A few years back.
"Greetings, fair lady… I hope that I didn't interrupt your drinking of tea?"
"Hmmm…" With her lips rising by a notch, Zeraya smiles at the prince with arrogance. "I have been waiting for you…" She cryptically adds trying to get a sense of the prince.
The 1st imperial prince possesses white hair and blue eyes. His eyes are especially remarkable which contrasts the genetic trend of having red eyes as part of the course of albinism.
"You are expecting me. This is flattering…" The prince sweetly smiles, not showing his teeth, he projects a subdued personality that seems amiable at first glance.
But Zeraya knows not to judge a book by its cover.
"Oh, I am expecting a visitor, but not a prince…" Zeraya says with bravado emulating a certain elf in her mind. "Does this prince have a name?"
The prince sits on a chair just opposite Zeraya. In response, Zeraya fills his cup with some recently brewed tea. The two shares a silent moment as they check on each other.
"Milady," Beginning with a noble salute by thumping his fist on his heart, the prince introduces himself. "I am the 1st imperial prince, heir to the crown, Anan…"
"Just Anan?"
"Yes, just Anan…"
Zeraya ponders on the prince's attitude. Clearly, he is here for something, and Zeraya can give it. She glances at the 2nd imperial princess's guard who is warily watching over their conversation. The guard seems to have no power over the prince and can only watch in silence.
"I am Zeraya Mae Zorun…." She boldly declares, raising her value as a hostage.
At first, she thinks of this as suicidal, but time and time again, she begins to realize the potential in her situation. Infighting between siblings for the sake of the imperial throne. Zeraya can make use of this.
"So, your imperial highness… How may I be of service?"
Anan's smile dies introducing a tense atmosphere around them.
"You look like someone who is selling? Tell me, 'Zorun', what do you have in store for me?"
Zeraya critically analyzes the information in front of her. The way Anan acts clues her that he is aware of far more delicate information than the 2nd imperial princess. And it seems he has come to Zeraya with a purpose.
What is this purpose?
Because Zeraya has come clean and provocatively challenged the prince since his arrival, it means that she is readily giving up her camouflage of amnesia. To Anan's eyes, this is an opportunity.
It is Zeraya's hindsight to act quite provocatively in the first place, but it doesn't mean she has no gains over her schadenfreude. Anan is currently under the illusion of being in control of the conversation, when in fact, he is not.
"Of course," Zeraya forcefully clenches the teacup that idly sits before the prince destroying it to dangerously sharp pieces, and with a big chunk from it, she threateningly presses it on his neck. "I am selling myself…" Initially, she is thinking of seduction.
But that will be too low for her if she wants to sell herself as royalty. She has to have the spunk and the audacity befitting of her lie.
The guard by the door hastily draws his sword only to find himself helpless as a trickle of blood streams from the prince's neck.
It is devolving into quite a serious situation. Zeraya feels her palm stinging, but such pain is easily ignorable already for her at this point.
While Anan is quite in a threatening situation, he doesn't seem like it as he casually comments about the architecture of the Tower of Fire. "This dome of glass on the tower's rooftop is amazing, doesn't it? It allows you to see the world outside despite being imprisoned. It is a beautiful birdcage. Moreover, there are various artificial landscaping here like dirt, grass, and even a tree that gives shade. Then you have that small stone cabin where you can rest. It is just like any outdoor."
Anan's lack of reaction is unnerving.
"Sigh… The war among siblings is really a hassle… At first, I am thinking of simply disposing of you, but I guess you have your worth…"
Zeraya frowns at Anan's hostile words. It is within her expectations, but at the back of her mind, she is beginning to have doubts. At first, she plans to simply intimidate the prince through the teacup, but now, she feels that if she lets go of the only weapon she has in her possession… she will die.
"Well, I am not expecting this… Did you not come here to strike a bargain?"
Anan grabs Zeraya's arm and forcefully presses the teacup's shard to his throat.
"I am, but not with you…"
As blood trickles more from his throat, Anan swiftly grabs the teacup's shard and throws it to the guard manning the door. The teacup's shard rotates in a straight line and accurately lands on the guard's throat.
Following this is Anan explosively dashing from where he sits and consecutively ripping the throat of the guard. Despite this, the guard seems to still have a fight in him as he retaliates by swinging his sword with eyes visibly glowing red.
"You see, Zorun, I have taken a liking to you… And it just saved you…"
Anan smiles, revealing his pearly white teeth, and the two protruding fangs from his lips.
Zeraya maintains her calm, but any second now, she will fight with everything else she has. Seeking to stall time, she engages in idle chatter. "What are you?"
"A more superior lifeform…" Anan proudly declares as he appears in front of her within a blink of an eye. He grabs the back of Zeraya's hair, exposing her neck. Opening his maws wide reveals the four incisor fans in their full picturesque view.
The fangs dig deep on Zeraya's neck draining her dry, a sense of ecstatic euphoria coursing through her veins. She feels the world turning, and her blood boiling in a very familiar rhythm.
The rusty smell of blood dripping on her lips lingers on her nose, while Anan's words echo in her ears.
"I am the new progenitor of pride, and from now on… you are my direct spawn… Be proud…"
The rest are memories.
The last she recalls are she is being carried by the prince as they casually stroll on the stairs of the Tower of Fire. The vague vestige of slaughter is still on her mind. Various 'vampires' wearing the robes of the Tower of Fire attack their coworkers and continue to set fire everywhere.
…
At the current time, current year, Zeraya is bound to a chair with thick chains wrapping around her arms and legs. In front of her is Anan brewing his own tea.
Zeraya directs a hateful glare at Anan while her eyes glow a tad red with hate and bloodlust.
"Oh, so feisty…" Anan harmlessly teases her.
"Zorun, why do I have to put you in chains when I am visiting? I proposed to you to become my bride. Be honored. Not just a concubine, but my bride."
Egotistical, and not taking no for an answer. Zeraya has become the hostage and plaything of the insane prince for a few years already. Maybe the silver lining to this is that Anan doesn't see Zeraya as a sexual toy.
Still, it is disgusting to think how he sees her as a trophy.
In an open outdoors on a lone island of nowhere, Anan enjoys his time as he boasts his achievement to Zeraya of how he repels his sister's influence from the south. Now, his sister cannot even go to the north or west of the empire, and can only cower in the east.
Anan also shares his troubles as he narrates how he receives a scolding from his father, and how he almost dies from his 'Ancestor' who suddenly reveals himself to him.
More information keeps on accumulating on Zeraya's witnesses unexpectedly.
"Hey, do you know? The elves are creating their domain in the Dark Forest. It is amazing, right? Sadly, we don't know much about them. Apparently, it is very difficult to get inside the Dark Forest."
Zeraya squirms on her chair trying to remove herself from the chains. "I really thought you are an interesting person, but you are simply distasteful."
"Oh, don't be so coy… You seduced me, right? The way you press that shard of the teacup is so arousing even the memory itself makes me hard."
Still donning the same gentlemanly smile despite the perversion that comes from his mouth, the prince peels off the layers of façade from his face and reveals his psychotic bipolar tendencies.
"In two years' time…" He adds in suspense. "The empire's hidden forces from the Land of Outlaws will complete their preparation, and swallow the elves in one good whole."
"You are funny," Zeraya comments as she forcefully bites on her tooth and spits it at Anan with force. "You are not a prince, you are just crazy."
What may appear as a harmless prince might be... a monster in disguise… Ti's it is just unsightly and princely not.