User:Damon/The Vampire's Tale/7

This is it! This is the very end of The Vampire's Tale! It's been a blast to write, and I hope you like it!

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The Vampire's Tale: Eternal Light

Gallen awoke in a mysterious room, feeling weaker than ever. He glanced around, taking in his surroundings. He wasn't sure where precisely he was, but it was definitely a location of Ayleid origin, from his brief explorations to other locations. He stood up weakly, and stumbled from the stone bed he was on, and had to grab a door way to steady himself. It was made of iron, and glancing around, he could find no lever or button, save for a glowing one just outside the door that he was unable to reach.

Examining his surroundings, he limped back to the bed and sat down, defeated. He failed Rosalyn. He failed Amelia. He failed Jean. He failed himself. Here he sat locked in a room alone. Imprisoned by the vampire he sought to kill.

Suddenly, he had to lean over to puke. He had an agonizing pain in his stomach, and his whole body burned.

He wiped his forehead with his shirt and then curled up on the bed to sleep and mope about his failures.

***

Crimson woke up from a restless sleep, and examined his injuries. They were bad, but at least he was alive. Gallen's blood had seen to that. Looking around his chamber in the ruin, he admired Gallen's gear and the decorated blade. One that he quickly realized he was unable to touch with his bare hands.

Taking it up in a rag, he walked down the hallway and pressed the glowing blue button controlling his prisoner's room. Just like he figured, the Redguard was out of it. He barely had enough blood in him to stay alive, and that was just what Crimson wanted. Gallen was going to die in this ruin and be reborn a vampire… The ultimate torture, in Crimson's opinion, and one that he knew the Breton was subjected to, from Gallen's strange mumbling in his sleep.

First, though, Crimson wanted to know about the mysterious blade, and he needed Gallen alive and in his weakened state to be able to control him.

The vampire smacked Gallen, who jumped upright, but suddenly went wobbly and had to grab the bed for support.

"Redguard", Crimson hissed. "I do hope you enjoy your accommodations. I made them just for you."

"You…" That was all Gallen had the effort to say.

"Me? Was that your wife and child I killed? Yes, I claim responsibility. If it's any consolation, that was a rather fine woman you had. She tasted so, so wonderful. The child was killed by mistake. The horse did it. Not that it matters who did it, since she'd be dead anyway."

Gallen stood up and tried to lunge for Crimson, but the vampire knocked him over using the wrapped up blade.

"What… Do you want with me?"

Crimson laughed. "I want nothing to do with you. This is where you will stay. You will live in this room, you will finish your transformation, and then you will starve to death here. It must be agony, going so long without feeding, and being able to smell all the filthy rats that run through here."

Gallen finally was able to stand up, and he stared down Crimson.

"Redguard, I have one question, though. Tell me about your interesting sword. It's a beautiful piece, but I am afraid it's enchanted somehow, and it hurts to hold."

"Oiolatta. It's an Ayleid blade. I don't know what enchantments it has, since it's never worked for me like that."

Gallen was lying of course. If the vampire knew what the blade was, he'd be killed before he could get his hands on it.

Crimson laughed again, then sat down on a wooden stool brought into the ruin by one of the many bandit camps that would hide in these ruins. Gallen was in no condition to resist.

"Well, Redguard. Here's your sword. I know that you're lying to me, and I can wait as patiently as I need to in order to get an answer."

Crimson dropped the sword on the ground and then walked towards the door. Gallen leaned forward, and was barely able to touch the tip of his fingers on it. Jean had been right, he felt a new energy flow into him when he touched it. Eternal Light shone from the gems in the blade, lighting up the room, and Crimson turned surprised to Gallen rushing him with the blade. Crimson drew a short sword, caught off guard by Gallen's sudden display of strength. Though he was able to counter the first few attacks, he was in no way prepared for such a raw fury coming from Gallen, and he quickly stumbled and lost hold of his blade, enabling Gallen to impale him.

Gallen kept pushing and pushing with the blade, until Crimson was backed into the door frame and the blade was up to its hilt in his stomach. Crimson fell to the ground, and Gallen pulled the blade from him, and then stabbed him again, and again, and again screaming in an enraged fury he'd never experienced, until the adrenaline rush had subsided, and he fell down again blacking out.

***

Gallen awoke feeling strange. All the pain in his body was gone. The dusty room suddenly felt alive with activity. Rats could be heard moving around downstairs, each individual detail in the stone walls suddenly became crystal clear, and all Gallen could do for the next hour was look around in awe.

Finally, he bent down to retrieve his blade, only to be met with an awful burning sensation. He was a vampire. Grabbing the cloth Crimson used to cover it, he wrapped the blade up and started moving room to room, securing the area and looking for some badly desired blood.

He found the room with his gear, and while he could have retrieved it all, he didn't selecting only the amulet given to him by Jean, and a ring that he had been given by Amelia.

Though it was now dark, when Gallen went outside, he could see clear as day, and each smell of the night was suddenly a set of distinct smells, rather than the one smell he always associated with being outside. Turning, he heard movement, and instinct took over. He hunched down and located a hunter, stalking some unknown prey in the night. Gallen rushed him and the man was dead within two minutes.

Feeling sated, Gallen began working his way through the woods, until he located where Jean's body was. Or should have been. In death, the sun burned his body until it was ash. Taking the wrapped up blade, Gallen drove it into the ground, marking Jean's "grave", and then draped the amulet over the hilt.

Saying a few words of prayer to his lost friend and companion, Gallen moved on, his newborn cravings for blood overwhelming him. It was time to feed for the night.