Epilogue
Orin
Exhaustion. Pure and utter exhaustion: mental, physical, and, though I'm loath to admit it, emotional. The Parcaetes had crafted theories and tested them until they were certain what had happened. The queen’s blood harbored a recipe to undo this form, this creature we had become.
Still, it was with great conflict and hesitation that I carried out Vastion’s final orders.
A commander was meant to follow, of course, not question.
And I had, up until his very last act as king.
Before he handed over what would be left of the Heart to his sister.
I cared little for the alchemy of Esiree’s birth, or how the stars had aligned to make her blood a miraculous cure.
With that leverage firmly in Vastion’s grasp, he became steeled in his resolve to end the blight of the Forsaken once and for all.
But the infestation of the Forlorn remained.
That was where my duty lay now, bound by an obligation to my dearest friend; a man I had served faithfully for centuries.
He was intent to end the hunger of his people and repair the divide between humans and Vampyr in one swift and decisive moment.
He would not give them a chance to cling to their immortality.
Even then, the idea clawed at me—the expectation that I would one day surrender my power along with this seemingly endless, hollow life.
Once my final task was complete, I was meant to fade.
I did not speak of it, for I had no longing for the pulse of a human life; I longed only for the silence of eternal sleep in the Endless.
It would have served nothing to voice my desires while the others moved with such reckless haste toward their lofty goals.
There would be time enough to question the debt I was owed, but in that moment, those thoughts were a distraction I could not afford.
I had a task to finish, and the damned did not need to dream.
The citizens of the Heart were deceived into their new future.
A celebration meant to honor the renewed health of their king and queen.
I remembered Esiree and Vastion perched on the landing near the ship as all were gathered in the great mouth of the Heart, drinks in hand.
Drinks sourced from the Sanguine Reservoir, transported by barrels that were conveniently poisoned—or should I say, cured—only hours before.
In his toast to the people of Eventide, he promised hope, a renewed sense of purpose, and a life that would no longer be weighed down by the fear of rations and restraint.
Deafening cheers erupted, the sound battering against the stone walls as every soul raised their cup in a final, inexorable toast. I looked on from the shadows as my closest friend boarded the ship with his wife—the woman whose blood was a gilded invitation to their own destruction.
Within minutes, it would bring them all to their knees.
A few onlookers blinked in confusion as the vessel prepared for departure, but their suspicion was quickly drowned by a surging, internal terror.
The screams of agony that followed were sharper, more piercing than the cheers that had filled the void moments before.
The air thickened with the scent of iron and panic as they clutched at their throats, their chests, their newly beating hearts.
Some writhed in the dust while others collapsed, trembling with a sudden, primal horror.
I felt a cold, sharp spark of joy as that smug bastard Tempus was stripped of his strength, his immortality withering until he was nothing more than the cowering worm he had always been.
A number of loyal sentries stationed all throughout the Heart ensured that every last citizen drank their fill as expected. I joined the guards that flanked Mina as she stepped to the center of the landing just as Vastion and Esiree’s ship caught a favorable sea wind and faded from view.
I’d heard her speak when she assumed temporary command during Vastion’s absence, but that day was different.
She had changed. She carried herself with a certain, unyielding authority I had never witnessed before.
Despite the centuries of experience, I knew she was still the trembling girl who masked her fear with a razor-edged wit, wearing an armor of defiance that kept even the most persistent of bachelors at a distance.
Vastion had bequeathed his sister a thankless task, and for that, I found myself begrudgingly admiring her steel.
He had left her to reign over a people who awoke transformed: angry, scared, and vengeful.
They had become humans against their will, forced to find a new sense of self in a world they had spent centuries viewing with indifference.
She would rule over a land that could fracture in half overnight.
A broken treaty. A two-sided threat, reduced to one.
And a kingdom that would struggle to make sense of welcoming those who had treated them as sustenance back into civilization. Back into humanity.
Those like myself who remained Vampyr were on borrowed time. Our focus would be singular: The final extermination of the Forlorn, for once and for all. And then, as Vastion had instructed with his final decree, we too were to rejoin the world and shed the curse that had turned man to monster.
My life had been dedicated to fiercely protecting Vastion’s family. Now, I must find a way to balance protecting the only one remaining in power with my duty to rid this kingdom of the scourge that necessitated our continued existence. I wrestled with the obligation of being away from her too long.
I wanted to protect her from any missteps she might take when my counsel was not within reach.
There was an unspoken connection between us, being left behind to figure it all out while the rest rebuilt their lives—or at least attempted to find new meaning.
But our purpose was still fixed. Those shackles united us, and she was never far from my mind.
Vastion had trusted me with her life, and it was a responsibility I feared failing at more than any other I’d been faced with.
Life seemed to evolve beyond Mina and me, finding rhythms we had long been severed from.
Her jealousy was more obvious than mine; a crisp, vocal resentment.
Below us, the Heart was emptying as the citizens finally emerged from the stale shadows, surrendering the safety of the stone to build anew under the open sky.
Planting gardens, tending farms, even establishing a new territory along the coastline.
She and I would sip our drinks without worry of supply, and I’d bite my tongue each time Mina would go on a rant about navigating the shifting landscape of our kingdom.
I didn’t want to worry her with my efforts against the Forlorn, so my silence gave way to her barrage of one-sided complaints.
No one in the history of the Heart had ever been quite as enamored with the sound of their own voice as my dear friend’s sister.
Still, she remained the sole witness to my history, the only proof that the hundreds of years I’d spent in service to the Crown had actually happened.
Her presence confirmed that my life had carried meaning, even as I felt like a ghost haunting my own skin.
But as the months passed, the most glaring flaw in her reign became clear.
It wasn’t just that a Vampyr held the crown, it was that she ruled a human kingdom from a throne without a human voice.
A pertinent detail that would remain a thorn in her side until she remedied it by taking a human husband, even if just for show.
The humans refused to be ruled without representation, and the newly mortal elite despised her for what they deemed the ultimate act of treachery.
This was why my hand never strayed far from the hilt of my sword.
In a kingdom built on such fragile foundations, we could never be certain where the true allegiances lay.
Months passed before I received word from Vastion and Esiree.
Each letter I had assumed could somehow become the last. They remained in hiding, equally vulnerable to those who may wish them harm.
Her safety was paramount, as her valuable blood remained the one miracle that would hopefully prevent the Blood Reign from ever truly taking a foothold in Devana again.
I unraveled the parchment and a dried flower fell to the floor.
I lifted it, twirling it between my thumb and forefinger.
A sunflower. How amusing she thinks she is.
The sun, one of the few things the Returned welcomed with open arms, though the Gods saw fit to keep our lands still mostly shrouded in fog and overcast.
Orin -
Please send Mina my love. I know the burden she carries is a heavy one.
Though our reigns are incomparable, I hope she knows I feel guilty every day for what I left in my wake.
Your loyalty to her and our cause is perhaps the only thing that brings me peace.
Our location is remote, and we remain undetected.
We will continue to stay on the move. What little news I’ve been able to gather is that your extermination efforts near Leto have been successful, and I wish you well as you make your journey to the other territories.
I hope Tyber and Nile are planning accordingly.
Keep the weapons well-stocked. Devana is in your debt, as am I.
I await the day that the Last Watch has succeeded in its cause so that I may return to you, dear brother, and be by your side when you join us in shedding your immortality.
I should like to see your expression when the sun rises on your face once again.
Yours faithfully,
E & V
I tucked the sunflower into my breastplate, a small, vibrant defiance against the gray expanse of Eventide.
Vastion was right: the burden of this transition was a crushing one—a weight that pressed into our very bones.
But as I looked toward the distant, mist-shrouded horizon, I didn’t feel the familiar dread of the dark.
For the first time in centuries, I found myself counting the days until the shadows truly receded, waiting for the moment when I, too, could finally step out of the night and feel the terrifying, beautiful sting of the morning on my skin.