I leap at the monster’s exposed back, ready to thrust the enchanted stake into his heart. It won’t kill him, not instantly, but it will give me a chance to escape, and when I’m gone, I can do something to get away from this city before he can follow. Even if it means that my people are left with nothing but the clothes on their backs, it is a better fate than what awaits them should they stay here.
Syr is in an even worse position if I’m made to tell Aldramodore about her.
“Stop,” the monster commands lightly, with only a slight touch of irritation swirling in his voice. My grip on the stake is still firm, but I cannot press it forwards. I stumble, failing to catch myself, and Adlramodore reaches out for me instead. He takes me by the shoulders to steady me before I fall.
“Now, it would be a terrible thing if I were to totally strip you of your autonomy, would it not?” He asks, one hand drifting to my head as if to pat me like some hound. He hesitates long enough to think better of it, staring down at me with his plain eyes. Human eyes, and a human expression.
“Do not force my hand in this, or I will do what I must to keep you safe,” he says. “I will not have my children running wild, it is bad enough for my reputation that my worthless grandchildren are so poorly kept. A waste, all of them.”
He pulls back my hood and the cloth that covers my face. My skin, frozen solid is exposed before him, as he takes in the sight of me. He only smiles warmly before pressing on, leaving his back to me once again.
“You may keep that stick of yours if it makes you feel better,” he says, and my feet follow in his step before I can even give a thought to my revised murder plans. “It makes you feel as if you have a modicum of control, so I understand why you would cling to it.
“Still,” he pauses, glancing back at me and chuckling. “I don’t know how a child of mine ever thought that she could deceive me with such cheap tricks as this. Such rags might distract from the eyes of mortals but to us… surely you saw through it as well? I don’t know why you ever thought that it would be different for me.”
I bite my lip.
“I wasn’t thinking,” the words are out of my mouth before I can consider them more properly, they are as cold as my frozen throat. “I saw a chance to kill you. To have you gone from this world so that I wouldn’t have to fear you. So that you won’t be able to take anything from me again… I have failed, haven’t I?”
I feel cold.
The fear and the rage are gone. All the strange feelings that confused me the moment I came upon him in this castle, are all erased and replaced with this terrible cold. As if nothing matters anymore. Glancing down at the wooden stake in my hand, I realize that he hasn’t given me any orders aside from following him.
I could make another attempt at his life, but I would fail again.
“You can hardly hope to reap the rewards if you don’t put any effort into it,” he says. “Why didn’t you simply use your vampiric magics?”
We do not climb back up the stairs, and instead, head deeper into the darkness that he has claimed as his own corner of this citadel. This walled garden.
There is still something that I can do if I do not want to be used against Syr and the others. There’s something I can do to make sure that I remain free, even if I cannot be here.
Aldramodore can bring his children back from the dead, and even should I burn myself down to ashes, he will get from me what he wishes unless I can free myself completely from this cage. Yet, that is exactly what I was hoping to do for Pharisa.
The divine magic that I so briefly touched upon, it is something that I can use to destroy myself. I must simply find it again. I will delay Aldramodore until I can recover the divine magic, then I will thrust this stake through my heart, and I will use that magic to pull myself free from the ashes that fall.
It is a sensible plan.
I have a chance of making it work.
I just… I don’t want to die.
I want to go back to my estate, back to Therina and Henry. I want to help Piper and her people escape this city and find a home in a new village somewhere safe, and I want to help the families of my servants.
I want to see Syr again, and I want to see what we could build together. I know that what I feel for her can be described as the fancies of a child, I hardly even know the girl, but I want to see what we could make of it. I want to know if this passion cannot be made into something that lasts and lives for decades, or even centuries in our case.
I want a future.
But I can’t escape him.
My hearing is fine-tuned to the point that should he shout, he could demand me to return to his side from even miles away. Perhaps if I could destroy my ears, but there is no trick that I can pull to distract him long enough that I can even try for an escape, and I will not have faith in his mercy.
“There’s no need to wear an expression like that,” Aldramodore says, opening a stone door to a quiet room, far from his other children. He waves me to a seat, threading his magic through me and withdrawing his command to follow him.
“I’d rather stand,” I say, barely keeping myself from turning and fleeing.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“If you’re more comfortable there,” he says, nodding to himself and taking a seat at his desk. “I don’t want to hurt you. I know that you won’t understand, but I see you as my own child and I just want to help you grow to your full potential. So please, think of me as you would your own father.”
My father was a kind man. I will never be able to forget his warm smile or the way he’d find time for me even when he was busy with his noble work. My late mother, from what I remember of her, loved me dearly, and she’d never let harm come to me, and my stepmother would always smother me with her love.
I would often lose myself to bouts of depression when my mother first died but my stepmother never let it last. She helped me to get past it so that I could separate my grief from the warm memories.
Yet, my loving family still hurt many people.
Piper and the norkit he kept as slaves for his silly political games, which seem the more insane with what I know now. The commoners that were suffering in the streets while he failed to uphold his duties.
Aldramodore turns his gaze to me, not rushing me at all. He has all the image of a father trying to connect with his daughter, so much so that I can’t even associate him with the monster that killed me. The red-eyed monster wasn’t anything so warm, but he is still the same monster.
Is this what Belle had trouble understanding about me, after seeing me in the hunt?
Is that what the red-eyed monster is? Another facet of this man before me?
I blink slowly, letting the realization sink into my spinning mind.
Perhaps there is no such thing as monsters.
Aldramodore is a person, but there are parts of him that are monstrously cruel, just the same as my father.
Just the same as me.
The royal family and the king, are all happy and kind to one another in this castle, but they are cruel to those outside. The nobles are mostly kind to their families but cruel to the commoners and foreigners. The commoners… I think their cruel desires for nobles might not count as anything the same, but perhaps they are monsters to someone else? The livestock, perhaps?
“There are things that I need to ask you,” Adlramodore says, and I snap to attention.
I’m out of time.
“First!” I shout, reaching inside of myself and looking for the same faith that I had when trying to save Pharisa. I must find it and destroy myself before Aldramodore can make me hurt those that I must keep safe.
“First, there are things that I must know,” I speak over Aldramodore, and he lets me. He’s impatient, but he wants to give me a good impression of him, and I can use that to gain time.
The man sighs, nodding his head and waving for me to continue.
“I… I don’t understand this place. The king, the royal family, none of it makes sense.” I’m reaching for the divine magic again, and I’m not alone in reaching. Faint whispers echo in the far distance, but I can’t hear what she’s saying. It’s the same voice that I heard before, the goddess that was trying to help Pharisa through me.
Please, help me.
I shout for her in my mind, but while our fingertips graze past one another, we can’t quite reach each other.
“Ah, I suppose that would seem confusing,” Aldramodore nods, taking a moment to think and earning me a little more time.
“You are aware that elves survive for longer than almost all other races?” he asks. “We are an exception, as the undead we are effectively immortal, but that’s beside the point. The elves are longer lived than most other species, and they have a greater affinity for magic, too.
“To keep the summary short, it’s because their people have lived in æther wells for so many generations. They’ve eaten food grown in rich æther, they were born in rich æther, and they have breathed it for almost every moment of their lives. So much so that even those born today still carry that strength with them when they’ve not lived like that for generations.
“So, I’ve been helping the royal family to improve their race in the same way as the elves. I’ve tried countless other means to speed the process, but the hybrid races, half-elves in particular, are born infertile and I’ve never found a cure for it. Thus, I’m using a longer method.”
“Why?” I ask, frowning at him. “What does it matter to you?”
“They’re my family,” he replies with a soft, almost proud smile. “When I was human, I fell in love and had many children. I’ve been protecting them since, even if some generations get it in their silly little heads to kill me for it.”
“Your family…?” I ask, “What about my family? What about what you did to me? Do we not matter at all?”
Aldramodore remains silent for a time, letting me stew here trying to find the means to destroy myself. He stares past me, without even a hint of regret or sympathy in his dull eyes. He simply doesn’t care, whatever answer he finds, that’s the truth of it.
He didn’t care about me until the moment I rose from the dead.
“There is only so much we can do, and only so many people that we can afford to care about,” he says, shaking his head. “If we were to open the gates to everyone, then there wouldn’t be enough food to help them all grow into superior beings. It’s better to leave them to their own.
“I only get involved when they start to cause us problems. For instance, your father was pushing for another war with that tribe of northerners, and while they wouldn’t likely threaten us, they’ve proven that they can be enough of a bother that it’s best to keep the peace.”
“That’s why you killed me?” I ask, clutching my fists closed and glaring at the man. As he sits now, he is just that; a man. Not a monster, not a villain, just a man willing to do cruel things for his own goals.
“Yes,” he nods confidently, and unashamedly. “In time you will understand, but for now we have business to get to. You will answer all my questions honestly and to the best of your ability.”
I stiffen as his magic flows into me, corrupting me and stealing from me everything that I am. I reach for the goddess and her magic. It would be better to die than to become the same as that cruel villain.
It would be better to die here than to be corrupted further. Better to let myself die.
Burning faith rises in my chest, and I do not wait for Aldramodore to stop me. I plunge the enchanted stake into my chest before he can say anything, but-
My hands stop short.
“You will survive,” Syr’s words ring in my ears, as her orders grip my hands as if she were here with me, her words forcing me to live though it is better that I should die.
I struggle against her orders, but already it’s too late.
Aldramodore pulls the stake out of my hands, his eyes open wide as he throws it away, far beyond my reach. He’s angry at me.
I’ve failed, even at this…
“Excuse me!” A familiar voice calls from the stone door.
Lysis.
“I’m busy, whatever you want, come back later,” Adlramodore growls.
“It’s important,” Lysis replies. “Either let me in or I’m going to be standing out here pounding on your door until you unlock it.”
“How did even he get past the last door, little bastard just breaks everything doesn’t he?” Adlramodore grumbles, letting me fall to the ground as he steps aside and gets the door.
The stone slab slides away, and before anyone can even say a word, flames burst bright and vicious through Aldramodore’s flesh. He burns in pure white flames as Lysis steps into the room holding a sword in the vampire’s chest.
“Run!” The royal brat shouts at me, stepping inside and pushing the monster back.
Aldramodore roars, slapping Lysis hard and sending him flying into a wall. The young man’s skull cracks hard against the stone wall, and small bits of his brain are scattered from the impact.
He’s dead.
He died to save me.
I force my feet under me, and I run.