"Vincent Arc is here, Talamayas. Shall I send him away?" Shan asked as Tala sat up on his throne in preparation to torture the Songs his men had brought in. Always at his side, Shan was his most loyal general, and he'd wept for the loss of his mother just as hard.
"No, show him in. It would be rude of me to refuse the new Arc monarch, and I could use a distraction." Talamayas relaxed into the stone of his throne and sifted through his mind for information about the Arcs.
Vampires did not normally visit him, so he wondered what he wanted? Nicholas Arc had left his family to be a councilman, a higher that led all houses, so he'd sired an heir for his people. The house would have normally passed to the first general, but Ares Arc had apparently declined leadership for a human that Nicholas had fancied for a time as a new leader.
Vincent Arc entered the room with far too much pride for what should be a humble house head. Newer leaders needed to curry favor with men like him, but this one stood up tall, long white hair trailing his lower back over a lavish cloak, and he had peculiar crimson eyes. It was a recessive gene in humans that rarely changed lighter eyes to crimson and almost always was the same for an entire bloodline.
"Talamayas," Vincent greeted him, finally bowing his head and dropping to a knee. In doing so, the man revealed a small human behind him, and Talamayas cranked an eyebrow nearly up to his hairline. "My son," Vincent quickly said, yanking the boy down to a knee though he hadn't needed to.
He was tiny enough.
"Welcome, Vincent Arc. What is it the Sols can do for you?" Talamayas asked, no more interested in dealing with this man than he was in being conscious most days. Without his mother, he was a wreck, and he wasn't the nicest person to be around.
"I have heard tales of your power and grace, Talamayas," Vincent said.
Talamayas groaned from the unnecessary praise. The man wanted something and he'd better spit it out before he entertained thoughts of torturing him.
"My son shall be changed when the time comes, but until then, I was hoping you might consider taking him under your wing for tutelage. I am new to this world, and I want my son to learn as much as he can about our kind."
"You want to leave your child here?" Talamayas asked, hiding his repulsion as much as possible as he glanced down at the boy. With blue eyes and the lightest blond hair trailing his chin, he was small even for a human of his age. Not only skinny, the boy trembled when Tala laid eyes on him. He was so pale that it was hard to look at him in comparison to the bronze skin of his men.
"I want him to be the strongest and the smartest, so I wish to do my best to prepare him. You are skilled in battle, intelligent as any commander, and I can think of no one else prouder of his people. I wish for you to instill this in my son. I would be honored if the Sols would aid my house, and I would be forever in your debt."
Shan was about to decline for him, but Tala stood from his throne, stepped off the dais, and walked to the boy, mostly ignoring Vincent as he crouched in front of the kid. The boy looked up him like he was a mountain until he found his red eyes. When he saw them, his lips fell open and his eyes widened in curiosity but also fear, as he must know he was a vampire like his father.
"Would you like to learn some things about vampires?" Tala asked kindly.
Vincent looked to his son sharply when he knew the boy's words would decide this, but the boy didn't see anything but a foreign vampire in front of him. The question didn't even make it past the boy's eyes exploring Tala's dark skin, finding the red sun painted on his upper arm. Before Vincent could stop him, the boy reached up and touched the red points of the painted claws that stretched out onto his lower abdomen.
"Do you like my tattoos?" Talamayas asked, his gaze softening.
The boy yanked his hand back and gave a timid nod.
"Do you speak?" Talamayas chuckled, but the boy still didn't make a peep.
He was so shy but strong enough to be curious where others might cry or cower. Talamayas stood and looked to Vincent's waiting stance. Apprehension crawled over the Arc leader, and Tala could see the displeasure on his face at how quiet his son was. This man wanted a warrior, something to rule with him, and if Tala didn't take him, he knew the boy would be punished. More so, if Tala looked too soft, Vincent wouldn't leave him here either.
"Your son has some work, I see," Talamayas said, hardening his expression.
"Yes. That is why I wished to leave him with the best," Vincent said almost desperately.
"Very well. I will train him, but if I do so, you must leave him to me until you plan to change him. It will confuse him to bow to two masters, so I will need his full attention on me and my regimen."
"You will allow me to see his progress?" Vincent asked, surprisingly unconcerned about leaving his last living namesake in a stranger's hands.
"Of course. As you wish, but for the first few months, you must leave him to me alone. I need him to separate from his attachment to you, and that takes time, especially for the timid ones."
"I understand," Vincent said, bowing his head again. "Thank you for taking my son."
The asshole didn't even say goodbye, just turned from his son and walked away. At first, the boy was confused and went to follow, but Shan moved to stop him with a gentle hand. Once the boy realized he was being left, tears lined his eyes and he started to cry.
Not even then.
Vincent never turned back.
Talamayas didn't know a lot about human children, but he knew they didn't like the desert. It was hot, windy, and difficult to see most times. The best place to calm him was likely the garden, so he scooped up the child and took him there. The boy trembled in his arms as he carried him, clearly frightened of the way a strange vampire might treat him for crying. Any child who feared crying had been punished for it.
What did he think he was doing taking in the boy?
Maybe he just needed something to do.
Within the flat part of his castle that spread out atop the cliffsides, a small oasis sat guarded by the outer walls. They'd built up around it, so that when they went out the doors in that area, they walked straight under the desert trees. In seconds, the boy's tears dried and he looked up to the huge leaves overhead. Talamayas paused near a low hanging one to give him the chance to glide his fingers over the leaf. After, the boy looked down at the sparse desert grasses and his gaze brightened when he saw the water.
"Would you like to play?" Talamayas asked with as welcoming a smile as he could manage, but the boy still tucked his face into his shoulder like that could hide him. Had the child not been allowed to do that either? "At least sit with me."
Talamayas bent his knees to plop on the dry sand near the water's edge, and he brought the boy down to ground level. There, the boy plopped himself into a sitting position, but his eyes stared over at the water with wonder. How pitiful was it that such a young child could be so curious and open but forced to sit still and resist his urges to explore?
"Why were you crying?" Talamayas asked, and the boy flinched and lowered his head, his blond hair lightening to almost white in the waning evening sunlight. The boy thought he was chastising him. "Vincent wasn't kind to you, so why do you miss him?" Talamayas took a more direct route, and the boy lifted his light eyes with tears lining them.
"When..." the boy's voice was dry from lack of use and perhaps the difference of the desert air compared to the dense forests of the Arc territory. "When mother went away, she never came back," the boy said quietly, and Tala's eyebrows rose.
"Where did she go?" Talamayas asked very gently.
"Father said the vampire blood took her away, and that if I was weak like her, it would take me too," he whispered, tears running down his face.
Was that why Vincent was so hard on him, fear that he wouldn't survive the change? It was common for women to perish when changed, even when strong vampires sired them. It was no small wonder this boy was worried about losing his father or that he might be frightened of vampires. Weakness had nothing to do with it. In fact, sometimes the stronger women were the issue. The stronger they were, the more their bodies fought against the undead blood that tried to claim their fertility.
"What about you is weak?" Talamayas asked. It was the best way to learn about the boy, just asking questions.
"Father says I'm too small, too quiet, and too gentle," the boy ground out the list as if each word stabbed into his heart further.
"How old are you?"
"Seven," he lifted his blue eyes as if even that was shameful.
"What's your name?"
"N-Neil," he mumbled it, and Talamayas laughed, drawing his gaze.
"Well, Neil, all seven-year-olds are tiny, though some are tinier than others. Maybe you're a little skinny," Talamayas poked his side and a smile finally graced Neil's face. It lit him up into something truly adorable. "You probably should learn to talk to people. Words can be as powerful as any weapon."
"Really?" Neil asked, timid yet curious.
"Intelligence is the mark of a truly great man. Your father lashing out at you is a poor use of words. Those who are truly powerful don't need such underhanded tactics."
"Tac-tics." Neil chewed on the word, and Talamayas snorted. How did he dumb down his vocabulary for this kid?
"Fancy word for the way people do things," Talamayas said, but Neil didn't really seem like he'd gotten it, tilting his head in obvious confusion. "This last thing is the most important. Can you remember it?"
Neil nodded vigorously, eager to learn how to please his father despite what a piece of shit the man was.
"Being gentle isn't weakness."
Neil frowned as if something didn't compute.
"Those who are the strongest, have the softest hand when touching the ones they love or the men who fight by their side. I have never once struck any of my men, and when no one is looking, I am quite gentle."
"When no one is looking?" Neil asked, stuffing some of his hair behind his ear as it escaped in the wind.
"Yes. I have a face I wear to show my power and strength to those who visit, like your father. But when I am behind closed doors with my people, I let it down. I smile, laugh, and play with my people; I love them. That is what makes someone truly strong. Love, not anger. I too just lost my mother, and I am very sad. You must be sad?"
Tears flooded the boy's eyes, and Talamayas watched him struggle to keep them from falling.
"You can cry," Talamayas said, but Neil shook his head vigorously.
"Father said men don't cry," Neil managed out through half a sob.
"Your father is wrong," Talamayas said, and Neil lifted his eyes, nearly recoiling back into the lake when he saw the tears drifting down Tala's face. "When you lose someone you love, tears are natural," Talamayas lifted the boy and set him in his lap, holding his head against his chest to soothe him as the tears finally fell in mass and Neil trembled. "Tears show how much you loved that person. I loved my mother very much, so I cry a lot nowadays. Strong men cry, but at some point, they have to dry their tears and move on. How long that takes is different for everyone, and it doesn't make you weak."
Talamayas hugged the boy to his chest and allowed him to bathe his skin in anguish. It wasn't normal for Tala to show his tears to anyone, but Neil had needed it to let go and cry in his arms, to release the emotions Vincent had forced him to bottle up inside. They were so heavy that when the boy was done, he passed out right in his arms, and Talamayas stood to take him to a room to sleep.
Shan was waiting for him just inside the doors, and his general stiffened when he saw the remnants of tears on his leader's eyes. Tala didn't cry in sight of his men, though they'd heard him when he'd screamed in agony and smashed the desert rocks to dust. It didn't escape their notice when he retreated to his sleeping chambers alone and cried into the sheets before he passed out each morning. None of them knew how to deal with any of it with how rough around the edges he was. Despite what he'd said to Neil, he was a tough guy, so his people didn't know if he wanted to be touched or left alone.
"You really like the boy," Shan said instead, figuring a change in topic was best. Ignoring Tala's tears was safer for his first general, he imagined.
"I do. If I'd left him to Vincent, that man would have warped him. It will take some work, but I think I can teach him to wear a face for his father and keep himself under it. That is what he will need to survive, and despite Vincent's worries, I don't think there will be any problems changing him into one of our kind."
"The boy does have the disposition for it," Shan said with a kind smile that Talamayas mirrored.
"Yes. The gentle ones take to the blood much better than violent men. Their bodies know how to accept change, to endure in silence and allow something stronger to take them over. It's the ones that fight that die, refusing to allow the change in. Neil will make a fine vampire someday, though I wish it would be as a Sol. He's not much suited to the Arcs."
"Changing him would create a real issue, Tala," Shan warned, and Tala shrugged it off.
"It is not of issue now. He has at least fifteen years before that will happen, maybe more if he grows slowly as some his age do. Judging from his father's height and weight, Neil will grow. His father isn't bulky himself, so I'm unsure why the man expects his son to just be born a warrior."
"The man is impatient, for sure," Shan agreed, but his eyebrows dipped. "We brought in a few more Songs and were careful to only bring in adult men."
"Good. Eradicating that mess of inbreeds will take some time, but it's worth the effort. Their assault on our people knows no limits to depravity, and I won't sit by any longer while they flourish."
"We will stand by you and fight, Talamayas," Shan said, bowing in reverence that had Tala clenching his teeth. They had always looked to him as a leader but also to his mother when they needed a different sort of guidance. Without her, he had to fill both roles, the strong warrior leader, and the gentle guide to the future.
Shan took the boy to a bed, and Talamayas headed toward the dungeons. It had been a long time since he'd been human, his mother as well, but she'd been sickly. That was the only reason that she'd agreed to be changed, because she wasn't going to live long without it, and she had taken him with her to the vampires. The change had been difficult on her, and she had barely made it through alive. After, she'd been weaker than most vampires and unable to handle a lot of magic, so it had not been an option to teach her such things for her own defense.
There had been no way for her to defend herself when Wren Song had cast that spell. That piece of filth had stripped her bare from the inside out, and Tala hadn't even gotten the chance to say goodbye before she succumbed to the light magic. The gruesome way in which it tore the inside of the body out, she had slouched away like she was a melted candle, and Shan had torn him back from her before it had happened.
Shan had insisted that he remember her only as she was, and his people had handled burning her in the ceremonies. But Talamayas hadn't needed to see her to know. They'd seen men fall to Song magic, their flesh bubbling as the light magic fought to surface, and it all falling together in an ooze of flesh from all the craters the magic eruptions left. It was gruesome, and he was going to make Wren Song suffer until there was nothing left of the man.
Only when he lost sentience would he end him.
And that would take years for a grand mage.
By then, the scourge known as the Songs willhave been quieted to this world.
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