p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"Prologue/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanManchester, England, 1550. King Edward VI, pristine after the reign of the Tudors, began promoting the destruction of religious icons to solidify his own power. The commonfolk were still treading the outdoors warily, anticipating the next bough of plague and disease. News of famine in Italy had every local bottler and baker on cautious of his stock. But those were the seemingly mundane struggles of ordinary commonfolk. Me, my family, had a much greater burden to bear, a burden that must be endured silently. We were the only family who knew of the existence of style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanMy family had long since been in service of vampires, explicitly, the Original Vampires, the Mikaelsons, ever since anyone can remember. The story goes that one night, perhaps a century or two ago, a Forba girl fell in love with one of the Mikaelson brothers but grew increasingly jealous of the woman he loved. So, she killed her, and tried to kill the brother. But it was only then that she discovered, when she plunged the dagger deep into his chest, that he could not be killed. But, instead of killing her, to keep his secret, the brother, with the help of a witch, cast a generational bound between his family and hers, servitude eternal. Ever since then, Forba children are bound to a Mikaelson, fated to serve one of the five siblings for ten years. After such, they were free to go, under the condition they bare more children for future service to the Mikaelsons. The Forba child, once they turn of the age sixteen, will be assigned to a sibling and tend to all of their worldly affairs: estate management, servant management, daily routines of cleaning, and, when it came down to it, track covering. There were not vampires that fed on mere animal flesh, and, it really goes without saying that the Mikaelsons did not scour after their meals. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanFather used to say that serving the Original Family was not at all as bad as his family stated. "Our family made our bed, now we must lie in it," he used to say. "We must all pay our penance due." And superficially, he was not wrong. The Originals provided land in Scotland for the family to reside and proper financial means to care for themselves, and, to keep their rather convenient slaves safe, provided the smallest amount of their blood, a panacea. An imprudent benefit of serving the immortal. And, under oath, we were not to be physically harmed while tending to the Mikaelsons. But you could never be too careful around such danger. "Never draw too much attention to yourself," Father would tell me and my siblings. "Catch their eye erroneously, and you will be sure a swift end. He also reiterated, unequivocally, that we were not to associate ourselves as equals. "Never speak unless spoken to," he would tell us. "You are to take instruction without staring. It is disgracious to look a Lord or Lady in the eye. It parallelsspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanan equivalent. Which you are not."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHowever, Father did have one rule he placed superior to all the others: never refuse an Original. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanBecause if we did, it would almost guarantee certain, inevitable death. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanAnd that would be how life went for the Forba family, every child baring the name was required to serve a emminimum /emof ten years under servitude. However, if there was no one to replace you, it meant a life sentence. Refusal was not an option. Not for anyone. Especially not for me. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanManchester, England, 1550. King Edward VI, pristine after the reign of the Tudors, began promoting the destruction of religious icons to solidify his own power. The commonfolk were still treading the outdoors warily, anticipating the next bough of plague and disease. News of famine in Italy had every local bottler and baker on cautious of his stock. But those were the seemingly mundane struggles of ordinary commonfolk. Me, my family, had a much greater burden to bear, a burden that must be endured silently. We were the only family who knew of the existence of style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanMy family had long since been in service of vampires, explicitly, the Original Vampires, the Mikaelsons, ever since anyone can remember. The story goes that one night, perhaps a century or two ago, a Forba girl fell in love with one of the Mikaelson brothers but grew increasingly jealous of the woman he loved. So, she killed her, and tried to kill the brother. But it was only then that she discovered, when she plunged the dagger deep into his chest, that he could not be killed. But, instead of killing her, to keep his secret, the brother, with the help of a witch, cast a generational bound between his family and hers, servitude eternal. Ever since then, Forba children are bound to a Mikaelson, fated to serve one of the five siblings for ten years. After such, they were free to go, under the condition they bare more children for future service to the Mikaelsons. The Forba child, once they turn of the age sixteen, will be assigned to a sibling and tend to all of their worldly affairs: estate management, servant management, daily routines of cleaning, and, when it came down to it, track covering. There were not vampires that fed on mere animal flesh, and, it really goes without saying that the Mikaelsons did not scour after their meals. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanFather used to say that serving the Original Family was not at all as bad as his family stated. "Our family made our bed, now we must lie in it," he used to say. "We must all pay our penance due." And superficially, he was not wrong. The Originals provided land in Scotland for the family to reside and proper financial means to care for themselves, and, to keep their rather convenient slaves safe, provided the smallest amount of their blood, a panacea. An imprudent benefit of serving the immortal. And, under oath, we were not to be physically harmed while tending to the Mikaelsons. But you could never be too careful around such danger. "Never draw too much attention to yourself," Father would tell me and my siblings. "Catch their eye erroneously, and you will be sure a swift end. He also reiterated, unequivocally, that we were not to associate ourselves as equals. "Never speak unless spoken to," he would tell us. "You are to take instruction without staring. It is disgracious to look a Lord or Lady in the eye. It parallelsspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanan equivalent. Which you are not."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanHowever, Father did have one rule he placed superior to all the others: never refuse an Original. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanBecause if we did, it would almost guarantee certain, inevitable death. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /spanAnd that would be how life went for the Forba family, every child baring the name was required to serve a emminimum /emof ten years under servitude. However, if there was no one to replace you, it meant a life sentence. Refusal was not an option. Not for anyone. Especially not for me. /span/p