A tingle goes down my spine. I push it aside and start to read.
I’ve only been reading for half an hour when I turn the page and immediately pause. The new chapter is titled On the Conduit and the Siphon.
I trace my fingertips along the old text, eyes narrowing.
Among the more obscure phenomena recorded in the study of vampiric feeding is the possibility of a reciprocal exchange between vampire and source when the blood drawn originates from a conduit of significant magical current.
I pause.
A conduit of significant magical current.
It sounds like Maeve. And the connection makes my stomach tighten even before I continue reading.
In the vast majority of feedings, the act remains a simple extraction, with the donor’s arcane signature fading from the vampire’s system soon after the exchange.
Yet older records suggest that when the donor possesses a particularly potent elemental magic, the siphoning act may draw more than blood alone. Traces of the donor’s magic have been observed to linger within the vampire for a short duration following the feeding. Such lingering currents are ordinarily temporary.
However, several accounts describe an unusual condition arising when the same vampire feeds repeatedly from the same magically attuned donor. In these cases, scholars have theorized the formation of what certain texts refer to as a conduit-siphon circuit, wherein the donor functions as the conduit of magical current and the vampire as its siphon, the two joined through the medium of blood.
While the first exchange may produce only residual echoes, subsequent reinforcements appear capable of stabilizing the circuit between the two systems. A handful of early observers noted that once such stabilization occurs, the borrowed current does not always dissipate as expected.
Instead, the two forces may begin to orient toward one another, the conduit’s magic seeking the siphon through which it has already passed, and the siphon drawing continued sustenance from the conduit’s current even in the absence of feeding.
This time when I stop reading, I find that my heart is beating harder and faster in my chest, myblood whooshing through my veins with increased force. The space just behind my sternum tightens.
The two forces may begin to orient toward one another.
Is that what this is? This feeling of Maeve lingering in my blood and in my bones?
I reread the last paragraph two more times, growing more concerned with each swipe of my gaze across the old text.
What does it mean for the conduit’s magic to seek the siphon? That Maeve’s magic will reach for me? Become... entangled with me?
And the siphon’s continued sustenance... It rings true in a way that makes me curl my fingers into fists.
Since first feeding from Maeve, I’ve been satiated and contented in a way that is not typical after a feed. Especially after our second feeding. Since then, the incessant thirst for blood has been all but silent inside me, like Maeve’s blood is continuing to sustain me even as days pass.
But what happens if I stop drinking from her? Will my thirst come back like before, or will it be worse after severing the conduit-siphon circuit?
I take a few breaths, trying to calm the anxiety clawing its way up my chest. Then I refocus on the page.
The long-term consequences of this condition remain poorly documented, though surviving commentaries caution that repeated reinforcement of such a circuit risks producing a lasting alignment between the two individuals involved.
Fragmentary accounts further suggest that, in cases where circuit permanence is achieved, the conduit may exhibit a marked deviation from natural lifespan, their vitality sustainedbeyond ordinary limits through the vampire’s influence. Such observations, however, remain insufficiently studied.
For this reason, it is advised that any vampire who suspects the formation of such a circuit should avoid further feedings from the same magical conduit lest the circuit become permanent.
The last word catches my attention, and in my periphery, everything else starts to fade away.
Permanent.
That was never my intention. And though I’ve never wanted to be attached toanythingpermanently, it’s Maeve I’m most worried for. She’s still so young, on the precipice of diving into a big new life.
I read the passage again.
Marked deviation from natural lifespan. Vitality sustained beyond ordinary limits.
This might not justaffecther life; it might change it completely. Might create consequences she’ll feel for many decades to come.
