Orgin of the Crimson Eye

Jp with Thaen
231 YBTR, Somewhere in Sarnia

Red, that's all Lenore could see. She heard someone screaming, the metallic taste filled her mouth. She had no idea it had begun, but the son of a whore that took her love had said something about the innocent boy he slaughtered, tried to use her. Make her his puppet.

Yet, she had resisted. Now, here she was, finally calming herself. Only then, did she realize the screaming she heard was her own, the taste was his flesh in her maw, and the red was his insides she tore apart. She watched as the vampire who ruined her life began to burn away, leaving only his blackened bones. She looked at her clawed hands in horror; in a rush of emotions she blankly stared at his corpse. She decided to grip onto what she felt; grief, sadness, and pain. She began to weep, though her tears were no longer that of saltwater but of blood. She continued to weep, What had I done, what did I do, what have I become? All these thoughts screamed at her, and all she could do was weep at what this had cost.

The wounds the vampire lord Huzan Barov had inflicted were disappearing as she cried, though a new feeling began to permeate her. It was a sense of freedom from some unseen chain, the one part of the vampirism that tied a neonate to a master. It was a hollow feeling that she possessed, for how could she go on forever without her love?

The air seemed to tremble at that moment, when the bloody tears came to a stop. Her heightened hearing had lost the rushing in them, noticing that the guards were no longer pounding to try and break in. No, now the air was heavy with the sounds of screams.

"Our Lord is not to be-- Argh!"

The sound of some force thundered dully behind the heavy iron doors. A dark voice echoed upon the air.

~~

"Thy wish to make haste a summons of thou Master, vampyr," spoke the empowered voice of the masked Red Wizard. His gauntleted hand strangled the vampire in the air, fingers creaking as the hand tightened. Ulan, Captain of Veran, did not need to breathe. He used this height to survey the scene behind the wizard, horrified.

Behind the empowered sorcerer, petrified and still burning remains of the coven lay shattered in his wake as the golden mask glistened in the torchlight. Eyes sought the holes and found something that hinted at what was supposed to be there before Gelt released him.

"The doors are barred, the guards inside-"

He felt a stiffness grow from his chest, clothes and flesh turning as golden as the Red Wizard's visage. He turned and cried for help, any help; he pounded the door and called for his lord, only to cease all thought a moment later. Gelt turned his attention to the doors. His staff angled slightly towards them, his will focused on the elements. The iron spilled as quicksilver and congealed as if clay into silver finish.

"Poor choice. Poor choice indeed," Bathlazaar Gelt spoke.

Once through the doors Gelt discovered something odd; where Lord Huzan Barov would have been, seated on his red throne of iron and cowering in his treasonous fear, there was only a small vampire woman, kneeling before the blackened bones of what could only be the vampire lord.

Lenore did not turn to face the doors, "Sorry to tell you, but Huzan Barov met an unfortunate fate." She lifted his skull, "I killed him." She dropped the skull, her face was streaked with her tears of blood, some of her tears that hit the floor could be seen by the wizard of legendary power, knowing these tears were not for Huzan's death. To be anywhere in his path was death and destruction.

Gelt felt nothing at this. He had come here to break Barov to his will, to better dominate the vampire so that he knew whom not to betray. The fact that Huzan had met his end at this young vampire's taloned hands was one last task The Changed One had to perform. Still, something had to be done. Huzan had been responsible for the multiple dig sites and his theft of the relics they had uncovered was still a problem. Many artefact pieces remained missing, now lost to the damned soul before him.

There was nothing. Her crimson tears dripped heavily onto the stone floor. After all of that, she would finally die the Final Death. Lenore sniffed, accepting her fate. For whatever reason the Red Wizard had come for, it most likely would have been for Huzan. She knew that denying such beings of power was a fate that none sought.

Nothing came to pass.

She slowly glanced up at the terrifying visage before her, confused by his silence and his lack of action. "Powerful One, do you not seek revenge? I was the one who slayed Huzan, someone you were seeking." What was this man thinking, unless he was after something. "Huzan has a vault behind his throne, hidden by an outdated blood seal, where only his blood can open it." She smirked a bit as she did feed on that bastard, meaning she was of his blood now.

His successor. Her smirk faded, "Is that why you come?"

He lowered his empty hand to her. “I comest of thy own quest. Rise,” Gelt finally spoke to her. He decided on what to do. She had just willingly given him, perhaps without conscious effort, an important piece of information. Even as her smirk faded, he saw an emptiness within her eyes. Her blood strewn claws still dripped with blood, now slowly as the crimson cooled. His hand was before her eyes, gauntlet duly reflecting the torchlight of the room. “Open thy door, or thou shall see truth in power a furious wrath.”

With that, The Crimson One raised his staff. The throne that the vampire lord had sat upon suddenly and swiftly turned to sawdust, swirling around in a cyclone to lay heavily on an illusioned door there. Still, his hand lay waiting. Here, he had given her a choice. It was a choice that needed no words, only a decision. He waited only for a few seconds, staring down at the besmeared vampiress. He could see the blood flowing into her cheeks now, a sign she had fed. The color and her sex was improved to be pleasing, had he cared about such things. The hair turned lustrous as her lips became perfectly shaped, the guantness of her cheeks reddened to that which spoke of innocence of simpler days.

The perfect prey, a vampire was. And yet, her true potential had to be learned, something that Gelt knew would be beyond what she may have been ready for. And those eyes that stared at him, he could see a loss so profound that it left a hole deep within her being. So he would give her the test.

Lenore looked down at her clawed hands, "You want me to open the door?" Without a second thought, Lenore gilded towards the locked stone door with the single hand shape lock, spikes poking out. Gelt could see the faint dark taint of ancient blood scripture circled around the lock. She gently placed her hand into the lock, the blades pierced through her claws, maroon liquid leaked down the flat stone. Once it tapped into the crimson scripture, the entire circle alighted red before the entire door itself caved into itself.

She turned to the Changed One, "Your relics, oh great one." Her tone was without emotion, without purpose.

Balthazaar stepped forward, raising his empty hand forward. An orb of gold, engraved around the diameter of the artefact, floated to his waiting hand. “Muto” he evoked. Power flowed into the room, lifting the banners along the wall into life as the gold dripped as water from his hand. Inside what was once a golden shell, a darkly glass seemed to radiate a smokey and alluring center. The gold solidified as it hit the bottom of the vault, no longer bent to his will as he raised the stone upwards. His quest complete, he turned back to the vampiress. “You have done well.”

These were the only words he said. His will snapped at the world around him, an unseen force slamming Lenore from behind and forward into the vault. She landed upon the ground, atop of malformed gold as the wards began to seal off the vault. Her eyes sought the roof, the closing aperture that beheld the Crimson One. “I leave thou in greed,” spoke the Red Wizard to her. He turned away, his gaze centered on the stone before his mask. The floor began to shift, sand trailing to fill the inbetween. Gelt took two steps before he stopped.

Lenore had taken a seat on the cold floor, she blankly watched the mage, "There is nothing of value for me here. No greed, no love, no joy. Allow me to be sealed in silence." She gently closed her eyes, accepting her fate.

The stone warped and bubbled as it shifted. The light began to slowly dim as the hole shrank. Yet, Gelt watched her still. This time, his sight came from the stone before him. He found this vampiress to be interesting. She would willingly be sealed away forever rather than be free. It was this apathetic reaction that made his third step hesitate.

He turned, raising his staff horizontal in front of him. His quick swelling of power slammed at the wards. The hole stopped and was parted evenly as it turned to clay and back to stone. Gelt looked down at the vampress now. "You speak of Nothing. Thy tongue, tis heart-laid. Dost truly hath nothing to claim, vampyr? I offer thee a quest, tis the same I walk. I tolerate nothing, deceits nor betrayal. And so shall thee find purpose in not thine world, but thou's."

Lenore looked up at him, "You suggest I join you? What is your quest, is it to stop young girls like me to be tormented, to lose those they cherish? What is your goal, your plan?" She looked at him with a sparkle of hope in her eyes, "Where do I fit in it?"

"Where thou hast made," was the empowered response. "None shall beseech thee of thy nature, if thy nature is made into our world. I offer Change, as I hath been."

The vampire woman could only smile, "I guess I'll serve you. To change this world, for the better. What shall I call you, great mage of crimson?" She tilted her head as she bowed before her new boss.

“I am He Who Has Changed, One clad in Crimson… So speaketh, Crimson One I shall be…”

Lenore bowed before Gelt, "I shall serve you then, mighty Crimson One. I shall act as your eye, your scout, your assassin."

~~