Chapter One – Lost In The Telling

1773 - Winter



The first spoke out. “This is a problem.”

“It is starting. I can feel it.” Agreed the second.

“Something must be done.” Concurred the third.

“And soon.” Completed the fourth.

In a place overlooking the world, a place where no being that dwelled within it could see, five once-humans sat gazing down at the earth that belonged to them. They sat in a circle, placed high on magnificent chairs of spun gold, silver and bronze which levitated in the air. In between them, a swirling vortex showed to them the object of their attention.

“Under which separation does he lie?” The first asked, looking out to his four companions, looking for a way to rid himself of the responsibility that had befallen them all.

A responsibility they had once accepted in such haste – the hubris of the young.

The four looked back at him, silent in contemplation.

Finally the fifth spoke for the first time, her voice soft and calm. “He is in the centre.”

“What are we to do?” The third asked in fear, his youthful face suddenly giving away his age of many millennia’s.

“What can we do?!” The fourth completed.

“Nothing.” The fifth spoke again.

“Nothing?!” The other four replied, shocked and in tandem.

“It is done.” She continued, as if they had never spoken, and indicated the moving pictures below. Her coterie turned and gasped, as below them a vampire was made. His thin wire glasses fell to the ground as the vampiress who was to sire him bit deeper and harder, moaning in delight as his blood ran down her throat and coursed through her dead veins.

“This changes everything.” The second accused, his hard eyes staring out to his associates.

“Perhaps.” The fifth agreed, her voice serene.

“The balance is in jeopardy—” The first began, only to be interrupted by the fifth, his one-time lover.

“Yes, it is, but not yet by him. Look.” The vortex swirled below them, moving away from the heart of Britannia, to another part of its empire. The Americas.

“They will destroy this Earth!” The third cried out in dismay, as below them the American War of Independence began to turn in favour of the settlers.

“They can not win!” Concurred the fourth.

“But what can be done?” The second asked.

The fifth slowly sat back as the first responded, followed by the third, satisfied as the new debate continued over her head. The matter of the Vampire, the one who would become William the Bloody, was lost for the time being.

For fair means or foul.



TBC...