Valyria's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

On the night Valyria turned twenty-one, she asked her father the one question he had spent her whole life avoiding. She found him in the tower of Nightspire Keep, the black castle where she had grown up. Red light glowed through the narrow windows. Dracula stood at the tall glass, watching the dark, his cloak still as stone. "Father," she said. "I want to know about my mother." He did not turn. Valyria crossed the cold floor. Her black gown whispered against the stone. She was a vampire princess, pale and dark-haired, and she had everything a daughter could want. Her father had never locked her inside these walls. He had only wanted her happy. But happiness had a hole in it now, and the hole had a shape. "You never speak of her," Valyria said. "I don't even know her name. I know she was human. I know she left the night I was born. That's all." Dracula's hands tightened on the windowsill. "I hoped you would never ask," he said. "I hoped you would stay content." "I love you," she said. "That hasn't changed. But I need this." He was quiet a long moment. Then he turned, and his red eyes held a pain she had never seen in them. "She was mortal," he said. "She fell in love with me, which no sane woman should. When you were born, she was afraid. Not of you. Of what you might become. Of me." His voice cracked on the last word. "So she asked to leave. And I let her go." Valyria's chest hurt. "You let her go? Just like that?" "I would not cage her." His jaw was tight. "I gave her leave at first light. I thought I was being kind." He stopped. His hands opened and closed. "She left before the dawn. She did not say goodbye she just left." The room went silent. Valyria stared at him. "Oh father why have you never shared this with me.” Valyria whispered. "It was easier than the truth," Dracula said. "This world is so big I would not even know where to look for her." Valyria wiped her face. “Then perhaps I should go and get answers." Dracula looked away. "I never want you to leave" he admitted. "But I know you’re grown and you’re ready" Valyria stood straighter. Dracula took Valyria’s hands and kissed them.