Year 2: The Gathering Fires - Chapter 1

Following Fenrir’s rescue of Charledd, the war dramatically entered into a new phase.

Where once there had been monthly skirmishes along the borders, now they were almost every other day as the Free People’s Alliance sent scouting parties and assault teams at the Demon Emperor’s lines.

Most of the time the battles, no matter how bloody or fierce, ended in draws. Sometimes, the Free People’s would win and others the Demon Emperor’s forces would triumph, but neither side made significant gains.

The biggest battles had taken place when the Summoned Heroes had gone to train at the border forts, and no battles since had compared in their size.

In the west, tales and reports had reached every man, woman and child’s ears about the heroic actions of the otherworlders, of the enemies they defeated and the power they wielded. For the first time in a long time, the people truly felt that there was hope of defeating the Demon Emperor once and for all.

Before, it had been blind faith; now, they had evidence to support those beliefs.

In the east, the mood was less pleasant.

More than three months had passed since the Summoned Heroes had arrived in Aangapea, yet still the Demon Emperor continued to reign supreme. If anything, his rule seemed more certain than ever before.

There were less rebels, less lawbreakers, less attacks on convoys and patrols, and even less people willing to take a stand against him. In the south-east, where the Holy Empire of Themis had once reigned, everyone had accepted the Demon Emperor as their new lord and master.

Their desire to take up arms had largely been lost with Count Barthlow’s failed liberation, and they had started to accept that the Demon Emperor could never be bested.

Some, of course, did still have the drive to stand against him, but most didn’t have the courage to do so.

It was more beneficial for them to either sell information to the Demon Emperor or remain neutral. It was well known that the Demon Emperor gave lavish gifts and rewards to those loyal to him, or those willing to give him what he wanted. If, however, you simply submitted to his rule and followed his laws, life was relatively unchanged for most, aside from the monthly tributes they had to provide.

For Penny, the young maid who had sold Raeanne’s location to the Demon Emperor, her heart was heavy, her conscience heavier, and she was now living in a house in the capital with her little brother. They had been moved against their will to the capital as a reward, though her brother was too young to fully understand what had happened.

However.

Penny scrubbed the graffiti off her home’s walls again, the red paint that called her a traitor.

With a small sigh, she soaked her sponge into the hot, soapy water and then erased the last letter for the second time that week. Of course, those responsible had been caught, tried and then tortured before being hanged in the city centre, but it didn’t stop the others from looking at her with disgust.

She wasn’t even your princess, Penny cursed in her mind, refusing to let her depressing feelings surface onto her face. You’d have all done the same in my position, I know you would’ve.

Thirteen years of age with no parents, and a brother nearly eight years younger than her, Penny hadn’t joined Princess Raeanne’s rebellion out of choice, but rather desperation. She desperately needed money and the princess’s former supporters, Baron Tyrea, paid better than most.

It had all been just a bad coincidence that Penny had been in the nearby town when the Dread Knights came to make their declaration.

Had they not put fear into her heart, then Baron Tyrea and Princess Raeanne’s followers might still be alive.

The past can’t be undone. Penny took her bucket back inside, dropping the remaining water into the sink, before washing her reddened hands. I didn’t make the wrong choice; I know I didn’t.

***

“Good morning, Lady Theodora.”

“Good morning, Lord Ruthven.”

The vampire lord greeted the second princess as she sat at his breakfast table that was covered in fine meats, fresh fruits and vegetables and two glass jugs, one filled with water and the other with cow’s blood.

Tucked away inside the Beast Woods was the secret home of the Vampire Court, Castle Bathory. They had not had any outside visitors for hundreds of years, not since Saint Themis’s failed attempt to exterminate the vampires from her country, but they had had more than a few since the Demon Emperor’s arrival in Aangapea.

The first was, of course, his majesty and his retainers; then, the rest of the generals and high-ranking officials within the Demon Empire had been brought to introduce themselves, and finally there was their most recent addition.

Second Princess Theodora Gaius of the Holy Empire of Themis.

On the day the Demon Empire rose, she and her brothers, Julius and Hector, had been taken hostage while Aeila and Augustus managed to escape to the west. Theodora had learnt from Lord Ruthven that her sister had been taken to the Dread Keep though, like always, Theodora wasn’t permitted to leave Castle Bathory.

“You are someone the Demon Emperor personally entrusted to me, Theodora. I cannot betray his trust by indulging you in your eccentric desires,” Lord Ruthven said every time.

“Is it truly eccentric to care for one’s family, vampire?” Is what Theodora wished to say back, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Lord Ruthven treated her well, as did the staff of the castle, but that didn’t mean they would continue to do so if she stood up to them.

“How was your midnight stroll around the gardens?”

Theodora smiled prettily. “It was just as wonderful as you said it’d be, my lord. Castle Bathory continues to impress me the longer I remain here.”

Lord Ruthven grinned, knowing just how sarcastic her words really were. “Did you know that your sister’s planning a coup d'état at the Dread Keep?”

“What?!”

“Oh right, of course you wouldn’t know, being hundreds of miles from her. I received troubling news from my daughter yesterday that Aeila is willing to risk everything just for a chance of removing the Demon Emperor’s head.” Lord Ruthven chuckled. “Of course, that’s impossible.”

“How do you know?!” Theodora slammed her fist onto the table. “How do you know it can’t be-? Wait, how do you know Aeila’s going to-?”

“Because we know everything that goes on in this empire,” Lord Ruthven said chillingly. “We have spies and informants everywhere, reporting back to us everything that they see and telling us about all potential threats long before they sprout. Your sister, of course, has no idea we know all of this and is eagerly planning away, with the help of Dame Chelsea.”

“If you know, then why are you allowing her to go ahead with this? Why tell me?”

“Well, I told you because I knew you wouldn’t be able to do anything and his majesty is letting her in order to gather up all the rebels inside the keep and kill them all at once.” Lord Ruthven’s smile widened, leaving just enough space between his lips for his fangs to emerge. “It’s much more efficient and effective to do it that way.”

Expecting Theodora to lose heart, Lord Ruthven started to laugh quietly to himself, before ordering a nearby butler to pour him a half a pint of blood from the jug. As the vampire lord slowly sipped on his drink, he studied Theodora for her reaction.

Anger.

Depression.

Frustration.

Sadness.

Tears, lots and lots of crying.

All of those he’d expected, but Theodora didn’t show even a single one of them. Instead, she collected herself, took a few, deep breaths and started gathering food onto her plate. Then, she began to eat normally, even politely asking the servant behind her to pour her some water.

“Interesting.”

“Am I?”

Lord Ruthven chuckled. “I’ve seen many people in my lifetime, Theodora, and I know how they react to bad news. At first, you were angry about how I’ve treated you, what I told you about your sister and you seemed to be in disbelief over my claims that the Demon Emperor couldn’t be stopped. Yet, you remain silent and don’t speak a word back to me, even knowing what fate awaits your sister.”

“If whining and complaining solved the world’s issues, then we wouldn’t have needed heroes from another world to save us,” Theodora replied. “I’m honestly at the point where I’ve got no choice but to accept everything that’s thrown at me, or else I’ll be crushed beneath it and die.

“Also.” She picked up a bread roll and a knife. “No matter who wins this war, my fate’s probably going to be the same either way.”

“Go on.”

“Well, if you guys win, I’ll probably be allowed to leave Castle Bathory with an armed escort just in case. If you guys lose, then I get my life back. Not all of it, but some of it.”

“…A very rational way of looking at things.”

“I have no choice but to look at things that way. If I had a choice, I’d rather be with Aeila playing make-believe unicorns on our horses.” Theodora giggled a little. “We used to tie these clay horns we made to their foreheads when we rode them, and they always fell off two seconds later.”

“A good sister then?”

“The best anyone could ask for.” Theodora smiled proudly. “I know you said she doesn’t have a chance, but I’m glad she’s at least trying, unlike me.” Then, Theodora met Lord Ruthven’s gaze. “Unlike you.”

Lord Ruthven’s grin didn’t fade.

He put down his glass and relaxed into his chair.

“If you’re attempting to get under my skin by claiming that I’m a coward, then it won’t work,” he said. “How much do you know about the War of Unification, Theodora?”

“Just what my tutor taught me when I was five or six.”

“So, you know that Saint Themis led a great expedition to the Beast Woods to wipe out the vampires, but only she came back alive, bloody and covered in cuts?”

“…I do.”

“I’m the one who did that to her. You see, that day, Themis really did fight the Vampire Court and she really did nearly wipe us out. I almost lost my life fighting her and she almost lost hers; so, we struck a deal. The exact specifics don’t matter too much, but I made the great Saint Themis tell the world she’d wiped us out when she hadn’t.

“I made her an offer she couldn’t refuse and she took it without much hesitation. Before that, I’d fought members of Dante’s orders, I’d fought against dragons and whole armies. Yet I didn’t even try to put up a fight when I sensed the Demon Emperor arrive in Aangapea. Instead, I spent my time looking for him, to contact him, to pledge myself to him.”

Lord Ruthven lent forward and chuckled. “I know when I’m beaten and I know when I’m outmatched.”