Dispatch about the general's cowardice spread like wildfire, and it was an antagonistic decision from his side. The commander and his battalions were smarter than the general's concise whims as they attacked his abode, but unfortunately, the general successfully fled.
Night after night, day after day, Aysgarth army paraded the villages under Heathmoor, moving from Lackermoon to Serpentine, then to Danduncity, to the capital of Aetherwatch. Presently, they aided the town of Roselake - a town occupied by torrents of rivers.
For a place as meritorious as Roselake, the town was notable for its slavery management and was ruled by predatory vampires.
Unlike Aetherwatch, the town of Roselake had millions of inhabitants.
Most were the ancestries, and few were either travelers or Lords seeking lands. One thing Roselake deferred from the rest was the lack of conformity amongst the vampires. They towed and preyed on people for max power. Roselake predominantly consisted of pirates and fishermen.
Concluding to the upcoming war in the town, the citizens had been preparing for such. Both males and females. The appearance of Aysgarth, the northerners' terrorizers had turned the people frightened of the loss of their homeland. As one who witnessed the damages caused to their neighboring towns, Roselake were far more prepared, regardless, they erred to pinpoint a very noteworthy information.
Who was the leader of the Aysgarth? Was he an ordinary man? A mere individual to be trampled upon? Was he?
------
"Sir, you ordered for my arrival" Osias genuflected to the ground, as he admirably esteemed the presence of the man before him. He swooped his sword to the floor and was about to touch the shoes of the man as patronage when the shoes were revoked to the back.
"Yes, I did, Osias. Rise"
Osias directly obliged. He stood by the side of the chamber, while he waited for the commander's next edict.
Malachi batted his eyes at the young man and motioned for him to move onward, not farther. He asked "How are things there? Any news yet?" though he comprehended what comes next.
Osias sadly shook his head. He smacked his lips in disappointment, and told, "But Sir, there appears to be hardship in the Manor. I heard a daughter is missing, and she vanished two years ago."
Malachi wavered. He narrowed his eyes, one side of his brows was arched, and then his lips kicked upward a little before he hummed and signed the parchment on his desk.
"I see"
"I also heard they originally vamoosed from Aetherwatch before now rooming here in Roselake. Kind of cynical, I think." Osias commented. As a very trusted person of the commander, he was disencumbered to emit his mind. Some days ago, the loyal knight had taken off to the house of Lord Sinclair as a spy. They had been endeavoring to uncover a secret about the Lord and his relation to the General. But luck was still not in their favor.
"Sir Robert, any thoughts" The commander ricocheted his sight over at the knight in a station by the entry, eyes as callous as ice and his expression, indifferent. Osias, who failed to notice the knight in the chamber was now aghast to have seen him.
"He was...."
Sir Robert cut in as he remarked, "I say we strike from behind like Sir Dante said, however on second thoughts, there will be innocent lives that'd be lost. Your decision is by far the most approachable, commander."
Osias scoffed "Innocent lives. No one is innocent in the case of treason"
"Osias!!" The commander snarled; annoyance laced by Osias' retorted words. He wasn't ignorant or arbitrary to the overwrought subjects between these two knights, and as the leader, he expected them to solve their discrepancies.
"Sorry, Arcane...I mean commander. I should get going. The lord is a bit hazardous and illogical" Osias bowed his head and soon strode out of the room, sufficiently, without lobbing hateful looks at Sir Robert, who stood permanently in his position and overlooked the childishness of the man.
"Solve your nuisance with the boy before we take off for Aysgarth tonight. We'll attack the house and get a hold of the General, wherever he may be" Malachi said.
--------
Harriet's first instinct when she kept an eye on the tangled tongue of the serpent and its sharpened teeth was to run, afraid to be bitten. The serpent sizzled, its body scale scrawny and poorly adapted to ugliness. Harriet bit the underside of her lips for the fear encroaching up to her throat. She was alarmed and incoherent with ideas on how to get released from the serpent.
Furthermore, the look the disgusting reptile gave her was frightening and inexpressive. What could be the best way to bargain with a snake?
Taking up the intrepidity to communicate, she shivered as soon as the serpent shifted its potent attention to her, about to spit out its venomous spittle. She murmured,
"Let's do this. Stay at that side of the door, and I will quietly stay here. No interference. No spurs. No discords"
Hiss!!
"Ah, help me. Take me out of here please" Harriet hollered at the knights by the door. She was bleeding in her heart, she was cognizant. The serpent was giving her headaches, and it was protruding. That man locked her up in this room with a carnivorous reptile. That monster. And she thought he was a good man rescuing her from the grasshopper, the other day.
Good, my foot!! He wanted to get her paralyzed.
Executing a new scheme, Harriet beamed at the serpent, hoping it would become swindled by her guilelessness and beauty.
Hiss!!
"Ahhhhh. Get me out of here. There's a serpent here. Please. Tell your master that I am sorry. I apologize for injuring him. Please, just get me out of here."
Hiss!!
"MOTHER!!"
--------
"Harriet. My baby"
Lord Sinclair yanked his body in alert when the woman exclaimed. He stared at the physician in the same room and thrust the man toward his wife.
"Harriet, where are you? Mother is worried sick. Come back to her. She misses you."
The physician, Mr. Grant, surveyed the bedridden woman and the transitions in her body. He commemorated the tremors in her body and her moving lips. Finally, he could draw breath of air in this room.
"My Lord, she is getting better, or let's say, she has gotten even better" He declared openly.
Lord Sinclair sighed, his eyes dropping and the eye bags illustrating apparently. Frank drew near to his wife, envisioning to be held by his beloved, nonetheless, she shoved his hand and screeched at him "You took her. Get her back, now!! Give my daughter back, you blockhead."
--------
"I am ready to atone for my mistakes. I apologize. I am still too young to die such a cruel death. It is a cruel fate I wouldn't wish for any of us. Please help me" Harriet screamed, beseeched, and lamented but her requests were unheard, or were they?
She crawled to the door and inclined against the wooden furniture, her face red and bloated. Just a moment after she lost consciousness, she fell into the arms of a man.
"Foolish child"
"Commander, she could have died" One of the knights tilled at the door, gasped for air frequently when he saw the child out and safe. Being attentive to her appeals and cries, he was nearly touched, and by probability, annihilated by the commander.
"I know" Malachi smiled. "She survived in the end, that's what matters." and rambled away.
"Eh?" The other knight was gobsmacked.
"Sir Dante cited the commander's fluctuating mood swings. It is one of them. The child must interest him, as far as I remember, he is not one to care about children. Have you seen his sister? She's like that serpent, anticipatory to bite."
"You forgot...she barks like a dog."
At the farther side of the passageway, Malachi maintained the girl in his arms and brought her into his study room. He clamped her with a tether around a chair and returned to his work.
She was going to hamper his agenda.
One is to eradicate her. Two, to toss her. Three, to peddle her off.
Whatever choice, she was still going to navigate him crazy. She was crazy.
--------
Music Recommendation: Dynasty by Miia.
A few hours after.
"Fire"
"The house is on fire."
"My lord, My lady...."
Swish!
Clank!
"They are here...the terrorizers."
Osias slit the throat of the noisy maid, skating his blade to her channel.
He ushered the way for the knights as he had gotten habituated to the mansion. Maids and servants were running here and there for their lives.
Some were captured in the fire that burnt the mansion. Sturdy footsteps and mutters sufficed the alcoves.
Meanwhile, at the back of the mansion, the relatives had sneaked behind with a carriage waiting by the side of the street. Luckily, the locale was stranded. Lord Sinclair propelled his daughter, Emine to the carriage and sat her younger brother, Joseph, on her lap. Emine was shedding tears for her father and brother, imploring them to follow, nevertheless, the man kissed her forehead and precautioned the coachman not to ever return.
The carriage out of view, Frank's eldest son, Agnar oppugned his father "Is this about Uncle Philip? Why don't you screw him out? We will all die instead. I heard the commander of the Aysgarth isn't humane. Father, please" The twenty-year-old man begged.
Frank slapped his son and shouted "You know nothing!! Get the other carriage, I'll go and get your mother."
Agnar, ticked off by the validity that his father slapped him and still cared about that whore of a woman, boomed "Mother? I have never considered that slut a woman graceful to be deemed my mother. My mother is dead, father. She died by your hands. You killed her for that woman."
"Agnar, do as told. Go."
The young man clenched his jaws and ran out of the mansion. It was already a disgrace for them to cowardly flee from a battle. They were vampires, and they could kill these pesty humans. But all his father cared about was that woman. That whore!!
Lord Sinclair steered back to the mansion. Back to his chamber to save his woman, but as soon as he got there, her body was missing from the bed. Flabbergasted, he concentrated on the mark and the connection between them. Sighting her in his vision inside the garden, he was ridden with stress but shortly soured as he sensed another with her.
--------
Inside the garden.
Marinette enveloped her arms around Dante's chest, sobbing on his shoulders and releasing her adversities and nightmares for the past two years. She had no free will to breathe, to utter her mind, and the time to elope was now. She had to locate her daughter. She must.
Peter, a quarter leaner than his weight, with the calamities emerging in the town, irresistibly comforted the woman in his bosom. After years of waiting, she acquiesced to eventually running away with him. Tonight, couldn't have been the most auspicious hour to do so.
"I failed her. She detests me. I should have been smart enough to discover her heart, Peter. Gabriel must be disappointed with me. What should I do? How can I find her? Tell me, please"
Peter racked her honey-blonde hair to his nose, as he settled to sniffing the fine scent. He missed her.
"I will find her, I promise" He made an oath.
"Mary, you slut!! Elope in my mansion..."
Marinette widened her eyes when she heard the rowdy outcry of her husband. She quickly pushed Peter to the side, and stared at the unkempt man, with his red eyes glistening with repugnance.
"Find my daughter, please, I cannot endure this anymore...Frank" She muttered meekly, her voice fading away, and her body trembling.
Frank eased his shoulders and hurried to her side to take her into his arms, but Peter had barred his view and thrown a blow at his face.
"You bastard!! You ruined her life. You took the remaining soul out of her life. You ruined her" Peter rarely got enraged, as he was one to always keep his feelings in check, but currently, his rationality was composite with the clouds. A mist of anger took root, mingling with a sticky residue of guilt and frustration. He had enough of it.
"I swore to end your life with my own hands. Your pride. Your power, didn't they crumble now? You see, the Aysgarth are here for your head. Your house is on fire, and very soon, it would be your entire family."
Frank evaporated, reappearing behind Peter, and scraped his elongated claws at Peter's neck at the back, which ushered the man teetering to the floor. Peter groaned "Again, being a coward, fighting from behind. Man up and fight without your abilities. Can you?" He stifled a throaty laugh - one that disturbed Marinette.
"Will you just end your madness!!" Marinette roared. She was lost. This was her fault from the very beginning. If she had died along with her grandparents that day, she wouldn't be in this clutter. Moreover, her beloved daughter wouldn't have been caught up also in this toxic world.
Everyone fought for power, and women cost their lives, forgetting about the ones they left behind.
"END YOUR MADNESS PLEASE. I AM DROWNING"
"Mo... Mother"
The blaze had begun leaking towards the pavilion of the garden, and the dwelling was being battered, with Butler Timothy, trying his best to fight off most of the intruders, however in the end, he met his death, successfully serving his master. While this was happening, Harriet, who had broken out from that clamped chair, sneaked into the cart taking the knights to the town. She roamed around until she detected the Butler and Peter in the garden. Then, she saw her mother, and she looked ghastly, scarcely recognizable.
"Mother, it is...I missed you."
Lord Sinclair pivoted around to the child, and back to his wife. His eyes glowered insanely. He glared at the girl, about to stride to her when his blood froze, and everything around him turned black. Peter narrowed his eyes, feeling his crux disappear too.
"Mother. No! Mother" Harriet inhaled. At where she stood, she quivered, a shiver tiptoeing down her spine, along with a bite of horror when the sharpened sword slid into her mother's chest and out of it.
"Mary!!"
"Kill all of them. No one left."
"Commander, the general has been found. It turns out, he had been hiding in this residence all along." Osias cried out, wielding a battle with the guards.
"Mother" Harriet picked her pace and ran to her mother. Tears shimmered in her eyes and blinded her.
As he slid the sword out of the woman, Sir Dante narrowed his eyes as he never thought the girl would witness such a scene. His body automatically stiffened.
Mother? The woman was her mother. She was connected to the general.
"H-Harriet...Peter, take her away."
Finding his voice, Peter crawled to the woman, ready to pick her up, but she stopped him, begging to save her daughter. Lord Sinclair, on the other hand, was shrouded in agitation. Brainlessly, he castigated the knight, that took the life of his beloved. Malachi, without delay positioned his sword between his neck, and lithe it painlessly, until the man dropped dead to the ground.
"Mother, don't leave me too. I am sorry. I am sorry I became selfish and left. I am sorry I blamed you. I am very sorry, mother. Please live. Please"
As Marinette gasped for air, the biting cold of the night filled her lungs with every breath of the ambiance. Blood surged from the corner of her mouth, staining her lips, and the white dress she was wearing. At first, the blood at her chest came thick and slow, flowing through her fingers as she clasped the ripped flesh. In the restrained darkness, the gushing blood glinted red under the rays of the stars in the sky. The woman was soaked in her blood.
Sir Dante widened his eyes, the orbs getting dilated and disorganized. His lips trembled, and Malachi noticed it. When he saw the girl, he was quite impressed by her escapades, but hearing her call the woman her mother, he shouldn't have been appalled as it was the most reasonable to have locked her up. She shouldn't have been the daughter of a whore, was she?
He got a letter personally from the king to end this woman's life. He worked for the King and couldn't question his decision.
"Sir" Osias called, and hesitantly reported the information he was dispatched "Your mother is dead" but the commander didn't respond as his eyes were fixed on the child. Suddenly, underneath the moonlight, the commander fell to the ground, and his body ceased to move. He looked lost. Panicked, his confidantes assisted him out of the garden and out of the mansion.
"Mother, please don't" Harriet saw the man that wounded her mother, and she was too heartbroken to speak. All that mattered now, was to help her mother get better instantly.
"Ah, my child, you've grown so tall and beautiful. Harriet..." Marinette coughed out a pore of blood and said "I have failed you; I am sorry. Mama has wronged you and she atones for it. Please forgive her."
Harriet nodded "I forgive you, mother. I love you so much. I love you and Father. Please live for me"
"Mary, save your breath, I am begging you" Peter pleaded in a hoarse voice. He added, "I am useless."
Marinette batted her eyes at him and forced a smile on her face "You loved me relentlessly. I told you I wasn't the woman for you. I was a disaster. Gabriel died because of my mistake" Taking her range of sight to her child, she whimpered "Harriet, dear. Live without regrets. I had a son, and if you cross part with him, please treat him as an elder sister would treat her younger sibling, would you? For mother"
"Mama, please" Harriet sobbed.
Peter held back his tears and wrapped his arms around the girl, securely. The fire was spreading, and they needed to hurry out.
"Harriet, I love you, more than you can imagine. I wished one day I'd have an equal love with your father, but I guess the day cannot come soon enough to be fulfilled."
"Mother, no. I love you so much. I love you more than anything."
Marinette's will to live began to gradually slip out of her hands, and her eyes were closed, ready to embrace the light of the heavens. She willingly accepted her fate.
She longed for freedom, and it has come to pass. She wouldn't be caged anymore and would reunite with her husband. Gabriel. She prayed her daughter would battle the world with peace.
"Mother, don't die. Please"
"Mother, answer me. Moooooother!!"
"I will not act impudently anymore, please wake up. Please" Harriet screamed, the tears rushing like a river broken from the dam. She begged Peter to wake her mother up, but the man was too heartbroken to do anything. He cried in his heart and quickly dragged Harriet as the fire reached the deck of the flowers and burned everything that existed.
"We have to run, I forbid you to look back" Peter warned.
"But mother...she is...save her, please. I cannot leave without my mother. I admit I have been selfish. Help me" Harriet was lost as after two years of return, she had to witness her mother's death. That made her an orphan.
As the two continued to flee from the garden, they realized there was no escape, except the walls.
"Harriet, get on my back and jump off the fence" Peter ordered.
"Uncle...how will you come out then?" She asked, her eyes red and sore.
"I'll find a way. Quickly get on" Peter bent down to a dog style and waited until her weight fell on him. He groaned out lowly, and lifted his body a little higher, giving her way out of the fence. Finally, she was successful in jumping out.
"Uncle, come out too" Harriet eagerly waited for his turn to exit. Peter blinked the tears about to seep out of his eyes. He smiled bitterly "You should go on and live your life. I will be with your mother. I have to comfort her."
"What?" Harriet was baffled. She cried "Mother is dead. You have to come out."
"You are still too naive, Harriet. Your mother would need a companion with her, and I want to be that person. Leave."
"Nooooo. Not you too. Please come out. Please"
"It is too late; I have succumbed to my fate. Go and avenge our deaths. My only regret is not being a great father to my son. Harriet, your mother can finally breathe. Be at peace too."
Very soon, the fire caught up with the man and he burned inside it. No sound elicited out of the town, as everyone had gone back to their houses. The war was over, and no one dared to look at the amounts of deaths that ensued.
Harriet trekked lifelessly down the cobblestones, her eyes dead of life, and a part of her soul was taken. She made an oath in her heart.
If this polluted world yields to be clean and justifiable, I'll become the world itself and make them bow to me, Harriet.
I will govern them all.
She lumbered.