Chapter Text
JACKS
Pain.
The pain coursing through his body was white-hot and searing, blocking out every other sensation from Jacks’s mind. Jacks was no stranger to pain, but this was one of the worst he’d ever felt.
“Jacks, stay with us .”
Jacks couldn’t have responded even if he wanted to. His body was flashing hot and cold, and he swore beads of sweat dotted his forehead despite his usually cold temperature. Not a good sign. The noises he was making sounded like they belonged to a wounded animal, which he supposed he was.
I swear I’ll kill him. Chaos’s - no, now Castor’s - face surfaced in his mind. Then, right before everything went black, there was just another name on his mind: Evangeline.
The next time Jacks opened his eyes, he was no longer in the Valor hallway.
A groan slipped past his lips. His body felt heavy, weighed down by an invisible force. He tried to sit up to look around the room, but could only succeed at a pathetic arch in his back before he had to give up and lie down again.
Everything hurt. He closed his eyes to try to recall what had happened. Before he could even scramble together a thought, the door burst open.
“You,” he snarled. Standing in the doorway were the two last people he wanted to see.
At least the male had the gall to look somewhat ashamed. His sister, however, was smiling as if nothing had happened. It was a smile that had always rubbed Jacks the wrong way.
“Jacks, you’re awake!” Aurora Valor said unhelpfully. “You took quite a nasty bite there. Are you alright?” She cooed.
Jacks’s piercing blue eyes remained on Castor, hostility open in them. “You could have killed her.” You did. If his body wasn’t deadweight right now, Jacks would have leapt up and twisted Castor’s neck sharply to the side.
Breathe, he tried to tell himself, knowing nothing good ever came out of Aurora seeing his weakness. Yet the rage was blinding and all-consuming, Evangeline’s lifeless body in his arms replaying constantly in his mind with the whispered pleas, in a tone he’d never heard his voice in before, of please wake up please wake up please wake up.
“I’m sorry.” Castor said. He even looked ashamed. Yet Jacks knew he wasn’t sorry - not really. How could he be, when in this timeline he hadn’t killed an innocent girl, drained every drop of her blood? How could he, when he did not see what Jacks had seen - the fading clarity in Evangeline’s eyes, the blood that poured from the twin wounds in her neck, the finality of her eyelids fluttering shut and never reopening?
Castor was not sorry. He thought he’d made a small mistake in biting Jacks. What he really should be sorry for was removing the helm and killing Evangeline.
Jacks worked his jaw. “Get out.”
Castor’s face almost looked like it fell, but Jacks didn’t care. The vampire turned away to leave, but Aurora bounded over and dropped something on Jacks’s lap before returning to her brother’s side.
“I thought you should see this.” She said cheerfully. Jacks was immediately suspicious. Mustering all his strength, he barely managed to grip the paper and bring it to his face.
The Daily Rumour
THE PRINCE IS NOT DEAD!
By Kristof Knightlinger
T he Magnificent North has long been a mysterious place teeming with magic, but revival is surely one that’s been unheard of until today! Crown Prince Apollo Acadian has been verified to be alive, healthy, and happy with his wife, Southerner Evangeline Fox.
The Crown Prince has reached out to yours truly to deliver a statement on the ordeal. “I was cursed by Lord Jacks to be put in a permanent, unconscious sleeping state so that he may install a fraud onto the throne and puppet him. However, he has underestimated what true love can do in our Northern parts. My wife’s true kiss successfully lifted the curse. However, it seems that the whole incident has terrified her, and she has lost most of her memories, including our time together. Or perhaps, this is another one of Lord Jacks’s evil misdeeds to ruin the happiness of those around him.
This is but a trivial matter for I, Apollo Acadian, will see to it that new, happier memories are made. To this end, the whole of Valorfell is cordially invited to our re-wedding. Yes, you heard that right - a re-wedding. The forgetting of the happiest day of our lives is no small matter, and so I’ve decided to host another, grander one for Evangeline Fox. Everyone is invited to join the celebrations. It will take place over three days and three nights, to symbolise the vigil she kept for me despite being wrongfully accused of my death.
While this is indeed happy news, there must also be a note of caution. Lord Jacks - formally my friend - is a dangerous individual who will freely harm the people of Valorfell for his own goals. If anyone has details on his whereabouts, share them with your stationed officer immediately. There is a grand reward of --
The paper crumpled in Jacks’s clenched fist.