Chapter 2: Rising Of New Power
The young woman dabbed the cloth over his wounds gently, wiping away the dried blood and cleaning the now closed clotted wound. Once the cloth had become red with blood she washed it and repeated the process. Pulling out a bone needle and a silk thread she carefully stitched the larger wounds shut, her moving steadily without the slightest of quivering of the needle. Vlad sat still while she worked, she was no in rush and neither was he. He silently fumed on the inside but her calmness and constant attention towards him gave him some sort of relief. His impudence and rashness constantly made the sultan angry and as Vlad grew older and older he became more and more defiant. And with that came a new punishment and with each new punishment something changed inside of him. The full ramifications of it wouldn't come until much later in his life though. But now so close to his adulthood he almost taste his freedom. The sultan was growing bored of him and his brother, it wouldn't be too long before he released the both of them.
"This will take some time to heal", Seras murmured her eyes never leaving his arms and back. She let out a heavy sigh and placed the now dirty cloth on the bedside table and got up, dusting the dried blood off of her robes. "I will make something for you to take the pain away for you and something a little extra", she took the bloodied basin and the various left over bandages and quietly left the prince by himself. Vlad nodded absentmindedly, not bothering to even look up. He slowly got up and stretched out one of his experimentally, he hissed in pain as he drew his arm back in. Flexing his sore muscles he bit through the pain and rolled his neck and shoulder blades, feeling the satisfying crack of the stiff bones moving. He had been sitting in the same position for five hours straight today, taking beatings from several different men today.
His feet had various welts and cuts over it but ignoring the pain he stepped over his scattered pieces of clothing, thrown onto the floor by Seras who had hurried to rid of his dirty clothes and clean his wounds when he stumbled into his chambers. And of course she was waiting for him on his bed or the windowsill. It had been the same for the last three years since he had first spoke to her. She hadn't changed one single bit from their first encounter. The same wry smile, the same golden hair, the same lilting voice; nothing had changed about her. She didn't look a day older than they had first met, and although it did irk Vlad many times he soon learnt to look past it and soon it didn't bother him anymore.
He saw the dying embers of the fire glow brightly into a sea green with a blueish tint and he knew she had returned. It was always like this, whenever she entered a room something within the room changed. Whether it be the curtain changing colour or the candle flame suddenly turning purple instead of orange. She always made some sort of disturbance within the room, it was always a tell-tale sign that she was nearby or in the room. Of course the effects were temporary and only Vlad would notice because he was always keeping his eye out for these slight changes.
He twisted his neck to see her arrive balancing a full basin of warm water in one hand and the in other was a small satchel which was laced with gold thread. She paused for a moment as she saw him standing up stretching his muscles. Her lips thinned a little, but she said nothing. But Vlad knew that she disapproved of him moving around so quickly. But he ignored her small warning continuing with his stretching. He could feel his stitches come undone when he moved around too much so finally gave in and sat back down on bed.
She came over to his side, kneeling down in front of him, placing the basin of water next to his feet. Pulling out several strange looking plants from her satchel she rubbed them together in her palms crushing the stems and leaves, chanting some words over them. The language was foreign to him so he just watched in fascination as she continued to work. Still chanting she placed the plants over his cuts and bruises on his legs, the juice of the plants dribbled down onto his ankles and within a few short moments the pain subsided into a dull throbbing. Working quickly she removed the plants and splashed some warm water over his legs to remove the excess the juice. He watched with his cuts slowly meld back together, pulling its own skin closer to each other a finally joining together leaving only a small pale line of any indication that he had a wound there before. His bruises faded away leaving his skin completed unblemished and clean. He blinked his eyes in interest, he had only ever seen her do that several times in the time when she was with him.
She drew attention to his feet and carefully lifted them onto her lap as she kneeled. "Watch carefully Vlad. This is a healing spell, different from the ones I usually use. Those ones are done with the aid of healing plants, but this is done using a different method. It's not so often that I do this, so watch carefully, lupul mic", bringing up her right hand to her mouth she bit onto her index finger, drawing blood. As the blood slowly dribbled down from the cut she quickly wrote down unknown characters onto his soles. Over the welts and the cuts she continued to write using her own blood. And when she finally when she stopped she cupped his feet in her palms and whispered a few short words. Appearing from the blood writing dark shadow like tendrils wrapped around his feet, enwrapping them in a cold embrace. It tingled and felt almost like as if compressed air was pressing against his feet. The tendrils shifted in colour every so often, from a deep crimson red to a light turmeric orange. He watched with such fascination, his mouth agape as he watched. He was enraptured by the beautiful colours which danced upon his skin.
When the tendrils finally dissipated his feet were unblemished and completely healed without a single trace of any previous wounds on it. Seras stood up and wiped her bloodied finger against a spare piece of cloth soon throwing it into the suddenly revived dying embers of the fire. The cloth burst into flames on contact, and there crack of blue flames as the fire contacted the blood, after a violent bout of crackling and fizzing did the fire finally calm down.
"I've left your calloused skin. You wouldn't want delicate baby skin on your feet, now would you?" Seras said with a sly smile, as she started picking up the discarded clothing. Also throwing them into the fire, and finally after cleaning his room she finally sat down next to him. Flopping onto the bed belly first, letting out a content sigh. "I'm leaving your back and arms as it is, it would be suspicious if your wounds suddenly disappeared. But no worries, I will numb the pain for you", her muffled voice roused Vlad of his attentions once more as he had been inspecting his feet to see if there was any sort of wound left.
He hummed in response, rubbing her back with his hand. She sighed pleasantly, she always did like back rubs.
"My seventeenth summer is nearing, I will no longer interest the sultan and neither will my older brother Mercea please him. We will soon be released, I am sure of that. And that is when I will rise in power", Vlad looked off into the distance, looking out from the window he could see the sun setting soon. Seras looked up at him, her eyes glowing eerily in contrast to the darkness. This meant interest or a warning. He always took her emotions in account, they always meant something. Even the slightest of change in her behaviour meant something. He had long ago figured out that she could see into the future to some varying degree, but never did she reveal what the future was. So he would always discern her reactions and expressions to figure out small tit-bits of what the future held for him. She wasn't an excellent liar so sometimes it was easy to tell but other times she kept a monotone expression on so he couldn't see anything.
She pulled herself up, resting her chin on her palms. "I see…" She murmured unbiasedly, her gaze somewhere else. He smirked, something was amiss. He leaned down until his face was next to hers, his lips brushing against her ear. He could feel her bristle a little under his contact.
He laughed, she always did have such amusing reactions. Sometimes she was like an other-worldly being with such knowledge and greatness, the mind of thousands of scholars and the wit of a hundred thieves. But other times she seemed like a normal human with seemingly ordinary thoughts and ideas, and sometimes she would be childish and rather prudent. She was such an interesting character to be around.
She gave him a sharp looked and slid away from his reach, straightening her unruly hair as much as possible. Refusing to look him the eye, she simply combed her hair. Vlad's grin widened even further, "I am not apologizing, you are just too easy to tease", he laughed a little more as he saw the flush of red on her cheeks. It hurt just to laugh but he bared with it, it was so hard to find time to be himself and relax. It was only with Seras he could be like this. No other person could make him so relaxed and at peace. But of course it was only temporary as the next minute he could be back in his grouchy and edgy mood, always planning and thinking. Whatever he was thinking he made sure that Seras never knew, he trusted her but there was an extent to how much he could trust her. But he knew it would only be a few more years before he completely trusted her, enough to place his life in her hands.
She continued to refuse to look him in the eye, still facing the other way she brushed her hair. He let out a tired sigh and flopped right next to her, forcing her to look down on him. Vlad simply admired her glossy golden hair which had a silk like sheen to it, reaching out to touch it he ran his fingers through her hair. It was soft and a wafting smell of apples hit him, she always smelled nice.
He began to relax, he was utterly tired. He couldn't bother to eat his supper for the night, finding enough comfort in his sleep. His thoughts returning back to his gains during the years in the Turkish lands.
He had gained many Turkish allies who were willing to follow him, with his clever speeches and well recited words he managed to sway their loyalties and soon he gathered a large amount of followers. And all of it was right underneath the sultan's nose. They were all willing to lay down their lives for him, because he was a commander worth dying for. His swordsmanship was unbeatable, his horse-riding was incomparable to anyone else, and he was turning out to be quite a ruggedly handsome young man. Even the ladies of the palace were turning their eyes towards him, hoping to lay with him at night. And several times did he invite some few women to lay with him, Seras didn't object to him sleeping with other women as long as he took the extra precautions to make sure none of them were to become with child. And if any attempted to get pregnant Vlad would immediately draw out his sword towards the woman, he would not allow some prostitute have his child. He would never let such a thing happen.
Seras wouldn't say too much after one of his violent bouts, she would just warn him that he was still under the sultan's control so he'd be more mindful of his behaviour, even if they were the lowest of women. Vlad heeded her advice and became more mindful. He slowly gained the palaces women favour one by one and soon it became known that Vlad Dracula was a powerful lover in bed, but if you got on his wrong side you could most likely end up dead while still in the throes of passion. So the women of the palace became wary but still wanton to his touch.
Vlad never made any moves to Seras though, she was the only woman he respected and held high esteem to. She never made any implications of something more as well, keeping their relationship simply platonic; for now. Vlad was still very young. Only sixteen years of age, and the soon approaching seventeen. So she kept her guard up, she knew quite well that men change over time, but she never knew how drastically.
"Vlad, at least sleep on the right side of the bed. I will need to rest soon as well", Seras shook the young prince gently. He groaned in response turning away from her pulling the sheets over his head. Deciding not to argue with him she grabbed a nearby pillow, lifting up his head she placed the pillow underneath. And after pulling the bedsheets over him she left his chambers, the candlelight's extinguishing themselves as she walked by.
Vlad cracked one of his eyes open, he wasn't completely awake being still drowsy. Daybreak was soon approaching from what he could tell, he looked to the windowsill and sure enough there she was; Seras. Sitting by the ledge with a book out silently reading, turning the page every so often. He could hear the servants rousing themselves from their slumber, the distant caws of the birds and the market place starting to buzz with early buyers.
"Lovely morning isn't it?" Seras didn't take her eyes off of the book. Vlad nodded begrudgingly in the acknowledgement that it was morning and he had another long gruelling day ahead of him. Seras drew the curtains suddenly to reveal to first bit of sunlight breaking through the horizon. Vlad squinted and shielded his eyes from the sudden light. "I said lovely morning isn't it?" She repeated. Vlad gave her shape look of hate and sourness.
"I heard you the first time", Vlad growled out. His wounds from before didn't hurt as much as yesterday, probably due to the medicinal herbs that Seras had rubbed on him and a strange concoction that smelled like rotting eggs that she had forced him to drink. And as much as he hated it helped his muscles to loosen and become more pliant, easy enough for him to move without too much pain.
Seras had a small ghosting on her lips. But as soon as someone knocked on the doors of his chambers she disappeared in a haze of smoke. Vlad let the servants in to give him his breakfast, clean out his already perfectly clean room and remake his bed. Replacing everything with new. Vlad hurried them up and shooed them out of his room when they finished, he hated people disturbing his privacy and his peace and quiet.
As soon as the servants were gone Seras reappeared, this time one of his beaded cushions which was originally embroidered with silver thread turned into gold thread with the green beads turning orange. Vlad raised a brow, well he didn't like the colour green a lot so it was fine by him. Seras leaned against the bed post with her book in her hand.
"You want some tea?" She said absentmindedly while still reading her book, she walked up to the small table and poured out some tea into the ceramic cups. Vlad stood up while stretching his arms and legs, feeling the cracking of his bones. He watched Seras sit herself down with one book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. She really loved reading, he was sure that was the third time she had read that book. She had literally finished reading all the books and manuscripts in the private library of the palace. And even so she would reread them, he knew she only did this to pass her time because each day become seemingly boring for her. But he knew she was internally planning something, always deep in thought she would bite her fingernails. But she began masking her habits so it didn't become that noticeable, but even so Vlad still noticed.
Deciding to leave her be he picked through the various fruits and nuts that were piled up on his plate. He tossed Seras a berry which she caught in her mouth, she still hadn't taken her eyes away from her book. Chewing slowly she sipped her tea, Vlad chewed on his bread looking out the window. The morning sun was harsh and blatantly glared at his eyes. Finally having enough to the sun he drew the curtains shut, returning to his seat he noticed Seras was quite still, staring at her book intensely.
She snapped the book shut and placed it down pouring another cup of tea for herself. Vlad took note of this, something was going to happen. He knew it for sure, she would never put down a book until she completely read it word for word. Even if she had read it before.
"Something's going to happen", Vlad said absentmindedly, fiddling with his food, poking the fruit around with his uneaten bread. It wasn't question, it was a statement.
Seras looked up from her tea, her eyes shifting in colour. Her teacup floral design changing into a raging dragon fighting knights and horses, the red black dragon was breathing fire at the knights and creating havoc and then suddenly her teacup shattered. Thankfully there wasn't any liquid in it but it grabbed Vlad's full attention.
"Yes, something big is going to happen", Seras said brushing the shattered ceramic off of her, nicking her finger in the process. She watched with a morbid fascination as the blood slowly oozed out of the cut, but the cut soon healed itself and the only trace of the cut was the blood. She turned her head to Vlad once more, "Life-changing for you", her eyes glinting a dangerous for the first time ever. Vlad had never seen her red eyes, it was always blue or green and occasionally purple, but red?
Change.