Ava looked through the train's window, reminiscing on the past few months. At some point, she thought, she would never leave Edlan and yet she was on her way to the capital. Only hours away from her final destination. She fumbled the note with the address in her hand, looking at it only made her want to go back, though she tried to convince herself that was the right decision. Her mind knew it, but her heart had thought otherwise.

In the city of St. Carmin, she was about to start a new life and that fact filled her with both fear and excitement. Living in the capital was nothing like life in the rest of the country. It was like entering an entirely new ecosystem. The streets were clean, people didn't emit the same sense of dread as the ones in smaller towns. Every single building had access to electricity as if it was no longer a mere luxury to them. It was like a place unaffected by the war. Or at least so it seemed when one walked through the main streets.

It didn't take long for Ava to find the address, it was only a half an hour walk from the train station and close to the center. She held her breath before pressing the doorbell. There was an overwhelming hesitance washing over her, even though she had recited this conversation in her head countless times before.

The door swung open, answered by a lady, no older than 60 years of age, with an old maid uniform. There was a certain sense of grief in her eyes.

"Good afternoon, mis..." Ava muttered, taken aback by the woman's cold expression. "I, um... I'm here to talk to Mr. Cypher."

"He passed away last week." The woman said. "Are you writing an article for the newspaper? How many of you are going to come here before you leave us alone? I don't want to answer any more questions, just let us mourn in peace."

The girl stood there silent, it's not like she didn't expect it. Lynn told her himself, that he wasn't even sure if Henrick was still alive. By now he would be in his nineties, it was only a matter of time before he passed from old age.

"I don't work for the newspaper. I was sent here by an old friend of his." She searched her head for an answer. It was perhaps futile, but she wanted to get at least a little bit of information before leaving. "Has he any descendants by chance?"

"I don't know if I should entrust you with such details, young lady."

"Yes or no, please, I promise I won't tell anyone."

"I guess it's all the same, now that he's gone." The woman shrugged. "He had a daughter out of wedlock. They weren't close by any means, even less when she got put in that mental institution."

"Where can I find her?" Ava caught herself asking perhaps too many questions. "Sorry if I'm being rude."

"As I said, it doesn't matter now. I'll tell you what I told the others. Her name is Merian, she's in St. Lois hospital, next to the old wooden church. I don't know the reason she was put there. Some say it was because of the loss of her child when she gave birth, others claim she went down a bad path after her father cut her off. Who knows, haven't seen her in years,"

Ava thanked the woman and expressed her condolences before leaving. Something she forgot to do earlier. The bitter news came as a surprise, it made her feel bad for not being able to keep her promise. Even so, she wouldn't miss the chance to at least try to talk to Lynn's potential granddaughter.

The hospital wasn't easy to find. It took her hours of wandering the streets and asking strangers for directions until she found the place. Their dialect was at times a bit hard to understand, but she still mostly managed to get the gist of it.

She went to the reception asking for Merian Cypher, but it downed on her that since her parents weren't married, she then probably had kept her mother's last name. Thankfully the people behind the counter knew who she was talking about. Guess the secret about her heritage wasn't much of a secret after all.

The girl followed one of the staff members into the main room, where the majority of the patients had gathered. The atmosphere made her feel uneasy, even though everyone seemed calm. A few were talking to themselves and doing strange motions, but that was to be expected in a place like this.

There in the corner, gazing through the window was a woman in her late forties. The grey strains in her curly hair made her appear even older than she was. There was a hint of longing in her eyes as if she was staring at the life she never got.

"Merian?" Ava asked, approaching the lady.

The woman nearly jumped from her seat, hugging her. Her arms tightly wrapped around the girl like she was afraid to let her go.

"My child, my child..." she sobbed.

"Don't pay any notice to her. She does that with everyone." The nurse noted before leaving them.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, sweet girl." Said Merian, backing away. "I wasn't crazy before they put me here. It's the place itself that can mess with the healthiest of minds. I don't get many visitors as you might guess. Only journalists who ask me about my father."

"I'm sorry to hear that..." Ava didn't know what to say. She didn't know if bringing up the news about Henrik Cypher's passing would upset her, so decided to keep her mouth shut. Telling her the fact that her paternal grandfather is a vampire didn't seem like a good way to start a conversation either. "Do you know for how long are they gonna keep you here?"

"It's been 20 years. Even if they do decide to let me out, I have nowhere to go. My husband had fled the country long ago. My father won't even look at me and my mother passed away when I was young. Perhaps the only living relative I have left is my daughter, but I don't know where she is."

"Your daughter?"

"Yes, they told me she died during childbirth, but I know the doctors were lying. They took her away from me." Merian spoke with such sadness in her tone, the scar still fresh from her trauma even after all this time. "My husband must have bribed them, he took thousands in loans that we couldn't pay off, thinking that the connection to my father would ensure him financial stability. He wanted to sell our baby off to a group of scientists. When I confronted him about it, he denied of course, but I knew the truth. It's because of him that they put me in here."

"Y-you said that he sold her off..." Ava nearly choked on her words, her expression turning cold as she continued. "Do you know where to?"

"My husband mentioned a secret lab, located in Gracefield. I'm not sure how he knew about it, maybe he had a friend or a relative who worked there. He tried to reassure me she would be safe, but..." the woman's eyes filled with bitter tears as she recounted the memory. "I couldn't even imagine letting go of my child. I remember it like it was yesterday, it was a winter as cold as this. On the first day of the new year..."

The girl's heart sank as if a thousand hands were pulling it to the ground with enough force to create a black hole. Lights were going off in her head, fingers trembling, the cold sweat forming on her face mixed with the tears that fell down her cheeks. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. It was like being frozen in time, one second equaling an eternity. After a few tremendously long minutes, she finally said:

"W-what name would you have given her?"

"Amilia."

Ava wiped the tears in her eyes, forcing a smile on her face, which went away and was soon replaced with a genuine one.

"I think that's a beautiful name."

Thanks for reading my book and sticking through the end!

- Varckk