"Okay."

The Countess leads Pen across what appears to be a dance floor, past a bar, and through a door on the other side of the room. This door opens out to a fairly normal hallway, and a few doors down there is a door with the name Gloria Scott written on it, and "The Countess" surrounded by doodles of bats written on a piece of paper and taped underneath.

"Bats!" observes Pen.

"Oh, yes, that was some of my employees trying to be funny," Gloria says, smiling fondly.

"Why is funny?"

"Ah...well, I'm a vampire, and there's a popular misconception that vampires turn into bats," Gloria says. "That's where the 'Countess' bit comes from, too--there's a tie in popular culture between the idea of vampires and the rank of Count."

"I don't thinking either kind vampires do turn bats."

"...My kind of vampire does not turn into bats either. What kinds of vampire are you familiar with?"

"Is Sunshine kind and Aurum kind."

"We have thirteen kinds of vampire here, but they're arranged in classes--it's not an arbitrary system, it's objectively better to be a higher class than a lower one."

"That a lot kinds."

"Most of them aren't very easy to distinguish--a seven is a little bit stronger and faster and so on than an eight, but not by a huge amount."

Nod nod. "Think only one kind vampires each Sunshine and Aurum, but, Aurum have half vampires and more hybrid kinds."

"...There are dhampirs, here, but they're vanishingly rare and don't come in fractions."

"Why no fractions?"

"...You create a vampire, basically, by being one of the kinds of vampire that can reproduce and feeding someone your blood. If you do this to a pregnant woman, instead of her being turned the fetus becomes a dhampir."

"Then what if baby growing up having kids?"

"Not all dhampirs are fertile. If they are, a male dhampir will sire human children and a female dhampir will bear dhampir children."

"Oh. Huh. Different Aurum."

"Apparently. What, can vampires have children there?"

"Not girl ones. Boy vampires. Or, magic."

"That seems strange. I'm guessing that kind of vampirism has some sort of genetic component? Ours doesn't."

"Think so. Not all sure, mostly remembering bedtime stories."

"Alright then. So, you said a door broke to send you here? What kind of door?"

"Here is locked, look like house door I guess. Other side bar door. Supposed going home but not."