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Ace leaned back on the nice polished blue sofa in the lounge room of his living quarters with a very displeased look on his face. He glared at his new body guard Claude whilst Clay played with blocks in the corner that Nyal had found for him.
“So, are you going to start explaining what the fuck is going on?” Ace asked.
Claude helped himself to the entire bottle of whiskey that was sitting on the coffee table, “I’m an immortal who killed a lot of other immortals,” he said. “Then one day, when I thought I had faded, which is well, dead for immortals, I found myself face planted in the snow and then I met you. So I’d like to know what the fuck is going on too, cause I’m pretty sure I should have faded.”
Ace glared at him, “Prince?”
“Ok,” Claude went over to the rack of wines and took his pick, downing the bottle at a dangerous rate, “Mother has sixteen million children,” he started.
“You’re joking,” Ace muttered.
“No, I’m not, she has so many that she can’t keep track of it all,” Claude said. “But of all of them, I’m the only one who grew up by her side, cause she named me her heir, whatever that is suppose to entail, I don’t know. Anyways, she couldn’t be bothered to give me a name and since she was a monarch better known as a Queen, back when she was alive, and now that she is the leader of the Vampire Tribe, my title became the Prince of Blood, hence everyone called me Prince.”
“Alive? Vampires?”
“Shadows are dead people but we pretend that we are like the living in every way possible for the sake of convenience and Vampires are a type of immortals,” Claude explained. He then waved his now empty bottle. “Notice how I only ever drink wine? And a dangerous levels for humans too. Edith only drinks coffee. We both pick a liquid to replace drinking blood by transforming said liquid into blood as we drink it, it’s alchemy.”
Ace grimaced. “So that’s why you drink alcohol as if it’s water, cause it’s literally water to you.”
“Ah, yes.”
“And the thing where Clay who’s apparently your brother?”
“Half brother,” Claude corrected. “Mother has a lot of children, we’re all half siblings. Edith is determined to make sure we all die before Mother so that whatever Mother’s plan was, she could ensure it never comes to fruition. She’s been trying to kill me since the day I came into existence.”
Ace looked shocked. “I’m so sorry.”
“Murderous half sister is not the worse,” Claude sighed. “She won’t cross me now though, she may be older, but I’m more senior in rank and I am the heir, she’s a Bounty Hunter, I’m a Shadow, she won’t risk angering Morrigan the 9th, not right now at least.”
Ace sighed not quite understanding how that worked. “I’ll just roll with it for now, but for the record, it’s going hell over my head.”
“Naturally it would,” Edith’s annoying voice rang out from the doorway. Ace frowned. How did she get in here? She threw a scroll at Claude and said: “Now can you explain what the fuck is going on and why I’m on a fucking witch hunt?”
Claude sighed, “why do you both think I have answers to anything?”
Both Ace and Edith stared at him as if the answer that was obvious. He sighed once more. “When I was kidnapping the Opalian Crown Prince, I took off in an old unmarked fighter which picked up strange sound wave intermissions, then I played that backwards and read the pattern of the sound waves, it took me to an orphanage where I picked up Clay Whistler, aka Clay Tudor, Mother’s latest child.”
Ace stared at him. “So that’s why you didn’t come back with me, yet you still ended up in the capital anyways.”
Claude smiled awkwardly. “Specialised mission, couldn’t turn it down. Then, at the orphanage, the profile of the person who was suppose to be adopting Clay had a hexadecimal message encoded into the ID which told me I needed to come the palace.”
He unrolled the scroll that Edith had thrown him earlier and deep frown appeared on his face. He turned the paper around to show Edith, it was a sketch of a young man with black long hair and looked to be of Opalian descent, but his hairstyle and accessories suggested otherwise. He had long hair and half of it was piled on top of his head in an elegant twist of a bun with a plain hair stick holding it up. On his left ear was a long rectangular earring, dangling a good five centimetres down. He had sad yet elegant eyes and a pretty face with a sharp jawline.
“Edith, don’t you think he looks familiar?” Claude asked.
Edith frowned too. “No? Should I?”
Claude rolled his eyes. “I have a statue of him next to Morrigan’s in my temple.”
“You have a temple?” Ace asked in surprise.
“Yes,” Claude answered shortly. “Undead immortal assassins are also religious.”
Edith had a moment of realisation, “Mr Rain, the God of Demons. You only bow to two gods, the ruling God of Death Morrigan the 9th and the only ever God of Demons Mr Rain.”
“Who faded since the time of Morrigan the 4th,” Claude finished the explanation off for her. “We’re on a witch hunt, I keep coming across things that belong to him, his old drafts etcetera.”
Edith took a deep breath in. “So lemme get this straight, Morrigan faked your death to send you on a witch hunt for a long faded god and to pick up another one of our half siblings in the process?”
“She’s a genius and she’s mad,” Claude told her.
“And your detour to help this kid win a war?” Edith jabbed her thumb at Ace. “He’s suppose to be dead by now alright?”
Claude merely shrugged. “Maybe I wanted to do a slimmer of good before I fade.”
Edith did not look convinced, but it was none of her business and she did not care much for it. “Whatever.”
At this moment, young Clay who had been entertaining himself in the corner suddenly ran over and grabbed Claude’s hand. The young boy’s eyes shone bright red and he bared his fangs threateningly at Edith as if trying to protect Claude.
“Hey!” Claude forced Clay to turn and look at him instead of Edith. “Shhhhhhhh, it’s alright, I’m right here.” A black mist gathered around his hand which held Clay’s, “Everything’s fine, Clay.”
Meanwhile, Edith turned to Ace and asked: “Do you believe what he says?”
Ace shrugged. “Does it matter?”
Edith laughed. “Not really, but I know Prince well enough to know he’s not telling the whole story,” she turned back to Claude who had now somehow miraculously put Clay to sleep and was carrying the young boy in his arms. “Prince is always too busy fighting mother on every front possible, he won’t do anything unless Morrigan the 9th ordered it,” she claimed. “So why did you save the Third Prince of Parisora from fated doom?”
Claude sighed. “When he first locked me up, I heard low frequency beeping in the cell, it was morse code.”
Ace gasped in disbelief. “So you were helping me not because you cared about me?”
Claude did not reply. Edith on the other hand seemed pleased with the answer. She smiled and left the two young men to continue their argument. Claude signalled for a butler by the door to take Clay to their rooms, then he turned and faced Ace again standing a few metres away, yet Ace thought it felt as if there was a giant uncrossable abyss between them.
“Why are you here, Claude?” Ace asked.
“To meet with Edith, apparently,” Claude replied with a sad sigh. He had been sighing a lot today. “And now, to find someone who no longer exists.”
“Mr Rain?”
“Yeah,” Claude passed the rolled up portrait to Ace, “he was once a step away from becoming god, yet he suddenly chose to fall into the dark side, no one, not even his zhiji, his partner in the path of light, could convince him to turn back. He created most of the stuff us Shadows use now.”
“Shadows?”
“Members of an organisation known as the Shadow Paladins are called Shadows,” Claude explained, “the current leader is the ruling God of Death, Her Majesty Queen Morrigan, the 9th ruling God of Death.”
“Is she the person who you said was a genius at battle strategies and tactics?”
“Yes,” Claude answered with a dreamy look in his eyes, “she’s like an idol to the rest of the organisation.”
“So you like her?”
Claude choked on his own saliva. “No, I don’t like her,” he looked somewhat offended by Ace’s comment. “I admire her, as does the entire Shadow Paladins.”
Ace scoffed, clearly having his doubts. “Whatever.”
Just as their conversation hit stalemate once more, a butler walked in with a cup of freshly brewed tea and a piece of carrot cake for Ace. Just as Ace reached for it, the butler grabbed the dessert knife next to plate and lunged for Ace’s neck. The young prince gasped in panic as he felt a hand on his collar, pulling him backward and out of the way just in time. He turned around and saw Claude in a trance like state, iris flashing blood red in rage. Somehow the panic inside Ace subsided.
Claude grabbed the butler by the wrist and twisted it upwards, a loud crack of the bones could be heard as the butler’s wrist was almost ripped off.
“Claude!” Ace screamed.
Claude snapped out of his trance and pinned the butler to the ground. “GUARDS!” he yelled angrily at the guards who were supposed to be posted just outside. Two buff looking men with broad shoulders who looked to be ex-military or something ran in with a shocked expression on their faces. Ace predicted that they will be fired very shortly.
*
When Ace woke up the next day, Claude was nowhere to be seen, instead, another guard stood in his place.
“Where’s Claude,” he asked his head butler as his clothes were brought in for the day.
“Meeting with His Majesty, Your Highness,” the wrinkly faced elderly butler said. “Mr Kassamorn, who was the backup candidate, will be filling in for now.”
Ace got up quickly and stormed into the waiting room of the King’s office where Edith was sitting in front of a newly set up chess game, staring off into space blankly.
“Good morning, Prince Acelin Yonsor,” she greeted him as he entered. “My little brother is probably bargaining with your father to keep you out of the next war.”
Ace raised an eyebrow. “What war?”
Edith laughed light heartedly. “The assassin was a Opalian spy, turns out their Crown Prince still really wants you dead, you must’ve done a number on his pride.” She spun the chess board around so that black was in front of her. “Do you play chess?”
Ace looked to the tightly shut door to his father’s office, he knew that it would be a while before his father would see him, he sat down opposite of Edith and made his first move.
Edith mirrored his move without a second thought. “Mother almost always opened with the Queen’s gambit,” she said, “it was her way of honouring Morrigan the 9th.”
Ace moved the knight, he wasn’t exactly good, but he knew the rules. Edith once again mirrored his move, “Prince loved his knights,” she said, “in a way, it reflected his role in the Paladins. He hadn’t been in real society for lifetimes.”
“Are you going to keep yapping?” Ace scowled as he picked up another piece.
“You like him,” Edith pointed out, “which is why you’re so accepting of whatever nonsense he gets up to, including the empty castle plan and believing that we’re half-Vampires with ease.”
“I’m merely choosing to not question that further,” Ace argued back, “small difference.”
“You should get over your crush,” Edith advised him, “Prince has a bad track record for lovers, the latest one was a badass spy bitch who nearly got him killed.”
“I don’t care,” Ace growled.
“You do,” Edith chuckled, “you look incredibly angry right now and you were sulking all last night.”
“Because he had disappeared without a trace.”
“Running,” Edith muttered with a smile, “and hiding, the two things Shadows do best aside from killing and destroying.”
Then, the door to the King’s personal office opened, Raynior’s most trusted personal guard came out, he was a middle aged man with a scruffy beard and an always beaming smile. “Your Highness, Captain Edith Sanguis, His Majesty will see you now.”
Edith smirked as she got up from the half finished game of chess where her black pieces vastly outnumbered Ace’s white ones. It was clear who had the massive advantage in this game and it certainly was not Ace.
Once the two of them were inside, Ace discovered that not only was Claude there, the rest of his immediate family was too. It was almost as if someone had forgotten to invite him to a family meeting, once again. He scowled at his two older brothers and one older sister in annoyance, he was the youngest in the royal family who can attend these meetings and by extension the always invisible one. All of his older siblings were married and have children, but none of their spouses are allowed to be involved in discussions regarding the countries. As for their children, they were currently too young with the eldest barely a primary school kid.
Raynior made his announcement. “Acelin will lead an army to attack Howlite Castle once more, our allies in the north will attack the east borders of Opalian, they will be pincered.”
The Queen frowned but did not say anything, though the Crown Prince Diorlin had a lot to say. “Ace doesn’t know how to lead an army, Father, look at the grand mess he made last time!”
“He has a Shadow to advise him,” Raynior told him, “Claude Edwards will be advisor this time, just like he was the last time.”
“We don’t know who he is, Father,” Remlin, the Second Prince, joined the argument, taking the opposing stance.
The Princess Royal Sealin took up her brothers’ side too, “Father, surely there’s a better commander to send.”
Edith laughed in her faced as she heard the flowing blonde haired princess say that. “Prince is a damn good copycat commander, he has a formula to counteract every situation, copied straight out of the textbooks.”
In the back corner of the room, Claude who had been quiet this entire time glared at his older sister. “Perhaps you should take the lead this time, Edith.”
“I’m a Bounty Hunter, I don’t need to clean up your spur of the moment compassion.”
Ace put himself between the two siblings. “I know the two of you don’t see eye to eye much…”
“We don’t see eye to eye on anything, Acelin,” Edith told him.
“How about you don’t fight it out here?” Ace eventually finished his sentence.
“Agreed,” Raynior stepped in too. He immediately went on. “It is decided, Acelin and Mr Edwards will leave tomorrow morning at eight hours sharp.”
“Don’t I get a say in this?” Ace lashed out.
“No,” Raynior, Edith and most of the royal family answered in perfect unison.
Claude merely sighed. “Three days, but I get the Eternal Chalice in return?”
“As agreed,” Raynior said waving his hand to dismiss everyone.
Once out of the King’s private office, Edith pulled Claude aside with a deep frown on her face. “Eternal Chalice?”
Claude shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know anymore than you, Edith, I’m just following orders.”
“Ever questioned those orders?”
“No, because it gave me a purpose to justify my pathetic existence.”
“By killing trillions of innocent people?”
“Is anyone truly innocent?”
“Prince, you are defined by murder!”
“As are you, Edith, don’t deny it, the ‘monsters’ you’ve hunted, some of them couldn’t even kill a fly, yet you murdered them all the same, we are no different, we’re all murderers in the end.”
From a short distance away, Ace could see the two of them arguing, yet for some strange reason, it was as if the sound coming from them was muted to the outside world, Ace could not hear the words they were speaking. He shrugged it off that the siblings probably needed to talk out some things, them using “magic” was not completely foreign, though he has yet to fully digest the extent of it.
*
As Ace got ready for bed that night, he saw Claude stand stiffly by the door in the Parisora guard’s uniform, white, clean and physically restricting. He always thought that the dishevelled young man in black tattered robes looked more charming, Claude had a stronger presence back then. Now, Ace thought Claude blended too well into the background, so well that he almost forgot Claude was there.
“Have been here the whole time?” Ace asked. He felt stupid asking, Claude was his personal guard so of course the answer would be yes.
“Yes,” Claude answered calmly.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Ace noted as he walked over to where Claude was standing, “and you’ve stopped raiding my wine collection.”
“I haven’t needed to use magic,” Claude explained, “therefore no need to restock.”
“What’s the Eternal Chalice?” Ace asked.
Claude shrugged and quietly answered: “Something that can create gods.”
“Sounds dangerous, why would my father have it?”
“Well, it was initially a gift to me from one of my students, I hid it in a random realm……”
“You hid it here?”
“I may have played the part of an arrogant prince who died in a fire, here, in Parisora, a very long time ago,” Claude said slowly, “and left it lying around this realm.”
“So, you’re kinda my ancestor?”
“No,” Claude was quick to deny that.
“Was that why…….”
“No Ace,” Claude cut him off, “I left because I didn’t feel anything for you.” He lied, he was a confident liar. That was a necessary skill to have, but this time he was less confident that it was believable. If he had a heart, it would be pounding loudly against his chest right now. If he had lungs that breathed air his breath would be quick and short. He tried to divert his eyes but couldn’t.
Ace stared into Claude’s striking eyes, they were black, stone cold and empty, yet he could feel that something was off. “You’re lying,” he said, plainly. It was a gut feeling.
“You don’t know me, Ace,” Claude had a warning tone in his voice. Immediately, Ace knew he got Claude backed into a corner. It was a lie.
Ace leaned in closer so that their nose were almost touching, his heart beat faster and his breathing quickened, it always did when Claude was around, but even more so now. “But I do know you.”
Yet Claude stood still like a statue. “Back off Ace.” His voice was less certain, it had a slight tremble to it.
“Why?”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Claude whispered.
“But you did,” Ace told him, “are you going to make the same mistake?” He leaned in closer. When Claude did not back away, Ace kissed him.
Claude didn’t pull away, instead he kissed back. He could feel Ace’s warm hands against his cool skin, slowly slithering its way up, and he allowed it. He could not bear to hurt Ace, not again. He was stupidly in love, once again. Despite remembering how things ended the last time he was in love, Claude could not stop. In his very dead heart, he had always yearned to be loved, to know love.
His mother was a bad parent, that alone determined his fate for a loveless upbringing. She could not remember her own children, much less who she’ve slept with. Naturally, Claude never knew his father. He was taught to kill in cold blood before he ever knew what love was, yet he longed for love.
Perhaps it was the atmosphere, but very soon, things got out of control.
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