A Hunter's Catalyst

In 1637, Marie Smith went on a hunt with her cousin Edmund Smith - an accomplished hunter in his own right who was three years her senior. When she helps him hunt down a vampire, they discover a small group of five children of various ages, from nine summers to fourteen, who have been turned. Marie insists on taking the small, frightened brood of children back to the clan where they can join the other child vampires and half-cursed that she knows they have kept for years. Edmund, to her horror, kills them without hesitation, and no one else seems bothered by his actions. This is the catalyst that leads to her approaching Ebio to fake her own death.