Page 40 of Mercy Written in Blood

Minamoto stepped away from the map.

"There are references in certain records to medical houses that treated humans and vampires together. Not emergency treatment. Not isolated acts of charity. Permanent institutions."

"And that matters because?"

"Because the accepted history says it never happened."

"Accepted by whom?"

"The Accord. The old bloodlines. Every authority that benefits from the belief that separation was inevitable."

Kameda's expression hardened.

"You're speculating."

"I am describing records I have studied for forty years."

"You are interpreting fragments."

"Fragments are what remain when someone destroys the whole."

Haruki looked between them. The fear was changing shape. It was becoming anger. That, at least, he understood.

"Did this group have a name?" he asked.

Minamoto's eyes returned to the journal.

"Several."

"Give me one."

The professor hesitated.

"The White Lotus."

Haruki looked at the emblem pressed into the leather. The answer should have felt significant. Instead, it felt incomplete.

"A medical house?"

"A clan," Takeda said quietly.

Minamoto turned towards her. She ignored him.

"A vampire clan," she continued. "At least according to the few accounts that survive."

Haruki looked at the painted figures again — humans, vampires, lotuses between them.

"What happened to them?"

"No one knows," Endo said.

Minamoto's expression suggested that was not entirely true. Haruki saw it. Before he could press, Kameda removed a small blade from its case, and everyone in the chamber fell silent.

She positioned the tool beneath the edge of the cover.

"We open it now," she said.

Minamoto's face went pale.