CHAPTER 276: TRAGIC TALE

"I pity you," the woman continued, her eyes slowly scanning them all as if they were livestock at auction. "You fragile little mortals, clinging to your petty bonds. You stink of desperation. Your stomachs cry out. Your skin itches from within. Your minds tremble, even now. I can hear your blood singing."

She smiled wider.

"So allow me, in my boundless mercy, to relieve you of your burden."

"Your Highness," Luna suddenly spoke up.

Her voice was not its usual, cheeky, smug, sarcastic self.

It was soft. Reverent. Polished with the respectful tone of a servant bowing before royalty.

"If I may... Would you be willing to entertain a final request from a lowly one like myself before you end my miserable existence?"

The Countess blinked, clearly not expecting this response.

Her head tilted to the side a bit, and curls of matted silver hair brushed her collarbone as she regarded Luna like a curious insect that had spoken.

A beat passed.

"I will permit it..." the Countess drawled, her lips curling again. "But be quick. Don’t waste my valuable time."

’What valuable time? You’ve been standing in place, sleeping... For who knows how long...’ Nyx asked inwardly, but she knew her gremlin bestie was at work, so she did her utmost to retain a perfect poker face and let the Storm Valkyrie do her thing.

Luna dipped her head. "Thank you, Your Highness. Truly. I just... I’ve never seen anything like this region. The hunger, the architecture, the blood magic. It’s all so... mesmerizing. I find myself wondering how it came to be."

The Countess’s posture straightened with an audible pop. Her chest puffed out, and the crystalline heart in her torso pulsed a little brighter. She looked pleased.

"Oh. I do so love it when the commoners appreciate my vision."

Luna said nothing, only bowed deeper. She remained as such for a good few seconds before she spoke up again.

"So my question would be about this place as a whole. Could you tell me how it came to be such a unique location?"

The Countess smiled downright proudly, this time. She even tilted her head back and raised her chin.

"You may call me Countess Veylin."

She waved a clawed hand lazily, as if swatting away the memory.

"But I digress. I know you’re all going to die in moments, so I’ll make it quick," she added, clearly enjoying herself far too much now.

She lifted her arms and twirled once, the blood-tattered gown fanning out, exposing more of the twisted sinew that clung to her midriff like corset laces.

"This palace, this lovely ruin you crawl through, was once our home. And I... I grew tired of watching it all rot."

"The Dawnguard," she spat with sudden venom, "kept clawing at our borders like the mangy dogs they are. The other vampire nobles bickered over crumbs, pretending it was strategy. And don’t even get me started on that insufferable bitch, Selanora Malveth."

The way she spat the name was more vile than any spell cast so far.

"Always flaunting her titles. Always reminding me she was the matriarch and I was merely the ’beloved wife’ of the Veylin Patriarch. A nobody whose sole purpose was to dress pretty. Hmph!" She scoffed and examined her nails briefly.

"So I sought... alternatives that would help me show everyone I was more than a pretty face. A mystic came to me. He said he had a gift. A pet, of sorts. A hungry little thing, it was a nail-sized child. ’Take care of it,’ he said. ’Feed it your blood once every fortnight, and one day, it will make you strong enough to achieve your dreams.’"

She then shrugged with dismissal.

"But I may have... overfed it."

Bastet scowled. "You did what?"

"Oh, hush, feline," the Countess sighed. "I didn’t have centuries to sit around and wait. So I gave it more of my blood. Then my family’s. Then the servants’. Our subjects were granted the privilege of feeding it as well. I was a very generous mother, you know."

"It grew... fast. It became something utterly glorious, but alas, I lost control of my child..." She sighed dejectedly as if that outcome was a tragic ending instead of one coming from her inability to wait.

"Long story short, it ruined the whole Veylin county and everyone in it. But as its mother, it didn’t kill me, no. It remade me. My poor darling was so grateful for all that blood; it made me perfect. Well... perfect in its eyes."

She tapped the crystal heart embedded in her chest, and the fleshy tissue around it pulsed in response.

"My child and I have differing tastes... Especially because after being remade, I lost all my damn levels..." The countess sighed dramatically once again.

Aria looked visibly ill.

Luna, still in her subservient act, asked softly, "So... everything that happened here... the curse..."

"The result of my child’s endless appetite," the Countess whispered with a manic gleam in her eye.

"No..." Aria couldn’t take it anymore. "You can’t say it was because of the child. Everything became like this because of you and your endless desire for more! You already had a life of privilege as the wife of a count, yet you wanted more. And even when you were given the opportunity to cultivate something that would help you gain strength that was your own, you couldn’t be bothered to put in the time, so you looked for shortcuts!"

Luna straightened.

The bow in her spine vanished. The meek angle of her shoulders flattened, becoming cold and fierce. And her disgust was no longer hidden behind lowered lashes; it radiated from every line of her face.

She summoned her [Stormblade] with a surge of crackling electricity. The weapon roared to life in her hand, the storm itself singing for blood.

"Shortcuts..." she repeated after Aria, "Shortcuts that came at the expense of the people unfortunate to be near this lunatic..."

The air whirled around her. The calm before a hurricane.

"Time to slay this bitch."