Middle Ages - Europe, 11th Century. Kranstein

The old Kranstein town is situated near the mountains of central Europe. It is an area with vast ever green forests and many lakes decorating the geography of this area. In the distance of the town beyond the high lake is the Bernhard Castle.

In a candle lit house near the center of the town we witness a scene at dusk. A man in his thirties is confronting a young woman in her early twenties. They argue with each other and suddenly the man raises his hand and beats her, with the back of his hand he hurls his anger towards her face. She immediately falls down to the ground at the doorstep of the house.

"... curse you", she muttered.

"You have always been an obedient one. You will do as I say.", says the man to her.

"It's over Richerd, I had enough of you." she says with a strained voice as she stroke with her left hand through her black hair.

"I hope they take you and lock you up in one of those machines you love so much", Richerd says.

As she raises herself from the floor, three peasants who have been watching hurried to the scene, gesturing to her, signaling her that they had come to help. Richerd gives the peasants a contrite look and then he shares a moment with the woman as they look at each other. With her slightly raised eyebrows and calm lips she gives Richerd a short, worried and sad look as she turns away from him. Together with the peasants they walk 5 minutes silently, entering one of the local taverns. The tavern's entrance is a round stone door with no windows around it. The peasants push open the gate like door with a loud noise like pushing heavy stones, a wave of fine dust blows into the direction of the travelers. As the dust settles, a dimly lit room appears, big enough to host 60 people at a time. At the back end of the room is a bartender, Gleuke. Gleuke is a woman in her 40s wearing dusty glasses and gray hair covered up in a magenta spangled net.

"Oh my dear young lady, what have they done to you? You look horrible... wait for me... I will get you something to ease the pain and something to drink for your friends", Gleuke says as she disappears for a few moments in a room to her back. "There you go." She rubs the young woman's face with a soft moist cloth. The young woman endures the treatment resolutely. Gleuke is done with it serves a cold beverage to each of the 4 travelers.

" 'Tis quite the warm night", one of the peasants said. "Aye." muttered another one. "A horrible night to catch a bruise." said the third peasant.

"Heu Heu Heu Heu... quite the company you have brought with you today, who are they?" Gleuke asks the young woman while laughing.

"I haven't had the chance to thank you all for helping me out. Know one thing, whenever I'm around it means trouble most of the time for people around me. I try my best not to make things worse all the time yet I'm a champion of failure when I should be a champion of success. " The young woman elaborates. "They came to my aid, and I shall see to it that they are rewarded accordingly."

The three peasants share a moment of tranquility as they slowly raise their heads to look at each other.

" You have come for me. You know who I am and you want to question me about my knowledge of the routines of Light, am I right? " The young woman says calmly with her eyes piercing straight through the bodies of the peasants. The room is dead quite for a moment, then a peasant raises his voice. He slams his hand on the table in excitement.

"Yes, it is true, we have come for you. We have been looking for you. We found you..." the peasant breaks into tears. The other peasants hug him. The peasant continues.

"Our land is being haunted by creatures of darkness, they lurk in every corner, they come for everyone. My home town is barely recognizable. It was once a populated, prosperous place but now people who once loved their homes and livelihoods have begun to leave. They depart in every direction, during storm and rainfall, during crippling heat and foggy days. They do everything to escape the terror haunting the realms. These peasants you see here, did the same." Again, they share a moment of tranquility with their heads lowered.

"I think we don't need to tell everything about these creatures, you must know everything about them. It saddens me to say, but by now either everyone has left my town or is dead. There is no way anyone could have survived the horrible attacks." The peasant points at the bag one of the other peasants was carrying who acts immediately and pulls out something covered in a reddish cloth, the peasant begins to unfold it. Suddenly, a disgusting stench fills the room, radiating like poison from the fleshy, sky blue object.

"On our way out of the town, we saw this. A tongue of a human, blue like the sea, it smells horribly, however, it just won't rot. We thought you might know more about it." the object is quickly covered up again and passed to the young woman who swiftly makes the object disappear in one of her pockets.

The young woman shakes her head and says. "You have a come a long way, I'm certain of it. This does not change the fact that I have realized that you are not ordinary town's people right away. I believe your story about your town and the creatures but that's not why you are here. You also know that there is not much I can do for you as the Knights are deployed and fighting at any given time and come when they are available. " Suddenly the room is engulfed with a sounding hiss as Gleuke lids a match and kindles a candle at the table next to her guests. For the first time this night the peasants have a clear view at the young woman. They see her thick black chin long hair and her full red lips and melancholic yet trustworthy eyes. She wears chestnut colored bags and black boots and a green, lightly transparent sleeveless silk top with small emerald gemstones decorating it on top of a woolen tissue. Her presence fills the room with a feeling of warmth and security. Her facial expression is relaxed and she raises her lips to a confident smile whenever she speaks. The peasants remain looking at her when finally one of them speaks up.

"You are a good observer. It is true, we have come to ask you about a device... a device powerful enough to rid us all from the terror. They call it the Artifact of Heavens." In this moment you could feel how the young woman's eyes stared right into the soul of the peasants as he continues. " It is believed to be supremely powerful, but nobody knows where it is. We have heard that... you are involved in some business which might grant you more information in obtaining it. Look, we are here to help and we will do anything to our ability to provide you with all the support you need."

The peasants look into their pockets and each of them pulls out an amulet with an emblem. The fire of one candle extinguishes as the black haired woman gazes upon the amulets in this night.

Author's Notes

* Preliminary structure of the fanfiction.

Chapter 1 - Chapter 10 : Prologue

Chapter 11 - Chapter ?: First Book

This is a prequel story to the Lords of Shadow universe. It follows the story of the early days of Carmilla etc. while introducing a whole set of new original and unique characters.

Enjoy!