Did I ever end up telling you about the birthrate?

[ She mentioned how few vampires were left, but. ]

Mmm. The reason for that, my exhaustion in hearing about it aside, is how bad it is. There's been seven births in the last thirty years, and just less than half of them are in my family. there's been no births in the last decade, and more and more of the old guard are fading away in their sleep.

[ A beat, and she drums her fingers on the table. ]

It's not too hyperbolic to think vampires are dying out.

No one really knows the real reason - we've just grown impotent over time. I hear the young wives hassle Calera constantly for the secret.

[ She folds her hands together. ]

... And of course, I wouldn't be bringing this up if I hadn't learned what the secret was over the last several weeks of memories.

[ Inhale, exhale. ]

It's called the Psyche, apparently.

Yes - the secret of the Armash bloodline that the Brownlicks hid away. It's influenced all of the family, but the big thing... apparently, or so the legends say, every time that vampires are on the brink, their bloodlines tired and impotent, salvation is born into that bloodline. The Fountain of Psyche, that is. Salvation in vampire form.

[ Elda grits her teeth, looking at her hands ]

... That's my granddaughter, Karin.

At this point, we've rescued her from the kidnapping the Brownlicks committed to. My most recent memory even makes it seem like she's living happily, her blood no longer rising.

[ She... ]

... That's what the Fountain of Psyche is - a vampire who doesn't take blood, but produces blood. She can go out in the sun, and she's got no talent for simple vampire skills like controlling bats or erasing memories. She can't even see in the dark particularly well.

It does.

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times. Blood is life.

[ And for a girl who is constantly producing and expelling blood, for a girl whose blood is a magic tonic for vampires... well, Elda thinks of Rin as the most intelligent person here. The fact of the matter is that she was born to die, a sacrifice for the sake of the species: a flawed miracle. ]

[ Does she know...? ] We didn't know until we researched it. Calera left the Armash family when she was a young girl, long before Cecilia or any of the Brownlicks told her about it, and so my son and his wife were left to just try to work out why the girl was so abnormal. By the time we did, the Brownlicks kidnapped her not long after that. So does she know...? She knows as much as she learned during the kidnapping.

But you're missing something.

[ Elda slaps her hand on the table. ]

That doesn't matter. Like hell I'm letting any other vampire get one single drop of my granddaughter's blood!

What use to I have for vampires, or for the world? I don't give a hoot about either of those! She's my granddaughter. And family matters more than any of that.

[ she says this firmly, solidly. Defiantly, you might say. ]