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Lux took a sip from her blood-filled goblet, the polished gold and bright jewels of the extravagant cup reflecting a mocking shine at her as she downed the last of the blood supply, the iron-tasty liquid numb to her tongue and mouth as she put the goblet down and addressed what was once her dining room. The elongated table, somehow, was still standing despite the battle that just broke out. The wood was charred and a bit carbonized around it, but otherwise still standing.
Lux glanced at the eighteen empty chairs that were meant to be occupied by her fellow vampires and fledgelings, knowing well that they would remain empty and unoccupied for the rest of her existence. Lux sighed as she stood up from her main chair, the once decorated and carefully crafted seat now turned into an almost charcoal seat if one would use their imagination to their fullest.
Lux walked down to the chambers where her vampires once would go to take a rest and replenish their energy when blood wouldn’t, her steps the only noise as she walked through the charred and blackened walls and floor of her once outstanding… twelfth… castle? Honestly, Lux didn’t know if this was her twelfth castle that she had to build from the ground up after the eleventh one (which one that was again. The one near the mountains or the one near the lush cave?) was destroyed. If one needed a complete answer from her, she would respond that time has claimed her memory (she was capable of remembering, mind you the situation she was currently in).
Lux’s steps echoed through the tunnel that she and her coven mined in order to create the chambers, memories flooding her numbed mind as she could perfectly recall when and where each event happened as she went down to her own chamber, the one at the far end that was right in the middle of the crossroad leading to the additional chambers for their newest and most recent members.
The sound of metal hitting her heels prompted Lux to look down and see what it was. When she bent down and removed the ashes and soot from the hidden object on the floor, her long-ago dead heart was beat with a heartbeat when she found Cass’ locket, the necklace somehow surviving the inferno that her owner went through during the battle that she so undeservedly survived through.
Lux quickly picked up the locket and tried to open it with an aghast expression, the tiny red metal object still looking pristine and clean as if nothing wrong happened. The hinge was a bit stuck when Lux tried to open it but she managed to pry it open and see if the content of the necklace was still intact inside. Two perfectly kept pictures filled in the locket, one of Cass and her pink-dyed snow white hair (Lux chuckled through her sobs at the fond time Cass wanted to dye her hair and pestered her until she relented), and the other one of…
Lux gasped at the sight of Ari’s face. Sweet and cheerful Ari, her cursed existence taken away cruelly by the humans’ wrath. Lux felt blood tears swelling up at the corner of her eyes as she was sobbing, the fond memories the only thing keeping her from breaking into cries of sorrow. Lux remembered the day that Ari joined her coven, being their most recent addition and the one that all vampires agreed was the most meaningful one. One downside with her was her quite-naive attitude and her personality, but that dangerous energy was what kept the coven in high spirits throughout the years. Her naivety, however, started to decrease as she saw more of the horror that life kept hidden from her, but it never truly killed her spirit as she kept cheering and smiling at the others, especially at her.
-0-0-0-
Lux solemnly stared at the two bodies that occupied the spacious chamber meant for a lovely recently wedded couple. One of the bodies was charred and burned, the once pale and beautiful skin now the color of black charcoal, too burned to be any recognizable person. The other one was of a young woman who just began her 20s, her grayish brown hair carefully brushed and wearing the wedding dress she wore for “the most enchanted day of her life.”
The two bodies were laid carefully on their respective tombs, so they would be positioned in a way that would allow them to be facing the other that they swore to live with through eternity. Lux took a heavy sigh before bringing in the small table with her, placing it right in the middle of the chamber where she put the tombs at. Once the table was set, she took one last look at the locket on her hands, trying to memorize the pictures of the necklace as if she would forget them the moment she pried her eyes away from them.
Closing the locket and leaving it on top of the table, Lux once again closed the doors of the chamber, the silence momentarily breaking by the creaking of the door before ceasing and allowing silence to fall upon Lux once more. Lux then grabbed the hammer that was left on the wall of the tunnel and headed straight down to the entrance of the chambers, thinking on her way whether or not she was strong enough to collapse the entrance or if she needed to do one last feeding to do so.
-0-0-0-
Lux carefully folded her dress before wrapping it on the fabric. She then stored the now safely kept dress on the hidden compartment of her chamber, hiding it with the removed stone brick of the wall. Lux was currently wearing a simple white dress, technically it was the dress she used as her nightgown whenever she wished for a quick and peaceful slumber, as she made sure that the hidden compartment was well hidden before going towards her tomb which was the most decorated and biggest of all the other vampires.
She hated the thing with all her soulless being. The tomb served as a constant reminder that she was the eldest of her covens, the one supposed to lead her vampires and fledgelings to safety and prosperity, in which not a single one has ever lived long enough to witness the feat. If it wasn’t because Lux was too tired to bother with the mocking construct of stone, she would have smashed it into tiny pebbles and invisible dust with her own hands and claws.
But never mind that. She was tired, too tired to be woken up from her slumber. Lux’s eyes started to close as she laid herself on her tomb, her strength faltering as she tried to pull the lid of the tomb in place so no one would disturb her slumber. A loud crash resounded through the depressing tunnel of the chambers as the last vampire of the Blightlight Coven and of Sunspire fell into a deep slumber, never wishing to be awakened or disturbed ever again.