Chapter 5

On the way to class, Regan fusses over a drink and encourages Medra, parting with sisterly warmth. Medra resolves to keep emotional distance, uneasy about vampires’ use of thralls and consorts. She enters History of Sangratha twenty minutes late to a silent hall and the stern gaze of Professor Amina Hassan.

Hassan chastises Medra’s tardiness and status, provoking Medra to question vampire privilege and conscription. The professor quizzes the class on why vampires drink blood, leading Florence to explain blood-fueled healing and heightened senses, and Naveen to add emotional manipulation and house-specific powers. Hassan pointedly ties this to bloodline purity, slighting Medra’s presence.

Hassan then delivers a sweeping pro-vampire history: the Bloodmaiden’s sacrifice during the Great Famine, the highbloods’ salvation of mortals during the Blight of Shadows, and the riders’ creation to defeat dragons after the Cataclysm. She concludes that mortals owe vampires absolute allegiance and tribute. Medra rejects the narrative internally as propaganda but stays silent.

After class, Hassan warns Medra against future tardiness, granting leniency because Regan was her escort. Outside, Florence and Naveen check on Medra. Naveen, a dwarven blightborn, introduces himself; Florence’s talents in strategy and healing are revealed. The trio realize they are late and hurry to Restoration.