Bargains Forged in Ash
1516 Words
The room still pulsed with heat and fury.
The brazier flames swayed like serpents, coiled and ready. The scorched stone beneath Elias’ boots cracked with each subtle shift of the Jiin King’s power.
But Elias did not cower.
Instead, he stepped forward chin raised, eyes gleaming red like the last embers of a dying star.
“I thank you for the power you gave, Azar’el,” he said slowly. “But let’s not forget... it was a mutual benefit.”
The silence hissed.
Elias pressed forward.
“The previous coven rulers the Seraphines were not just powerful in magic or lineage. Their greatest threat was their benevolence. They were building peace. Alliances. Unity among realms. Even your kind were beginning to whisper hope where fear once ruled.”
He paused, letting that truth settle like poison on a blade.
“Their reign would have bound you… softened you. The fire would have been caged. And we both know your kind doesn't do well behind bars.”
A moment passed.
Then, Azar’el burst into deep, thunderous laughter, echoing through the chamber like the earth splitting.
“That be true,” the Jiin King growled, eyes blazing gold. “The Seraphines were dangerous… not for their fangs, but for their mercy.”
He stepped down from the blackened dais, towering over Elias now. His skin shimmered with swirling ember tattoos, each one alive with old oaths and flame-bound names.
“So tell me, Elias…” he said, voice quiet now and more deadly. “What troubles your cold, deathless heart?”
Queen Sadiya circled to Elias’ flank again, her fingers trailing ghost-fire in the air.
“You came not to challenge,” she said silkily, “but to confess. So… what frightens the monster of the coven?”
Elias’s lips curled in the faintest sneer. But his words remained measured.
“We agreed that I would keep the daughters of the Seraphine alive. That I would use their gifts their cursed bloodline for my own ends. They were a tool. Nothing more. But they failed in battle.”
He said it coldly. Bitterly.
As if spitting out rot.
“They were to be bent to my will not break in the hands of the wolves.”
Sadiya’s eyes narrowed.
Azar’el tilted his head, shadows crawling like vines across his shoulders.
“So... what now, Elias?”
Elias’s gaze darkened.
“The wolves dare too much. That ritual that display it was no accident. There was coordination, timing, power. I fear something long buried has begun to stir.”
The fire dimmed again. Even the flames were listening.
Sadiya spoke, voice sharper than before.
“Then your concern isn’t the remnants of a fallen coven… it’s something older.”
Elias said nothing.
Azar’el stepped closer, and when he spoke next, it was a whisper meant only for the dead.
“Do not lie to us, vampire. If you suspect prophecy, speak it. If you fear rebirth, confess it. The fire eats secrets faster than it forgives them.”
Elias met his gaze without blinking.
“All I know is this: if there is a game beyond the one we began… I intend to be the one standing when it ends.”
The Jiin King let out a low, amused rumble.
“Then let it burn, Elias. Let it all burn.”
The flames curled low now, licking the black stone like serpents slinking back into their nests. Elias stood tall in the center of the throne room of the Jiin, the scent of brimstone heavy in the air. Across from him, King Azar’el regarded him in silence, eyes aglow like molten gold beneath obsidian brows.
Elias’s voice dropped, lower than a growl, darker than a threat.
“The boy… Tristan Caelum... his power is not born of mere birthright. It’s ancient. Tied to something older than both our realms.”
He reached into his coat, pulling out a parchment aged, the ink near faded, but still legible.
He read aloud:
“By moon and blood, in sacred night,
An ancient bond shall stir to life.
From death once shared, two souls ignite,
Their union forged in fate and strife.”
The flames flickered higher with each word, as if listening remembering.
“A child of claws, a child of fangs,
Together they will stand or hang.
By love, they rule, by hate, destroy,
The world their weapon… or their joy.”
He folded the parchment and tucked it back into his coat. His eyes never left the Jiin King’s.
“The boy is the child of claws. That much is clear. But the prophecy speaks of two. And the only females known to wield power equal to the Celestials were the Seraphines.”
He paused his next words more bitter than blood.
“But they’re dead. All of them. Ariana. Selene. Shaya. Lisette. Even the traitorous aunt, Lady Mirenna. Burned to ash in the wolf ambush....”
Queen Sadiya’s fingers paused mid-air, the arcane fire she was crafting fading to a flicker.
Azar’el’s brows furrowed, his expression no longer amused but analytical.
“This really is a problem,” he said slowly. “If the prophecy is true and one Seraphine girl survived…”
“It changes everything,” Sadiya finished, her voice sharper now.
Elias clenched his jaw.
“Which is why I’ve come. No more games. No more careful moves.”
He stepped forward, the flare of his crimson eyes catching on the jagged obsidian floor.
“I want the power to crush the Caelum line. To burn the prophecy before it breathes. I want fire… enough to eclipse moonlight itself.”
Sadiya narrowed her eyes. Azar’el gave her a glance, and she tilted her chin in approval.
“And what do you offer in return, vampire?” the King asked, voice heavy with ceremonial weight.
Elias didn’t hesitate.
“My soul.”
The chamber fell dead silent.
Even the flames seemed to bow in stillness.
Queen Sadiya stepped forward, her black veil drifting over the floor like smoke.
“You would barter your immortal soul for vengeance?”
“Not vengeance,” Elias replied. “Victory.”
Azar’el smiled, but there was no warmth behind it.
“So be it.”
He raised his clawed hand and snapped his fingers.
Chains of fire slithered from the walls like serpents, coiling around Elias’s wrists and neck not to bind, but to seal. A pact older than time surged to life, branding its mark on Elias’s chest a crimson sigil shaped like an open eye engulfed in flame.
“The pact is sealed,” Azar’el whispered. “You will have your power. But remember, Elias Cruor… the fire always takes its price. And it always collects.”
The great obsidian doors of the throne room groaned open as Elias turned from the seated figures of the Jiin King and Queen, his cloak trailing behind like a shadow given form. The air still shimmered with the residue of ancient power, and the deal was sealed.
The Jiin King’s voice echoed, low and reverberating like distant thunder.
“Remember, vampire... what is given can also be reclaimed.”
Elias didn’t turn. “And what is taken can be bled for. I remember well.”
The Queen’s lips curved in something between a smirk and a sneer. Her voice was velvet laced with venom.
“We will be watching, Elias. Should you fall short, there are others who crave the power you now bear.”
He paused at the foot of the hall, his crimson eyes narrowing.
“Let them come. My only hunger is conquest. The Caelum line ends with me.”
The king gave a rumbling laugh, his claws drumming against the obsidian armrest.
“So certain. But remember what the earth gives freely to one, it demands dearly from another. Yours is borrowed power. Use it wisely... or it will consume you.”
For a moment, silence ruled the room, until Elias finally spoke.
“I’ll be sure to send word when the royal blood spills.”
And with that, he vanished into the swirling mist outside the throne room, his presence dissolving like a plague carried on the wind.
Outside, the Jiin Realm loomed crimson skies churning above jagged mountains, their blackened peaks stabbing the heavens. Jiin eyes followed his every move. No footstep was truly silent here, no thought truly hidden.
But Elias didn’t care.
Each step he took back toward the veil between realms echoed with power power nearly equal to the Caelum boy's, yet corrupted at its root.
He clenched his fist. The earth did not bend to him, but shadows did. Fire whispered to him. The wind shuddered in his passing. And now, he had what he needed.
What Tristan Caelum was born to hold Elias would take by force.
The path back to his coven lay ahead, and in his wake, the air crackled with a storm that hadn’t yet touched the ground.
But it would.
Soon.
- Writer
