By the time the healer stepped out Thomas had already begun to fear the worst. His fears were simply confirmed. He slowly walked into the room, his eyes coming to rest on the corpse of his husband. He felt like he was going to be sick, seeing him there like this. His eyes, once full of life, now cold and staring. His hands shook softly as he approached the table, his breath catching in his throat as he struggled to hold back tears. His legs collapsed beneath him, sending him to his knees beside the cot, his hands balled into fists on the side.<br/><br/>The details of his enemy were little concern. Ancient vampire, fresh-turned, it didn't matter. They were going to die. And he would be the one to do it. The entire castle started to shudder with him, the fires and torches which kept it alight started to burn more ferociously, as a pained wail escaped the man. Tears continued to stream down his cheeks as he forced himself back up, jaw clenched as his pain turned to fury.<br/><br/>"I will see him given a proper funeral." He murmured, "And then I'm going to hunt down whoever did this, and I'm going to rend their head from their shoulders."<br/><br/>True to his word, Thomas saw to it that Michael was given a proper funeral, and his affairs were in order. He was in no hurry after all. He was an ancient, immortal and strong, and if this vampire was truly an ancient as well, then he had an eternity to hunt them down and exact his revenge on them. He left command of his kingdom in the hands of his most trusted, a circle of humans and supernatural beings, ones that he could trust to care for all of the kingdom's people. He took with him only the essentials, and a horse that could carry him as far as he needed to go. He didn't intend to go back until his mission was complete, and planned in case he never did.<br/><br/>Thomas' hunt took even longer than he could have thought. The vampiress kept him hot on her trail for centuries. Several times he almost had her, even almost killed her. But either by curse of foul luck, or her own ingenius planning, she escaped. He never did learn her identity, or why she had done what she did. Not that he rightly cared.<br/><br/>The world changed dramatically around the ancient. His people, the supernatural and non-human, faded from commonplace to legend, and from legend to myth. Magic became a fable humans told their children. All too soon Thomas even had to hide his true form in order to avoid unwanted attention while he continued his centuries long hunt. Unable to chase his quarry using traditional means, Astor began to adapt. He used his wisdom, knowledge and skill to build himself a new empire, through which he could use this fantastic new world's wonders to track down his quarry.