"Welcome to Aveyond, young dhampir."
Cer'iq's eyes were met by a blinding bright light that gradually gave way to reveal his surroundings. He was standing in the middle of a grassy field, a nearby stream stemming from a nearby waterfall. He was in Aveyond, a place where everything was good and filled with light. His parents had told him about this place many times, and how it was the safest place in the world. He should have felt relieved... at peace, even, but he didn't... He just felt cold and empty.
There was a group of people surrounding him, all looking at him with deep sorrow. Standing directly in front of him was a wrinkled old woman who looked as though she had lived for a very long time. On one side of her was Aunt Mel with Uma and Nox. They gave him a weak smile as his eyes passed over them. On the other side was Aunt Stella and her two children. He only briefly glanced their way, not daring to look directly at his former friends.
"I am sorry that we must always meet again under troubling circumstances," the oracle said with a sad smile. "Alas, that seems to be the way of the world. There always seems to be some power-hungry mage trying to take over."
Cer'iq wondered what she meant by meeting again. As far as he knew, he had never met the old lady, and yet she seemed to know him as if he had. He quickly cast it from his mind, unable to make sense of it.
"Speaking of power-hungry mages, I think it's time we welcome that husband of yours."
The oracle turned to Mel, who nodded in response.
"You're right, it's time to let the cat out of the bag."
Reaching out a hand into the portal, retracted it a moment later to find it linked with that of a man. Gasps echoed around him as the dark-haired mage stepped through into view, his blood red cloak billowing around him.
"Gyendal!?" Stella exclaimed, pushing both of her children behind her and using her own body as a shield. "What is he doing here?"
Mel was silent at first as she just stared into his blood red eyes. It was almost as if she was searching for something within them. Whatever it was, she must have found it, as she let out a sigh and turned back to face her winged friend.
"There is no Lars Tenobor VIII. It was Gyendal all along. We knew that you would freak out if you knew the truth, and so he created a disguise much like he did with Spook."
Stella looked as though she was ready to faint at any given moment, her face was pale and her body frozen in shock. Her children seemed just as shocked as well as afraid. They had surely grown up hearing awful stories about him. Their previous argument was proof of that.
"You mean to say… that you've been married to Gyendal all along… And that he's Uma and Nox's father?"
Mel nodded.
As the adults launched into a rather heated discussion, a couple of priestesses came to escort the children to the lodging and away from the bickering.
There weren't many priestesses in Aveyond at the moment, as most of them had gone off on an annual pilgrimage to Mysten Far, leaving many beds unoccupied. Cer'iq didn't feel too comfortable with sleeping in the same room as so many humans and promptly claimed the bed in the very furthest corner of the lodge. He didn't trust himself enough to get any closer, even though he longed for nothing more than a comforting hug and a shoulder to cry on.
"If there is anything we can do to make your stay here more comfortable, you need only ask," said a fair-haired priestess before leaving them to their devices.
Removing his cloak, he began to struggle with the huge sword strapped to his back, which incidentally had been hurting him quite a lot. It seemed to weigh a ton on his back and he found himself wondering how his father had ever managed to wear it for any extended amount of time. Though, he supposed that it wouldn't have been too hard for him. Not only was his father a vampire, but he was a former knight whose strength and prowess in battle were legendary.
He had always looked up to his father as a sort of role model. He looked up to his Uncle Gyendal too, but in a different way. Uncle Gyendal was someone whose abilities he felt he could live up to. His father was someone whose abilities he could only dream of matching. As much as he wanted to make his father proud, he feared he would never be able to. It was just the way fate had made him out to be. He was a mage, not a warrior.
"Do you need some help?"
The sound of a voice so close to him caused him to jump. There, standing no more than a couple feet away, was the crown prince of Thais and his old friend, Michael Pendragon.
"W-What?" Cer'iq stammered.
"With that sword strapped to your back," Michael clarified. "I can help if you want."
Cer'iq was at a loss for how to respond to that. On one hand, he really could use a hand, but on the other hand, he wasn't sure if it was safe for Michael to be around him. He didn't even know why the boy was offering after what he had done to him.
After a while of thinking it over, he turned to face the prince and allowed him to help. Michael's experienced hands made short work on unfastening the belt that held the sword up. He felt an ounce of relief to have the weight lifted from him.
"That's a nice sword you got there," Michael commented as he handed it back to him.
Cer'iq carefully reached out and took it from him. "It was my father's; one of many that he collected from his travels with Rhen Pendragon."
This information seemed to surprise the young prince.
There was a period of silence after that, in which neither knew what else to say. Wrapping the sword in his cloak, he tucked in underneath his bed for safe keeping. Reaching up, he could still feel the pendant still laying against his chest. It brought him a bit of comfort, as if a part of his parents' souls were still encased inside. He was sure they weren't as it appeared to be empty, but still.
"Look, I'm sorry for what I said," Michael broke the silence. "I didn't mean all those nasty things I called you… I was just angry and frightened."
Estelle soon joined in. "You seem so human that we forget at times that you are actually half vampire."
To say that he was surprised was an understatement. They were apologizing to him. He honestly didn't see any reason for them to do so. After all, it was him who was at fault. He was the one who needed to apologize.
"I'm so sorry for what I did to you. If our parents hadn't got there when they did… I don't know if I would have been able to stop… There's no use denying it. I would have drained you dry. My vampire side threatens to overtake me at times and I'm not strong enough to fight it on my own. You were right. I am a monster."
"No, you're not!" Estelle exclaimed as she reached out and threw her arms around him. He tried to wriggle out or push her away, but her hold was too tight. "You're our friend and we're going to help you. We have to stick together, especially now that our parents…"
She trailed off.
Reality came crashing back down on all of them at that moment. Consumed by grief over his own parents, Cer'iq had forgotten that Michael and Estelle had lost their father as well. If anything, their father was probably in more danger than his parents. Unlike the King of Thais, his parents were immortal and couldn't die, or at least not very easily.
"What do you know about the mage that attacked them? What was her name again? Lydia?"
Michael nodded. "Our parents told us a bit about her. She once tricked our father into marrying her to seize control of the throne. It took him years to rally enough allies to take her down, but he managed to do so with help from Aunt Mel. They sent her off as a slave to the Orc Empire."
The Orc Empire? He had heard stories of that place from his father. Orcs were a brutish race who looked down upon humans. They treated their captives like dirt beneath their feet. According to his father, there was only one Orc that he had ever met whom he hadn't been tempted to kill and that was their friend, Ulf.
"If she was sent there as a slave, then how did she escape?"
The siblings shrugged. "Nobody really knows, though the adults seem to think it has something to do with the other mage that was with her."
Whatever had happened, Cer'iq knew one thing for sure…
Somehow… Someday… He would find his parents and make the two mages pay for ever taking them away from him… In the meantime, he would bide his time and train hard in preparation so that when that day came, he would be ready to face them.
Meanwhile back in Thais, Edward was just starting to come to.
With a groan, he hoisted himself up, his body feeling oddly stiff and sore. What had happened to make him so sore? It felt almost as though he was recovering from a hangover, and yet he couldn't recall drinking at all. In fact, he couldn't recall much at all. When he tried to remember what had happened, his mind just became blurry.
Then he looked around. He was in his bedroom in the castle. It was strange, but he got the feeling that he ought to be somewhere else… as if he was forgetting something… something important... yet he couldn't figure out what it was.
"Oh good, you're finally awake."
That's when he saw her. Sitting on the edge of the bed beside him, dressed in her favorite black and gold ball gown, was none other than Lydia.
At first he was confused as to why she was in his bedroom in the castle, but then everything came rushing back to him.
The wedding mix-up…
Stella…
Lydia...
The mere memory of it caused him to groan. He had always dreaded getting married, mostly because he knew his parents were planning to marry him off to some foreign princess, namely Princess Belf of the Orc Empire. Then, he met Stella and he started to regain a bit of hope for his future. He was genuinely excited and happy to be marrying the love of his life ... Sadly, it was not to be as Lydia decided to intervene and trick him into marrying her instead.
"What happened?" he asked. "Why do I feel so sore?"
Lydia raised a thin green brow. "You don't remember? The city was attacked by monsters. You were injured in the process of expelling them."
That sure got his attention.
"What!?"
Leaping from his bed, he rushed to the window to have a look. Sure enough, the whole city, or at least what he could see of it, had been attacked. Buildings had been destroyed, blood had been spilled, the city walls had collapsed, and yet he could remember nothing of the battle that had clearly taken place. The only explanation he could think of was that he must have hit his head somehow and lost his memory of it.
"Is it over? Are the people alright? Where are my parents?"
"Yes, it's over. We won the battle, and those who survived are safe. However... your parents didn't make it. The chancellor is making arrangements for our coronation as we speak."
Edward felt the blood drain from his face as a hollowness took up residence inside of his chest. His parents were gone...
He didn't know exactly how to feel. Obviously he was sad. Even if he had never had that close of a relationship with them, they were still his parents and he loved them. Yet, he was also angry at them. They had departed from this earth, leaving him alone with no one but this vile woman he had the displeasure of calling his wife. He didn't even have his friends to comfort him. From what he could recall, Mel had left the city to go off and do whatever it was she was doing. Stella had left for Moo Hatchery to try and heal her broken heart. Ulf wanted nothing to do with Lydia. He didn't even know where the orc was.
"Don't worry, Edward, you've still got me," Lydia said with an all too pleased smirk. "I'll always be here to help you."
Somehow he didn't find that even the slightest bit reassuring.
Picking up a vial of pinkish liquid from the bedside table, she got up and crossed over to where he was standing, holding it out to him.
"The healers left this for you. They said it would help you recover from the lingering effects of the battle."
He took it from her without question, desperate for a reprieve from the pain he felt both physically and emotionally. Pulling the cork free, he lifted the vial to his lips, briefly noting that it had a bit of a floral scent to it, before leaning his head back and swallowing it down in one big gulp.
Not long after that, he began to feel a soothing sensation wash over him. Every ounce of anger and sadness he had previously felt melted away and in its place bubbled an unexplainable feeling of happiness and something else... When he looked at the green haired mage in front of him, he didn't feel any disgust for her. In fact, he found her... beautiful... He wondered how he had noticed it before, but Lydia was actually one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, perhaps even the most beautiful woman ever.
"Have I ever told you that you look like a goddess?" he asked as he gazed dreamily into her emerald green eyes.
She giggled as she leaned in closer and ran her hands over his bare chest. "Well, I'm not exactly a goddess but I will be a queen soon."
There was a part of him that was screaming at the top of his lungs for him to get away from her... that he couldn't betray Stella... but the other part of him told him to stay... stay and let himself succumb to the beauty of his soon to be queen. Unable to fight it for much longer, he gave in and reached out to wrap his arms around her waist, pulling her close and kissing her.
"Yes... My queen."