"Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything" - C.W. Lewis
Hector sat in Lenore's chamber, reading, when his partner returned. He looked up and smiled. "There you are, Lenore! You were out for so long that I had to tell Elansa just to go home for the day."
Lenore didn't respond. She did not even remove her veil, something she usually did without fail the moment she was safe from the sun. Only acknowledging Hector with a somber nod, she silently made her way towards her bed, Her crimson eyes laden with sadness.
Worried, Hector got up and followed her. "Lenore, what is wrong?" Lenore still ignored him, as if she barely heard him. When she reached the bed, she stood still for a moment, pushed back her veil, and then let herself fall face first onto the mattress as she began to quietly cry tears of blood. Hector sat down beside her and implored, "I mean it. Please, tell me."
"It's Morana… It's true… They got Morana." Lenore finally said.
"They? Who is 'they?'"
Lenore managed to look up at Hector, leaving behind a bloody stain on the pillow where she had buried her face. "I don't know. All I know is what the distance mirror showed. She was in a darkened cell. Striga is by herself, berserk." Her voice choked again. "They're going to kill her, I know it… And there is nothing I can fucking do about it."
Hector thought while Lenore stared downward. He never had any strong feelings about Morana. Lenore had painted her as some sort of sadist who would have tortured him just for her own pleasure. Now here she was, besides herself on Morana's behalf. And for everything that had happened between Hector and Lenore, he still cared for her and did not want to see her suffer.
"Do you know where they are?"
"No."
"Do you know where they are headed?"
"The Vatican? Some horrible torture chamber? I don't know!" Lenore sat up and shook her head. "Here I am, trying to help other vampires by serving the fucking man who caused all of this… and I can't even save my own sister." She paused. "Hector, how is our wine supply? I need all of it."
Memories of the tower flashed back into Hector's head. "No, Lenore. I'm not letting you go down that path again."
Lenore barely had the any room left in her for anger. "Damn you, Hector," she weakly cursed.
"You're welcome," responded Hector with a hint of exasperation. "Look. I can stay with you and talk, I can remain in silence here if you prefer that, or I can leave for a bit if that is what you need. When you are ready, there is something I want to show you."
After hesitating for a bit, Lenore quietly muttered, "Leave, Sweetie… Leave." Hector obliged, briefly putting his arm on Lenore's shoulder before moving to the study. He closed the door behind him and sat by the window. Opening it to see the stars, he sighed and thought. Perhaps for a vampire, the feeling of grief was one rarely felt. Most of those they cared about were either long dead, or shared in their quasi-immortality. Until one day, of course, they suddenly didn't. For humans, on the other hand, death was a constant companion, taking from them grandparents, parents, siblings, and finally themselves.
As for the two of them, even now, long after their painful first meeting, their relationship still had its rocky moments. As much as he wanted to forgive Lenore for putting a leash on him, walking him around like a pet, making him her slave, and as much as she would now acknowledge those actions as wrong, he could not erase the past. Perhaps a more sensible man than himself may have cast her aside long ago. Instead, he had let himself serve as her rock, the anchor that kept her in this world when it turned upside down for her. For better or worse, he still loved her. He cared for her. And somehow, it all worked in the end. If there was any vampire that could force herself to evolve, meet a human like him halfway, and provide a semblance of companionship he only previously found in pets and night creatures, it was Lenore.
Perhaps that "more sensible" man would have been mistaken in doing what would appear to others the rational choice.
After what must have been half an hour at least, Lenore came out, bleary eyed. For once, her real face was unobscured by any courtly masks.
"Look out the window, Lenore."
"What?" she asked listlessly.
"Just look at the view." Even from the frame of a small window, they could see snippet of the breathtaking landscape surrounding Styria Keep. The moon bathed the mountains in dim, gentle light. The stars lit up the sky in their full glory, unobscured by any clouds. It was like a small cutout of the full view they had once admired together, standing atop a balcony what felt like ages ago. "Do you remember how much pleasure the sights once brought you? I know this isn't the same, but look."
"No," Lenore shook her head. "Hector, why did you have to stop me from ending it all? Wouldn't it all be so much simpler if I had just –?"
"Lenore, stop it. I know you are grieving. I know I can't understand how you are feeling, how hard every waking day is for you. But I do care about you. And so did – no, does Morana."
"Morana thinks I'm dead most likely," Lenore said drearily.
"But if she knew otherwise, she wouldn't you to join her, whatever her fate may be. Nor do I. And it's more than that. Elansa too. As batty as she may be, only you can prove her wrong, save her. Every vampire in Styria is counting on you." He grasped both of Lenore's shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. "Lenore, this war is far from over. You have already won many battles. There are many more remaining, but you can do it, if we can keep at. This must be so painful, but you can make it through this."
"How do you know?" Lenore asked somberly. Her eyes briefly turned towards the window.
"I will see to it, dear." Hector thought for a moment. "And maybe, just maybe… we can find a way to save Morana. As long as you are here, there is still a slight chance… Will you do this for her?"
Lenore nodded as another tear streamed down her cheek. They embraced. "It's so hard," Lenore whimpered. Being a vampire gave her superhuman outer strength, immortality, fangs, retractable claws. It didn't give her the knowledge of coping with death, or any sort of inner strength.
"I know, Lenore." Hector patted his vampire partner on the back. "But we'll make it through this. Come on, let's go to bed. Give me one second though." He shut all the windows but then also walked over to the door and unbarred it. "In the morning, one of my night creatures is going to have a surprise for you."
Lenore looked skeptical but nodded. The two went to sleep with Hector holding Lenore. Drifting off to sleep, it occurred to him one thing he definitely did admire about Lenore: For someone who spent the majority of her unnatural life hearing about how humans were cattle, she still had that moral compass buried inside her that Carmilla appeared to have long forgotten. Something distinctly… human, and in the good sense of the word.
Morning came. Lenore opened her crimson eyes to see Hector already up, and a vial of what appeared to be blood beside her. She picked it up, removed the lid, and sniffed it.
"Virgin blood?" She asked with fleeting delight, the kind that temporarily covers deeper pain and gives it time to heal.
"I know where it's kept. It must have been a while since you've had it. Drink, dear," Hector said sweetly.
With a sad smile, Lenore drank the contents. It did not ensure Morana's safety, or solve Styria's problems. But at that moment, it tasted like the nectar of gods.
"I don't deserve you, Hector."
"I beg to differ… And either way, I wouldn't care." He leaned over and kissed her. "Now tell me a positive memory about Morana. I hear she was 2,000 years old, you have to have something."
Lenore sighed and thought. In her head, an idealized Morana appeared, one free of any character flaws. Or at least any major ones. "Before I became a queen in my own right, I worked under Morana as her subordinate. One day, after a skirmish with a neighboring wolf-man clan that led to the capture of two of Styria's counts, I was tasked with trying secure their release. To be honest, I was incredibly nervous since this clan was known for its tendency to kill unfavorable messengers. Yet when I arrived at their den, they were amiable, I secured a prisoner swap, and I returned, successful. When I got back, I learned that it was all a bet Morana made with Carmilla that the situation could be resolved without at least one more death…"
"That's a positive memory?"
Lenore continued. "And then Morana had secretly bribed the clan's chief den mother directly, out of her personal funds, all so she could prove Carmilla wrong. Carmilla never learned the truth."
Hector couldn't help but suppress laughter, which in turn brought a slight smile to Lenore's face. Somehow, it was so believable, yet so hard to imagine for. Lenore started to get up, still in her bedclothes. "I better get to work," she said as the fleeting relief dwindled in her voice. "I need to reach out to Venice."
"Lenore, give yourself a break."
"Nonsense." Lenore clenched her jaw. "Duty's the only thing keeping me alive right now." Lenore hauled herself out of bed, forgetting to change or wash up, and practically dragged herself to the study. Hector followed, just in case she was going to try anything like exposing herself to sunlight.
After several minutes of twirling her writing quill in place though, she set it down and held her forehead. "I can't," she quietly said. "I just can't."
Hector put his hand on Lenore's shoulder, the one lacking a finger due to her past actions. "Let's just wait."
"It can't wait."
"It should wait. Lenore, you have a choice. Envision a gaping wound in your chest, or a broken leg. You can keep trying to press forward, dragging the wounded limb along the ground, or you can sit down and give it the time it needs to heal. Which do you choose?"
Lenore hesitated and then sighed, "The latter."
Just then, there was a knock on the door. "I'm ready to work!" Elansa's voice rang through the door.
"Not today, Elansa. You may go."
On the other side of the door, Elansa's half coagulated blood ran cold. Did her boss not think well of her services? Was Lenore about to let her go? She nervously asked, "Did I do something wrong, Ma'am?"
"No, not at all. Your work has been impeccable, even invaluable. I really appreciate it, and you're making a difference… I just – I received some bad news, and I need some time to myself."
Elansa felt both relief and sympathy. The phrase, "making a difference," stuck in her head for some reason. "Would you like me to fetch the library's copy of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Arcane Vampiric Diseases and their Treatments? Volume II in particular calms me down on my bad days"
"Fuck, no" Lenore thought to herself, before calling out, "Hector is here to cheer me up."
Listening from outside the room, Elansa scrunched her forehead slightly, and then she turned red, or at least as red as her greyish skin allowed. Was Lenore… were she and Hector having–?
"I see… Bye then!" Elansa uncomfortably said before she bolted for the library.
Inside the chambers, the temporary calm in the storms wracking Lenore's psyche gave her rational side time to evaluate her situation.
She thought.
She took a second look at ideas she had haphazardly considered and tossed aside amid the mental haze that plagued her over the last two days.
She would find a way to at least try and save her sister. Even if it had to come to fruition while she was away.
Much like Ch5, I guess this chapter wasn't purely necessary. Bite me.