LIBERA

The biting cold winds cannot affect me as much as they used to. My heart has grown cold and angry, though I sometimes still grieve very much.
It was a great loss to the brotherhood, the loss of all our greatest warriors at one moment. Only Malek remains, and he faces the terrible burden of guarding the three of the Circle who were not slain that very same day. He does not seem the same as he always was. His face has become scarce lately.
I stumble down the mountain and almost lose the path back home. Anger boils through me. I cannot believe I lost that bastard! My father would have been ashamed that I have taken so long to get my revenge.
It is several hours before I get home, and I am very weary. The guards waiting at the gate ask about the others who came with me.
They were attacked and slain by the same creature who killed my father. I barely escaped with my life.
Well, fear not, Lady Libera. You are safe here.
The guards usher me into the confines of the stronghold and close the gates to the cold world outside. Even here I do not feel safe. That blue beast managed to get in here before; what would keep him from reaching me now?
I walk towards my bedchambers, because I am very tired suddenly. So tired that I slump over in the middle of the hallway and stagger away from smashing my head on the wall.
a guard inquires. Are you all right?
I glance up at him and smile weakly. I mumble something which I cannot hear, and he steps to my side and slings me over his shoulder. Everything is black, so black.
I awaken on my bed, sitting straight up. The gentleman who brought me up to my chambers is kneeling beside me, apparently groveling.
Sir? You may take your leave now. I am quite all right.
He does not move. Perhaps he tired himself to sleep from the exercise.
I jostle his head.
His head rolls limply to one side, revealing a ghastly pair of bite marks on his firm neck.


I jump away from him. A vampire must have followed me!
I look about; all the windows are shut and locked. No vampire would have been able to come through without breaking the locks.
My door is also shut and locked. If there is a vampire here, it must have followed us all the way here. Perhaps it was that male vampire I saw just after my father's death.
I lick my lips nervously—and startle. My lips are not normally so salty. Hesitantly I wipe my mouth with my fingers and hold them out to inspect.
On my fingers, and also my lips, is the red blood of a man.
I look back at the man's neck. The bite marks are not so far apart, as if the vampire who slew him were a child. As if it were me.
But I am not sure if it is really his blood on my mouth. Gently I bend over and taste the blood on his neck, then test that on my fingers. It tastes the same.
I panic—could it be that vampires are taking over my body to get me slain by the very order I have sworn myself to?!
I frantically smear the blood from my face onto my red bedsheets just as a guard begins pounding upon my door.
Lady! Are you all right??
I open the door and sigh with relief.
Thank goodness you're here! A vampire just came to my chambers and slaughtered this poor man!
The guard inspects the dead man's neck. Seems like a rather small vampire to me. Are you sure it got away?
I nod my head. I almost had him. I wonder if I am truly fit to lead the Sarafan.
He pats my shoulder and replies, Of course you are. You are young yet, but your courage and strength reflect your father's spirit.
You'll make him proud. Now come, Lady Libera. If the vampire can reach you here, we must move you to a safer spot.
He and the other guards prepare me a room right next to where the Soul Reaver lies. I cannot sleep well, turning over that vampire's words in my mind.
Is the Reaver really a vampire blade? If so, can it seek blood like its demonic kin and kill me in the middle of the night? Does it bring vampires here like cats to catnip?
And I see two glowing eyes staring at me the whole night through. Whose eyes are those, who watch over me so silently and so tirelessly?
I pray despairingly for the guiding watch of my father's spirit to save me from this madness.

I drift into a restless nap just before sunrise; when I awake, I am as tired as I ever have been. Sleep, it seems, cannot stop the change I feel deep inside, nor can it bring me the respite I need.
a guard asks at my chamber door.
I grunt uncharacteristically low.
He taps the door open slightly and peeps in at my misery.
The sun is full well in the sky, my lady Libera. Are you sleeping so long because you are ill?
I bloody well wish I WAS ill, I almost reply.
No. I am awake now.
Rubbing my bleary eyes open, I stumble out of bed and towards the door. With his aid I make my way to the inner courtyard, where a stranger harshly calls attention to me.
Is that your leader? barks a tall, unworldly-dressed man. His eyes seem alien as they bore through to my soul.
Yes, sir. This is our lady Libera, daughter and successor of our slain leader Raziel.
The tall stranger gives me the once-over and folds his arms, obviously dissatisfied.
She is but a child, is she not? Perhaps, twelve?
The guard speaking with him nods. Despite her youth, she is a very powerful commander.
Is that all she can do? She seems...rather frail and sickly as she stands before me now.
I wince and edge back against a statue. The tall man seems less than human, in his demeanor and his general aura. I pray it is a fever giving me illusions of the demon before me.
He stares intently at me as my loyal guards defend my honor, not stopping them once to disagree. One small bauble, strewn about his neck, glows faintly.

Excuse my absence, I shout, running to the safe darkness of the sanctuary's halls.
One guard breaks his discipline and follows after me, chases me to the very end of the hall, where I collapse to my knees and shudder.
What is wrong, my lady? he inquires softly.
I grasp my shoulders and wince.
I...I don't know...I've been very tired recently. I may be falling ill with a plague.
Oh, dear heavens no! You can't be.
But I MUST be!! I whirl and glare hopelessly into his gunmetal gray eyes.
Why do you say that?
Because...that man—that THING out there—I must be hallucinating, for he appears to me as a demon—
You must find my ramblings to be pure insanity. I am not fit to be your leader...
He puts his arms around my shoulders and hugs me tightly.
Stop telling yourself such bullshit, my child. You are perfectly fit to be a leader.
And you're not the only one who saw a demon in that man's place.
I turn about and worm out of his arms, only to find myself standing beside a tall woman.
A woman vampire, smiling kindly at me.