharing, etc is always lovely and I love nice comments. 

There should be more of these in the future. I couldn’t fit every single game I saw with potential or even straight up confirmed into here so I am hoping to make this more regular maybe even pivot to video and do game by game chats or something. We'll see what the future holds but I hope you found at least one new game to look forward to.

[15-lizards]

Thinking about how Aegon can sit on the throne drunk and lazy and not taking his rule seriously and not even get a scratch…Robert was never scratched either and Aegon the unworthy was also exempt from the thrones blood tax WHY IS THIS I’m racking my brain for answers. Obviously the throne is a symbol for the cycle of violence so it only accepts the violent and abusive but then there’s maegor who got scratched by the throne in the worst way possible…what does it all mean…can you not upset the balance of the cycle…

[megiddo-ichi]

The Bathead Lineup 4/14 - 4/20

This Week's Schedule is Brought to you by…Nostalgia.

We're doing our best to try and find style in DMC3, plus tough it out as the sengoku era ends in Nioh 2. Plus a viewer suggested session of Sly Cooper.

Let's get it good, Batheads.

[Twitch | Twitter | Youtube | Bluesky | Discord]

[pretend-pretend-vampire]

so. thorn harrassed a thinblood tonight. it:

pointed out the brand on her arm

called her an abomination, an insult to the blood, and asked her why she thought she should exist

followed her as she was trying to walk away to tell her all of this

only stopped following her when someone else took her away to speak

found her AGAIN later, asked if she was to be sold, and told her she should beg for death

gave her mean looks all evening

very obviously wanted to eat her

asked everyone else what they thought about thinbloods, leaning the conversation towards "thinbloods are awful and should be put out of their misery before they cause problems" each time

very pointedly refused all evening to accept anyone calling thinbloods "kindred" or "vampires" and refused to refer to eating them as "diablerie"

petitioned its sire the prince to have the thinblood/s be eaten immediately, even arguing with them about how they're an insult to the blood and too dangerous to let live (rejected)

would have eaten at least one on the spot had the prince not rejected that plan

when theophany, a toreador, said she wanted to purchase a thinblood at the auction, thorn asked her what she'd do with it. she said she would "liberate them!" (glare) "to her room! where she would hang out with them" (further glares)

when theophany in return asked what thorn would do if it won a thinblood, thorn said very simply and seriously "eat it." and made intense eye contact for several seconds before their attention was called away

[write-kin]

i - Runaway

(Previous Work)

thank you to @inscrutable-shadow for beta reading this for me!

Calamine makes preparations on the road. A rocky alliance begins.

--

The first step of running away is to have something to run away from. 

For Calamine, that was his entire life up to this point. Every single day of it. Every person he knew. Every ritual and rite and routine he’d so carefully been taught. He left it all behind. 

The only things he took with him were his name, the clothes on his back, whatever he could fit into the bag he slung over his shoulder, and a book that was currently cradled in his arm.

The second step was to have a path to follow. 

That could be one of many things. 

Running in a line until you couldn’t any more. A literal path. A map. All that mattered was that you had to go away, that there was a running part of running away. 

Calamine had a path. It was loose, and rough, and the map he’d looked over before he’d left had been centuries old. But he had a path nonetheless. 

The third, and most optional step, was to have somewhere to go. 

Tarocco. 

The land of the mad king. 

They said the fruit there was so sweet it would turn your tongue to dust. That the mornings were shrouded in fog, the days were clouded over, and the nights were long and molasses-thick. 

They also said it was impossible to find, unless the king himself allowed you in. 

But there, Calamine knew, they were wrong.

Four days and three nights due north, into the forest. Bring a guide. Or two. The mad king hungers, and the ground itself might swallow you whole. 

Speak not of your destination. The mad king has ears throughout the trees, and eyes in every star that beams down upon you. 

Do not eat nor drink unless at dawn and twilight. The mad king is jealous, and he will curse you if you feast while he can not. 

On the eve of the fourth night, on the seventh change between day and night, you will arrive. 

It will not be pleasant. 

You may not survive. But you will be there. 

He’d found the instructions in the book he carried under his arm. Centuries old, the only one of its kind in the world. Drawings of the mad king, likely the most accurate found outside of Tarocco. Drawings of the kingdom, and its lore, and suits of armors in the margins. 

Lovingly preserved in a library for longer than Calamine had been alive. Until he’d taken it. 

He wasn’t going directly to Tarocco. He had no one to travel with. He couldn’t go alone. 

The book said that the Mad King would take bodyguards first, and let those they guard pass through. So Calamine had to get himself a bodyguard. 

That’s why he was here. He’d asked several people, and posted a notice on an adventuring board- “Vulnerable traveler seeks bodyguard skilled in slaying bandits, brigands, beasts. Travel to dangerous land. No payment upfront, you keep everything we find. High Risk, High Reward.”

He’d been pointed to a stone keep in the mountains, a day’s walk from the town. Monster hunters lived there, they said. Good people, who had trained for years to be strong. Who gave their services to those who sought them out, doing good for those who could not stand up for themselves. 

The exact kind of person who wouldn’t realize that the real monster was right beside them, guiding them to their death. 

So there he was. A shivering little thing, in the early autumn evening, wrapped in a secondhand cloak. He’d long since discarded the robes from his monastery, having made his own clothing. Which was currently doing a terrible job of keeping him warm. The cloak was given to him by a stranger on his journey- one who’d seen him trying to stay warm, and had given him a spare. It was a strange gesture, but an appreciated one. 

He’d been robbed multiple times, roughed up, slept in the woods, had to deal with weather and exposure and exhaustion. The wind carried a cold that slipped under his cloak, his sleeves, his skin, and wrapped itself in the core of his bones. His long braid was carried out to the side by the wind, and much of his hair had come loose, giving him a disheveled look. The thin brass frames of his glasses had been bent in one of the times he’d been robbed, and he hadn’t had the time to fix them. 

Or, in short, he looked awful. 

Calamine rang the bell by the door, looking and feeling a few seconds away from collapsing, exhausted. 

Luckily, the loud tolling attracted someone’s attention, and the door opened quickly. 

An older man, with greying hair and a carefully-trimmed beard, looked down at Calamine. Which was not an exaggeration- the stranger was nearly a foot taller than him. 

Calamine stared up at him. It felt like an eternity as they looked at each other, before the stranger spoke. 

“You’re here for a reason, I suppose?” “Oh. Um. Yes. I am.” Calamine took the notice he’d posted, now clutched to his chest, and held it out to the man. 

“I need an escort. Someone to take me somewhere dangerous.” 

“Mm. Makes sense you’d come here, then. Come inside, you look like death.” The man snatched the paper from Calamine’s hands before he could protest, ushered him in, and almost slammed the door behind him. 

He seemed fairly down to business. Cal looked around the hall as the man read the paper, trying to familiarize himself with it. 

Although made of stone, the place seemed unfamiliar to him. It was intricately decorated, with strange pelts and weapons hung up on the walls where tapestries and altars would have normally gone. Open torches provided light, and rugs covered the floors. The first room visible was a large meal hall, where several people ate and talked and were, generally, too loud. 

The man must have seen how hungrily Calamine stared at the hall. He must have done a terrible job of hiding it. He clapped him on the shoulder, startling Calamine. 

“Come. Follow me. I am Vidar. We can discuss your contract over food.” 

Calamine walked with him- well, he didn’t have much choice, Vidar might as well have been dragging him- and sat down near the most intimidating of the men in the hall- a mountain of a man with an angry gaze, long white hair in a messy ponytail and a beard to match, and a cloak of what seemed to be animal fur. 

He looked down at Calamine. 

Calamine tried to shrink into himself. 

Vidar had gone off somewhere, and so Calamine was left at this table surrounded by people who were far larger and stronger than himself, feeling like a mouse surrounded by cats. 

Some of them talked to each other. None of them talked to him. The one right next to him simply looked down at him while eating, almost studying him. He wanted to disappear. 

That cycle of anxiety and self-loathing was broken very loudly when a wooden bowl of stew, a plate of various fruits and breads, and a spoon were placed very confidently in front of him. 

Vidar then proceeded to push him out of the way, into the side of the terrifying mountain of a man, and step on the bench and over the wooden table. 

This was met with some laughter, and some slaps to his shoulders when he sat back down. 

Calamine put his cloak’s hood up. 

Vidar sat across from him, and watched Calamine take a cautionary bite of what he could assume was stew. He’d only read about it, so this was a hypothesis that needed to be tested. 

Vidar then proceeded to watch him eat the entire bowl in less than a minute. That first bite had reminded Calamine of how hungry he was, how sparsely he’d eaten on his journey. And now there was what was potentially the best thing he’d eaten in his entire life. The man beside him didn’t take his eyes off of Calamine, but he was past the point of caring.

He was one thick slice of bread into the plate he’d been given when Vidar spoke again.

“Your contract.” Calamine swallowed. He’d almost forgotten about that, in the raw euphoria of having an entire meal. 

“Right. Sorry.” “Don’t worry. First, I’ll probably need your name.” 

“Oh. Calamine.” Vidar raised an eyebrow. “And your last name?” 

Calamine paused. Took another bite of bread to give himself some time to think. Decided the truth would be the best. 

“I don’t have one.” 

“Parents must not have liked you much.” He shrugged. “Not terribly, no.”

Vidar snorted out a laugh. 

“So, Calamine. No last name. Wants a guard for a journey to a dangerous place. You’d be wanting an experienced hunter- that’d be me- for what you’ve described.”

Calamine nodded along, eating at what he hoped was a normal pace that didn’t betray how hungry he was. 

“You don’t have any money for a pay-ahead? I’m going to need something for collateral.” 

The way Vidar looked at him made Calamine think he wasn’t expecting much. He could play into that. 

“I’m sure I can come up with something.” Best not to show all of his cards. He might not have liked his necklace, but he’d barely come out of being robbed so many times with it still around his neck. He wanted to hold onto it. 

“That works. We can talk it out.” Vidar nodded, folding the paper. “You shouldn’t face anything too bad. Where are you going, anyways? You don’t look like the adventuring type.”

Calamine ignored the slight. Finished his plate, and put his bowl on top of it, utensils within. Force of habit. Answered after that. 

“Have you ever heard of Tarocco?” 

The silence that befell the little area around them was so sudden and so thick that the rest of the room looked over to where the pair sat, rippling out until the very edges had gone quiet and looked at Vidar and their guest. 

“Tarocco.” Vidar’s voice was colder now. Calamine nodded. He had the sudden, palpable feeling that he’d just done something wrong. 

“You are aware of the legends surrounding it?” Calamine nodded again. 

“And you are aware that- if it even exists- the chances of anyone going there and surviving is slim to none?” 

Again, a nod. 

“I’m sorry,” Vidar said, shock and rage turning slowly to sympathy. “I can’t take you there. No one else here will, either. I don’t know what you’re seeking there, but it’s a death wish none of us have.” 

“Please.” 

Calamine was surprised by how desperate he sounded as he leaned over the table. 

“I need to get there. I don’t have money, but I can find something. I could make you something. I can make it worth it.”

The sympathy in Vidar’s expression turned to something like pity. Something that made Calamine’s stomach curdle and rage well up in him. 

“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’ll make sure you can stay here for the night, and bathe, and I’ll send you off with food in the morning. But you’re on your own.” 

He went back over the table, and the buzz of the room resumed. Hand back on Calamine’s shoulder, he guided him out of the hall, deeper into the keep. Down to the empty rooms for guests, where he brushed away spiders and showed him to a bathroom, where he could bathe, and even explained how to heat the water.

As Calamine left the room, though, he felt the distinctive feeling of eyes on him. It lingered, long past when he’d heated the water, washed himself, his clothes, taken his hair out of its long braid and cleaned it, basking in the feeling of being clean for the first time in weeks. 

He dried his clothes by the fire he’d used to heat the water, and put them on to head to the stone bed he’d been given. As he’d done night after night his entire life, he put his hair back in its braid, and took the time to fix his glasses before he laid down. He’d figure out the next step to Tarocco in the morning. For now, he needed to sleep. 

Calamine’s sleep was cold, and murky, like being drowned in an ocean far below where the light reached. Typically, he woke from dreams like the one he’d had that night in a cold sweat, having to lay back down and rest. 

Tonight, though, he awoke to heavy footsteps outside the door. The sound of a hand in the handle. And the door opening, flooding his room with light from the hallway. 

Although, not much light made its way through. Because, to Calamine’s dismay, the man he’d been sat next to in the hall was staring at him from the doorway. 

This was it. This was how he died. At the hands of a monster hunter who’d correctly deduced the kind of person he was. 

The man made his way into the room, eyes glowing in the darkness. Calamine must have done a terrible job at hiding his terror, because he raised his hands, revealing that one held two bags in it. 

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

His voice was deep, gravelly, and calm. He sounded so sure of himself that Calamine almost believed him. 

“My name is Brynjar Bjornson. You can call me Bryn.” A little weird to introduce yourself to someone you’re about to murder. Calamine was about to speak, before Brynjar spoke again.

“You wanted to go to Tarocco.” “Yes.” He was trying very hard to sound brave. “I can take your contract. I can take you there.” 

Calamine looked at him suspiciously. This ‘Bryn’ had been staring at him all night, like he wanted him dead, and now he was offering to take him somewhere dangerous? 

“How do I know you won’t just kill me?” 

Strangely, Bryn looked almost hurt at that. 

“I can’t promise you will know. But please, trust me. I don’t want you to go alone.” He stepped forwards again, holding the bags out.

“I packed us each some money. And food. We can go now. They won’t notice if we leave before it’s light out.” 

Calamine had to take a second to consider it. At the end, though, he decided that if Bryn had a death wish, who was he to stop him? So he took his cloak again. Reached out, and grabbed one of the bags. Bryn nodded affirmatively, gesturing to the hallway with his head. 

“I’ll make sure you’re protected. I promise.”

Calamine didn’t exactly believe that. But he still followed Bryn out of the keep, and into the night.