164 Campaign IV : The Funeral

The wind howled in solemnness, its path a welcome surprise but still a factor in the depression I was currently feeling. There was hardly a change of weather in the pit, so when the wind blew like this, no matter how rare, it was an experience countless vampires have come to appreciate. The torch in my hand felt heavy, because not only was it a product of my failure, it was like a testament of my guilt.

I was taking responsibility for my own blunder, that's what a man did. He stepped up and took responsibility for his failures and made sure that such an act did not repeat himself, no matter what! I was wearing all white, just a simple linen shirt and trousers.

But I was also bare foot, and I had no other adornments. I squeezed my toes, feeling the marble floor crumble beneath the strength of my grip(Nefisat won't like that), it was soothing. I felt a hand on my shoulder prompting me to turn in that direction.

"Are you okay Master Kael." Asare asked me with his voice laden with worry

"I'm fine Asare. I have to do this myself. It's required of me."

"No you don't my lord. Any of the leaders of a community can do this, it doesn't have to be you. And no one would fault you for pulling back, we all know how hard it's been on you." Farina said from her spot behind me.

"But he has to do it himself regardless. He's the leader, and while we all would understand, the vampires still need to see their leader as a part of them, sharing in their joys and their sorrows. He also needs to do this, for closure. He couldn't save them, but at least he can give them a decent burial." Malek said, challenging Farina's suggestions.

We all looked at him like he had grown a second head. That was so much insight from a vampire that's so logic driven he's like a block of wood when it comes to emotions. It made me wonder how it was possible that he ever got together with someone to the point where his grandkids have grandkids.

But then again he was a noble, so he could or would have had to marry without love being an equation. And with something as power as the Bond, love would not have been an issue.

But I agreed with him though. I needed to do this for those seventy kids that died unjustly after having such a hard life. In a way, maybe loosing their lives was a blessing in disguise (though my conscience would argue that point).

Most of them were broken, scared, hurt and scarred both literally and figuratively. They might never have been able to recover to the point where they could live a normal life.

Maybe living with such a traumatic experience would have been a worse torture than experiencing it. They would never have been able to forget, not without a miracle and tough will to survive.Either way, at least now they're at peace.

BOOM! BOOM! DU! GOOM! BOOM!BOOM!DU! GOOM!

Deep pounding and rhythmic stomps reverberated through the air as the funeral for all 70 kids began. According to tradition; the oldest vampire in a family, community or coven would be in charge of leading a procession of elders or leaders with a ceremonial fire. But in this case it's not just the oldest, but also the leader who has to cremate the dead vampires.

The vampires believed fire cleansed a soul, before the war, the leader would actually carry the dead vampire out into the open just before dawn, and watched as the sun burnt their body to a crisp, as a way of having one last hurrah and telling the sun to go fuck itself.

But in rare cases when the oldest vampire is not the leader, it's the leader who leads the funeral procession. And that's me. I picked up the flaming torch, the flames on it were a deep green, a powerful flame that's known as hellfire.

A flame that would burn for thousands of years on end without being extinguished. It was a very important alchemical element, and more often than not it can only be summoned from one of the circles of hell.

But in rare cases, just like this, when you have a super genius inventor as a follower, it becomes possible to synthesize a version of it. Though weaker, it still burned hard and for a very, very long time.

I took a step forward, stepping out of the still under construction palace, of course the construction was halted. Every one had left today aside as a day for solemnity and reflection, it was a funeral after all.

With the empty hall behind me, and the pillars at the entrance in front, I picked up the pace. Going down the stairs and coming up to the pathway that would lead me straight to the gate. I walked forwards with the torch held high, and kept my head up and face devoid of any emotion as best as I could.

Ten minutes later I was in front of the gigantic gates, the depiction of a Lion surrounded by four dragons was so Incredibly life like. And for the first time in my life, I was made to wonder what it meant. What did the Cor family symbol really stand for. Who are we, what are we, and what will we become. My choice and decision had come at the cost of innocent lives, will it always be like this?

[Yes it will!]

I almost dropped the torch in shock. It's been a while since I've had the pleasure of conversing with the Earth itself. By now I've already established that my so called destiny of saving the universe might just be a farce made up by the earth just because it was trying to cultivate a personal soldier.

[You seem to forget the reason why I chose you to lead your brethren. As a leader decisions like this can not be avoided. A life is precious, but it's not absolute. And that's something even I have no power over. Lives would be lost anyway, and it would hurt. But as long as you keep on feeling that pain, that means you're still on the right path. Because if people die and you don't care, then you would have lost who you are to the pressures of your responsibilities. You are not the master of life, but you can always try your best to preserve it, even if you fail.]

And then everything went silent. Seriously did the earth think that sort of pep talk would cut it? I knew what it had said was right. For God's sake at this point I'm sure there's just quite a few people around me, who could claim to have gone through pains as lethal or self consuming as mine.

But in the end it becomes very different when you're the one who's partially responsible for that pain, or even death. And the victims turn out to be innocents. I was prepared for people dying, but not like this, not without a fight.

The gates swung open and a sea of white came into sight. Every vampire, male, female, and child were dressed in white. Even gnomes that had some how found their way into our community were dressed the same. They all came here to honor the dead vampire children, and to be honest I felt touched.

But also conflicted, I was afraid that they would be eyes that judged me from amongst the crowd, and even though I couldn't pick any out, I was sure it was there.

They moved to the left and right, making a path straight to an obelisk that was placed in what I could only consider the center of a rapidly being built city or town.

The obelisk was huge, about two hundred meters in diameter and fifty feet tall. There were openings on it's side, openings that stretched all the way to the top of it's structure. There was a fifteen foot metal gate placed aroundthe obelisk, and a huge door on its frame that led to it's interior.

When I got to the gate, I saw Xaseah, Asha, Kodak, Rhea, Teluna, Kuyait, Varsessa and even the recently scarce Gus waiting for me, along with a few other vampires I was familiar with. They all gave a deep bow, just before I crossed the threshold, and the thousands of other vampires behind them also did the same.

I looked through the open door on the obelisk, and saw the bodies of the seventy Kids arranged side by side and smelling heavily of perfume. They looked cleaner, and more innocent, so much so that without all the dirt and grime covering them, I felt the impact of their death a little harder.

They could have simply been burnt out in the open, however I wanted something that would always remind me of what these children had gone through. Something that would remind other vampires about the need to be strong, have faith and protect each other. A monument of sorts, and that's how this obelisk was created. With the torch of hellfire still in my hand, I turned to the still on lookingvampires.

I had to say something about the children before I proceeded with the cremation. I had a speech planned before this, short and simple, but for the life of me I couldn't remember one single word of it. I guess I just had to speak my heart out.

"Loss is a part of life. It is a part of growth, it's a part of freedom, and it's a part of love. But it's also a part of failure, and anger, and war. Today we have come here to acknowledge our great loss. And our incompetence! at not being able to keep our own children safe...….my incompetence...…..for not being able to keep my promises to you all. And for that, I'm sorry. But this is not a time to throw blames, it's a time to grief and plot vengeance. Because we're vampires and we value our children, we value our young ones more than anything else in the world. They give us a chance to be better than we are, and are a proof that, no matter what, there's always a future for us.

Some bastard or I should say a couple of them have done something that, I could only consider stupidity of the highest form. They came into the den of the lion, an act that in and out of itself is incredibly suicidal, but then they still went ahead to touch our cubs. They don't deserve mercy, they don't deserve life. Today we will send this young ones up to be with our ancestors, to go on and watch over their brothers and sisters they left behind. So we will grief, and we will share a bottle of blood and a warm meal together. And when we're done, we will party in their honor, tragedy or not, every celebration that's to be accorded to them for the entirety of their lives, we will give to them. And after we're done with that, tomorrow! We go hunting."

And with that said I threw the flaming torch of hellfire into the obelisk. The obelisk was made with a black crystal like material, and had runes that I personally weaved onto it's surface. They all lit up as the green flames of hell roared out of the openings on the side of the obelisk.

The green flames cascaded and caressed it's frame as the runes weaved onto it's surface began to glow with a golden color that entwined itself beautifully with the glowing green flames. I moved back and gave a bow in that direction watching as the flames burned in remembrance.

"As long as there's a vampire in the pit, that flame will never die out. It's a remembrance of our loss, of our pain. But it's also a remembrance of our victory, of our triumph and our friendship."

[CONGRATULATIONS ON CREATING YOUR FIRST HISTORICAL MONUMENT AND FESTIVAL. ALL REWARDS AND GAINS WOULD BE DEFFERED UNTIL THE VILLAGE/TOWN/CITY IS OFFICIALLY NAMED. HAPPYBLOOD SAINTS DAY!]

Nice. But I had other things to worry about right now. I turned to Asare and Farina and said to them.

"Get everything ready, tomorrow we're going after the next target. And make sure you find out everything you possibly can. And as for Quoranis, prepare him for a trial and pick a jury from among the people and the bloodline covens. Let Asha be the judge. And this tragedy, no matter what! Must not repeat itself again."