Eternal Night Symbiosis

Chapter 6: The Cellar’s Secret

A cold gaze, as sharp as a physical blade, pierced through the shadows of the dim corridor and fixed itself precisely on Vivian. In the dark red eyes beneath Selena’s hood, there was no anger, only an all-seeing, bone-chilling coldness. Vivian froze in place; her blood seemed to freeze instantly, and even her breathing stopped. She had been exposed, caught red-handed by the mistress of the estate in the depths of this dark, silent manor.

Time seemed to stretch out for several seconds. Selena slowly turned to face her fully. The shadow of her cloak obscured most of her face, leaving only those two points of crimson light, flickering with an inhuman glow beneath the dim wall lamp. She didn’t speak, but simply raised a hand toward the corner where Vivian was hiding, her fingers slightly parted.

An invisible force descended suddenly! Vivian felt a buzzing in her brain, as if a cold hand had been forcibly thrust inside, violently churning through her thoughts. Fear, confusion, concern for the settlement, questions about Selena’s actions… Every thought swirling in her mind felt like a fragment forcibly stripped away, laid bare under the other’s scrutiny. For the first time, her mind-reading ability had been so ruthlessly invaded in reverse. The intense dizziness and nausea nearly knocked her off her feet; she could only cling desperately to the cold stone wall to keep from collapsing.

Selena’s fingers relaxed slightly.

The intrusive force vanished instantly, as if it had never existed. Yet Vivian felt a deeper, more profound weakness, as though a part of her soul had been drained away. She gasped for breath, cold sweat soaking through her thin nightgown.

“Curiosity,” Selena’s voice rang out—low, even, devoid of any discernible emotion, yet more chilling than any roar—“is a deadly poison, Vivian. Especially within these walls.”

She took a step forward, the soles of her boots striking the cold stone floor with a crisp echo that rang particularly jarring in the silent corridor. Each step felt like a stomp on Vivian’s heartbeat.

“It seems you never took Norton’s warning to heart,” Selena said, stopping a few paces away, the shadow of her cloak enveloping her almost entirely. “Or do you naively believe that with your pitiful abilities, you could uncover my secrets?”

Vivian bit her lower lip, forcing herself to lift her head and meet those icy red eyes. Humiliation and fear churned in her chest, but deeper within, a stubborn refusal to accept her fate burned. “I just… don’t understand,” she said, her voice trembling slightly but striving to remain clear. “Why, Selena? You’ve imprisoned me here, treating me like a dangerous artifact. The Council regards me as a defilement; the Hybrids came because of me? And yet you… you act alone in the dead of night, avoiding everyone. What exactly are you hiding in this estate?”

Selena fell silent for a moment. In the shadow beneath her brim, the corner of her mouth seemed to twitch ever so slightly, but the curve was as cold as ice, devoid of any warmth. “You don’t need to understand,” her voice remained utterly flat. “You only need to remember your place—as my Contract Bride. Your duty is to stay alive, provide what I need, and then… remain quietly in your cage.”

She tilted her head slightly, her gaze sweeping over the star pendant exposed at Vivian’s neck. Her expression was so complex it was impossible to read, eventually hardening into a deeper, more icy chill. “What happened tonight will not happen again. Otherwise,” she paused, her voice soft as a whisper yet carrying the weight of a thousand pounds, “I wouldn’t mind letting the Council handle what they consider a ‘trouble.’ I’m sure they’d be more than happy to ‘purge the filth.’”

With that, she turned away without another glance at Vivian, pushed open the unassuming small door to the servants’ passageway, and stepped through. The hinges creaked faintly; beyond the door lay a darkness even thicker than the air. Selena’s figure vanished into it, and the door closed silently behind her, as if it had never opened.

Vivian was left alone in the corridor, leaning against the cold stone wall, her whole body numb with chill. Selena’s final warning lashed at her nerves like the flickering tongue of a venomous snake. The Council… purging the impure… she had no doubt about the methods of those corrupt elders. Selena’s protection had never been unconditional. She had temporarily snatched her from the Council’s clutches, only to push her back to the edge of the cliff with her own hands.

A sense of humiliation burned through her mind like molten lava. A cage? Stay put? No! She could not sit idly by and wait for death. The safety of the settlement rested on her shoulders, and she herself must never become a helpless sacrifice. Selena’s secrets, the eerie atmosphere of this estate, the threat of the Others, the Council’s hostility… All clues pointed to a single core—the truth. She had to find it, if only to survive.

Vivian forced herself to calm down. Selena had just left and wouldn’t be back anytime soon. This side corridor leading to the servants’ quarters was secluded and rarely used; perhaps… it was an opportunity to investigate. She couldn’t retrace her steps—that would make her too easy to spot. She needed to find a temporary hiding place, or… a new path.

She cautiously rounded the corner and felt her way deeper into the side corridor, moving in the opposite direction from where Selena had disappeared. The air grew increasingly damp and chilly, and the smell of sulfur became more pronounced, mingling with the scent of aged dust and mold. The stone bricks on the walls grew rougher, the wall lamps were spaced farther apart, and the light grew dimmer.

The corridor seemed to end in a dead end, piled high with dusty odds and ends—broken wooden barrels, rusty tools, and a few bundles of withered vines. Vivian’s heart sank. Just as she was about to turn and look for another way, her foot seemed to catch on a loose stone slab.

Click.

A faint mechanical sound rang out in the silence. Startled, Vivian instinctively took a step back. There, in the corner, a previously unremarkable, dust-covered stone slab had actually recessed inward, revealing a narrow, downward-sloping entrance just wide enough for one person to pass through! A stronger current of air, mingled with the smell of mold, dust, and some indescribable, musty odor, surged up from beneath the entrance.

A cellar?

Vivian’s heart began to race. The manor’s cellar? Could Selena’s late-night visit to the servants’ passage have something to do with this place? She recalled the grave tone in Selena’s voice earlier that day in the Hall of the Skeletal Throne when she had mentioned the alien threat and the “Curse of the Red Moon.” A hidden entrance… what could be lurking inside?

A sense of danger, like tangible tentacles, reached out from the dark entrance and wrapped itself around her ankles. But Selena’s warning and the Council of Elders’ murderous intent, like two daggers pressed against her back, pushed her forward. She had no way out.

Vivian took a deep breath, suppressing her surging fear, and squeezed sideways into the narrow entrance. Beneath her feet were slippery stone steps, plunging steeply downward into thick darkness. She braced herself against the cold, rough stone wall and inched her way down step by step. The staircase wasn’t long; after about a dozen steps, the ground beneath her leveled out.

It was almost pitch black here. Relying only on the faintest glimmer of light filtering down from the entrance above, Vivian could barely make out that this was a small space with rough stone walls all around. The air was thick and stale; the dust stung her throat, making her cough. She felt her way forward, her fingertips brushing against cold metal—an overturned iron rack. Further ahead lay a pile of sacks, seemingly filled with long-rotten grain, emitting a rancid stench.

It looked like nothing more than an abandoned storage room. Just as disappointment began to set in, her toe struck something hard. She crouched down to feel around; it was cold and heavy to the touch, seemingly the edge of a metal box. The box was half-buried in dust and debris.

She struggled to drag the box out. It wasn’t large, with a simple, old-fashioned design. Its surface was covered in thick dust and rust, but the dark metal patterns inlaid along the edges of the lid revealed intricate designs in the dim light, exuding an ancient aura unlike anything found in an ordinary storage room. There was no lock, only two rusted metal clasps.

Vivian’s heart began to race again. She wrenched at the clasps with all her strength; the corroded metal emitted a shrill groan before finally snapping apart. Holding her breath, she lifted the heavy lid.

A more intense, musty odor—as if it had been trapped there for centuries—swept over her. Inside the chest were no gold, silver, or jewels, only a few scrolls made of some kind of dark brown leather, and a thick tome bound in black metal and leather. The cover bore no text, only an eerie symbol etched into it—a blood-dripping crescent moon entwined with thorns.

Vivian’s heart suddenly clenched. This symbol… she seemed to have seen a similar outline in the gem embedded in the armrest of Queen Selena’s throne! Trembling, she reached out and carefully picked up the heavy tome. The cover was bone-chillingly cold, as if it could suck the warmth from her fingertips. She turned to the first page.

The yellowed paper was unusually stiff, inscribed with a script she had never seen before—twisted and intricate, writhing faintly in the dim light as if it were a living thing. She couldn’t make out a single word. Just as she was about to give up, her fingertip accidentally brushed the edge of a page.

Whoosh—

A torrent of information—cold, violent, and brimming with endless malice—surged into her mind like a bursting flood! It was not text, nor images, but a pure mental shockwave, carrying the desperate howl of centuries of despair!

Her vision was instantly engulfed in crimson. Blood… endless blood… twisted rituals… countless figures falling amidst agonized screams… An ancient, malevolent voice echoed deep within her soul, recounting a cursed fate:

“...Bound by blood, fated together... When the crimson moon hangs high, the curse awakens... The pact of symbiosis is but a path to sacrifice... Only the blood of one can water the thorn-covered moon... Thus may the breath of the race be sustained... Else... We shall all fall into eternal night, doomed beyond redemption...”

The vision shattered. Vivian yanked her hand back, and the ancient tome clattered to the dust-covered floor. She staggered backward, her back slamming against the cold stone wall. Her whole body shook uncontrollably, and her face turned as pale as paper.

She finally understood.

Selena’s erratic violence and the occasional glimpses of complex emotion…

The Council regarded her as “filth” that must be eradicated…

Selena’s secret missions in the dead of night…

And those heavy words about the “Curse of the Red Moon”…

Everything made sense now.

She and Selena—their fates had been bound together by a vicious curse a century ago. The so-called “symbiotic pact” was nothing but a cruel deception! It ultimately led to an inescapable dead end—when the curse took effect, when the Red Moon rose, one of them must sacrifice her life and blood so that the other… or rather, so that the vampire clan might survive!

Icy despair seeped through Vivian’s body like venom. She leaned against the cold stone wall and slowly slid to the ground, her gaze vacant as she stared at the ancient tome on the floor, which exuded an ominous aura.

Sacrifice… one must sacrifice the other…