Beginning

Chapter 1 - May 7th, 1252

"She hasn't moved in hours." One of the maids whispered to another as they were exiting the room they just finished cleaning. Not that there was anything really to clean, the room was completely bare, besides a bed, grounded to the floor, a small table, a chair, and a permanent guard who stayed in the room. One maid carried an undisturbed dinner plate as the other carried an untouched sange vase out of the room.

The other maid whispered back, "Hours? More like a few weeks, all she does is just sit in this room, looking out of the window."

"Why does he keep her in here anyway?.." the first maid asked. "She is still well... you know, and she's due any week now."

"How she will have the strength to deliver is beyond me, she hasn't eaten anything for days. The young will suffer greatly from this if it survives at all." The maids quickly quit their chatter as a guard commander passed them and walked into the room they just exited.

When the commander walked into the room, he gestured for the guard already in there to leave with a tilt of his head. The posted guard nodded at his commander and left the room. The commander closed the door right after him, while his full attention was at the women, who sat on the floor by the window.

His eyebrows furrowed together as he approached her, seeing the state she was in. His hand gingerly petted the top of her knotted hair, barely earning him a flinch of acknowledging from her. He squatted beside her and spoke in a soft tone, "Titania, I've returned. I heard you weren't eating again but with how much larger you've gotten, I almost don't believe it," he tried to make a humorless joke as he observed her engrossed stomach, biting the inside of his cheek. She wasn't showing at all before he left, and to suddenly see her in this state is jarring.

She shifted her hollow gaze and position from the fixated spot on the window to his face, locks of once straight black hair falling from her shoulder, dragging more down as it's all tangled together.

"William," his name escapes her cracked lips as a whisper, not by choice but due to her rare throat.

William took one of her cold hands into both of his and pressed his lips to her knuckles. "You know, you've looked better," he said as he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Please," she muttered out, "End me," she finished as he lowered his head.

"You ask me to do the same thing every time I see you," he whispered more to himself, knowing she wasn't listening. He turned her hand over to look at the veins on her wrist. They looked thin under her translucent skin. His eyes shifted from her wrist, back up to her face and saw that her attention was placed again out the window.

William took a breath as he started to undo his necktie, pulling the ruffles out of his shirt and then tossing it to the floor, along with his jacket and then he started to undo the buttons on his shirt, as he sat on the ground with her. He exposed his neck to Titania, who was oblivion to his actions until he spoke. "When was the last time you had a drink?"

Titania's eyes flashed a dull red for a moment, but from the look in her eyes, it was her body screaming for nutrients and survival than her actual will too.

"Starvation is a terribly long and agonizing way to die. Almost impossible unless you really don't have any access to anything. Most who face extreme starvation lose their minds and would jump on anything that moves before they actually die. Even animals would do when you cross a certain point, so there's no used getting to that point and killing a maid or someone later on when you can't take it." William knew he might as well have been talking to a chair with how much attention she was giving his lecture.

William kept his eyes on Titania as he moved his hand over to the side of his own throat and digging his nails in, before dragging them against and tearing into the top skin of his neck. William once did this with his pocket knife, but Titania grabbed it out of his hands and tried to slit her own throat. After that incident, he made sure to disarm himself before his visits.

The faint smell of blood was enough to finally pull her attention away from the window and to William. Her eyes glowed a stronger red now, and her month ached as her long-unused fangs started to extend.

"Now that I have your attention," William started, as he moved closer, offering her his neck. "It's pointless to try to starve yourself, your natural instincts will always get the bes-" he was cut off by her suddenly lunging from her spot at a surprising speed for someone who hasn't moved in a few days, and dug her fangs into his neck. He bit the inside of his cheek as the bite stung. Soon the natural bliss the bite give started to kick in. Though the sensation is dulled on someone of the same species, it was still a pleasant experience.

Titania drank from William's neck for barely a minute but already her skin started to look healthier, and the hollow bags under her eyes started to disappear. She only took enough to subside the burning she was feeling in her veins before pulling away from his neck, leaving the collar of his shirt soaked in his own blood. Willam grabbed his tossed necktie and used it to clean up the blood on his neck, "You've never been able to drink without making a mess, have you?" He caught her shoulders as she swayed from side to side. "Drinking something after not having anything for days must have made you dizzy."

He wanted to suggest to her to get in bed, but before he knew it, her head was already pressed against his chest and her eyes were shut, her breathing as peaceful as possible for her. He couldn't help but give himself a moment of weakness and allowed himself to wrap his arms around her and just hold her for a few moments before picking her up and getting her settled into her bare bed, being careful with her large stomach.

"She probably prefers the floor by the window, I heard it's her favorite spot," a voice came from the door frame.

Titania made him lose himself, he didn't even hear the door open. He turned his head, already knowing who was there.

"It's nice to have you back "Commander." I heard you were returning today but I should have known who you'd pay a visit to first." The man looked at William, then at Titania and kept his gaze on her, the smell of blood in the air and around her impossible to go unnoticed. Not to mention William's open neck wound, even if it was already healing over.

The man walked over to Titania's bed, on the opposite side William was on, and placed a hand on her stomach, as she slept. "Do remember who gave you that title. And whose child is in here, Commander William. You know how word spreads, what would people say if they knew one of my top officers was visiting my wife at all hours of the night?"

William has to restrain himself from breaking the hand that laid on Titania, but he kept his face leveled and merely responded, "Yes, your highness. I apologize for not paying you a visit as of yet."

The man started to stroke Titania's stomach now, as a smile crept onto his face as he looked at William. "Very well, but I expect a full report soon Commander. We might need to send you out again soon, so be prepared for that. But for tonight, I'll let you get your rest, after a full day of traveling and," his eyes glanced at William's neck and bloody shirt, before looking up at him again, "other activists, I'm sure you need the rest." And with that, he turned and exited the room, leaving William standing by the sleeping Titania.