Chapter 13 – The Kings of Old
----------------------------------------
I was walking in the hallways of the palace when I heard running steps behind me.
“Fortuna! Wait!”
I passed a hand on my cheek to clean my face from the line my tear had left on it and turned to face Lucilla.
“I’m sorry I left immediately, do you need something?”
“Don’t ‘do you need something’ me, what was that?”
“What are you talking about?”
I didn’t want to talk about Servius to anyone; it would have only been painful for me. Talking about him with Lucilla was even harder as I knew this girl who said she loved me would have only been hurt by it.
“You know what I am talking about. You never reacted like that; you didn’t even look like yourself.”
“I just had something in my eye.”
(Please, don’t ask me anymore.)
“Fine...”
“Thank you.”
I turned my back to her and started walking again but she started walking behind me.
“How about I take some liquor and we drink a few cups since you don’t have to train anymore this afternoon?”
I stopped and turned to face her again.
“Well, a cup has never hurt anyone.”
“I will go take the bottle then. Wait for me in your room.” She said before running away in the opposite direction I was going.
I resumed walking and started thinking back at Servius. At all the times I visited him by entering through that window. At how almost every time I got in his home he was yelling against the walls about something that bothered him, usually it was the senate complaining about his policies. At how he smiled at me when he saw me entering, almost as if the work of his life, even Rome itself, didn’t matter when he was with me. At how he embraced me in these sleepless nights. At how sometimes he would say “let’s build you a temple” and I was unable to stop him because he thought it was the perfect gift, one that only he could give me. At how he ended up building more than twenty of these temples. At how he told me about his campaigns when he returned victorious, trying to make them seem like a nice trip, trying to hide the grief he felt for all the men he lost.
I cracked a smile as another tear fell down my face.
(I shouldn’t have chosen his name after all.)
I arrived at my room and entered, Lucilla was already there, a bottle and two cups were on the table.
“You were fast.”
“Well, I didn’t want to make you wait.”
“Thank you then.” I said while sitting on one of the chairs.
She sat in front of me and poured some liquor in the cups.
“So…are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“It was nothing, really.”
“Fortuna, your eyes are still damp.”
“It’s just some dust.”
“Fine.” She said, before drinking a bit from her cup.
I drank a bit too and we stayed like that, in silence, looking at our cups.
“Fortuna Tullius.”
I involuntarily cracked a small smile.
I looked up and saw that Lucilla was smirking.
(This bitch…)
“So…who was he?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“We’ve been sharing a bed for three months and yet you never showed to really care about me, I thought it was just a trait of yours but then you react like that to a name! How can you say you don’t want to talk about it to me?!” She said in a burst of rage that left me baffled.
A few seconds passed while she tried to calm down.
She looked down at her cup and said “please.”
I took a deep breath.
“His name was Servius, he was the king of a country I lived in.”
She looked up at me and said “you were a queen?” with a baffled expression.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“No, he had to marry another woman for political reasons but I loved him and he loved me.”
“…why are you speaking about him in past tense?”
“…he died long ago, betrayed by his own daughter and her husband and I was unable to do anything for him.”—Rage filled me as I talked, while tears started falling again from my eyes – “One of the best men who ever lived, killed by a prideful man for his own gain, just before he could see his wish fulfilled.”
Lucilla’s expression started changing into one of sorrow as I talked.
“What was his wish?” She asked me with a trembling voice.
“He wanted to give the power to rule to his people. He spent his whole life trying to make it possible, trying to make his country a better place to live in. He often said that there were only two things he loved: his country and me.”
Lucilla started crying too as I finished talking.
“Ehi, how comes you’re crying too?” I asked her between my tears, trying to joke about it.
“No, it’s nothing. I just remembered an old story.” She said, passing a hand over her eyes.
“What story?”
“It is a story from the times of Saint Armand.” She said, her lips trembled a bit as she said the name of the saint.
I thought back at the few times she talked about the saint and realized how she had never actually looked at me while doing so, even when I asked her about the city the first day I got here, she was actually looking out of the window at the city below and not at me.
“You seem to really like the stories of the saint.”
Even more tears began to form in her eyes and, in some of these tears, without her noticing, blood started appearing, as she said “yes.”
(Wait, this is weird.)
I [looked] at her for the first time.
Name: Lucilla (Raziel) Race: Human (blessed vampire) Lvl:1 (256) Job: Maid (Arcane Spy) HP: 21 (28316) MP: 5 (37249) SP: 12 (19760) STR: 3 (1011) DEF: 2 (996) AGI: 4 (1476) INT: 3 (1431) WIS: 2 (1398) Skills (Dagger mastery lvl 9) (Alchemy lvl 8) (Hand to hand combat lvl 7) (Deception lvl 8 ) (Enhanced senses lvl 8) (Poison immunity) (Disease immunity) (Stealth lvl 9) (Blood magic lvl MAX) (Ice magic lvl 8) (Shadow magic lvl 9) (Water magic lvl 5) (Mind magic lvl 4) (Arcane perception lvl 8) (Vampire’s seduction) (Thought acceleration lvl 2) (Parallel thinking lvl 3) Titles (Shadow of the Kingdom) (Guardian of the Crown) (Forgotten Lover) (Fallen Queen of the Dead)
(Wait,what?)
I froze for a moment and so did Lucilla in front of me, our faces still a mess because of all the crying.
We stared at each other for a few, long seconds.
“You just appraised me, didn’t you?”
“Yes…Raziel.”
She looked at me with a worried look and said “what are you going to do now?”
“Nothing, it would have been weird if the king had not put someone to spy on my movements after all…I have a few questions though.”
“Feel free to ask then.” She said, obviously a bit relieved.
I started [looking] at her, a bit unwilling, in case she was to tell any lie.
“Is this your true appearance?”
She kept looking at me for a few seconds in silence, then dropped her head and said a hesitant “no” as her hair turned pitch black and her skin white as snow.
“…this is.”
She looked back at me, her eyes, still damp from her tears, were now of a deep ruby red and so were her lips on which were resting the points of her canines, she also appeared to be a slightly taller than before.
“I suppose all the “I’m married” thing was a lie, right?”
“Yes…” She said, avoiding my gaze.
“Where did you actually go when you went missing for a few days?”
“I was on a mission given me by the king to stop the advance of the demons.”
“Then couldn’t you stop the demons by yourself? Why even summon me?”
“I can’t move freely outside of the capital, there are certain conditions that have to be met. I can’t explain any further about the matter…I’m sorry.” She now had a bitter look on her face which made me feel bad about asking her all these questions.
“…fine. What is a blessed vampire?”
Raziel took a deep breath, it was clear that it was difficult for her to talk about it, considering that probably she didn’t even have the need to breathe.
“I swore to protect Saint Armand and his descendants so the goddess of light then blessed me and gave me the name Raziel. Now I don’t have any of the weaknesses of vampires and holy magic heals me instead of harming me. I also have almost no need for blood.”
“You loved him, didn’t you?”
“More than anything that ever existed.” She said as tears started falling again from her eyes.
“So when you said you loved me it was a lie…” I said, quite sorrowful about the fact that the woman I was starting to feel something for probably lied to me about her feelings.
She stood up from her chair and shouted at me “No! It’s true that I can’t bring myself to love you as much as I loved him but I do have feelings for you!” while the stream of tears didn’t stop.
I was surprised and glad to know that she was telling the truth.
“What about you?” – She said with a trembling voice – “Were our nights just a pastime?”
I stood up too and got near her.
“They were at first,” – her face grimaced at my words – “but in these months I’ve found myself thinking about you more and more every day, until I ended up having feelings for you too but, like you, I can’t say to love you as I loved Servius.”
She smiled at me, I smiled back at her and kissed her, it was a salty kiss, wet by our tears.
“Also, sorry for doubting you, but I have been using my abilities to know if you were telling the truth.”
“I did feel something similar to the appraisal of before…don’t worry about it, it would have been weird if you blindly trusted me after I lied to you about who I am.” She said and hugged me.
“Thank you.” I said before kissing her again while holding her tight in my arms.
I lifted my lips from hers and she rested her head on my chest as tears kept falling from her eyes.
“You know, I’ve never talked to anyone about how much I loved Armand since he died.” She said while sobbing.
I separated myself from her and looked her in the eyes.
“Why don’t we sit down and talk a bit more about them?”
She nodded and sat on her chair.
I went back to my chair and sat too, there I saw my cup, still filled with liquor. I took it and raised it high over the table.
“To the kings we loved.”
Raziel smiled a bit, raised her cup like me and said “to the men we loved.”
We clinked our cups and drank.
We spent the rest of the day talking, drinking and crying and, when it was late in the night, we went to sleep, holding each other tight.