The Breakthrough

A lotus that could store sunlight, planted in a garden belonging to a vampire. A lotus that can kill a vampire if consumed. Could such a flower be the key to unlock our salvation? Aiyana, looked sceptical.

“If that’s all it took, my father would have figured it out.” Aiyana calmly responded. “The only thing that happens when a vampire eats a glass lotus is sickness. If they keep trying they die, nothing else.”

“That’s just it though, Aiyana. Your family has always had this garden, for the strict purpose of research. These lotus do not exist further down the mountain, I checked the entire thing on my way up when we first met. The only place they grow, is in your garden… does that not sound a little strange to you?”

She furrowed her brow, “he liked them… that’s why he planted them.” She explained.

I continued, “Aiyana, I’ve read every single entry your father wrote down, you and I know he wasn’t the type to do things without a reason.” It seemed my words were getting through. “He sent his men on a 6 month long trip to a different country, a crew of vampires that quite easily could have died on their way there. All for a lotus he thought looked nice?”

I could see her try to make sense of it. “But…” she stuttered. “As I said they’re useless. Even if my father knew of some secret use for them, wouldn’t he have said something? Why wouldn’t he have tried to make a serum?”

“Maybe he did, maybe he was planning on making a cure but got caught up with something more pressing…” I suggested.

Aiyana caught on “The attack? You think my father was making a cure to save us from the Weiss army?”

“Aiyana… your father spoke with you just before he died. You said that he told you that you would take his place. But, it felt like there was more to it than you led on.” My words made her twitch. For the time I had known the vampiric princess I had come to learn how to read her. The little flickers in her eyes, when she held her left arm by the elbow with the other, almost like she wanted to cower away from the conversation. She wasn't good at lying, she wasn’t good at keeping secrets. “Aiyana” I called, she shuddered and looked away. But I was tired of it, and placed my hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Everything we have right now, will be gone. I can’t say when, but it will happen and you don’t need me to explain why.”

Emotion got the best of me and I could feel my eyes well up. “I’m going to fight for us. I’m going to fight every second that I can. The secret to our survival lies with you. So no matter how small or insignificant it may be, his words will lead to our victory. Please…”

“Let me save you.”

*-*-*

“Lilith had three sons. Daemon, Regis and Lazarus. Each formed their own brood: Gallan in Alden, Heartsbane in Phaxi, and Nightshade here in Regalia. Lazarus Nightshade was the one that penned the deal with the Weiss family all those years ago, and he was the one that built this manor in the mountain… He was my grandfather.”

Words that Zaharia had told Aiyana, that she in turn was telling me.

“My father told me that Lazarus was a terrifying man. He wasn’t followed, he was worshipped. When he created this manor, it was built on the backs of his servants and those that he enslaved. But, he was also wickedly intelligent. Being the youngest of the three sons, he held more respect for knowledge than a strong arm.” She explained.

“Is that all that your father told you?” I asked.

“No.” She sharply responded. “Lazarus had his slaves create hidden rooms for his two sons. The one in my room belonged to his youngest son, and then eventually, my father and me.”

“What about the other room?” I pressed her for more information.

She replied after a slight pause, “Where else would it be?” She asked, “in the master bedroom.”

“…and? What’s in there?”

She looked worried to even mention it but she steeled herself. “Aster, when I was young I used to fantasise about what was behind the door. I once tried going in but my father pulled me away before I could open the door.”

She continued, looking more and more uncomfortable. “I’d never seen him so panicked. Soon after he told me that Lazarus Nightshade had sealed away something in there, something that each leader of the brood would protect until it was once again needed.’

I wasn’t sure what she meant, “needed?” I asked. “Aiyana, what’s in there?” I was feeling impatient now, she was beating around the bush knowing we didn’t have time to waste. She paused again. “I don’t know.”

The revelation didn’t do much to help my aggravation but she continued nonetheless. “Father didn’t let me go in and he didn’t mention it. Even after they died, if I got too close to it I started to feel… fear. All I know is what father told me, before he died.”

I readied myself for the final key to our salvation. “Blood is what binds us, and frees us.”

The sentence played over and over in my head. Even when I thought I’d heard it enough to be able to say it word for word it played again. I needed to find the meaning. Zaharia was sentimental, sure. Blood that binds, it made me think of family. Blood freeing us, maybe future generations find a cure? Maybe it was his way of saying he lived for his daughter…

No. It wouldn’t be that. At least I didn’t want to believe it was. But even then, I couldn’t figure out the message between the lines. It seemed that Aiyana was able to see what I couldn’t.

Suddenly, she rushed into the bedroom and to the back of the room. She caught me completely off guard and by the time I had caught up to her, she was staring at an ornate mirror on the wall.

It was a part of the manor I hadn’t really paid any attention to before, being that it was basically Aiyana’s living quarters. I thought that I had solved every mystery of the estate in the time I had lived there, yet seeing such an item left me completely stunned. We both looked into the reflection, but the reflection did not look back at us, all we saw was the room itself.

“This is it.” Aiyana said quietly. My head snapped over, this was the secret? “A mirror?” I said, though it was pretty much my brain trying to work its way through its confused state.

“Lilith’s father first realised what she had become once he saw no reflection in the mirror. He noted after becoming a victim of hers, that vampires do not see their reflection in a mirror because they do not see it as a mirror. To them… it’s a door.” Aiyana added.

She slowly placed her hand against the glass. As she did it began to sink in, and the mirror warped around her hand, almost like water. Soon enough it cracked down the centre. She looked at me again, this time to prepare me. I nodded, and she slowly pushed the plate open.

The room was pitch black. For a room that not a soul had stepped foot in for over hundreds of years, it was surprisingly clean. No dust or cobwebs gathered, I would assume now that the reason was that not even spiders dared spin their threads so close to it. The walls were engraved with dark images of unspeakable horrors.

Unlike Aiyana’s hiding spot, this was more like a hidden chamber. It revealed a short hallway and stairs. Once down, we were in a circled room. Just our presence powered dormant, dark magics, lighting the braziers around the room with a sickly green flame.

In the centre of the room, plunged deep into a stone pillar, was an elegant sword with a sort of batwing-esque cross bar, and a red jewel at its hilt. It reflected in the green flame, dancing in the light. The sword was the only item that called the room home.

“Is that it?” I asked. “A sword? Not some note or secret formula?”

Aiyana examined the blade closely. The edge was still sharp but it had spots of rust and decay here and there. It was especially rusted at the bottom where it connects with the stone. She grabbed ahold of the guard and pulled, hoping to dislodge it from its stony stand. She put her all into it, yet it didn’t even budge. Even when she called me over to try, it moved ever so slightly then completely stopped and no amount of effort would make it move. While I was trying, Aiyana was searching around the small room to try and find something else. There were markings on the walls, but it was letters she didn’t recognise.

After we both tried once more, and once together, to pull out the sword, we gave up. Both of us sat at the steps catching our breath.

“It doesn’t make any sense.” I said in between inhales. “Why would he send us here if there was nothing to find?”

“I don’t know.” Aiyana responded quietly.

“Blood is what binds us, and frees us…”

She approached the sword, without saying a word. “You aren’t pulling it out.” I called, but she didn’t take any notice.

Suddenly she took one of her nails and scraped it across her upper arm, quick as a flash. Blood oozed out of the wound and she quickly placed her hand over it. “What the hell was that for?! You hit your head or something?”

But she shushed me. Slowly, she placed her blood covered palm on the sword, flat on its face. The jewel began to glow, as did Aiyana’s eyes. “Aiyana?” I called. She winced and I jumped back to my feet worrying something had gone wrong but she stopped me. “It’s alright.”

“Father said blood binds us, he meant family. It’s in my blood, Lilith’s blood. The writing…”

I took a look at the symbols, but they were still the same, still unreadable. “I can see them.” She announced.

“Queen’s blood. Liberator’s sword. Saviour’s vial.”

“Vial? I get the blood and the sword… what the hell is the vial?” I asked.

Aiyana’s eyes widened as she realised what the words represented. “It’s the gem! It’s not a jewel, it’s the vial.”

She read further

“Aster… it’s her’s…”

“Her’s?”

“Inside the vial, is the blood of the Original Sin… it’s a vial of Lilith’s blood.”