"The Tarpeian Rock is close to the capitol." - Latin saying about a common execution site for disgraced Roman statesmen.
Who was Lenore kidding? Of course she still thought of killing herself. The next several days in that chamber, her cage, passed in a slow, ill-defined blur.
It came to mind the nightfall after her near suicide, when she awoke to the splitting headache of a hangover. The copious wine meant to help her cope with the other day's events had caught up with her. Now she was in physical and mental pain. Holding her head, she groaned and quietly spat every blasphemous phrase she could think of, half-hoping that God would finally have enough and smite her unholy existence then and there.
It came to mind when one of Isaac's new human courtiers banged on the door and wordlessly delivered a large cup of pig's blood. For a vampire noble who knew the taste of virgin blood, this was a step down, to say the least. Lenore needed to feed, though. Choking down her meal, she thoughtfully held up the cup and wondered if breaking its stem off and driving it into her non-beating heart would count as using a stake.
The worst periods, though, were the late hours of her long, sleepless nights in the chamber, when Hector could stay up no longer. A nocturnal creature by nature, Lenore would be left alone in the dark with only her inner demons as company. To attribute her troubles entirely to revulsion to captivity would be superficial. From the day she was orphaned as a human child, to that first, horrified scream with which she greeted her forced transformation all those decades ago, the roots of Lenore's latent grief and self-loathing ran deep. For years, she found safe haven in her duties, her rising star in the vampiric world, and affirmation from fellow vampires. Many understood how hard that initial adjustment away from human identity could be. She could feel happy. But then in the blink of an eye, fate and the cruel consequences of mismanaged power snatched it all away, and then some. Lenore had nowhere to hide anymore from her pain, and like an escaped predator stalking wounded prey, it struck most savagely when she was at her most vulnerable, her loneliest.
Lenore fought back though. She stamped out every suicidal thought before it could tempt her. Sometimes, when the sun shined on the balcony and offered its sweet and simple solution to her suffering, each hour became its own battle for survival, but she somehow found it in her to endure. She needed to live. She needed to be there to find a way forward for all those like her, before humanity reached them first. As far as she knew, she might have been the last vampire of any prominence left to do something. It was her promise, her duty, even within her hellish cage.
Hector helped however he could. It hurt him a little to know that their love by itself was not enough reason for Lenore to keep living, but no matter. He sat next to her, talked to her, tried to keep her restless mind engaged, provided a shoulder to cry on when needed. He brought all his meals back from the dining area to the room she was held in. The food was meaningless to her of course, but it was one more opportunity to keep her company and just make sure she was still alive. He had even set up a cot alongside the mattress King Isaac had generously provided Lenore, since her own room had not been deemed appropriate for the purpose of holding her.
Most importantly though, Hector brought Lenore information on what was going on in the rest of the castle. He had unique access to the new monarch. Despite everything that had happened between him and King Isaac, Hector was still the only man there who Isaac knew from his past, and moreover he could provide the self-proclaimed king with valuable knowledge of the castle and kingdom. Hector then took this information back to Lenore. She heard about the men King Isaac found who claimed to have "experience" in administration and now formed his so-called court. She learned how he had issued a proclamation of amnesty to all low-level military personnel, provided they unequivocally acknowledge him as their new lord and sovereign. Most interestingly, she learned how all other vampires caught alive in the assault or deemed an immediate threat to the new regime were imprisoned in the actual lower dungeon, a location where Lenore was not.
In time, tidbits would flow in from the outside world, as well. Dynastic marriages, rumors of war, other pieces of information. The most noteworthy piece of news was that an expedition from the Holy Roman Empire had finally crushed the last enclave of Wolf-Men, one of the same clans that had attacked Styria centuries earlier. After defeating the bulk of their warriors, they burned the dens, massacred the noncombatants, and packed the survivors off to the Inquisition, where these unholy perversions of man would be studied and then dealt with in the name of God and Nature's laws.
It was all the proof Lenore needed to know what the Church would have in store for her own kind.
By day six, the shock and pain had dulled enough for Lenore to begin coherently thinking through the situation in earnest. Before she could worry about any other vampires, she had to figure out her own circumstances. Around the crack of dawn, Lenore and Hector evaluated their options in hushed voices. They still couldn't tell if the pair of night creatures outside guarding the door cared about anything they heard, but they didn't want to find out now. Trying to launch her own coup was, to put it mildly, neither feasible nor in either of their temperament. What about escape? It wouldn't be hard for Lenore to fly off as a swarm of bats come nightfall. But she'd leave Hector behind to face Isaac's wrath, and the life of a fugitive seemed even worse than that of a political hostage. What about just waiting for release and then turning to the Ottoman Empire? The journey there would be incredibly difficult, but if nothing else, she'd heard that they were more religiously tolerant than the men of the Catholic Church. Could that tolerance extend to vampirism?
Doubtful. An almost laughable thought. Furthermore, "tolerance" was, as always, relative.
Despite her best efforts, all lines of thought circled back to one man: Isaac. A man who, despite having toppled the Council of Sisters and slaying all in his path save a lucky few, still did not actively plan to hand her over to the Inquisition, was not starving her to death, and probably ruled over Europe's largest population of remaining vampires with no apparent intent on killing them en masse. To vampires elsewhere on the continent, this must have seemed an unattainable level of mercy from a human.
"I guess Isaac really is our only choice?" Lenore asked bitterly. By now it was well into the morning.
"That is certainly how it appears, my love."
Lenore sighed. "Very well then." She said nothing for several seconds, as if digesting this reality. "First thing's first."
"What?"
"Ask King Isaac if I can step outside this room or at least go back to my old quarters. Please."
"I already asked him after the first morning for your release, but he flatly declined. Do you really think he's changed his mind already?"
"I'm not asking to be released. I'm asking if I can just move about the castle. The less I seem like a prisoner than another castle resident, the better the chance I can climb out of this hole and into his circle before he does something boneheaded like let in the church… Besides," she added with a clench fist, "being stuck here is driving me mad."
"Do you have any advice on what I should say? I'm a forgemaster, not a hostage negotiator."
"Make it about more about your relationship with Isaac than me. He'll care more about you than about some vampire he's caged as trophy. If he truly viewed me as a threat, then I'd be down in the real dungeon. When I do come up, say whatever you need to say about me. I don't care."
"Got it. I'll talk with him again" He kissed Lenore on the cheek. She smiled slightly but lacked the energy to truly reciprocate. "And I apologize in advance about anything potential I may need to say behind your back." With that, he closed the door, passing by the pair of Isaac's night creatures guarding it as he descended the stairs.
It was around this time that it occurred to him that Lenore was staying up later and later in the day. He didn't think much of it, though.
Hector eventually found Isaac inspecting a reception hall within the castle. "Isaa – Your Highness?"
He turned. "Hector! What can I do for you? And thank you as well for using the correct title, by the way." God, power was already getting to his head.
"I want to ask you if you would allow Lenore to return to her old quarters and move about the castle."
"I knew you'd bring this up again," sighed Isaac with mild annoyance. "Didn't we talk about this already? Maybe later. I don't trust her."
"I'm not asking you to release her outright, Your Highness. I'm asking if she may simply change locations and have some freedom of movement."
"It's only been a week, Hector. Are the conditions not good enough for your princess? I'm treating her far better than her group certainly treated you as their prisoner."
"She's going mad. She's convinced you'll never let her out and has tried to kill herself right in front of me. I'm worried I'll lose her." Hector said, keeping the advice in mind.
Isaac rolled his eyes. "Of course. Another noble unable to handle a fraction of the punishment she once dished out."
"Your Highness, she is the reason I survived imprisonment at all, and I can assure you that she poses no threat to your rule whatsoever. We've talked. Her only concern is what happens to her fellow vampires. Please. I'll find a way to make her presence worth your while."
"You certainly are pushing this hard, my friend," said Isaac with a slightly bemused smile. "Nothing is going to happen to the vampire population here." He stared intently into Hector's eyes. "Can you absolutely promise that Lenore will not try to escape or conspire against me?"
"Yes, I can."
"And will you answer to me on her behalf if anything does happen?"
"Yes, I will."
For a moment, Isaac said nothing. "Then it's done," he finally agreed. "Lenore may return to her old quarters and walk about– under your supervision. She's still not free. We can discuss that later, much later."
Hector thanked Isaac profusely and turned to inform Lenore, but then the king called him back. "One more thing," he said. "My men found the old collar and chain you said you once had to wear." Isaac smiled. "Would you like me to bring it to you?"
"No thank you," demurred Hector politely. "I… took your advice against revenge to heart."
Hector rushed back up the stairs towards the chamber where Lenore was being held. When he opened the door, though, he found Lenore slumped forward in one of the two armchairs, eyes closed, totally limp. A book lay open on the ground not far away, as if it had fallen off her lap. Her mouth was slightly agape, just revealing her fangs. She did not react to the sound of the door opening.
Hector's heart dropped into his stomach. This couldn't be! He hadn't even been gone for that long. Did it really only take –?
He realized that she was just sleeping. An immense wave of relief swept over him. God damnit, that frightened him!
He did not understand why she was even in her chair this late into the morning in the first place. Why was a being of the night like her suddenly pushing herself, under these circumstances of all times? No matter. He went over and gently put his hand on his partner's shoulder. "Lenore?"
"Wha- Hector?" she said groggily.
He told Lenore the news. Not only could she move about, albeit with Hector chaperoning her, but she could return to her old quarters. It took a second for her sleep deprived mind to process the news, and then she leapt up and hugged him. For the first time in what felt like ages, he saw genuine happiness on her face.
They remained this way for a minute, not a word exchanged. Finally, Hector looked at his love and said something: "Seriously Lenore, go to bed. It's almost noon. We'll move you afterwards and talk more about this later."
That night, after Lenore had gotten her overdue sleep, the couple celebrated her partial freedom with a walk along one of the various castle balconies, just like the old days. The sun had just set, the last bits of orange and red in the sky rapidly giving way to dark blue and black. The light of a waning moon gradually bathed the castle in faint light, as always providing Hector just enough to see, and certainly enough for Lenore.
"Why have you been staying up so late into the day, anyway?" Hector finally asked. "It is very unlike you, of all people."
"I'm forcing myself onto a schedule that better aligns with humans," responded Lenore. "No, it's not what I want, but now that the court runs on a human schedule, I need to be up at least part of the time when everyone else is too. It's just like you shifting to a night schedule when you were with Dracula or us."
"There's a difference though. Here I am, walking with you at night. My skin doesn't die and disintegrate under the moonlight."
"I'm old enough to accept that life isn't fair. If it was, I wouldn't have lost my parents, and I'd be long dead of old age. Fate dealt me my hand of cards, and playing them the best that I can sometimes requires, well, difficult adaptations." Lenore laughed bitterly. "I have an old veil somewhere in my quarters that's thick enough for limited sun exposure. It should keep me alive long enough to find a shadow to shelter in."
"Well, whatever you're doing, seeing you in that chair scared the crap out of me."
"I'm sorry Hector." Lenore gave Hector a sheepish look. "I know you have been doing all you can to try and keep me from… doing anything bad for my health. I really do appreciate it. I know it isn't obvious, but I do want to live. I really do."
"Anything to help, my love." They kissed.
They stopped and leaned over one of the railings. For some time, they stood in silence, taking in the darkened landscape below the castle. Something else began to bother Lenore. She sighed, "I guess King Isaac has made me into your pet."
"We needn't think of it that way," responded Hector. He put his hand on Lenore's shoulder. "Wasn't he the one spouting that stuff about non-revenge?"
"It is easy to tout the virtues of forgiveness when it's convenient and involving someone you already sympathize with."
The two of them continued talking. Eventually, Hector asked, "So, what is your next step?"
"Somehow work my way into that bastard Isaac's court… keep him from folding to demands from the Church or doing some other stupid thing that kills us all."
"You probably should keep your opinions of Isaac away from him at all costs."
"Diplomacy often involves smiling at those you hate."
Man was this chapter surprisingly difficult to write. I apologize if parts feel rushed. or stilted. Or whatever.
The story underwent a bit of a renaming spree around this time. It should be settled now. Apologies for the confusion.