I came to alone in the room, laying flat out on my back. For a moment sleep seemed to rob me of remembrance, and I spent a moment or two simply staring at the walls with a calm unfarmilliarness. Then it all came back to me and I lifted my right arm to my face to see it. To my amazement it was as though I had never lost it, the soft white skin was exactly as it had been before that dreadful incident, so much so it took me a minute to discern that I was neither dreaming nor hallucinating. There was no mark at the shoulder, no difference in it, and it moved beautifully with that mundane comfort I had so long ago lost.
I heard the door creak open and the Silver twins walked in balancing a plate of bunt cake and strawberries between them. "Thank you," I said, almost crying now, I rushed up and hugged them both, "Thank you so much." It was all I could do to restrain my tears, and I could feel their discomfort so I went to eat the cake. They seemed taken aback by my thanks. "How can I possibly repay you for this?" I asked, and they stood silently.
"There is no need," they replied finally, "We did nothing out of ordinary."
"Nothing out of ordinary?" I exclaimed, "You've returned me my arm, the one thing I though for sure I would never get back. If that is not extraordinary and worthy of great thanks I don't know what the people of this kingdom consider is." I replied, but they stayed silent. Once I had eating the cake we heard from the parlor six strikes of the bell, and began out of the room. I made a note to ask the golden twins what the bell strikes meant next time I saw them. I realized then I had been redressed into my pajamas again, but decided that it seemed the norm about the place to be redressed by others, so I made no complaint.
Although I had originally thought it morning, I recognized now when I saw the window that it was actually late afternoon, and the sun was just beginning to set over the mountainous horizon. I followed the Silver twins to the Princess, who sat on the couch reading letters, she looked up expectingly as we approached. She examined my new hand and tossed it away, before reaching out to ring the bell three times. Through the servant door leaped Ebony, like an ashen tiger. She cleared furniture with giant leaps and landed at my feet, before dropping to the floor and rolling around quite like a kitten. "Ebony," The Princess said, fully ignoring the excited display of affection from the giant cat. "Fill in Sapphire on all she needs to know, and let her ask the questions, don't just talk over her like you usually do."
At this the cat began to transfer back, and ended up in a heap of silky black hair on the floor. "but she clearly isn't human, what should she want to know?" She asked, her voice racing in it's high and playful tones like a locomotive.
"She was raised by the human world and her mother neglected to tell her anything of use, she knows nothing. " Master replied, "Oh, and I want her back by one." glancing at Ebony as she sat crisscrossed on the floor, rocking back and forth. She shot up like a rocket and pulled me off by my arm, back into the servants hallway. She practically threw me onto her bed, narrowly missing Diamond who sat there reading a book. Their room was double the size of mine, as it inhabited two, and had a host of things I supposed they had added, as I doubted the Princess was the one who commissioned the large purple stuffed dragon in the corner, or the large collection of books on the shelf.
She plopped herself down half on, half next to Diamond and announced cheerfully, "Ask away, we hardly ever have guests." Diamond seemed wholly unaffected by the whole sinario, and continued reading as if nothing had happened, only pausing to wrap his arm around Ebony's waist in order to turn the page of her book. I supposed I'de start with what was in front of me.
"Are you too dating?" I asked, wondering if I was too forward.
"Married," Ebony almost sang, grabbing Diamond's hand before he could protest and displaying the matching rings. I say they were matching, because in shape they were, but in color, Diamond's was white silver with a diamond, while Ebony's was pitch black with an identical black jewel. I hadn't noticed the ring before among the host of others that adorn their fingers.
"Sweetie," Diamond complained, trying to pull back his hand, "I need to read." Ebony let go without complaint and leaned forward in anticipation for the next question. I thought her more mouselike than catlike, with all her eager energy.
"Is it normal for slaves to be able to marry?" I asked, hoping it didn't sound rude.
"Of course not," She replied, and I was glad to see she didn't seem offended at all, "The only reason we are allowed is because we are the Princess's slaves, and she is a lot kinder a person than even she knows, as much as she puts up that jagged facade."
"She is?" I asked, unsure as to weather I believed this.
"If anyone in this world knows that girl out there it would be me," Ebony laughed.
"How?"
"I raised her," She replied, as though it was obvious, "She was born in the war, I was wounded in it, before that I was the General, but when I lost half my torso to a fire, and there was no one to raise the Queen's child, I was assigned to the job."
"Then how are you her slave now?"
"Because I'de be dead if I wasn't. The Queen didn't want a weapon like me around, who knew so much about the Princess, so the only way I was allowed to live was for the Princess to keep me as her own." I supposed it made sense, if you temporarily lost all your moral founding, and I realized that was a lot of how this kingdom operated. They operated on logic, and discarded morals wherever they seemed easily replaced.
"How come there are so many servants yet I never see any about doing things?" I asked.
"Servants in the royal household are for the image alone. They do all the work like cleaning and cooking and appear at every gathering so their numbers can be awed at, but they must never interact directly with their masters. That's a slave's place."
"And I'm the only rauzire slave?" I asked, as I had noticed earlier that seemed to be the case.
"Although it makes sense in theory, rauzires are never kept as vampire's slaves because it's highly discouraged to have a bond with more than one rauzire, as it can be dangerous. Keeping you as a slave is something only the Princess or Queen could get away with. Rauzires and Vampires are mostly considered nobility species, meaning they never work as slaves or servants, and are usually nobility if they don't live in the slums."
"Slums?" I asked. From what I had seen of their kingdom, it looked like the richest place I had ever been, and I had not thought slums would be a practice here.
"Underground," She replied, "below the valley left of this one. Everyone who commits crimes goes there, everyone who can't find work or money, and humans who can't be let back into the world."
"There are humans here?' I asked, shocked.
"Many, even in the nobility," She replied, "What our world has a problem with is not the human species as a whole, but that their world is so far behind ours that we aren't compatible. We play a huge role in the humans who are advanced enough to know of our existence, but tend to just poke around the ones who arn't."
"Then the world does know this kingdom exists?" I asked.
"Only the world council, the world itself is oblivious of us. The most powerful people that control the world belong to the world council, who gather to determine how they can keep the world progressing forward. We play a large part in that council, but outside of the council and our mountains, no one knows of our existence, and that is how it will stay until the world can catch up with us." It was all a lot to take in, but I supposed it was a lot like what many people on earth already assumed, that there was someone calling the shots, and what they didn't want humans to see, humans didn't see.
"What do people commonly speak here?"
"We are a kingdom founded on collecting mythical people from across the globe, so our languages are displayed as such. Latin and English are spoken by everyone, but most people also know Greek, Chinese, and French, and other languages are not difficult to come by. In a population of nearly immortal people, it's customary if you can afford it to go abroad for a year around every century using a fake passport, and most people know at least four languages because of that. We don't age either, so it's easy to learn new things at all ages."
"Then I too?" I asked.
"Yes, if you don't do anything to upset anyone, you'll be a slave of the Princess for eternity, or at least a thousand years." I was feeling a little exhausted at this point in the night, but Ebony still seemed her fast talking, bubbly self, and Diamond was just as ingrosed in his book as when we entered.
"Do any of you guys ever get tired?" I asked, yawning, "And why is everyone I meet so strong?"
"We get tired, just we do so when the sun rises, not sets." She replied, "You will too in a week or so. The only reason you're weak and get tired at night is because that's what you've been accustomed to. You were never told to turn into a raven or lift a car, so you never tried, and so never developed those skills, because you believed them impossible."
"Then I could?" I asked, remembering all those things about rauzires I had been told.
"Of course, if you try," She replied, "Ask the Princess for a trainer to teach you."
"I'm not sure I should ask," I said, "You might be able to, but I was bought, and she paid good money for me." At this Ebony laughed.
"Don't be ridiculous, the royal family throws around money like the slums do lives," My blood curled at the thought, "Ten million is like ten dollars to them, and beyond that, Illy would want you to be the most capable slave you can be, wouldn't she? We have a lot of freedom in our position, and are widely considered to be around the level of the nobility as slaves of the royal family. You can do as you please as long as Illy doesn't order against it, and you have a pretty much unlimited budget."
"Illy!" I exclaimed.
"Ilustra," She said, as though it was obvious, "The Princess, Master, you know." I was baffled by this use of her name.
"But the golden twins call her by all those titles..." I trailed off.
"Oh, she doesn't care for any of that as long as we remain in her quarters." Ebony replied, "No one is allowed in this tower except us. The hollow soldiers call her that because she rescued them from death when they were born as invisible children to a dead mother outside of the kingdom, Silver hold their respect so high because they're from the slums, but that's their own choices, not the Princess's. If no one sees, if no one hears, no one cares." She said cheerfully, talking a mile a minute.
She glanced at the big grandfather clock opposite the bed as it struck it's gong, signally twelve. "Now go take a shower, your body might not really progress when you sleep through a journey but it's still nice to take one," She shoved me off the bed, rolling out of Dimond's grasp and splaying herself out on the covers.
"Where is it?" I asked, "Is it in my room?" But my question came to late as Ebony faded away into a swarm of black matter, which reformed into a big cat, who in turned nodded swiftly, before burying itself around Diamond's waist. I looked at Diamond, "Are all anirlines this," I fumbled for the word, "excitable?" He laughed.
"Not," He replied, leaning back into the fuzzy heap, "She's one of a kind." I could hear the loving quality to his voice as he said it. I returned to my room to find a large tile bathroom with a full length mirror, cabinet, and shower. I stared in the mirror for some time, hardly recognizing my own face. My short black hair was just as it had always been, and lay in loose waves around my pale face. My big blue eyes stuck out with their vibrance, and my pink lips were just as they had been, yet I saw some strange difference in my own being. I felt like I wasn't right, like before I had assumed what stood before me was human, without thinking, and now that I knew otherwise, I shouldn't look like this anymore.
Of course that was ridiculous, but it was how I felt anyway, and I couldn't resist opening my mouth and pressing against my blunt white teeth, as though I needed to be sure they weren't sharp and pointed. I slipped off my clothing and stared at myself, felt the pulse in my neck, double checked in my wrist, and pressed my hand against the tile to see if I really was warm, and not cold like the Princess. All was as it had been, despite my meals for the last month consisting of half a handful of fruit, a piece of cake, and a lot of poison, I looked no skinnier than I had when I ate three meals a day, and felt no hungrier either. Had all of that really been that unnecessary, I thought. Was I really living that much of a lie?
I lifted my arm and clenched my muscles, and imagined how one would turn into a raven. Then burst out laughing at the seemingly idiotic notion, yet it wasn't so overtly stupid anymore. Was it the sort of thing that would rescue me when danger came near? If I jumped off a cliff would I grow wings and start flying on instinct, to save myself, or did I have some strange unknown button in my head that would deploy feathers and reshape me like it did Ebony and Diamond. I shook it off and stepped into the shower, letting the warm water fall over me like rain. I clasped my hands over my ears and kneeled into a ball on the floor of the bathtub, so that the rain sounded like it poured onto a roof, and reminded me of my mother's room in the attic at home, and how she would hold me close on long, stormy nights and tell me never to fear the thunder and lightning and rain, because it had came to help me with what ever I wished to do.
'If you wish to cry, it will conceal your tears' she had said, 'If you wish to hide, it will conceal your shadow in dark clouds,' she stroked my hair and looked at the roof, 'if you wish to run, it will hide your footsteps with it's roar. If you wish to drown out your thoughts, it will distract you with the flashing sky. It will protect you, at times when I can't." I had never believed her then, but as I grew I learned I wanted nothing more than the rain. I grew to love it, as my problems grew to haunt me, and I grew to desire relief. I had learned long ago how to curl up in the shower and cry my heart out, with the water pounding on my head so my clasped hands felt like a roof, and my head an empty paradise. At that moment, there was nothing I wanted more.
I let my emotions disappear down the drain in the porcelain tub, and stepped out into the world with my eyes a tad more red and my head a world less cluttered. I dried and brushed my hair and began to dress. Yet when I caught sight of the mirror I saw for a moment that it looked as though the bathroom was empty. I turned to look directly and watched as I seemed to appear in the silvery reflection, yet when I was there it I could see the edge of the counter behind me. I looked faded, and I clasped my hands over my mouth to suppress a scream. I replaced my clothes quickly, slipping the ring on it's chain over my neck and ran out. Slowly, I leaned back in, and saw the same image in the bathroom mirror, I was there, but not completely, but when I looked down at my hands I was opaque again.
I was about to consider what could possibly be the cause when I heard the clock on the wall strike one, and ran out into the hall to find Ebony waiting for me. I spoke before she even had a chance. "Do you see me?: I asked, a little frantic. She laughed.
"Of course I do, why wouldn't I?" I let out a sigh of relief.
"When I looked in the mirror in the bathroom, I looked sort of faded." I replied.
"You showed up?" she asked in surprise.
"Of course I did," I replied in shock. She looked me up and down and then seemed to come to some sort of conclusion.
"Vampires and Rauzires never show up in mirrors," She replied, "You'll have to ask Illy about that, as I don't know much about it." She turned and skipped out the door, practically racing up the staircase. The stairs seemed to curve around the interior, opening to many different doors until finally reaching the top. She pulled aside the large door, which yielded a soft creak of it's hinges, and waved me in. I stepped into the carpeted room and shivered at the slight breeze that blew through. The large gold rimmed window was wide open, and on the giant black canopy bed sat the Princess, her head buried in a copy of The Arabian Nights, and a wine glass of blood in her hand. She looked up at the creak of the door, but her eyes relaxed when she saw me.
"Princess," I addressed her, "What is it you wanted me for?" I asked.
"Drop the Princess and the formality," She replied, "I'm not going to eat you without warning, not that I could." She replied, adding the last part almost to herself more than me.
"Then Ilustra." She blanched at the name.
"Oh no, that was my mother's choice and I shan't let it plague me in my own home. Master is fine, even Illy is fine. You could call me Timothy if you wanted, I wouldn't care, as long as it's not Princess or Ilustra." I was quite taken aback by this new person I seemed to be speaking to.
"Then Illy," I said, and she nodded assent, before reaching out almost blindly and grabbing my chain to yank me forward, which I had asserted by now she had a habit of doing, yet never seemed to get used to it.
"Now let's have fun," She said, whirling me around by the grip on the chain and pinning me to the wall so she stood above me. She stared down at me as though she was expecting some sort of scream, but I only looked up at her. When she was so close as now it seemed all her frightfulness was taken away. Her big purple eye looked lonely and sad, while her red one seemed in some constant struggle to break through. It was like the head of a conquest, discontent with it's failure to transform her pretty face to her mother's beauteously macabre and vile one. But it was caught behind the golden monocle, trapped in there like a bee in a terrarium.
"Is that your mother's eye?" I asked, wondering if the question seemed childish in my position. She laughed at me, the heinous rumble filling the room, before she dropped my chain and stepped back, almost as though she suddenly was repulsed by me.
"It's no fun if you're not scared," She said, "That's the best thing about new slaves." She turned and walked slowly around, as though she was finally just as unsure what to think of me as I constantly was of her.
"Should I be scared?" I asked, but all at once it seemed she recalled my question and spun around.
"This eye?" She asked, yanking the chain of her monocle so it fell onto her fluffy white robe. The eye seemed even more vibrant and malevolent once it was exposed. I nodded, anxious for her to replace the glass.
"yes," She said, "I was born with my father's eyes, but my mother wanted me to be equal between them, and so she gave me an eye and had healers grow her a new one for herself. The pupil didn't take though so I only get a pupil in that eye when I'm really exited." I could see it clearly now, surrounded by it's lush black lashes. The monocle seemed to have created for itself a constant gray fold in the skin on which it sat. "The eyesight in that eye isn't right either, so I wear the monocle for that." As she walked up she seemed to notice the ring was still on it's necklace, and picked it up delicately, rolling it around on her fingers.
"You don't have to wear this around your neck," She said, reaching behind me and unclipping the chain, letting it drop in a pile into my hands. "Just make sure my mother doesn't spot it. It was an engagement ring after all, and beyond that, it has the Clementia family crest, and I doubt the Clementia family would want too much to do with you, and having a slave wear their crest isn't really a complement."
"Does she still love her?" I asked quietly, and watched as the shock hit Illy's face. She laughed a sort of uncomfortable laugh, slowly falling into a serious demeanor.
"I don't know," She replied, "My father was a vampire, and I know she never loved him, but I also know that in all the millennium afterward, I don't think there was anyone closer to her. He was sort of a place-holder, a best friend, someone to consult, someone to sit beside." She paused, raised my hand, and slipped the ring onto my pinky finger. "She loved Rosetta then, although I have no idea why, not to be rude. Rosetta was beautiful, even though you never saw most of it, she was eloquent, well spoken, beyond pretty, yet all the other Clementian subjects were as well. Rosetta had a sort of fire that attracted my mother, but it was also why Rosetta strayed from her. That girl was untamable in the same way my mother was insatiable.
"My mother loved her then, I know because she never would have proposed to anyone she didn't find absolutely necessary. But when Rosetta betrayed her, I think my mother lost the girl in the anger and pride of the affair. The idea that someone might disobey her, and that someone had and done it so publicly, ruined my mother. She lost Rosetta in the struggle with believing herself invincible again, and after Rosetta betrayed her, I don't think my mother ever thought of her again. After that she only thought of the audacity, and reversing the past." She sighed, "I don't know if my mother still loves her, but I know she would be outraged to learn you wear that ring." She plopped down on the bed, and I stared at my hand.
"Then get me a new one," I said softly, pulling the little silver ring off my finger. She looked up in shock. "If you own me now, if you get me a ring, I'll wear that instead. My mother no longer owns me, and although I want to keep this ring, I shouldn't keep it on me now, when that is past and this is present." I turned the little silver rope patterned ring over in my hand, and looked up at Illy, worried I had come across as demanding. To my utter shock, there was a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Fine," She replied, taking a sip of the blood. She couldn't be blushing, I thought, she must just be affected by something else, like the cold breeze through the window. I realized it made no sense because she was cold herself, but went over to shut it anyway, figuring something had to be the cause of the slight pink on her pale white cheeks. I only shut half when I stepped back, seeing in the reflection of the glass that I was yet more see through than I had been before, and behind me on the bed as it reflected in the glass with the dark sky outside, the bed looked completely empty.
"Why don't you show up in the reflection?" I asked, "And why am I faded?" She stood up in surprise and walked over to look, and seeing in the mirror that I was indeed a faded figure, she looked me up and down before answering.
"I don't show up because I'm a vampire, and you should be the same as a rauzire. However there are skills that are possessed only by pureblooded creatures and some skills that develop with lots of time."
"Pureblooded?" I asked.
"Yes, I'm the child of two vampires, so I'm a pureblood, making me a little more powerful than some others. You are a child of two rauzires, but I hadn't realized you were this powerful." She spoke a little gravely, "When mythical creatures bread with other mythical creatures, the child shows up as one or the other, but when they are pureblood, they might be a little stronger than those that aren't. But when a mythical creature breeds with a human, to retain it's powers, it uses the human genes in weird ways. Gold and Silver look like they do because their human genes ran a little rampant in their bodies so they could retain their powers."
"Then how am I abnormally powerful?" I asked, "I can't even turn into a raven or anything like that."
"That's because you don't know how and have never tried," She said, "appearing in mirrors is something only pureblooded creatures can do, but it typically takes extensive practice and skill learned over centuries. To be able to do it subconsciously because you expected to appear in a mirror is incredible." She looked back to the glass pane. "Try to make yourself appear opaque." I didn't really know how to try, but as I focused on the idea, I saw the lines of the bed and walls disappear slowly behind me, and I appeared fully in the glass again. Then I dropped my focus to look at Master, and the moment I stopped I quickly faded to an even more transparent state in the reflection. I watched however as the Princess appeared behind me, as a full being in the reflection of the glass, before disappearing again.
"Mom must have taught me," I said, more to myself than Illy, who's name I was still not used to using.
"She was clever," she replied stepping away, and pulling me along with her. I saw the lights out in the streets and the bustling crowds all around. It reminded me much of a festival, with the glowing orbs of light against the night sky, illuminating the people who went about the streets below.
"Then what skills can I learn?" I asked.
"There are many, but you'll have to master your transformation first, as most of them involve that. I'll hire a rauzire to teach you. You can become a mist when you transform and go through any space you like with that," She said, "And with training you can even command unconscious creatures, like rats and dogs." I shuttered as I remembered reading Dracula back at school, with the misty predator and giant bats, I had never considered it might be real.
"Is Dracula real?" I asked.
"He was," she replied, "That wretched creature wanted to ruin the whole world. He was a distant uncle of mine but he became obsessed with turning the world into second hand vampires, so we kicked him out. He was a monarch for a while before he retired to that giant castle, but humans caught up with him eventually. Dracula thought himself a god, and had many strange beliefs that didn't actually hold any weight in the real world, but because he was so insistent, he never dared break them. It lead to his end, all that nonsense."
"Second hand vampires?" I asked.
"If you take blood from a human a certain number of times over the right span of time before killing it from blood loss, you can turn it into a vampire. But the vampires created that way are dumb creatures of habit and hunger. They never last long, and it takes too much effort to make them." I began to feel tired and looked at the clock, surprised to see it was already three in the morning. I yawned and wrapped the chain and ring around my wrist to keep track of it. Master arose from her bed and went to a large cabinet on the other side of the room. She dropped her robe with no warning, and I couldn't help but stare at her pale and sculpted back. She wore only a pair of red briefs and tossed over her frame a thin black cape, fastened with a red ruby.
She walked over to the bed and yanked my head up with my chain, placing a soft and quick kiss on my lips. I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks as she did so. "Have a good night's sleep," She whispered softly, before racing straight out the window. I shot up and ran over, peering down just in time to see her suspended in mid air below the window, her cape flowing out in the wind. She seemed to dissolve and reform, her cape gone, and her body replaced by a large black bat, that on the ground would have stood level with my knee. Her big body seemed to shine with a glint even in the lacking light of night, and the wind and world seemed to bend and swirl around her, as if it feared to get close and squirmed out of way.
The great thin wings flapped effortlessly, and she soared away into the night engulfed valley, lost to distance and darkness. I let out an uneasy breath, before returning reluctantly to the bed. I pulled back the big covers and curled up under it for heat, but in truth, I neither dared to shut the window nor to fall asleep. I just lay there, wishing my heart didn't skip a beat when I thought about her.