Sanguine

Escape From Karnstein

Following Marcia's untimely burial, Cornelius turned to Mircalla with a delighted face.

"It worked!" he cried. "It really worked!"

"It did," she cooed back at him, reaching out to caress his face. Her cold fingers sent electricity down his face.

"What do we do now, my love?" he asked her, smitten.

"We make our escape from Karnstein," Mircalla responded lowly, a sultry smile on her red lips.

"Escape from Karnstein," Cornelius echoed, subdued. "Yes. As you wish, my love." Then the happy couple fled the ruins of the chapel, leaving the blood of Marcia there to dry and harden and they slipped away into the night.

As it would be revealed, Mircalla's first death sent Cornelius over the edge. When he discovered what she was, though, and when she spread the lie that Magdalena's death would save her, Cornelius became invigorated again. He and the others searched fervently for Magdalena, but even when Mircalla spilled her blood and revealed that she'd only been using them to give herself more power, Cornelius never swayed from his love for her. Instead, when she came to him in a dream with the intent of killing him, he reveled in her return. So surprised was she by his smitten reception of her despite her deceit, she took him back under her wing as an ally, knowing how precious he could be to her. From then on, he was her worker, obeying her every desire. All those months spent hunting for Mircalla were no more than a ruse.

Then, when Cornelius came to his friends with the whole "chapel and spellbook, put her to rest" plan, that had been another thing straight from Mircalla's own mouth. The spellbook and chants were useless, made up by Mircalla in the dead of night and then placed away in a secret corner of the library. That consecration and the burial had been no more than an elaborate show. Never once did any of that stuff work. It was merely another ruse to get the world to believe that Mircalla had finally been vanquished despite this being the opposite of the truth.

In addition, Mircalla insinuating that Cornelius had brought her three surviving sisters to her in response to a command was both foreshadowing and a way to throw the sisters off guard and give Cornelius one last chance to prove himself as "a simple good guy". And, even though Cornelius had stabbed her, that had all been acted as well. Mircalla only pretended to die. Once it was over, however, Cornelius came to get her, retrieving her from her tomb, but he and Mircalla both knew that they would need a replacement body. That was where Marcia came into play.

After slipping a poison into her drink, Cornelius was able to ambush Marcia easily and that led to now. The eldest Karnstein hadn't even suspected it because of Cornelius' grandiose display in the chapel battle, pretending to betray Mircalla when instead he had been betraying the others the whole time. With Marcia taking Mircalla's place deep below ground, the pair was free to escape from Karnstein.

That night, under the cover of clouds, the pair fled the kingdom. They spent the rest of their lives together, traveling. Never once did either of them look back. Not even when Karnstein began to return to chaos and, ultimately, civil war, did either of them look back.

"Ferenc was a weak man," Mircalla shrugged when Cornelius approached her about the fact that her old kingdom was suffering a war. "If he had held any sense or strength, he wouldn't have failed his kingdom enough to stir up rebellion. He deserves whatever he gets and I hope he rots along with Mama and the rest!" the vampire added callously. Her words now were cruel, but Cornelius couldn't agree more, having never liked any of the other sisters anyway. Not even the ones he'd kept an alliance with! No, to Cornelius, Mircalla was the only good Karnstein.

But even this could not last for, in time, Mircalla allowed her desire for blood and power to override her desire for Cornelius and she grew increasingly disdainful of him. The man she once adored with all her being became a mere plaything to scorn.