Celestial Clans: The vampire prince's origin

An old friend, a new enemy

20th July, 1974

7:30PM

The Bleeding Heart forest, Havana

“I guess now I can understand why this place is called the Bleeding Heart forest. It really gives an eerie feeling to be here in person.” Julian said quietly from behind King Darien as they stalked quietly but hastily through the forest, past large tree trunks and climbing over branches and large roots that seemed to be everywhere. The entire forest was dead quiet apart from the sound of the leaves falling from the trees round about them, the red leaved were always falling it seemed to Julian. “I never imagined it would look like this, all the trees are as black as tar and the leaves are all totally red. There’s not a single tree in the entire forest that looks normal to me.” Julian said clearly not liking their current location, he wish they could have at least come with other mages and soldiers as back up but the King had insisted that they come alone. He said he just needed Julian for teleportation while he intended to do all the fighting himself.

“You sound like this is your first time creeping through this forest?” King Darien asked without turning back to look at the young mage that had been attached to him since the attack on the palace.

“I have not been here before, I have only ever heard of the forest with red leaves and dark trees from the older mages. I never thought the description would fit so well, it’s an ugly place to be.” Julian replied causing a light laugh from Darien who was leading the way though the forest towards their target.

“You are scared and I understand that, it’s one of the defects of being young and inexperienced. Inexperience causes fear especially when wrong details are attached. Do you know why the leaves of the forest are red? Has anyone ever told you?” Darien asked now stopping to look at the younger man.

“No, to be honest I don’t think anyone knows why the leaves are red.” Julian said with all honesty.

“This forest is what gives the barrier separating our world from the world of humans its power. The leaves are red because every tree in this forest represents one person that has been killed by a being with celestial essence. The First Chief Mage and my ancestor Dracul used all the blood that was shed at that time create the barrier and then tethered the strength of the barrier to this eternal forest. The forest grows daily but never gets old and never dies. The red leaves fall daily and keep growing recycling the blood that has been spilled in an attempt to prevent any further killing by separating us from humanity.” Darien explained as slowly as he could so the young mage could understand and then began walking forward immediately he finished speaking. “This ‘ugly forest’ as you put it earlier protects humanity from us and also protects us from them. They are becoming quite good at killing our kind.” Darien said as he continued moving forward.

They walked for minutes when Darien suddenly stopped and signaled Julian to stop as well with his hand. “The person behind this attack is here.” Darien said quietly. Julian looked around and all he could see for miles was trees.

“Your majesty there is no one here.” Julian said after looking around and even trying to sense the celestial essence flowing around them. He could sense immense power emanating from the forest itself that was stronger than anything he had ever felt before, but he could sense no living person.

“Young mage sometimes you have to use your physical senses instead of magic, sight is not the only way to notice the things around you. Close your eyes for some seconds and focus on your hearing and smell.” The King instructed and Julian obliged immediately. He closed his eyes for some minutes and strained to hear with his ears and smell with his nose and suddenly the realization hit him. He opened his eyes to see Darien nodding slowly at him with a look of pride in his speed of perception. “Okay, so what have you noticed Julian?” the Vampire King asked.

“I can’t hear any wind anymore and the sound of the leaves seems to have stopped.” Julian said

“Exactly, I think someone might have used a cloaking spell here to make anyone who gets to this point think they are still wondering through the endless forest. If your sense of smell was as good as us vampires, you would have also gotten a faint smell of blood in the air.” Darien explained then paused to study Julian’s face. “Do you think you are strong enough to use at least one last big spell?” The king asked and Julian nodded confidently. He had the confidence but inside he knew he was already worn out and almost at his limits, he was scared to draw essence from the forest because he wasn’t sure if he had the composure to control its effects. He was bent on helping the king as much as he can even if he was exhausted at the moment.

He knew the exact spell Darien wanted and took a step back from the older vampire before raising both his hands and closing his eyes. The wind began to blow towards him as he piled the little celestial essence he had left for now into his hands and called out the words. “Nenaya granda exa!” he called out strongly but silently and a wave of power left his body and flowed into the trees around them with a visible vibration that caused the leaves on the bed of the forest to rise from the ground and whirl around. He had cancelled out whatever cloaking and camouflaging spell had been placed on that area of the forest and immediately they heard a cracking sound like glass being cracked and all of a sudden, just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. The forest was dead quiet again. Something had changed however and Julian was the first to notice as he turned to look at the King. The area beyond where he stood that was earlier as dark and crowded as the other parts of the forest was no longer the same.

As they looked at it now, there was a small circular clearing at that part of the forest. A figure clad in black floated in a cloud of smoke at the very center of the clearing mumbling words that were surely a form of incantation for a spell. The weird thing was that the person seemed to be in a trance and had no clue that they were about to come face to face with Vlad Dracul Darien whose palace they had masterminded an attack on. More surprising for Julian were the numerous dead bodies of Kravians sprawled across the clearing. From where he stood, the young mage could count 4 dead Kravians. The vampire King seemed to have run out of patience now as he stepped beyond the actual forest and into the clearing, immediately his feet touch the bed of the forest which was just dirt within the clearing without roots or leaves, the murmuring of strange words from the person floating in the middle of the magically enhanced region stopped sharply. Darien watched as the figure in black descended from their position high above the ground and their bare footed feet touched the dirt and they let out a deep breath. They sensed who had interrupted their cloaking spell domain and knew it had been destroyed by another mage, Darien felt instantly that this person knew exactly who he was and decided to go straight for the kill to avoid a prolonged fight with someone who was clearly his enemy. He let his knees bend slightly and moved his right leg to the side to widen his stance and as such give his attack as much force as he could in the short distance between him and his adversary. He wanted the fight to end within a minute; he had other things of more importance to take care of this night.

The two edged long sword appeared again just like it had appeared from nowhere when he easily dispatched of the Kravians that attacked them in the palace when they were trying to get the baby Prince to safety. This time he held the sword with both hands and then lunged at his enemy who still had not turned to face him yet. He took just one step and accelerated towards them with the blurry speed of movement all vampires had, but he was way faster than all other vampires, he was the King after all. At the last second during his approach and swing of the sword just few meters from the neck of the person whom he planned to decapitate, he heard the spell get casted with calm and ease. “Hexus blocka”

The swing of his blade was perfect but as it approached its target, the entire blade managed to hit was not a person but an invisible shield the mage had created in a split second before the sword blade could reach him. The next spell however was not a defensive one as Darien had expected “Hexus breezia” was all the King heard before a strong and sudden wind pushed him from his position just meters behind his enemy and slammed him into a tall tree at the other side of the clearing. The king was not expecting that, but Darien was strong and was on his feet in a second. It was then that the shock hit him like a bolt of lightning; he suddenly remembered what he had just heard. The magic activation word ‘Hexus’ was used by his friend and that was the word he just heard before being tossed aside by the strong wind. Every mage had a specific word that helped transform their celestial essence into magic and no two mages could ever have the same activation word. He suddenly realized who his enemy had been the entire night and understood why the attack was perfectly coordinated, everything had been planned by the one person who knew as much as the palace as he did. How could a friend have been behind the attempt to take his child’s life? Not just any friend but one of his closest friends.

His enemy finally turned to face him and King Darien felt a sudden primal fury shoot through his veins as he looked into the eyes of his old friend, new enemy and the current Chief Mage of the mage clan. He was looking straight into the eyes of Hazar Belema and they held a fury and determination Darien had never seen in his friend before. Julian stood by one of the trees looking at what unfolded within the clearing and had no idea when he stepped past the forest and into the clearing; he was in a state of shock. He was looking at the face of the leader of their clan; their chief mage was the one trying to wipe out the immediate royal family of the vampire clan who had been their allies for almost all of existence. He just stood there with his mouth agape as he looked at the man he had respected all his life and resented him for his betrayal instantly; the respect was gone instantly and replaced by fury. The clearing in Bleeding heart forest was permeated by anger now, everyone was angry about something and a fight was brewing steadily that would explode in an instant.