Prince Leron woke up with his sight blurry, like he had been crying before falling asleep, his eyes feeling heavy. When his sight came to focus again, he was lying in a very dark place, with an open roof where dark clouds loom above him.
He looked down and saw a chain and a metal ball connected to his foot.
"It's not really necessary, I just thought it would be fun." A familiar, wicked voice said. "Even without it, I will suck your blood dry before you can even escape."
"Vladstin...." Prince Leron looked at the Vampire Lord smirking condescendingly at him, his specular golden eyes shining with amusement. "What am I doing here?"
"Did your little brain got jumbled from our flight back here?" Vladstin crouched beside him. "Do you not remember our little confrontation last night?"
"Last night...." Prince Leron's head was muddled. "You made me choose and promised to let Ilvedia go.... So why am I here?"
"Think, my dear prince. Wouldn't the most logical answer be..." Vladstin lifted his chin up with his index finger. "That you chose me?"
Prince Leron's throat became dry. "What? That's not possible..."
"Try to remember well and see if I'm lying."
Prince Leron dug through the corners of his memory, still not believing that he would ever choose Vladstin. He was going to choose Sangfroid, he was sure of it. What went wrong? Why did he....
He recalled being dazed, and walking towards Vladstin's arms, accepting his embrace deliberately.
"No, that's not right. Why would I...." Leron shook his head, refusing to accept it. "You did something to me. You cheated!"
"I never cheat, my dear prince. I only use my skills to my advantage. Don't we all do that?" Vladstin traced the skin under his jawline. "A deal's a deal. You came to me, so I won."
"What about my people?" Prince Leron smacked his hand away. The razor-sharp nail slashed through his skin when he did so, giving a small wound. "You're killing all of these innocent lives!"
"Wasn't that also what you have done to Crescentia?" For the first time, Vladstin lost his thick-faced smile. His eyes went dead and stoic. "What about my father, who created laws to improve the lives of the common people? What about my mother, who treated the homeless and the orphaned as her own children, including you? I do not have much of my memories in detail, but I remember my impression of people, whether they were good or not. Have I forgotten their past misdeeds to justify their brutal deaths?"
Vladstin stared at him with no emotion, like he was really just asking. "Tell me, have I?"
Prince Leron bit his lip. "No....."
"Are they as innocent as the lives in your kingdom that have been lost?"
Prince Leron couldn't meet his eyes. Vladstin grabbed his face, still apathetic as a doll. "Are they?"
"They are." Prince Leron teared up, his face squished between Vladstin's fingers. "B-But aren't you even going to spare your own people? Why did you infect the Crescentians too?"
Hearing this, Vladstin's lips lifted up a little. "I'm doing them a favor by reuniting them with their fellow citizens right now."
Prince Leron was stunned by Vladstin's ironic remark. He doesn't sound sarcastic at all, it's like he truly believed that he was bringing the dead Crescentians and the survivors that moved to Ilvedia together like one big happy family reunion.
"I'm doing everyone a favor by making them die together with the people they love." Vladstin continued. "I was not given the privilege to, the feeling of dying alone is not a good feeling at all. So I am sparing them from such pain. Aren't I the best?"
Prince Leron couldn't speak anymore. He was like thrown in the eye of a storm of emotions, surging whirlwinds at all sides. He wanted to be mad at Vladstin but also could not, and all that was left was guilt and despair, sucking the life out of him.
"Now, I do not want you to feel left out. They're leaving you out of the party by keeping you cooped up in that palace with that Hunter. That's no fun at all." Vladstin stood up and walked to the steps, his black cape swishing behind him as went. Prince Leron saw him stand by a large circular hole on the wall, perfectly shaped and showing an overview of Ilvedia. But the angle and distance are not right, it looks too close from here.
Prince Leron realized that it was not a wall, but a mirror.
"The Crescentian Looking Glass..." Prince Leron's mouth was hung open. "How did you managed to make it work?"
"Is that what it was called? My memory is faulty." Prince Vladstin touched the mirror, forming black mist to coalesce around it and change the scene. "Does not matter. With a bit of my cold, dark blood, this looking glass can show me anything my heart desires. It gives me the most thrilling view of my little party."
He gave the restrained Prince Leron a lopsided smile. "I want you to see it as it happens."
The Crescentian Looking Glass is a legendary relic, an heirloom from the eldest ancestors of the royal family. Long ago, Crescentia was just a tribe until they were colonized by other kingdoms. That is only how the centralized monarchy system was introduced to them, and they adapted to the changing world in order to survive but never forgot their roots. Tribal people as they were, they have many exotic and alien traditions, and they strongly believe in magic.
Vladstin himself explained this to him, but now Prince Leron was sure he no longer remember. The Crescentian Looking Glass being a mirror to anything within the past, present and future was a myth. Their palace just holds great respect to these relics along with the Dandelion Archway and the Fountain of Truth. These things weren't supposed to work, just like alchemy.
But now myths had come to reality, and there was one smiling at him in the face.
"Looks like your Hunter joined in the fray." Vladstin said, twisting the mist and smoke with his fingers. "I wonder how long he and his Huntsmen could last."
"You have me. You can have my father and the nobles as well." Prince Leron gathered up the courage to speak with his dry mouth. "But let the innocents like the Huntsmen and the commoners live. Spare them from an early afterlife. Please."
"I don't want to." Vladstin answered without hesitation, busily watching all the chaos and bloodshed from the mirror.
Prince Leron choked. "Please.... If there is any kindness left in your heart, I am not asking you to give it to me. Just the people is enough. I beg you, do anything with me but have mercy on the people!"
"How can there be anything left in my heart..." Vladstin turned to him, unbuttoning his frilly white shirt. "When all its contents poured out when you stabbed it?'
He revealed his pale white chest, a deep scar on his sternum. He pricked it with his finger, blood spluttering. "Do you want me to take it out for you to see how empty it was?"
"No! Vladstin, stop hurting yourself!" Prince Leron protested.
"I can't get hurt anymore. How many times do I have to repeat it to you?" Vladstin laughed like he always does, and explosive laughter that booms through the walls. "I AM DEAD! YOU HAVE KILLED ME!"
Prince Leron burst into tears. "I'm sorry! I know, I'm sorry!"
He knelt on the ground, along with his head, crying and crying. But what good would apologies be? What good would his tears be? He doesn't deserve forgiveness, he doesn't deserve anything except death from this creature in front of him.
Vladstin pursed his lips and walked closer to him. He squatted beside the sobbing prince, cocking his head to the side. Leron slowly raised his head, his body shaking as he released more streams of tears. "I am sorry. Do whatever you want with me."
"What I want...." Vladstin ran his fingers through his hair, playing with his ebony locks. There was something he cannot explain when he saw Leron cry and beg, like remnants of emotion he can't quite place. With it was a flash of a lost memory, but it disappeared like a bubble again.
Vladstin waved them off, reverting back to his sinister smile.
"I want you to watch your kingdom perish as I drink your blood." He pulled Leron's hair and brought his mouth to the crying prince's neck.
And that was exactly what he did. He enjoyed it.
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