Cassandra Pendragon

Bad. It was bad. Not only were we stuck in an overcrowded prison, three kitsune kids, my brother, two elves, Erya and her family, Aurelia and a handful of dwarfs made for a fascinating mixture of tails, limbs and beards, clattering the room around the dragoness, but as much as we were cramped on the inside, it still felt like a leisurely picnic in comparison to the insanity beyond the hissing flames. To compare blood lusting vampires to animals had been a grave mistake. They were far worse. They knew no bounds, their instincts had turned them into mindless, ravenous beasts, but luckily hey had already learned that Ahri’s fires were more than they could handle.

Instead, they were beginning to prey upon each other, fighting for the tiniest sip form the humans I had brought. They were long dead, their blood drained, but in their frenzy, the vampires didn’t care. They fought and clawed, desperate to bury sharp fangs in warm flesh, ready to go through their siblings in the faintest hope of tasting a single drop of the crimson liquid. Some were even lapping at the floor, desperately shredding their tongues for a minuscule taste.

Stunned, I watched as sophisticated, mighty creatures became slaves before my eyes, the stronger ones dismembering the weak to get closer to the bodies. Hisses and growls, screeches and cries, punctuated by wet ripping noises when an arm or a leg went flying, produced a macabre symphony, exacerbated by the suffocating smell of blood, fire, sizzling meat and spilled intestines. Despite what I had already been through, it took everything I had to keep from retching, my last meal already squirming in my throat. At least the kids were still asleep, the fiery hell they had been forced through on Boseiju couldn’t compare to the nightmare framed in gore, confined to a hall that wasn’t much larger than an average room. Flames were clean, and this… this was messy.

“They’re completely lost,” I whispered reverently, my voice quivering with anxiety and, as much as it pained me to admit it, excitement. There was beauty in the pure, undiluted violence around us, societal shackles and restraints we imposed upon ourselves had shattered, had been blown away by a maelstrom of base needs and while I truly was disgusted, the scene turned my stomach, I also saw the truth: when it came down to it, this was who we all were, struggling beasts, caught between blood and violence, clinging to our masks to show the world a face we wanted to wear, to hide the deeper currents of debauchery and savagery. I had and always would strive to be more, to become whom I wanted to see in the mirror and not some vile conglomerate of need and want, but I was old enough to admit, I saw the allure, the aesthetics. To let it all go, to be truly… free. Damn it, maybe I truly deserved the look the soldiers had thrown at me. I had to be careful, I didn’t want to become a monster. But then again, nobody did, until it was too late. Abyssus abyssum invocat. Was it possible to live a life full of violence and remain apart?

I shook my head, dislodging the disturbing thought, but I could not quite get rid of the sour taste it had left behind. Luckily, I was distracted when I felt Ahri’s tails tighten around me.

“I see it as well,” she murmured, her voice barely reaching my ears. I had moved to her side again, without even realising. “There’s no shame in them, no hesitation, no… fear. But this also means there’s no courage, no grace… no worth. Don’t get blinded. You told me once that freedom without restraints isn’t real. I think they’re proving your point. When there’s nothing to struggle against, the decision is worthless. Reaching the summit is only satisfying if you had to climb the mountain.”

“How… did you read my mind?” She shrugged, and offered a pinched smile.

“No… you just seemed lost for a moment and I know what I thought while I watched them.”

“And that’s what you came up with in response? Good thing I never fell for your substantial philosophical knowledge.” I blew a kiss against her cheek.

“You know, a simple thank you would have been enough.” She pinched my side. “You’re still welcome. Now, you can tell me exactly where I’m wrong, once were out of this hell. Ideas?”

“Wait for Alassara to wake up and reign them in.” I shrugged. “If that doesn’t work, I’ll try to do it myself but judging from the escalating madness around us, I’d have to use much more power than I’m willing to. Having one demoness appear has been a wake up call. I won’t risk it again.”

“And if it’s not enough? If we can’t get them to calm down?”

“Then we’ll have to end it in another way. I… I can try to do it myself, but…”

“It’s going to be easier for me and Viyara. I heard, you never bothered severing our connection. So, they’ll either obey or burn? Is there nothing else?”

“I can’t think of anything but if you have an idea, please, do tell. We can’t let them be, can we?”

“Why not? If we seal them in and wait…”

“There’s no telling how long they’ll be like this or if they can even find a way back. The ones that have gone feral when I killed the Captain couldn’t be saved. Alassara ended them. The longer I’m watching, the more I fear that it’s going to be the same here. I hope not, but I can’t imagine there’s a way to come back from this kind of insanity…”

“There is,” Alassara’s voice, raspy and hoarse, strained to reach us over the crackling flames, sounded behind us. We whirled around, to be greeted by the sight of her struggling to her feet, her front and mouth liberally coated with blood. Layla was still feasting but her mother had already drained her victim and was getting to her feet shakily. “They aren’t completely lost, just overwhelmed and starved. I don’t know if I can break their trance, but they aren’t… when a master dies without freeing his children, they lose their mind, literally. Only their instincts remain and there is no coming back form that. For them,” she gesticulated towards the shadows behind the wall of fire, “they are merely overwhelmed, their mind flooded with thirst to a point where nothing else exists anymore. Maybe I can call them back from the brink.”

“And if you can’t,” I asked icily. That they could be saved made the looming duty of extinguishing their lives once and for all an even more bitter pill to swallow.

“Then… unless you can do what I can not, we have to put them down. Watch, they’re already starting to feed on one another… they’ll continue until only one remains, one who will truly be a mindless monster. He’ll have taken in more than their essence, he’ll have taken in their thirst, their anger, everything you see before you now, only it will be contained within one being. There’s no coming back from that and I’d rather grant them a swift end in cleansing flames than watch them descend even further into depravity. They’re still my children.” I sighed and placed my hand gently on her shoulder, her tension palpable through the thin cloth of her dress.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“I’m sorry, I almost forgot they are your family.” I squinted my eyes and looked for what she had described but I couldn’t quite see them feasting on each other. There was enough chaos that I couldn’t be sure and most of them were already injured, either from their desperate attempts to reach the humans I had sacrificed or simply from their frenzied struggle, but they didn’t seem to… but no, the longer I watched, the more I realised that some bodies on the ground hadn’t succumbed to a spark of Ahri’s flames, but had been torn to pieces by claws and fangs. The weakest ones had already been consumed, their bloodless limbs littering the floor.

“By all the gods,” I addd haltingly, my fingers digging deeper into her shoulder. Whether it was for her comfort or mine, I couldn’t say. “Is there anything we can do to help?” She shook her head.

“No… but I need Ahri to drop her magic, I can’t reach them through the flames, they are too powerful. Once the protection is gone, they’ll come for us. If I fail… if you have to choose, please keep my daughter safe, that’s all I want to ask.”

“Don’t worry,” I answered with a growl, “none of us are going to die tonight. I might not be able to help them, but we can, sure as all hells, end their miserable existence. They won’t harm Layla and they won’t harm you. Trust me.” She tried to smile but the drying coat of blood turned her face into a nightmarish mask and when her fangs blinked though her crimson lips, I shuddered inadvertently. She didn’t take offence, though, and wiped her sleeve across her mouth.

“I do. More than you know. Wish me luck, I don’t want to watch you annihilate what I’ve built.”

I pulled her in and hugged her briefly, the additional, bloody stains hardly visible under the cover of gore I had already accumulated.

“Good luck,” I whispered and Ahri echoed my words not a second later. When I pulled back, we both positioned ourselves on either side of Viyara, my mum joining us. With a thought, I slammed the remaining humans I had captured into the ground at our feet, rendering them senseless. An instant later, a silvery blue wall of pure energy swelled behind our backs, the crackling torrents of power barring the way for every vampire who wanted to sneak up on us.

Alassara nodded at Ahri and the sweltering fires vanished with the sound of ripping silk, their afterimages lasting for a moment longer. A gentle trickle of power from my core cleared my vision and when the dancing lights had receded I tensed. Faced with a frothing wave of fangs and claws that was held back only by a slender woman, her arms stretched wide as if to shelter us from the oncoming tide, I couldn’t help but reach for Ahri’s hand when the frightening flood began to surge.

Despite the vast difference in strength between us and them, I still needed her support to remain where I was, not turning tails and running away became harder by the second. The grisly sounds and gut wrenching smells reached a new climax when the fire petered out and when the first blood starved undead took a step forwards, I felt pretty much like a bear hunter, armed with a spear, waiting for the behemoth to crash into him. In theory, I was safe, but it sure as all hells didn’t feel like it and I was lacking the burning anger that had kept me going during my previous confrontation, it had evaporated with my growing doubts. I didn’t miss it, usually I had made everything worse when I had allowed my emotions to run rampage, but it had made things so much easier.

Swallowing dryly, I waited, my wings humming with suppressed anxiety behind us, until Alassara raised her head, a flickering, foreboding, red light spilling from her eyes.

“By my blood, I order you, kneel,” she thundered, her voice deep and resonating like an oncoming storm. “You are mine to command and you will heed my words. Kneel!”

Those that had already sated a part of their thirst hesitated and crumbled to the ground, tearing holes into the murderous tide, like cracks in an armour. Ripples grew from there, more and more of the vampires falling, their faces twisted while their instincts warred against themselves, the domination of their master and their hunger tearing them apart from the inside out. Some balanced on the brink, struggling to remain upright, but when Alassara hissed again: “kneel,” even more were forced to obey.

In the end, only a handful remained on their feet but their assault had devolved into a sluggish crawl, their energy spent to even remain upright. Without any hesitation, the queen of the night elegantly glided forward, her claws extended. There was no fight, no resistance, she simply walked up to them and ripped their hearts out of their chests, squashing the bloodied mass underfoot. And from one second to the next, silence returned, only broken by the low crackling of flames while they consumed the last traces of those that had touched Ahri’s transcendent fire.

“Is it over,” I whispered, my eyes glued to the back of the blood spattered woman, her shoulders shaking as if under a heavy weight.

“Over,” she echoed, her voice shaking. “No, it’s not over, it has just begun. I won’t forgive what has happened here today, but for now, the safety of my family is more important than the death of my enemies.” With a visible effort, she pried her eyes away from the lifeless forms she herself had sent into the eternal night and turned towards us, her eyes hard and cold, despite the single, bloody tear running down here cheek.

“But once they’re taken care of… I swear, as long as those who have threatened me and mine still draw breath, I won’t rest, I won’t give in. Until the very last of them dies in his own blood, I won’t forget. This means war! Whoever they are, they have challenged the…” my fur had risen during her tirade but the low, keening sound that suddenly filled the hall sent a tendril of fear racing through me and brought Alassara up short.

Quick as a thought, I whirled around, my eyes immediately snapping to Viyara who was rolling away from Layla, the small bones in her ruff breaking with audible cracks when it became entangled underneath her. Her legs had faltered and the only thing she had managed was to not squash the delicate girl under several tons of gold. The dragoness’ eyes were glazed over, her piercing gaze clouded and her tongue was hanging from the corner of her snout, the flesh discoloured and almost black. She was panting heavily but there were no sparks, no fire, and while I was watching in shock and disbelief, her eyes rolled up into her head and she became still. Even the bellows of her breathing slowed down to a barely perceivable whisper until I had to strain my sense to make out the minuscule rise of her golden sides.

“No,” I exclaimed, vanishing in sparks of silver to reappear at her head. “No, no… what have you done? Viyara! Can you hear me?” My wings and hands were moving on their own accord, caressing her face and slithering along her body. It couldn’t… by the Great Fox, what was happening to her? Fear turned into panic as the realisation set in. She was failing, her body slowly withering away, rosy flesh and sparkling scales turning dull and dark. But how? The bite marks! Without pause, I heaved her head up with my wings until I could roll her over and free her leg. There they were. Two tiny dots, not more than the faintest prick to a creature of her size, but still, I immediately knew that my hunch had been spot on.

Around the wounds, her scales were almost translucent, as if the colour had been sucked right out of them and underneath, her golden skin was showing angry, black streaks, radiating out like the spokes of a wheel. How on Gaya was that even possible? She was a dragon for fuck’s sake, one of the mightiest mortal creatures in all of creation. She was bound to an immortal, my energy contained within her! There was no way under all the suns that a vampire’s bite could do that to her. Then why, why? Why was she suffering, why was she dying?

“I think it’s us,” Ahri mumbled at my side. I stared at her, edging her to go on. “Your energy and… Sarai’s. We already know they aren’t compatible. Layla bit her, didn’t she? And there’s the smallest spark of immortal blood running through her, otherwise she couldn’t have helped Aurelia. And now… now, your own powers are purging what’s trying to encroach upon Viyara… cleansing the influence of another immortal and tearing her apart in the meantime.”

“Are you… are you sure,” I asked, my voice subdued and shaky. If she was right… damn it, why did my friends always have to suffer for what I was?