As the moments slowly turned into minutes, Reggio could not help but feel like the two gargoyle statues were just staring at him, threatening him, and trying to force him away. He did not feel that he was wanted there at all, but wasn’t about to leave because of some carved stone, so he just stared right back at the statues with a defensive glare of his own, growling lightly.
“The two of you had better not try anything stupid.” He told the two inanimate objects as he turned his back to them, trying too hard to expect the unexpected.
A chill then ran suddenly up his spine as a cool breeze hit him and a slight drizzle of rain began to fall from the dark clouds above, bringing a light mist to the air. And as that mist of rain swirled around him, it felt as if he were being brushed by hundreds of fingertips at once, caressing and poking and shoving him, all at once. It made him spin around in paranoia, looking around him to find no one anywhere near him. Then he thought that he was hearing whispers from all around him, words that he could not make out. He wasn’t sure what to do, or what was going on, and could only shake his head in confusion, trying to ignore the feelings that had crept upon him as he crouched down into a sitting position.
“What in fury is this place?” Reggio asked himself as it persisted, then stood back up and began to walk away from the building.
He felt like he was being overwhelmed, yet there was no one anywhere around him. He looked over at the few mortals that were still outside, with the rain beginning to fall down, and did not see them showing any signs of what he was experiencing. He thought it was just the building and those statues that were doing it to him, but as he walked further away, it still persisted. And it did so for the next twenty minutes, until Jade stepped back out of the building. Then, for whatever reason, it stopped just as suddenly as it had begun. Reggio looked around again, but then shrugged it off and walked back over to meet her, deciding not to bring it up unless she did.
“Good, you waited.” She told him, seeming pleased that he did. “At first I thought you had left.”
“Nope,” Reggio told her. “I just needed to get away from that building.”
Jade looked at him as they began to walk back towards the trail, as if it was what she had expected. “Yes, well, I figured you would have just left.”
Reggio, in turn, looked back at her. “Where would I go?” He asked her. “I don’t even know where I am.”
“Well, as long as we are on the subject of that, neither do I.” Jade let him know. “I do not know where the fury any of us are, where upon this Terra we landed… some big island, a continent or just some kind of tartarus of our own making. So do not act like you are the only one.”
“What are you talking about? This is your home. You live here. ” Reggio seemed to be reminding her.
“And just because I live here, it does not mean that I know where I am.” Jade corrected him. “And it damn sure does not make it my home. I was run away from my home five years ago and washed up here upon the shore of this damned by the gods place. We do not know where we landed. This was and still is a brand new world to us, an undiscovered country, if you will.”
“You mean you and the survivors of your kind, right?”
She looked over at him as they walked, the rain still drizzling down upon them. “So Jane did talk.” She said. “I should have known she would. But it was obviously not enough for you.” She then turned off from the trail and began making her own in an entirely different direction.
“What are you talking about? And where are we going now?” Reggio asked as he followed her.
“Oh, just my own little way to avoid any more unnecessary work,” Jade told him. “And you know exactly what I am talking about.”
“If you are speaking of what Jane told me, then yes, I do know what you are talking about.” He said. “But she told me nothing that helped me understand anything any better. I still have no idea who I am.”
“But I am sure you know all about all of us. Am I right?” She asked.
Reggio hesitated, holding his arms out to his side as they reached the river and turned left to walk along its bank. “If you wish to find wrong in what Jane has told me because you do not trust me, then it would not be fare to judge her by what I know.” He told her. “Just because she told me all of these things about witches and vampires and this place, it does not mean that I understand them any better than when I first arrived all those hours ago.”
“Of course that is what you would want me to believe.” Jade pointed out. “But you forget that I know that Jane is much wiser than you know. I am sure she told you many things, knowing that you would not understand any of it yet. She did not give you information to help you now. She told you all of those things for future knowledge, in the hopes that you would remain here with us.”
“And is that what you wish me to do, remain here with you?” The vampire asked out of pure curiosity.
“It may be what she wants, but I still do not know if I can trust you.” Jade told him.
“And what reasons have I given you not to trust me?” Reggio asked, already knowing it was nothing he did, but just wanting to gauge her response. He knew that she had no idea what Jane had told him, but could sense that she was trying to find out.
“You have done nothing.” The witch told him honestly. “I just do not know who you are or why you are here.”
“And neither do I,” he told her, looking her right in the eyes.
“Yes, we have already been over that, no memories, blah blah blah.” Jade ignored his comment. “I am growing tired of your excuses, vampire.”
“Well, that is strange, because I have given you no such excuses.” Reggio said, growing tired himself of his trust being questioned. “You’re after something else, something that I cannot give you. So what is it you left behind, Jade, back in that other world of yours?” He was hoping to get a different response, and a different response was exactly what he got.
“Why in fury would you ask that? Seriously… what would you possibly want to know that for?” Her words were full of rage, a deep and often held back sort of regret, and she turning towards him, pushing her chest forcefully up against his, her breasts smashing against the contours of the muscles that protected his ribcage.
Reggio, though, showing no anger, simply glanced down at her cleavage before clearing his throat to answer her. “Listen… I find myself drawn to you, Jade, alright… and I do not know why.” As he spoke, his eyes moved up to meet hers, his voice now clear. “But besides that, I find you to be a rather rude witch, and one that is too full of her own selfishness to recognize that I am only trying to find my own way to a home, just as you say you are. You see, I believe that you need the same things as I. The two of us would probably make a pretty violent team. But… I think that sometimes…” He reached out to stroke her cheek with an odd curiosity. “Sometimes too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing. But still, maybe if we can each realize that we are both headed in the same direction, then maybe we can still coexist. All we want, Jade, is only to find what it is we left behind, wherever it may be.”
Jade, after a moment of silence, laughed at his comments as she stepped away from him and continued down the path. “You pose a strange argument, vampire, pulling at the strings of my past to try and stir up some old emotions so you can act like you care.” She looked over and winked at him. “But I know your kind too well to fall for such a pathetic trick. I know you cannot care for another, and that the only reason you would ever wish to learn anything would be to aid your own advancement, whatever that may be. Still, though, I will engage your interests nonetheless, if only for my own amusement.”
“Please do.” Reggio said, his face showing no emotion.
“Well, as I believe I have already told you, it was not long ago that this all happened, only five years ago. But I can still remember it as if it were only yesterday.” As Jade began, the smile on her face dissipated. “And I left far too much behind, basically my entire life… all I accomplished, who I was
, everything. Of course, though, as it often is, the events that led to that day began too long ago for even me to know, and had built up for generations. But I suppose it all really started when our ancestors let those damn apes evolve into the murderous monsters we just left behind. They are the doom of this Terra, I swear it, but that discussion is for another time. We lived together with them for many centuries, long before I was even born, and taught them everything they know. We gave them clothes and taught them how to hunt, basically living in peace with them for a very long time, until of course, they became afraid of our powers and began their conquests to rid us of what was suddenly ‘their’ world. I was born before that conflict, but still spent most of my life on the run from them. I still remember them raiding our villages, murdering my friends and family right in front of me and burning our homes to the ground, time after time, no matter where we ran. It never seemed to end, not until we were all gathered up by the Saints after centuries of hiding.”
“The Saints? That is a new name. Who are they?” Reggio asked as Jade paused for a moment, seeming to break her out of a flashback or something.
“Oh, well, this is where it could get confusing. And I would not wish to confuse you.” Jade told him with sarcasm. “We do not have time for that. So I will just say that they are like angels fallen from the heavens that have stood back up upon our Terra. I say they were like angels because they saved our lives at the time. They were like our guardians, our keepers, but without holding any power over us. They protected us from the evil forces of this world, or at least tried the best they could, for as long as they could, giving us the best life that they could give us at the time.”
“Alright, I think I can understand that.” Reggio said, nodding his head.
“Good.” Jade said with a strange smile across her face, and then went on. “Because they are the reasons we are still standing today. They gathered up all the witches of Terra, or so we believed at the time, from all over the land, and they brought us all to an island off the coast of what the humans have since named France. The Saints had found a place where we could live in peace again. I suppose enough time had passed that a group of mortals were finally willing to aid us. They allowed us to remain unharmed on our island, hidden away from the entire world in the gigantic castle that had been left behind by some ancient ruler. This would have ensured our survival into the future if not for the past coming back to haunt and destroy our present, as it so often seems to do.”
“Before all of that,” she continued, “Back when we still shared the soil with their ancestors, it was the Demons that had attacked, an ancient race of warrior beings from long ago, one thought to be extinct, that had somehow found their way back into the realm of the living. They sought to regain their dominance upon our Terra, as they had in olden times, but we proved our worth to both them and the mortals by saving Terra from their grasp once again. Those battles, though, forced us to reveal ourselves as a mighty race that was clearly superior to the mortals, something our elders had forbidden us to do. They had kept a tentative peace for many centuries due to the illusion of equality that they projected. During the Beast Purges our elders worked hard to quell the mortal’s quest for power by allowing them to lead the way. But against a rival species of intelligence, one much more powerful than the humans could imagine, they stood no chance. And thus their distrust of our species began. But that is all beside the point.”
After a longwinded sigh, she went on, and Reggio listened intently, “The mortals that ruled the land of Normandy cared nothing of those past fears and allowed us to live within our castle in peace. They even thanked us for our tireless efforts of millennia before, and vowed to keep us hidden for as long as they could. But they warned that there were other mortals that were always searching for us, and had been all throughout the ages. And it was not long before they found us, being led there by a rouge witch fury-bent on destroying our culture and claiming this world as her own, a task she was relentless at accomplishing. She had been given the name of Ashish Lucinya, which literally translates from our ancient language to mean ‘hope for a new day’, and hers is a story we cannot get into right now, though it was not the first time we had faced her. Long before that, we were locked in a century long war with her and her minions, a war that I did not have the fortune of experiencing. After that, she disappeared for many countless centuries. But on the night I speak of, she returned to claim her vengeance from those thousands of years before, and to gain control of a set of ancient artifacts that we still possess today. She returned with her horde of ancient monsters, Minotaur’s and Centaurs, Harpy’s and Gorgon’s, even Vampires and Lycanthrope, species that we believed to be long extinct, and led a massive assault against us, with a sea of attacking mortals following in tow behind her. The mortals showed no mercy on anyone, even going after the mortals that had been protecting us by setting their village ablaze, leaving Ashish and her minions to raid our castle with a hatred swelled by the thousands of years that they waited alone in the shadows, slaughtering anyone within their reach. Ancient grudges were being settled all at once within the walls of that castle, and eventually spilled out onto the island, and that’s where we saw the village of Nantes burning to the ground. That is where…” Her voice trailed off as she took in a deeply sorrowful breath, seeming to push back some old emotion that she had left behind, exactly what Reggio wanted to see.
“That is when a group of us, no more than a few hundred compared to the thousands we had on that island… we made our escape.” She spoke almost somberly from that point forward. “The Saints gathered us up once again and tried to lead us away from the fighting. But many were still left behind, some of them still fighting, some refusing to leave the castle, and others not able to. Many of our kind’s greatest fighters, our best minds… friends, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers… they were all lost on that night. They remained behind to die… all so we could escape with our lives. Their actions stained that night with enough blood to be seen by all of history. In all the mayhem the three Saints had thrown us into three boats, sending us off into the ocean in the hopes that we would be able to find at least some kind of future. It was not our choice to leave behind our family, our home, but instead our duty to survive and ensure that our race did not just fade into extinction like so many others before us. The Saints did not come with us, though. Just as they marched in to save us in the first place, so did they march right back into battle to ensure our escape. They only wanted us to survive, to live on. And there is no way to know what fate they met after our exit. We only knew that they had saved our lives once again. Thus we wished nothing more at that time than to begin our lives again some place new. But it was clear right away that we no longer had their help. We were going to have to do this all on our own. And not all of us could agree, not on a frening thing. Almost instantly we were in dispute over which way to go. Some wanted to return to what we call The Birthplace and take it back from the mortals, while others wanted to follow a set of sailing maps left behind by human explorers that spoke of a new land, one with a mighty river. Our decision, however, was made by our Mother Nature, late one night in a violent storm. The morning after it had passed, we found one of our three boats to be missing… and were never able to find them, never even finding out what happened to them. That’s when we decided to follow the maps. We thought that the storm and the searching had thrown us too far off track, but somehow we managed to find shore almost six or seven months later. And that is how we wound up here, in this forsaken by the gods swamp.”
Reggio nodded his head as she finished. “I can understand your grief,” he told her, pausing for a moment as they walked alongside the rushing water of the mighty river that the mortal maps led the remnants of Witchkind to, “Even if I may not be able to feel it.”
She groaned at him. “You do not need to experience my grief or anyone else’s. It will bring you no closer to understanding us.” Her finger then pointed forward, motioning towards the future. “And
besides, I am sure you will find enough of your own grief to mourn about in due time. In this life it is only a matter of time.”
“Oh, I believe you, but it may have brought me closer to understanding myself, my kind.” Reggio explained to her. “I have tossed many corpses into the depths of this river. Everyone I have ever met is now resting within its murky waters… everyone except you. And I assure you, if I ever met any of those other vampires that ran you out of your home, they would meet nothing more than the same fate as all the others I have met.”
Jade laughed at him. “That is too sweet of you.” She said. “But where were you when they did attack? Where were you when I was still back home in my castle, vampire? Where were you then?”
Reggio looked at her with curious eyes. “I was here, of course.”
“Oh, of course,” she repeated him with a hint of doubt.
“I’m telling you the truth, the only truth that I know. I was here, living through my own fight.” He told her, still looking curiously at her. “But you still do not believe me.” He could tell by the look in her eyes.
“Of course not, you are a vampire.” She told him simply. “You are lucky I told you as much as I did.”
“But…. you told me nothing.” He objected. “You clearly left out many things, those probably being the details that you do not wish me to know of.”
“And so what if I did?” Jade asked emphatically. “You cannot blame me, after all. You are a vampire and simply cannot be trusted. It is nothing personal, I hope you realize.”
Reggio let out a short sigh. “No, that is something that I just can’t understand.” He let her know. “Why must I be blamed for the actions of my race? I know nothing of them, let alone of myself, and it is absurd to blame me for what they have done. It makes no sense.”
“Maybe not to you, but to me it is all I can do.” Jade told him in return. “I simply cannot trust you.”
“Well then why did you ask for my help?” He asked. “Why have you shown me all this and explained to me all that you did?”
“To gauge your reactions,” she answered him simply. “Just because I do not trust you, it does not mean that I do not wish to know who you are.”
Reggio didn’t say anything in return, and they finally reached another trail cut into the swamp. They turned into it and began walking away from the river. Jade started to slow her pace once they entered the swamp. He was clearly upset with her, and wasn’t even looking at her anymore. But Jade just glanced over at him and smiled as she began speaking again.
“I am going to tell you something.” She told him, looking at the side of his face as he continued to stare down at the ground. “It may make you understand things just a little bit better.”
Jade paused for a moment before continuing. “You got my attention as soon as I saw you, mostly because you were the first vampire I had seen since the attacks, but after meeting and speaking with you, I only became more curious. I am not sure I should even tell you this, but as I said, this is only to gauge your reaction.” She lifted up a strange smile as the rain drizzled gently down upon them. “The vampire that stood beside Ashish in leading her assault against us, the leader of her clan of vampires, the one responsible for countless wrong doings against our kind throughout the ages… his name was Reggyo.” She told him, adding the old accent – Reg-shyo instead of Regg-io – to the name.
The recently dubbed Vampire Strom quickly turned his head to look at her with wide eyes. “That…” He hesitated for a moment, “That almost sounds like the… my name.” He said, his confusion slowing his words.
Jade stared him in the face, doing just as she said she would and gauging his reaction. But she saw no flaws in his confusion and quickly found it to be genuine. “So I suppose now you can understand my own confusion.” She told him. “The first vampire I see since the attacks mispronouncing himself to be the most hated vampire of all time… it was quite a surprise. I did not know whether you were truly him or just pretending to be him. And now, as odd as it is for me to say, I believe I have just ruled out both of those possibilities.”
“I told you I wasn’t lying to you.” Reggio told her confidently.
“Yes, but that still does not mean that I trust you.” She reminded him as she quickened her pace and began to walk ahead of him.
“But I am not your enemy. I am not a…. spy, or whatever it was you called me earlier.” He told her, again, dripping of confidence.
“Ah, that is still up for debate.” The witch said with a cautious finger pointed at the sky. “You have proven no loyalty to our side as of yet.”
“Well, what more can I do other than help you with the books?” He asked.
Jade laughed at him. “Oh, vampire, whatever your name really is, you have no idea. You intrigue me with your ignorance.”
“Are you saying that I am… dumb?” Reggio asked.
“Absolutely not,” Jade told him. “You just do not know any better yet. And as far as you are concerned, you should look at that as a good thing.”
Reggio snorted at her. “Well, you have a funny way of showing your intrigue.” He had to admit.
Jade was still laughing as she looked over at him. “And you have a funny way of knowing certain words while playing ignorant to others.”
“So you are calling me dumb?” He asked, now confused.
“Okay, vampire.” She said. “If you truly are not him and know nothing of him, then tell me how it is you came across that name of yours.”
Reggio met her gaze as he walked beside her, and then his eyes seemed to drift away into the background. “Well, I woke up in a frozen white land without any memories at all.” He admitted.
Jade’s eyes lit up immediately, her eyebrows shooting upward with intrigue as she stared into his eyes. She could see his confusion, but still she could see no clarity in any of his reactions. It was as if he was talking about a dream, something that he wasn’t sure was even real.
“And the first thing I heard, before I even opened my eyes, before I even understood what opening my eyes was, there was one word that screamed out at me from the moment I could comprehend my consciousness.” Reggio looked back at her as he went on. “I had no idea what it meant or why it was yelling out at me inside my head, and still do not. That name, though, was Reggio, the name I chose as my own the moment you asked for it. You were the first to ever ask such a question, and I just reacted to it the only way I could.”
“Hmph… interesting,” Jade admitted, “You seem to be telling the truth.”
“What?!” Reggio shouted. “Of course I am! Are you serious? Why would I lie now, after you just started to believe me?”
“Because that is the best time to do so,” Jade answered him calmly. “Do not think I will stop watching you. It is I that is curious of you, remember?”
“Oh, of course. I almost forgot how cruel hearted your curiosity can sound.” He told her as he slowed his pace to let her walk ahead of him.
She looked back at him as he did. “Oh, do not tell me that I hurt your feelings.” She told him. “I thought you said you had none.”
Reggio looked at her with a scowl, knowing she was right. “I do not.”
“Of course not,” Jade said as she continued on up ahead of him. “I am sure you just had something in your eye or something.”
Reggio just shook his head, not even looking at her. But then Jade slowed her own pace and wound up right back at his side as they approached the clearing where the chambers were. He glanced at her and then followed her eyes over to the large tree up ahead of them, where he saw the large warlock that had been with her earlier, the one Jade called the Strength, walking over towards them.
“Oh, great,” Jade said quietly, almost sarcastically, as if she did not mean what she said, “They have probably been looking for me this entire time. And they will surely be jealous of my being with you.”
Reggio glanced down at her oddly as the large warlock made his way over to them. He had thought t
hat they were friends, but from the way she spoke of him now, he began to think otherwise.
“They can be so damn dependant, almost annoyingly so at times.” She told him in a softer voice as her strength got closer, his eyes looking down at Reggio. “But I suppose they are loyal, and I guess that is all I can really ask for.”
Reggio smirked irritably as he looked away from her, setting his sight on the approaching Strength. “You can always ask for more.” He spoke through his teeth as he shot the large warlock an awkward smile.
Jade’s attention then turned to her strength as he stood in front of them, and the Speed appeared in the blink of an eye a moment later, from out of nowhere, to stand behind his large counterpart. Reggio gave him a double take as he appeared in an instant’s notice, but Jade seemed to pay no mind to it.
“So I guess you two are finally done with whatever it was you were doing?” She asked them.
They did not speak to respond, but they both nodded at the same time. It was clear that Reggio did not like them as he glared at them, shaking his head disapprovingly. The two of them, Jade’s speed and strength, looked no differently at Reggio, both staring down at him with disgusted jealousy, just as Jade had said they would.
“Good. Then you can start helping us move all the books from the library.” She told them as she walked between them, towards the tree. “We do not have time to waste.”
Reggio followed behind her, scowling at the two warlocks as he walked past them. And they scowled right back at him as they followed closely behind him, doing just as they did before and making sure to keep the unknown vampire in front of them as the four of them moved back into the hidden underground chambers.
Chapter 8 - When Something Terrible Churns Ashore