The damsel at the top of the tower

How does the story go? A lamenting maiden princess, trapped at the highest spire of a tower, gazing out the loophole, where a mighty beast guards her, waiting for a valiant knight to defeat the monster and take her away on a white horse to a distant land, where they lived happily ever after. Only here...

This was no maiden, but a brilliant alchemist, a fallen heir to a kingdom, choked by seven diseases, a red fog and a drought, in which only thorns survived. Thorns, as big as pine trees, winding and twisting around the kingdom with jagged, barbed spikes, which turned the once lush kingdom into a prison. 

The beast, which guarded her tower lived in her father's castle. 

And the valiant knight? 

Screams echoed from the pits of the tower and a deep rumble made the foundations vibrate. Not a moment later, a monster with blazing eyes, fangs as ghastly as a bat's and claws as big as a bear's, burst through the chained door of her prison. It threw the corpse of one of her guards, perhaps the last fool standing and thinking he stood a chance against such a force of nature. 

"Princess Rana?" The beast spoke with a human voice, surprised, like he did not expect to see her of all people here in this wasteland. The predatory demeanor shifted. The fangs receded back. The embers in his crimson eyes died down to a soft burgundy glow and the bear claws retracted, leaving him indistinguishable from human. "What are you doing here?" A human, as meek as a kitten. 

Princess Rana scowled. The gust of wind he brought with himself blew the brown parchments and aged book pages. "Why, I'm enjoying the view." She huffed in a sarcastic tone, turning around to glare at him with hands on her hips. "Isn't it obvious?" The man unnerved her with his uncanny appearance. White hair deceived her of his age. He looked no older than her, but how could he have hair, the color of an old man's? Paper white skin, so transparent and pale, the blue veins protruded vibrantly from his arms and neck. So tempting, she couldn't tear her eyes away from them. The way they pulsed, making her imagine sinking her teeth into them to drink the precious flow of life. She heard the rapid beat of his heart. The iron smell of his blood drove her crazy. Raging, energetic, but... undead.

"To me, it looks obvious you work for Vrag." The man retorted. "You're undead."

"Don't mistake my content for allegiance." The scoff she released was bitter, disbelieving. She threw her hands up in surrender. "Do you have any idea what happened that day or were you not born yet to even hear the story?!"

"I..." He shifted in discomfort, tearing his eyes away from her awkwardly. "Where I come from, people don't bother with stories... It's enough we have to survive the seven plagues and the drought. A princess wasn't on the agenda..."

"So, that's what has changed for these years?" Rana turned back around to lean her hands on her desk. The only consolation, keeping her from going mad between these four walls. "Even stories can't take people's minds to happier places."

"All I know is that Vrag called upon the seven plagues and the Lamia, which drank the water from every river."

"And killed my family." She finished instead of him.

"Not only yours, princess."

"So, one beautiful Sunday afternoon, when the sun was supposed to shine down on green pastures, it blacked out and when you ran back to ask your parents why, you found them murdered, your brother - gone without a trace and a monster on the throne your father used to sit on?"

"What?"

"When I saw that thing, staring at me with those small, beady eyes and wrinkled skin, surrounded by seven women, I knew my own days were counted. I looked at the black sun again... only to realize the disc that obscured it from me was the Lamia, which drained the Vrana river before my eyes. In one fell swoop, all the water disappeared without a trace." Rana paused. The memory made her shiver. "I looked at the sun and thought... This is the last time I see it. And it's true. Because Vrag gave me a choice. Either renounce my family and accept him as father, die or become a plaything for the seven plagues."

"I see you're still alive, then. So I know what you chose."

"And what would you have chosen?!" She snapped. "Die a heroic death? That's just the ramblings of a mad man. What's the point of dying like that for no reason?"

"To preserve your dignity, at the very least."

"While you're busy trying to die like a fool for the sake of nonsense, I have spent my time scheming and researching ways to take him down and regain my birthright."

The man looked taken aback by the bold claim. 

"I suppose... You must not be on friendly terms with the dark lord, if you're locked up in here."

"Like a dog, yes. He guards me like the apples of his eyes." Her sneer sent shivers down his spine. "Remember, for as long as you live, there is always a way to win."

"And what did you come up with?"

"First, I need to see if I can trust you. Beyond the ridge, where the Cerna mountain makes the Basin of Tears, there's a tree that grows a golden apple once every decade. Bring it to me before Lamia sniffs it out and I will help you defeat Vrag."

"Is this golden apple going to help us?"

"In a way. It will ease my mind that you aren't a hopeless fool, thinking like a brave idiot." Her mocking smirk made his eye twitch. 

"Would a hopeless fool survive this long in this world?"

"No, but you aren't the brave knight I was expecting to see. As a matter of fact, I don't even know your name."

"Krav."

"Krav..."