The Last Chevalier of the Songstress
Set after the events of Towards the Future
III. a time we can never return to
"There was a time when Chiropterans and humans co-existed peacefully—We were two twin empires, living side by side. The humans would donate blood to us, enough for our sustenance, and in return, we had one duty towards them. We tended to the sick and the wounded, those near death. You know, Saya, that if a Queen transfers her blood to a human through her mouth, the human becomes a Chevalier. But, also, if a human were to drink a Queen's blood, without it mingling with her saliva, their healing abilities would increase for a short span of time. We were their medical staff, their elixir to life, as they were ours. It was a symbiotic relationship; both parties gained from this system."
"The Queens of the Chiropterans were brought up to understand and respect the humans, and to control the bloodlust in Chiropteran nature, by the Queen Mothers in the generation before. And in order to—"
"A…Queen…Mother?" Saya asked. The Lady smiled briefly, and continued in her clear, fountain-sweet voice.
"The Queen Mothers are the previous generation of Queens, raising the young Queens. As you know, in every Chiropteran pregnancy, a pair of twins is born. To control our population size, only one of the twins would be allowed to have children. She was designated Mére. Also, the only one who could make Chevaliers was her twin, designated Créateur. When the next generation of Queens had been born, both of these roles were given to the newborns, and the older Queens were then known, collectively, as Queen Mothers."
"I see."
"As I was saying, in order to fully understand my story, you need to know of one of our traditions—that of the appointment of the First Chevalier. At the start of the first cycle of hibernation, the young Queens would pick six humans each to be made to Chevaliers by the Créateur. At the end of their fifth cycle of hibernation, the young Queens would each pick one of their respective Chevaliers to be their First Chevalier, an equivalent of the human husband. Eventually, when the Mére conceived, the Queen Mothers would leave their progeny, and with their own First Chevaliers and Chevaliers, they would go away to the Chiropteran birthplace, and take the waters of eternal sleep."
The perfect façade of composure cracked. "As was I, your mother… was of the 43rd generation of Queens born..."
Saya remained impressively unruffled, "Which makes you my aunt."
"…yes." The woman closed her eyes in pain, "And all that happened was my fault." Her slight shoulders folded towards herself, and Nathan— Nathaniel Miller—turned to her , concerned.
"M'lady…"
"I'm fine, Nathaniel." The woman lifted her head up proudly, and Saya was impressed by the amount of determination she saw in those eyes. "I must be strong." She took in a shaking breath.
"It was the day that our Queen Mothers and their entourage left. We had appointed our First Chevaliers about a year ago; my sister was pregnant and helpless to defend herself, but I was the one that was curled up in my room, crying inconsolably for my Queen Mothers, with my Chevaliers comforting me. If only I had not been wrapped up in my own misery, I might have saved Regina. You see, my sister's Chevaliers had been very deeply upset with her."
"My sister started an affair with a human man at the end of her fourth cycle of hibernation, and fell in love with him. Against our Queen Mothers' advice, I agreed to make him a Chevalier. While Queens usually pick the First Chevalier based on their loyalty and affection through the five cycles they had served her, she had picked this newcomer instead. They all saw him as an upstart, and were half-mad with rage and jealousy. But they had not dared to move when our Queen Mothers and their Chevaliers were present. But once the entourage left, her Chevaliers struck."
"Driven by mad rage, they killed her First Chevalier. He probably tried to defend her, but they were too strong. One on six and the experience of centuries— if I had been with my sister, or if I had gone out together with my Chevaliers, I could have stopped them easily. But—when I heard the fighting, and the screaming, I was too afraid to go out, coward that I was. I sent my Chevaliers off, one by one, to check what happened."
Her eyes were suddenly bitterly angry with herself, "I sent them to their deaths. Finally, only Nathaniel was left, and he refused to leave me alone, knowing something was amiss. He bolted the door shut, but the six of them broke into my room, blood-splattered and madness in their eyes. They told me they wanted to kill my sister and asked for some of my blood. I was terrified, and I refused, but Nathaniel told them they could have some, if they allowed us to escape unscathed—and if they killed themselves afterwards. They agreed, and I fainted at some point as they approached me."
Kai was glaring at Nathaniel Miller now, "You bastard, you enabled them to kill a pregnant woman?"
The Chevalier looked at him with equanimity, "You tried to kill Diva, and she was pregnant too."
Kai snapped, "That was different. We were trying to protect people from—"
"And I was trying to protect my Queen."
Hagi's arm tightened around Saya's waist, and his eyes narrowed with an indefinable emotion. Saya gripped his free arm reassuringly and smiled up at him. Nathaniel Miller continued,
"Besides, there are ways to kill a Chiropteran without antagonistic blood, slower and more painful ways. They had strayed from their Lady, and they were uncontrollable. If I agreed to trade them my Queen's blood, Lady Regina would die quickly and painlessly, but my Queen would survive. If I fought them, I would lose, and both Queens would die, slowly. Either way, Lady Regina was doomed. All I could do was ensure my Queen would survive. Any of you would have done the same."
"Still—!" Kai exclaimed.
"I understand your anger," the Lady said, smiling sadly, "Perhaps more than you do. When I finally came to, we were far from the only place I knew, and Nathaniel was carrying me in his arms. I blamed him for saving me. I said…unforgivable things, cruel things. I told him that he was a monster, that he was unfit to be a First Chevalier; that I should never have chosen him. He just bowed his head and said nothing. I thought he didn't care, and finally, I struck him across his cheek and told him that I never wanted to see him again. Then I ran from him. He chased me, but I escaped. I managed to make it seem as if I had gone to the cave of eternal sleep, and taken of the waters."
"I watched as Nathaniel came in, and saw the fake traces of death I had laid. I watched, hidden, as he collapsed onto his knees in grief. The part of me who loved him would have gone out to him then— but at that time, there was also part of me who hated him, and it was a much larger part—so I stayed hidden. If I had gone out then—perhaps all this wouldn't have happened—but—I didn't. When he finally left, his eyes had changed, and I was afraid to go after him. So I knelt in the cave, asking my Queen Mothers, who had gone forever, for guidance. They were silent. I knelt there in despair for two, or three hibernation cycles, praying and thinking and agonising over what to do, what had been done. They were still silent."
"And then, one day in 1830, I heard a voice. It was singing in my head, a beautiful, soul-searing voice from very far away. The song… it was haunting, despairing, violent and yet delicate all at the same time. The Chiropteran blood in me resonated with that song. I longed to fully transform, to run, to fight, and to rip blood from my enemies' throat."
"Diva." Saya said woodenly. Hagi, sensing her distress, pulled her a little tighter to himself.
"Yes, it was Diva, the first time she came to maturity. Her song was…. so powerful, and so sorrowful. I realised for the first time that my sister's children had not died. I realised the Queens I should have raised with Regina were alive, that if I hadn't ran from Nathaniel, perhaps we would have been raising them together. I wanted to see him again. I wanted to see both you, Saya, and Diva. I broke into a hospital, took some sustenance and then transformed and flew towards the song, flew for thousands of leagues, tracking down the singer."
"Finally, I found the Zoo. The next few weeks I spent gathering information about the children I shoukd have raised—Saya… and the nameless ghost or girl in the tower with the voice of an angel. When I realised what those dammed scientists were doing, I was ready to attack them and to get both of you out of there. I had the perfect opportunity, but when I could have attacked Amshel and Joel Goldsmidth, just as I was about to strike, I saw … Nathaniel. I saw a Nathaniel as I had never seen him before, hateful and spiteful and petty and cruel."
The woman stopped speaking now; her lips tightened, her pretty face compressed into a frown. Nathaniel Miller turned his head from her, looking pained and ashamed.
"Bianca, I have told you before, I am not proud of what I was… or what I have done. I was there only because I wanted to see what they would do to Lady Regina's children…To tell the truth, I hated both you and them at that point in time. I blamed you for dying and them for causing your death, because I didn't want to blame myself. And if you had attacked at that time, I don't know if I'd have fought for or against you. I—" The woman stopped his lips with a delicate hand.
"I know, Nathaniel." There was forgiveness, regret, apology and a thousand words unspoken in those three words. "Well, when I saw Nathaniel, I knew that whatever he became… was partially my fault…and I couldn't face it. I fled again, doing nothing to divert the course of history, isolating myself from everything."
"I thought everything would be fine. No—I wanted everything to be fine. So I shut my ears and closed my eyes, and refused to acknowledge that anything could go wrong. When news of the disaster at the Zoo reached me, I told myself that the children had died, Nathaniel was lost to me, that all I could do was to suffer centuries in penance. And later, when uncontrollable Chiropteran copies surfaced all over the world, I convinced myself that it wasn't my problem; that Nathaniel would do something to stop Diva, since he was with her, even when all the evidence said otherwise…"
"And then you turned up to fight, Saya, you and Red Shield, I breathed a sigh of relief, and told myself I made the right choice. But… I realised, somewhere along the line, in ignoring what I needed to do, I placed the burden which should have been the remaining Queen Mother's, mine, on your shoulders instead, Saya."
The Lady lowered her head, and then made a full, formal bow, "I-- I'm so sorry, Saya."
Saya shook her head, "It wasn't your fault."
The Lady looked up, tears trickling down her cheek, eyes wide with relief, "Then, you—forgive me?"
"There is nothing to forgive. You were afraid, and you ran away. If I blame you for that, then I should blame myself for my adopted father's death." Saya looked round at her family, before continuing, "I ran too. I ran from the truth, I ran from Kai and Rick, and from Red Shield. I ran from myself, and—" She leaned back against the tall cellist, looked up into his veiled eyes, "—even Hagi. Both of us were scared, and so we both ran."
"But you stopped to fight in the end."
Saya held on tightly to Hagi's encircling arm. "Only because I couldn't run faster than all of them— I couldn't outrun the two brothers who never stopped believing in me, nor my father's memory, who trusted me to follow my heart, no matter what happened. I couldn't outrun the Chevalier always by my side, who loved me, no matter what I did, despite everything. And so, because of their love, I had to stop running. And because I stopped, I found that even when the odds were overwhelming, when I faced what I needed to do, with my friends and family around me, I could overcome."
"You—" The Lady said, her eyes widened. Then she smiled too, with a touch of sadness, "You are very like Regina."
to be continued
Disclaimer: Blood, its concept and characters are the intellectual property of Production IG and Aniplex. This piece of fiction was written for non-commercial enjoyment.
