Her skin peeled and cracked under the enchanted beams of light, desperately trying to keep up with healing. That mortal's spell faded a hell of a while ago and lasted only about a minute, but it was the longest and most relief-filled minute Octavia lived through in a while.
The stranger called herself "Fallon," but Octavia thought it sounded stupid. That name probably meant nothing in whatever human land she hailed from, but everywhere else? Might as well put a bounty on your head.
Still, she'd done more to help than anyone else who had crossed her cell in the past couple hundred years. Even at face-value, it meant that Octavia owed her a kindness. If she ever got out of these damned chains, that is.
When that fake king first waged war on Emperor Xythlar, the clans put their differences aside for once and teamed up to defend the deity that gave them a home. Octavia had been younger, and more foolish. Born as the only daughter of her mother, Lady Ursula, she knew that she'd eventually take the name as the matron of the Esimed Clan.
Perhaps she'd been something other than a vampire in her past lives, or maybe being the eighth child affected her viewpoints, but Octavia hated how far her kind were willing to go for honor and prestige, only using loyalty where they saw fit. The Emperor and his Hell's War required every one of their lives, yet that same loyalty crumbled to the dirt when any vampire broke a rule and found themselves without a clan and without a home, sentenced to live the rest of their immortal life in solitude.
Long story short, she didn't want to die because everyone else thought it would be honorable to do so. So she ran and hid.
Eyal won. Some vampires gave up and willingly went to his side. They were probably living in the same luxury they did before the war happened, not caring that their new emperor would sooner blast the entire realm into cinders than do anything to appreciate their loyalty. Those that refused? Held onto that burning honor of theirs?
She supposed Eyal was just too excited to see how a vampire would react to hellfire.
Eyal's daemons eventually found Octavia and brought her in. At that moment, she remembered how much she feared death. Especially a death like this. But the god had "taken pity" on her. He had her chained up and forever exposed to those cursed lanterns of sun rays, knowing that she would have all the time in the world to think about how there would be no one from her clan to save her. No vampire in all the realms would help her.
For a long time, she thought that if she ever got out of there, she'd expose herself to the sun for real. End her miserable existence. Until Fallon helped her and reminded her that a little could go a long way.
She'd rebuild the clan system from the bottom up. It might go against everything her mother taught her and every tradition their species stood upon, but to hell with it. No one should die from fear or isolation.
A resounding clang of metal echoed through the halls.
Octavia froze and brought her hands down.
The chains snapped.
~
"So my best friend is currently in the Underworld," Jeremy stated. "That's a fact."
He paced around Rezar's room while a confused Teron watched.
"She's also working with Eyal now. That's... also a fact."
"She also doesn't know who you really are," the prince added with a lifted finger. "But that can be a good thing."
Jeremy paused, taking his words into consideration. "Yes. Yes, I suppose." He put his clasped hands to his lips in thought.
A silence followed as his mind ran blank.
YOU ARE READING
Eternity Glass
Fantasy17 year old Fallon Buchanan didn't expect much from life until two deities claiming to have known her estranged father recruit her to fill his shoes as the greatest warrior in the celestial realm. Now she has a universe to save, but others hunt for...
