Vainglory

Chapter Forty- The Tower

Annabelle stood outside the castle for sometime as her mind brought her back to entering it the first time. How her heart and mind had been full of happiness for a better future. She arrived a virginal innocent who was the target of a bloodthirsty Countess, she would leave now fulfilled in life as she survived her.

Pushing open the doors, she saw the ghost of herself move through the castle from memory. She moved to her old room and obtained something from her secret window and moved towards the tower. A guard jumped to his feet as he saw her. Annabelle slipped him one-hundred pieces of gold to leave them be without confessing her presence to anyone. He agreed and left them alone.

It had been months since Elizabeth was confined to the tower and she looked sickly. Her skin was becoming wrinkled, her hair was dry, her lips were chapped, and her eyes were wide from her mental deterioration. When she saw Annabelle, her mind became wild. She jumped for her before Annabelle teased her with blood from her own hand. Elizabeth ceased the attack and sat on the chair she was given.

"I came here to talk, not to fight, to end this."

"You come to me now? Why wait so long?" Her voice was dry from lack of water as she only took blood-and it was not given to her.

"I was unsure exactly what to say. At first, I wanted to kill you after you burned my village. I wanted to kill you when I discovered you were my mother. I wanted you alive when I saw the humanity when you lost Gabrell. I wanted you alive in that courtroom so you could hear how they wanted you dead. I want you alive to suffer what you have done. You have taken the lives of young girls who know only the kindness you showed them. You blame Gabrell leaving you for the reason you became like this. I know from deep inside your core to the tip of your heart, your only true love was the bloodlust you felt."

"So why are you here to confess that?"

"I am here to finally get closure. You kept me here a year. Each day being tortured and kept away from my love. One who is now soon to be a father. I trembled at your feet since I first met you. Trying to survive since the day I walked in here. And now, how the roles have reversed. You and I have changed very extremely. Instead of me being chained, it is you. I can see you withering away." She began to grow angry before Annabelle brought her a handheld mirror. She gave it to Elizabeth who froze as she saw her reflection.

"You were once the most beautiful woman in all of Hungary, all of Europe. You were seen as a hero to most, until you became dark. It was your own doing, your selfishness, your desire to remain young. You have a soul marked for hell. That is why I did not want you dead at the trial, even now, I want you to live." She paused. "You need to spend each day contemplating everything from losing Hansefer to Gabrell to me. To losing the ability to give orders and obtain accomplices. To not being able to threaten. Even if you were to strangle me here and now or hurt me, I have chosen to forgive you."

"Forgive me? I do not need your forgiveness girl..."

"I need yours." She took the comb from her hair and gently traced it on her skirt and saw how it had been wet with the poison the end. Moving to Elizabeth, she scraped her with the tip and Elizabeth took the blood and placed it upon her lip.

"You idiot. You assisted my-my...my.."She suddenly fell to the floor and clung onto her stomach.
"Guard!" She screamed before Annabelle got up and swept off her dress before Annabelle moved to the door. She closed it as Elizabeth began to crawl towards the door. Expecting to see an empty hall, she found Annabelle's sharp gaze.

"I thought you wanted me to live..."

"I wanted you to live for them. To suffer for the crimes you committed. But sitting before you, I see you fear death more than isolation. They deserve justice-I deserve justice. And now just as it is should be...just as you are...You are rotting from the inside out."

"You coward!"

"I confessed my sins. You should quickly before it's took late." Annabelle said as she descended down the stairs and looked to the tower as she left the castle and left to her home. Upon entering the home, she was swept into Hans's arms as he gave her a large kiss. His armor clinked on the table as it fell to the floor and dinner was steaming on the table as IvyLynn sat upon the far chair and hugged her as she entered. He saw how her hands trembled and saw how she was pale.

"How did you do it?" Hans asked as IvyLynn stood abreast from them.

Annabelle took the hairpin which she wrapped in her handkerchief before giving it back to IvyLynn. "I do not want to have this any longer." She paused. "By the time they discover her, her body will be decayed. They will think it was from her starving herself or possibly the rats eating away at her flesh. As for the guard, I am sure he is probably at the local brothel drowning his sorrows and stresses into women and wine, maybe even gambling..."

"And how are you?"

"I feel as though my conscience is stained with a death. But the death of a demon, not a human..."

"And how are you going to get past it? Having a life on your conscience?"

"I told you. She was not human. Even looking at her eyes...they were black. No color. No remorse. Just hatred, anger, even sadness. Deep seeded sadness."

"And you left unseen?"

"Of course."

IvyLynn placed her hand upon Annabelle's stomach before taking Hans's to do the same. Suddenly, a kick was felt.

"How did you-" IvyLynn just smiled before removing her hand. "I told you, there is a time for answers, and a time for questions. This moment, is neither. It is a moment to bask in your blessings. The wedded bliss, the upcoming child, the protected housing, and the knighting. You should take these moments in place of the nightmares. You should look at that child and see a product of peace, not of war."

"And of love." Hans said as Annabelle blushed.

"And of strength." Annabelle chimed in.

"And of hope." They all said in unison.

The fire roared bright as Annabelle suddenly felt another kick on her stomach. She sat in front of the fire as Hans sat behind her, so she could lean on him. His arms were wrapped around her arms.

"What do you want to name her? or him?"

"I want to name it after someone who we lost. Someone who saved us."

"Who?"

"Dorothea. I would like to name her Thea."

"And if it is a boy?"

"After Gabrell. Brell even."

"Enchanting. Perfect." He said as he kissed her cheek.

"If it is a boy, can we teach him to fight to defend his mother when I am not present?"

"What if it is a girl? She can defend the residence just as well."

And just like that, with their strange, intense, passionate, stained, strong, and everlasting relationship, they lived happily ever after. Through the pain of Bathory and the life with their daughter, they lived each day as if it were the last, raising Thea to love, be strong, and always honest. Annabelle changed her name to Belle and lived her life helping those with medicine alongside IvyLynn. Hans became one of the most infamous knights in all the villages and kingdoms, often being promoted to the King's right-hand knight. As for Bathory, just as it is written or spoke in legend, she was discovered in her tower by a curious guard who wished to see the woman who used to be so beautiful. Instead, he found the shell of a demonic soul whose death was a mystery much like her life. She was buried under a stone alongside her husband and was visited by Belle who told Thea, along with her other children of the legend of Elizabeth Bathory; the vainglory of the world, The Blood Countess...

THE END