Blood dripped from Valiance's elongated fingertips as he reformed once more with a sick sucking sound. With an amused expression, he saw the seraphim courier stumble and run through the packed streets from the window of the second floor, letting out a small chuckle. Turning back to his quarry, the haemomancer leisurely paced towards him as the spikes covering his digits receded into his body. With a gentle kick, he turned the unmoving body of councilman Vates onto his back and knelt down beside him. Such an old soul...and yet his body contained so much knowledge and power. The wounds across his chest resembled that of a daeva attack to the untrained eye, being three diagonal tears in the skin, but upon closer inspection, one would find that it was slightly too clean to have been such a beast. Tilting his head as he  inspected his handiwork, Valiance breathed a sigh as he reached a hand in through Vates' shattered ribcage, wrapping his cold, slender fingers around the dead seraphim's heart. "In another life, Vates, we would most likely have been friends," he said conversationally as he gently tugged at the muscle, testing its bonds, before unceremoniously ripping it out, trying to make it seem as beastly as possible, "but alas, cruel fates betwixt our existances in this way...and I emerge on top."

Holding the heart in his hand as he stood ack up, Valiance looked down at the pitiful body, a look of utter surprise still pasted onto its  face. A small smile creased his lips. "Let it not be said that I am a seraphim of cruel intentions," he said as red strings flowed out from the pores of his hand and attaching themselves to the heart. Slowly, it started to pulse and brought an infernal beating noise which echoed through the room. With a sudden jerk and howl of pain, Vates' body reanimated.  "I'm...alive? he whispered as he felt the tear in his chest, turning pale. "Teetering on the brink of life and death, rather," Valiance replied, showing him the beating heart, "and only on my whim. You may ask me three questions, before I let you back into the embrace of death. Do not take my kindness lightly." Councilman Vates swallowed as his brain tried to comprehend what was happening. "Who...who are you? A necromancer?" he stuttered as his arms fell limply to the ground, accepting his demise, "and why did you do this?"
"I am the herald of the outcasts which your ancestors so cruelly destroyed years ago," Valiance said as he tightened his grip on the heart, causing Vates to grunt in pain, "no simple necromancers, we are a society who's understanding flows through the whole body, not simply reanimation."
"I...I don't..." Vates began before Valiance cut him off. "The bloodsworn," he said, the word rolling off of his tongue.
"Though we forsooke that name after the Purge, Keeper of Stories," Valiance replied calmly as he sat down on Vates' bed, crossing his legs, "and I believe you came upon that little fable recently, did you not?" The councilmember seemed dumbfounded as he stared at Valiance. "We know what happens with our tomes, Vates," the haemomancer replied as he toyed with the heart in his hand, "After all, they are written with our own blood and feathers. Vates vaguely recollected  reading a musty hidebound tome in the forbidden archives whose pages seemed awash with fresh blood. Each turn of the page unleashed the heady scent of iron into the air. A smirk covered Valiance's face. "Now that you've remembered," he said as he stood up once more, slowly stepping over to Vates, it is time to forget..." Slowly, the red tendrils which had flowed over the heart receded into the recesses of the blood mage's skin, leaving no mark. The beat of the heart slowed and Vates gasped for air as life once more flowed away. "Oh, and by the way...That was four questions I answered."

As the limp corpse once more fell to the ground, Valiance breathed a sigh. "Guess I should leave a calling card at least," he muttered to himself. Drawing his wings closer to his back, he took a deep breath before placing his right hand over his chest. Slowly, and with a disgusting sucking sound, his hand sunk into his flesh, grabbing onto a hidden object. With the sound of shattering glass, he held back a roar of pain as he pulled out a long, thin red crystal. Leaning down, he inserted it into the flesh of Vates and chuckled. "I'm making this easy for you, old friend," he muttered as he stood up and pulled his hat tighter, "now then, I should get going." With that, he dissolved into a cloud of crimson fluid and disappeared into the floorboards.