Chronicles of Contessa: The Tale of Ventroth

The arrowhead line bursts forward and the white army is in shock, the men with body-length shields keep running forward while us three were running with them. WE had reached the first boat, all of us leapt from the safety of the arrowhead formation and cut down the enemy from outside. Lucca dived downward spinning like a top with his blade spinning like a fierce wind. Enea fought like deadly demon, direct and straightforward each clash being parried so he could counter. I knocked a foes blade up and seized his neck with my fangs ripping his throat away and hungrily moving from each soldier to the next.
Lucca jumped into the sky and landed on the boat, all the remaining knights charged bravely but foolishly, Lucca made short work of them. At the helm watching Lucca with an anxious face was Andrastos arms crossed and sword in his sheath. Lucca killed the remaining knights on the boat and walked toward their leader with no pause at all. Lucca swung and Andrastos with predatory speed was in the middle of the boat arms still crossed, Lucca turned to him.
“Such haste… why not savour this last moment of yours?” he says while Lucca moves toward him again.
“If my last moment comes here then let it, but your head will not be grinning or anywhere near your vampiric body, for you shall die as well!” he says and they fight again.
Still on the plank Enea and I were back to back, squaring off against the enemies that encircled us 360 degrees. Above us there were flashes of green lightning as Veeba desperately fought against the white queen in the air, shockwaves of magical weavings and spells shocked us all below. But we were winning the forces of the white army were backing off if not being forced to the sea with our arrowhead move. It was here when I was injured, I didn’t guard my left arm while I killed one foe. The sword cut deep and I grunted, Enea saw this and heaved a spear from the wooden plank at my attacker, it saw to his end but his sword was still in my arm and I fell to one knee.
Lucca was distracted while fighting Andrastos and saw I had fallen to my knee, Andrastos put more pressure of the Lizaberian Shadow. Enea called for more men to come and guard me, I pulled the sword and my black vampire blood spurted forth and on the wood and dead faces. The wound was already healing from my power,
“Is it bad?” Enea said while fighting off more knights.
“Not for long” I replied the wound closed and the last few drops stained my dark robe. I stood and beheaded a knight with my sword, Enea smiled at my strength and he and I continued the battle. Lucca was being forced to the aft of the boat while Andrastos fought with all his vampiric power, it was nearly too much for him.
Lucca was at his limit, Andrastos could keep going his energy was limitless and he let Lucca know this by laying down blow after blow. Lucca finally made a mistake, He moved to dodge an overhead attack but Andrastos faked it and swung upward knocking Lucca’s blade from his hand. Lucca stepped backward just enough so the blade would miss his head, but it slashed something that was far more important to Lucca then his life. The Lizaberian mask upon his face was sliced cleanly in two, and the battle stopped.
My blade was frozen in mid-air, all of ours were, Enea was stopped in time slaying two knights with a short axe and his sword. Andrastos smiled frighteningly and stepped backward, the only two who could move were the Shadow and his fallen comrade. Lucca’s mask fell, one side then the other once hitting the ground they became ash and swirled into nothing with the wind. Above us Veeba and the white queen were paused in the middle on conjuring their magic as the heavens were alight with their flames of pink and orange that spread across the blue ocean sky like wings of a great dragon. Lucca fell to his knees as a tear from his pale and beautiful face fell for the first time in a great time. His red eyes looking about in disbelief hair from his cloak fell about his countenance and the hood from his cloak fell back. Andrastos prepared his sword and Lucca looked at him directly in sadness and anger,
“You betray the face of Lizaberia… all their teachings…” Lucca says his voice no longer masked by the magic of the veil.
“I betray nothing that did not betray me first old friend, prepare your self for the void!” Andrastos says and he stabs for Lucca.

In the heat of that very moment Lucca smiled, I did not know why when facing certain doom would he force a smile but in an instant that I was asking this question was it rectified…

There was a sparkle at first, one so small that it would be overlooked but I am a vampire. The moment we were trapped in was like the absence of time, ever so slowly the blade inched toward Lucca’s unprotected chest. The sparkles multiplied and shone like stars, in a sudden burst the sparkles ignited into sparks of pure blue flame. White at its core and flickering blue like the tongue of a serpent, it surrounded Lucca from head to toe and he stared at the blade that came toward him in a mocking manner. Andrastos could not stop as the Lizaberian Shadow stood with such ease, he took the blade and moved it aside while Andrastos remained in that slow movement of time. This was what happened when the mask of Lizaberia fell, it created a rift so powerful that none could escape.
Lucca took the blade from Andrastos’s hand and turned it on its master, his assailant was in absolute shock. Lucca stabbed Andrastos with all the fury of the known world sending him flying back and returned us all to present time. Enea’s two foes fell dead and the white army stumbled back dumbstruck. I looked at Lucca his hair was fluttering like it was caught in a breeze as with his cloak. The stab sent a shockwave of blue fire that shot out like an orb of energy, Andrastos flew in the air off of the ship and into his minions that stood below. Out of fear they all retreated Andrastos in hand still conscious but with a face of anger and pain.
We all watched as our brethren lift up from the ground and held his hand at the white queen, Lucca’s hand outstretched at the evil heiress of the white army. She moved to counter but she was frozen like Andrastos, and as helpless. Lucca’s blue flame engulfed her and she let out a scream like the ancient banshee before exploding with blue and orange light that twinkled into the air. The white queen was dead, and her captain horrendously wounded I knew that if he was a vampire the wound would heal.
The army of light was in chaos, some of the ships further out having seen the explosion of their queen had already turned tail and fled. Enea let his blade fall as he looked at his brother, the fire of his power burning brighter still. The boat that Lucca stood upon had been decimated and was sinking, it swiftly lowered and Lucca stepped off onto the plank where we all stood. The remains of the boat thudded with the sand beneath and pieces of wood still remained in eyesight.
Lucca’s flame disappeared in an instant and he began to fall, Enea and I caught him as he toppled over and he lay face-up toward the sky. We were all silent and watched Abraham Brunelle came through the crowd and looked on the king’s son. I looked to the tallest tower of the kingdom and saw Alexandria clinging to the stone so hard it was making her bleed, and I looked down at Lucca as he breathed heavily. Veeba came from the sky and landed near us he came to Lucca’s side and made a red flame and pressed it to the fallen Shadow.
Lucca looked at all of us crowded around him,
“Is… she safe?” he suddenly asked, “my sister…?” he said and continued to breathe heavily. We all nodded,
“She saw you save her kingdom… she saw it all” Enea said, I was at a loss for words.
“Good… it is good then” he spoke softly and his breathing faded Veeba intensified the red flame. He was indeed beautiful his face was still one of innocence, yet in the mask commanded so much fear and now he looked so very frail to me. His grip on his sword tightened, and Enea’s eyes swelled with tears and I gripped his body tighter. Brunelle held his hand to his mouth and dropped his blade and it fell to the bodies that were strewn on the wood.
“Do not go…” Enea said the words coming out with effort, “my brother… do not go” he said again and held Lucca close. Lucca looked deep into Enea’s eyes before his breath shortened and he sighed falling limply into our arms.
There was a silence like I have never heard as the breath left him, this warrior of the Shadow. Birds were silenced, tears fell like drops of rain from Enea’s eyes but he made no sound, Veeba’s flame stayed on his chest with a soft murmur of fire.

All was quiet like the Shadow itself.




“He shall… live” Veeba said and we all turned to him swiftly, “the power nearly destroyed him and he is dormant but he shall live” Veeba said and we all looked at Lucca with relief. Enea hugged him and cried heavily into the cloak, I looked up and saw Nelchael watching me as a tear fell from my eye his great wings fully stretched. Next to Nelchael was another angel, blinding white robes and dove wings and he smiled before stepping upward and disappearing into air. The battle was won, an injured hero the death of their monarch and the deserting of the enemy. The day was done… and just one chronicle of my tale has ended good friends, Contessa’s kingdom has a great many stories… and I… merely held one of the quills.

Life here has changed me forever as all who do, read on… and know the journey.

The End