This is a sample from the 2011 rewrite of Drop a Stone. (I realize that Sam is already talking like a Nosgoth-resident when she should be using slang and simpler words.) Things that fans would know: Janos is a vampire, but he was born with angelic wings. Kain is closer to a traditional vampire. The Reaver is a sword that is also a key. Samantha was not in the original, this is a snippet from before she was turned into a vampire. Janos will be her sire and begin treating her better, but still like a little kid.
All too soon, one of the servants escorted Samantha back through the opulence of the mansion. His eyes shone with pity as he left her at the door to the library. Dread should have seized Samantha's heart then, but there was something freeing about having nothing left inside to feel.
Janos was standing in the middle of the library, and he fixed Samantha with a hawk-like gaze as she slowly descended the stairs.
“You are different than you were two days ago. It is good to see that you have learned how to be afraid, even if it came too late to avoid a painful lesson,” Janos told Samantha. “You have no right to call yourself a coward. Fear is justified for someone who is called to face more than they can handle. That you are still struggling against what you cannot overcome shows that you have not lost your foolishness.”
Samantha did not expect the flame of anger that ignited in her heart, and could not quench it before saying, “I didn't ask to come here, at least I don't think I did. And I admit that it was stupid to get involved. Now I'm just trying to stay alive without wrecking anything else.”
Janos' patience was not easily dispelled. “Trying to help Kain seems like a poor bid for survival.”
Samantha's anger faded, and her shoulders slumped. “It's complicated. When I came here, I acted on impulse. Ever since, I've been subject to the whims of others. And really, this morning is the first time Kain has actually threatened me.”
“And yet you were already terrified,” Janos pointed out.
“I know what he's like, and that he's been extraordinarily lenient with me so far,” Samantha admitted. “I'm worried about what will happen when he comes back.”
“You need not concern yourself with Kain,” Janos insisted.
“I assume that you're protecting me because you want something?” Samantha asked.
Janos nodded. “You claim to have seen the future. Perhaps there is something in your knowledge that vampiric seers have overlooked.”
“It would be easier if you were willing to answer my questions,” Samantha said.
“We trusted your kind once before, and they betrayed us. I will not make that same mistake,” Janos insisted.
“Then why bother listening to what I have to say? Why did I stay up half the night drawing for you?” Samantha asked.
“Because I can tell if you lie,” Janos answered.
“This is a problem,” Samantha muttered. “You could change the future, so I can't tell you much about it. I can't change the past, but you won't tell me.”
Samantha went over to the table, where her drawings from the past night were still scattered. She pulled out the first version of the two champions mural, the one where neither was impaling the other. “All I have is murals and scraps of explanation. I know what happened, but not why. What are the signs that you're reading?”
“Little girl, you cannot hope to comprehend the wisdom of my race,” Janos' voice was stern. “What sort of map did you give to Raziel?”
“In addition to the location of the citadel, it was just the locations of six portals that led to elemental shrines,” Samantha said.
Janos gave Samantha a condescending gaze, “What good would that do him before he claims the Reaver?”
Samantha froze. Raziel did have the Reaver, in a roundabout way. Lie-detector or not, Janos would never believe her explanation, not that it was her business to tell him. It was that same power that held her back from trying to make something up. Finally, she settled on, “Oops.”
“You are leaping from the heights in your fuzz,” Janos muttered in disgust.
Samantha sat in confusion for a moment at Janos' words. It sounded like an expression, but from a very alien culture. The connection of heights and fuzz made her think of a cute baby bird falling out of the nest.
“I may be out of my depth, but at least I'm not drowning,” Samantha snapped. She covered her mouth and brought her temper back under control. “I'm sorry.”
Janos could understand the shift in element easily enough and said, “How long can you stay afloat?”