The Last Vampire (Part 2)
Blood and Starlight Chapter 4 Part 2
Blood and Starlight: A conjurer, a vampire, and a mechanical demon embark on a rescue mission.
Audience: Adults (contains violence, strong language, and sexual content)
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Chapter 4
The Last Vampire (Part 2)
Dr. Faidra was dragging a heavy box full of metal scraps across the floor when Ely reentered the Oubliette. She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of him, sending odds and ends clattering over the dusty stones.
"Now look what you've made me do," she blustered. "Leave that be, Elyssandro!"
Ely stopped mid-stoop and left the copper coil in its resting place. In all his years in Death's Vale, he had never seen her in such a state. Distracted and irritable, certainly, but never so perilously taut. He did not know what might happen if she finally snapped.
"Dr. F, maybe it would be best if you took a rest?" he suggested, unsure if gentle concern would help or hurt the situation. "Get some fresh air. Sunlight."
"Do I look like a houseplant to you, warm blood?" she hissed.
"Perhaps a neglected one?" he smiled.
Dr. Faidra offered a scathing look in response. She was immune to charm of any kind, but most particularly his. Still, his foolish demeanor did seem to set her at ease.
"Have you come to pester me with more questions, then?" she asked.
"Just one," he replied.
"Out with it then."
"What happened to Ariel Marcellus?" he asked.
The metal cylinder in her hands rang like a cymbal on the stone floor.
"I take it you know the name," he observed.
"The question is, how do you?"
"A book," he replied. "She used death magic notably enough to be hunted by the Canon, but she wasn't a Cosmologist."
"No," Dr. F confirmed. "She did not learn her craft at the Tower. She came to Dianessa seeking sanctuary. We granted it, and she betrayed us."
"How?" Ely asked.
"What does it matter, warm blood?" Dr. F evaded. "She belongs to another time."
"Why not answer the question if it's just a history lesson?" Ely pressed.
"She is the reason that Dianessa and the Vale are cursed," the doctor croaked.
Ely eyed her, sinking unease in his stomach. “You told me you didn't know what caused the Curse.”
Dr. Faidra raised bloodshot eyes to his. “Because you weren't ready to know.”
“Why wouldn't I be ready?” Ely demanded. “What difference would it make if I knew who was responsible?”
Dr. Faidra snarled in exasperation. “I didn't want you asking these questions, Elyssandro. You are forever asking questions, and this one could be your undoing.”
“Why?”
“Because you are exactly like her!” Dr. Faidra barked.
A low, quiet voice interjected from the doorway. “That is a compliment, Elyssandro, even if she spews it like an accusation.”
Dr. Faidra tensed, eyes narrowed as she rose to her feet to meet the intruder. “Ravan.”
“Selene.” The vampire stepped forward, gaze unblinking. “I see at long last your face matches your soul.”
“Rav,” Ely intoned with warning.
The vampire bared his fangs, not taking his eyes off Dr. Faidra. “This doesn't concern you, conjurer. She knows why I'm here. Tell me how to free her, Selene.”
Dr. Faidra gnarred. Her full set of crimson, razor-pointed teeth made Rav's bite look delicate. Of the two, Ely didn't know which might prevail in a fight.
“The keys are gone,” Dr. Faidra growled. “And you will never find them.”
In a howling blur, Rav knocked Ely from his feet and seized the doctor by the throat, slamming her into the stone wall hard enough to rattle the rusted shackles.
“Where are they?” he hissed.
“Everyone who knew the answer to that is dead,” the doctor gasped.
Rav released a pained bellow. Ely regained his feet and drew the stake from his belt. He pressed the point to the vampire's back, aimed for his heart. Rav went rigid, and Ely felt the shimmer of fear rush through him almost as if the terror were his own.
“Release her,” Ely commanded.
“She's not worth your loyalty,” the vampire murmured.
“Don't make me kill you, Rav.”
Rav remained intent upon the doctor for a moment. Then he loosened his grip. Ely waited for Dr. F to stalk across the room, clawed hand clutching her throat. Then he took a step back, stake still poised.
Rav turned to glare at him. The disappointment in his eyes struck hard as a physical blow. The vampire left them, a hurricane tearing up the stairs.
Ely turned to the doctor. “Are you alright?” he asked.
“Fine, warm blood,” she croaked. “Are you?”
Ely nodded. His speeding pulse betrayed the lie at least to himself. He set the stake back in the sword loop. His hands felt shaky.
“What was he talking about, Dr. F? What are the keys?”
“To open the Hollow,” Dr. Faidra rasped. “That is where Ariel Marcellus is imprisoned. We designed it together. Myself, my colleagues in Applied Magics, and the Cosmologists. The keys to the Hollow are not lumps of metal that you carry in your pocket. They are mechanical devices.”
“Where are they?” Ely asked.
The undead doctor eyed him, a shadow in her septic eyes.
“You really think I'm going to betray you?” Ely asked.
Dr. Faidra glared at the tools on her work bench. Finally, she said, “We hid the keys. No one knew where each device was to go except the scholar who carried it.”
“Which one did you carry?” Ely pressed.
“Leave me, Elyssandro. I need to clean up this mess.”
Ely wanted to insist further, but he knew better than to push his luck tonight. Confusion set in as he made the journey back to the east wing. She had lied to him about the Curse. Lied to him because she did not trust him with the truth. Not through any fault of his own. No. She saw in him echoes of another. All these years, he considered Dr. Faidra to be his mentor. His family. Was she simply keeping an enemy close?
He was not surprised in the least to find Rav waiting for him as he walked through the common room doors.
“What hold does that creature have on you?” the vampire demanded, naked fury in his eyes.
Ely's fingers made a reflexive circle around the stake at his waist. Rav caught his wrist, trapping his hand in place. He could break bones with hardly more than a twitch. This was a cosmos of power harnessed into the likeness of a man.
“She saved me,” Ely grimaced. “I escaped into Death's Vale when I was ten years old. They would have executed me for witchcraft.”
“Why?” Rav frowned.
“I brought my mother back from the dead,” Ely said, voice toneless, nearly inaudible.
Rav relaxed his frozen grip, taken aback. They moved a few paces apart, the silent truce rippling between them.
Ely continued, “I could not go back to Saint Lucio, and I would not have survived another night in Death's Vale. Dr. Faidra took me in. She taught me to turn to the stars for sustenance. She healed my wounds when I found misfortune. I owe her everything.”
“Have you ever asked yourself why she did it?” Rav questioned.
The vampire winced. His neck contorted as though he found himself suddenly uncomfortable in his waxen skin. Thin, sweltering lines like glowing fissures etched themselves along his cheekbones, sputtering and searing. Rav grunted in pain.
“She changed the wards,” Ely realized aloud.
Intricate spellwork protected the University from unwanted intruders. Rav had been able to enter only because Dr. Faidra had thought vampires extinct. Now, it seemed, she had corrected her mistaken assumptions.
“You should go while you still can," Ely said.
The vampire fled through the window. Ely heaved a sigh and sank into the window seat. Rav would not be back without an invitation. He wished the notion were a relief, but the betrayal in the vampire’s oceanic eyes gnawed at him. Perhaps it was simply death magic clouding his judgment. Still, the sick feeling persisted long after the dizzying presence had faded. What was he to do?
It was the doctor’s voice that provided clarity this time. “You are forever asking questions.”
“Perhaps you’re right, Dr. F,” he murmured.
So first inquiry, then. Where might one find the Hollow?
Well this is awesome! Well done.
A time and place I find interesting but like a lot of places, nice to visit but living there would be something else.