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New Delsta is distinct from Leaflands. One is a small countryside town integrated with nature. It’s full or crystal clear rivers, thriving orchards, and beautiful flora. The other is a shady cramped city infested with thieves, conman, and segmented into the rich and poor by upper and lower floors. Agnea, Pala, and their father moved here after their mother died. The well-lit nightlife maybe enchanting but it is also dangerous.
During the day Agnea works as a seamstress and at night she wanders stone-inlaid streets to stare at in wonder a big theater where all the wealthy dwell. She can’t afford tickets so she often lurks outside and listens to the muffled orchestra coupled with heavenly voices. The nightly icy chills bothered her none as Agnea would sing along softly, longing to see past those giant gilded doors.
The bright stunning theater is a testament to human creativity, a tribute to the arts. A shiny utopia standing upon shadowy city streets. A beacon of hope in a place drowning in watered-down alcohol and crime.
Agnea dreams of singing on stage, to uplift the broken and lost. But to reach stardom seems impossible. From afar it’s clear that most wannabe celebrities betray and sabotage each other to get ahead –a life Agnea doesn’t want.
She helps out Gil, a pianist who runs a small bar in New Delsta by waitressing and singing for his guests. Sometimes they perform on the streets for extra cash. People dressed in tattered rags, their bitter forlorn faces light up as they watch. They can hardly spare any coin, but Agnea is happy just seeing them smile through their current hardships.
Bristarni’s singing slowly brings in more customers to both the bar and her dad’s tailor shop. After breakfast she runs over to the shop to work. The theater is having a special event today and attendees want extravagant costumes. She’d be working all day. It’s a blur of flashing coins, frills, pearls, fabrics, colors, silks, and noise. By nightfall everybody trickles out and leaves the store empty.
Distracted by her daydreams of a sparkly future, Agnea hardly notices the doorbell jingle and someone entering.
“May I get a custom?”
Bristarni sees a beautiful femme fatale. Dark short hair frames a lean sharp face. The woman has an hourglass frame and long limbs. She’s dressed in a long purple dress fashioned subtly for thievery. A sheathed knife is holstered on her hip. And a blue-green earing flickers hypnotically in the warm light.
The seamstress recognizes her –she often visits Gil’s bar. Always at night and she never fails to throw in some tips.
Agnea smiled. “Sure, what’re you looking for?”
“Do you know my trade?”
She blushed. Agnea skipped over her first few guesses and said, “Thief?”
“That’s right,” her pretty blood-red lips convey amusement.
The thief has very pale skin and she moves with an elegant grace that no living being can copy. Is she a vampire? A ghoul? A dark elf or fairy? No. Fairies and elves have signature pointy ears.
“Most won’t barter with me because of my job. And my kind doesn’t like my muddied lineage,” disgust briefly warps the woman’s features. “Snooty societies, they are. I need something that’ll help me blend in but also be operational. Stylish and useful.”
Agnea blinked, mesmerized by her eyes, lips, and voice. “I can draw up something and have it ready by tomorrow.”
“Fantastique!” She gives a pearly smile lacking fangs.
Life is uneventful until Throné (her name written on the booking) came to pick up her new outfit. It’s a feminine long coat with a cute cloche hat adorned with fake flowers. Inside the jacket are many useful pockets. Even her heels could hold deadly syringes.
Throné spins around, her image not reflecting in the tall mirror. “How do I look?”
“Dazzling!”
“I sense deep honesty from you. I’ve had many clothes throughout my afterlife, but this is the first I requested handmade. Thank you, Agnea.” She hands her an envelope, red and stamped with a wax seal. With a bow, Throné exits the shop and vanishes into the shadows.
Opening the envelope, Agnea gasps, and her eyes bulged from their sockets. This is enough money to last us months! Hands trembling she almost dropped the cash. She notices a slip of paper inside too. It’s a hand-written invitation to a gala at the castle atop a hill outside of New Delsta. Supposedly the ruins are haunted.
Bristarni’s brows creased as she read further. The host, Hikari Ku, wants her to be a guest singer for the party. He’s already contacted Gil and paid for his fares. At first, she thinks it’s a scam –or something more sinister. Agnea sees plenty of young women like herself tricked into prostitution, thieves’ dens, or worse. And the worlds of the supernatural are a mystery to most humans; a lot of supernaturals hate humans. But vampires are serious beings. They don’t like being swindled and consider their time a valuable commodity.
“It’s real,” Agnea’s father nodded. “My grizzled eyes never fail me. See this stamp? It’s an insignia of a longstanding coven. Some covens are sorcerers of dark magic and see humans as nothing but a meal, but this coven is known to have good ties to humans and other supernaturals.”
“How exciting!” Pala said. “It’s like Cinderella! Maybe you’ll even meet a prince!”
“Me? No,” Agnea twirled a lock of brown hair nervously. “I’m too plain for a vampire, I think. Besides, I just want to sing.”
On the night of the party Agnea dressed in her best attire. A sparkly golden long dress with frills and freshly polished dance shoes. A red rose (her mother’s lucky pin) is clipped to her black headband. Agnea’s heart is in her throat as she anxiously wonders what the party will be like. With such a rich and profound culture, she feels like an outsider.
An old style carriage steered by horses slows to a stop. The black steeds have glowing red eyes and gaunt faces. They stomp their hooves impatiently. The scrawny elf coachman waves his hand in greeting. With a snap of his fingers, a door pops open.
“Mademoiselle Bristarni?”
“That’s me!” With a skip she enters the carriage. The horses whinny and then race off, clopping upon stone streets.
The vehicle starts scaling a tall hill cluttered with leafless trees. In the moonless darkness, Agnea has to squint to make out any significant shapes. The ancient castle is made of spires with red roofs. It’s key facets are ominous-looking. Wild ivy and moss cling to stone surfaces. The windows are tiny to keep out harsh sunlight.
When they made it to the gates a horde of screeching bats splotch the sky like stormy clouds. Agnea flinched. The bats dash by, rudely barreling past and rattling the carriage before soaring into the distance.
The metal gate’s gears turn deafeningly as it goes up. Other carriages are gathered around, their personalities ranging from sparkly to macabre to outlandish. The coachman parks and helps Agnea out.
You can do this, Agnea! Taking a deep breath, she climbs up stone steps.
Temenos is a light elemental. His entire body is light. He has a blue crackling flame to represent a beating heart. Draped over him is a dark cloak with a hood so that he could walk around vampires. The elemental’s job is to protect Agnea (she is the only human guest) if a vampire is to fall into The Hunger.
Classical music plays from a phonograph and guests are dancing, snacking, or talking. Agnea and Temenos zigzag through the crowd as the elemental serves as a tour guide. “…and don’t drink any of the wine.”
“Temenos? Where is Hikari?”
“He’ll be here shortly. I-”
“Agnea!” Throné dashes across the room and smiles. “Let me show you to the stage, you’ll be singing soon! Hikari doesn’t want to miss it.”
Backstage, Gil is tuning his piano. He whistled at the instrument. “Quality stuff! Don’t be nervous, Agnea. You’ll do great! I think deep down, vampires like to party like we do.”
“Thanks Gil.”
“Anytime.”
Quiet shrouds the audience. The curtains part and Gil starts playing a song he wrote. Agnea’s violin-like voice compliments his dramatic tones. She twirls and glides across stage, letting the music communicate with her soul. When the song ended there’s a tense pause –and then, applause. Vampires chant, a sign of cheering. Agnea and Gil bow.
The crowd parts and Hikari Ku walks up, a handsome smile on his face. His long dark hair is tied back in a ponytail, his suit dark red. “Very magical and full of warrior spirit! It made me feel like my heart was racing.” That must be a special honor. Vampires miss what used to make them feel alive. “Would you care to dance with me, Agnea?”
She’s pulled into his arms. Agnea quickly notices how cold Hikari is, his lack of a heartbeat, and his sharp fangs. It doesn’t scare her but something about him is familiar. They dance to the music, staring into each other’s eyes. Sparkly green-blue to deep dark brown. If the rest of her life was uneventful and dull, she wouldn’t have changed a thing. Agnea feels like a star just being in Hikari’s arms. When the dance was over Hikari asked, “Have dinner with us?”
“Sure –I mean, I’d love too,” Agnea flinched. She forgets that uppity parties hate her brash mannerisms.
Temenos throws foodstuffs into his blue fire while Throne eats a raspberry pie, with a small vial of blood. She downs it like a shot and cringes. “I’m half vampire,” she said. “I must consume a small amount of blood to survive, though I hate the sight of it.”
The three talked and Agnea learned a lot about each of their worlds. After the meal, Hikari invited Agnea to view the gardens.
The gardens are breathtaking. Flanked by stone torches are tall hedges, statues, and hundreds of red roses.
“Roses are a rarity in Ku, my old home. It’s been lost to sand for centuries.”
“You must have seen and done a lot, Hikari…”
Unlike most, Agnea cared not for the coin Hikari has collected but his endless adventures. It warmed his dead decaying heart.
“Before I turned I was heir to an empire. War and bloodshed dominated all things. I lost my father to my older brother and then my best friend when he tried to kill me. I lay mortally wounded, thinking my eyes would rest on the stars with frightening finality. That’s when my tactician found an old friend, and he turned me into a vampire. I vowed to never draw my blades again –unless I’m defending my friends or rescuing someone.”
“You must miss them,” Agnea’s soft voice made Hikari’s soul pang painfully of loss. “Even if they betrayed you, they mattered to you,”
“Deeply,” Hikari nodded.
“You probably wished to spend the rest of your days with them.”
“That’s why I wish to forge better friendships, not only for me, but to help the world. I want world peace even if it is impossible to achieve.”
They are lost further and further into the gardens which become more surreal with every step. Whimsically surreal. Hikari mirrors his pace with Agnea, his voice breaking with emotion. “Do you remember me?”
This question stabs Agnea like a knife. “You do look familiar.”
“You saved my life, Agnea.”
“What?!”
Hikari explains. He had moved to New Delsta with his coven trying to find a new sanctuary. But many like to hunt supernaturals for sport and profit. An elf stalked him from the shadows and on a rainy day, where deafening thunder and pelting rain masked all sound, he struck.
The elf overpowered Hikari’s agility and superhuman strength, stabbed him multiple times, attacked with weapons blessed with light magic. Blades sliced, burning Hikari’s flesh like snake’s venom. He can’t tell who the elf is but the being menacingly hangs over him, ready to give the vampire a fatal blow. Hikari writhes helplessly in the streets, his magic and strength waning dangerously fast.
Singing. Beautiful singing saves his life. Someone is approaching and the elf flees –it is against the law to hunt quarry in New Delsta, and so he decides to swing by later to gather the vampire’s corpse for riches in his elf kingdom. Agnea Bristarni freezes, her eyes gleaming fearfully at the disheveled man lying in his own pool of blood.
Rushing to his side, abandoning any sense of danger to her persons, she examines the injured man. His clothes are shredded, his hair sticking to his face, his eyes wide and wild. Hikari Ku looked like he’d fall apart into a bundle of bones and rags any minute. “C’mon sir,” Agnea pulled his weightlessly weak body up and lends an arm for support. “Let’s get you to the clinic!”
Thankfully he saw a nurse in time but when he arrived into the hospital, Agnea was ushered away by staff. Hikari, in his weakened state, could only remember the red rose and the woman’s voice. When he recovered he had Throné search the city for Agnea –and she found her at Gil’s bar.
“From that moment I wanted two things. To thank you for saving my life and to never lose you again,” he clasped his hands over hers. “I’d like to think one day, you’ll see me as a lover. Vampire or not a man knows when he has found his other half.”
Agnea smiled sweetly. “How about a date, then? We could go to Gil’s.”
Hikari mirrored her warmth. “I’d like that. It’s been ages since I went into the city.”
Wedding bells toll deafeningly through the hillside. A full moon highlights the lovely event. Guests gather as the couple exchange vows. They stand on an outdoor balcony under an arc of roses. Agnea Bristrani is anxious –who would be on their wedding day? But she’s also hopeful. With Hikari, her afterlife won’t be so scary. Together, they’ll spend their eternity to the fullest until the last day of earth arrives.
Hikari sinks his teeth into Agnea’s neck and injects a vampire’s icy magic into her veins. It hurts for a moment and then all warmth disappears from her body. Her heart may forever be still but her soul is alight with renewed strength and mana. All her humane weaknesses are gone. She a loving wife to Hikari and now part of the ancient Ku coven.
After a cheerful wedding ceremony, they depart on a long honeymoon. Doing what? Exploring the world. Hikari’s friend Partitio a Kobold, is a captain of a huge ship. Hikari, Agnea, Throné, and Temenos would join Partito and sail across the world not only treasure-seeking but to see lost beauties past Solaris.