Chapter 5 - (MC-Intro) Reliving Memories
In a swift moment from the slash, Vlad seemed to hear all types of voices, see all kinds of bizarre visions in his head. All of them ranged from raging little girls crying over their dead father's body or wives mourning their lost husbands. But all of them had something in common.
"You monster why would you do something like that? He just stole some minor things to put food on the table to feed us, while you didn't even have to work one bit for what you eat." Screamed the voice in his head
"Mister, why you took away my dad?" the little child's voices were heard in Vlad's head.
"You monster what trouble did my wife give you to kill her in that cruel way?" screamed a man's voice.
All kinds of charges assaulted Vlad that even if he defends, their voices won't stop. All he did was
to grit his conscience teeth and hold this torture of damned souls.
"Impaler you will die and all your bloodline will end with your sons." Screamed another voice.
"You should stay with the damn Turks and stay out of our life you monster." ended an older voice.
Vlad had enough of all the accusations, and with what seemed to look like red eyes, he roared.
"ENOUGH! You devils, do you think that you will succeed in your endeavor.
All I did back then to those pitiful people was entirely done because at the respective moments, there were no other choices!" ended Vlad screaming to the emptiness.
He dropped on his knees, and some tears started to form in his eyes. After hearing all of the screaming and crying voices, the ones that hurt him the most were the crying children. The torment lasted for what seemed an entire life.
But at one point, the screaming of the damned souls ended. For now, he had a breathing pause. It didn't last long. His conscience and view started to shift, yet again, new visions began to pop out.
The first vision started showing up, it was still a little blurred, but Vlad could tell that it was himself and someone much older than him. One could guess that the boy's appearance was young, the height of an 8 to 9 years old child and the man's appearance was one of a middle-aged man, in the peak of his life.
At last, a man's voice was heard.
"Come here child of mine, do you see all of this land and its people? You will have to help your older brother Mircea to rule over these lands. Understand well these words of mine, child, we live in precarious moments. The stability of these lands is in the hands of you children of mine." The man's ended by saying.
"Yes father, when I get older I will help elder brother as much as I can and try to ease his job a little bit." said in a child voice, the now younger Vlad vision.
"That's how it should be young Vlad, you will have to become a pillar of this family and defend it with all your might." added Vlad's father.
The young Vlad could only nod his head shyly while standing by his father's side. They were watching an adolescent boy training his sword with a soldier.
After the boy was done, he came to greet his father and younger brother.
"Hello dear father how come you made time to see my training?" he asked but at the same time also noticed his little brother behind his father. He reached his hand to pat his younger brother's head lovingly.
"Good to see you training hard son. Don't disappoint me." said the father of the boys before taking his leave, letting the brothers chat for a little.
"Little brother, how have you been?" asked kindly Mircea, his little brother, Vlad.
"Sorry for not spending a lot of time with you lately but father increased the amount of training I needed. I hope you forgive brother for that."
"I'm fine brother, father explained to me that I should help you when I grew older, I can only encourage you now." said the younger Vlad;
Vlad could only watch the visions and could only sigh in sadness at how innocent he was once. After the images of him and his older brother continued for some more, it changed yet again.
Now he could see a young man around 12-13 years old together with a kid of 6-7 years old looking at a middle-aged person while crying. They cried their eyes out so much their fear was of what they heard. The little kid was the first to say something.
"Dad, do we really have to leave home? When we will come back? I don't want to leave home, I'm scared of strange people." sobbed the kid in fear of what was to come.
"Don't worry little brother I will be there to protect you." encouraged the young man, the little kid, while embracing him.
They cried for some more until the middle-aged person interrupted the brothers, who said. "Little Radu, can you leave for a bit the room, I have something to tell your older brother."
The kid could only comply with the father's wishes. He left the room where only the young man and the middle-aged person was gone.
"Vlad, you don't have to worry much about your life when you go over to the Turks. I secured an agreement with Murad to have our stability, but the only thing he asked was to give you and little Radu as hostages.
He will not kill you even if you mess with something there. He will give you the same chances that his son would have, the same education, training, and so on. Maybe you could even befriend his son and forge a stronger alliance for our country. You can view this as an opportunity but also a curse.
They will try to brainwash you, change your viewpoints on what you would be, and assimilate you. But you have to remain strong not to forget your roots. Do you understand, Vlad?" asked the father after explaining the situation to the young man.
The young man could only acknowledge what his father told him. "Yes, father I will always remember what we talked today."
The middle-aged still wanted to make sure he understood. "Vlad I know that this situation is hard for you, going to new foreign lands but you can only accept this destiny. Always remember to take care of your younger brother, don't be harsh on him. Even if he annoys you with other problems, try to understand him too, he is always scared of things."
The young man could only nod his head while shedding tears. "I will try my best father not to disappoint you and our family."
"Good son, I know that you will not disappoint me, you're a Dragon even if you're still a pup you could put on a fight." Tried the father to cheer up the young man.
And so the vision ended with the two kids holding hands, leaving for their new home.
Vlad could only watch from an omniscient view what happened in his vision. He could barely hold his tears down, gritting his teeth hard enough not to cry. The image ended with the two brothers going out of view. Darkness entered, disturbing his view yet again. The memories started to show up again.
It showed him the figure of a middle-aged person sitting on a throne. The figure seated on the throne looked at the young man and little kid holding the older one hand with an expressionless face. Sensing the man's gaze on the throne, Vlad was the first to bow down, and following his older brother's step, Radu did the same.
The man looked at the kids for a while and asked them in Turkish. "So you little kids are the sons of the Dragon?"
Vlad, compared to his younger brother, knew some Turkish and responded. "Great Sultan we, the sons of Dragon greet your esteemed self and thank you for allowing us to meet you."
"Oh look at the kid he even knew to speak like us. MEHMET! Come greet our guests!" called Murad, his son, to meet the kids.
After that, a young man entered the throne room. He looked to be of the same age as Vlad and greeted them. "Hello, nice to meet you, and have a nice stay while you're here."
"Likewise, nice to meet you," greeted Vlad, followed by a clumsy greeting from Radu, who was following his older brother's example.
The young man laughed about how clumsy the little kid's pronunciation was and could only ruffle his head, saying. "It's said 'Nice to meet you' now repeat again."
The little kid tried again and got it from the second try leaving the young man smiling. "Good, good, you're a fast learner it seems."
The real Vlad was watching this memory and thinking about it a little bit. He smiled for a short period. Indeed it was nice to be still innocent and see his younger self smile like this, to think that everything would go perfect and as planned. Nevertheless, he knew what unfolded before all the smiling faces. Everything was so they would lower their guard and be assimilated into being their servants, nothing more.
He still remembered vividly the time when the military people tortured him for disobeying orders, tortured him for not complying with their ideology. Later seeing all the older people smirking and how they would make his military training an actual hell.
Vlad closed his eyes for a bit, then opened them again.
The vision started to change again. Now he could see himself older, around 30 years of age but not more than that. He was wearing black armor and was riding an excellent breed of horse. He was surrounded by his soldiers and told them their plan to invade the enemy camp. The soldiers only had to keep in mind if the mission fails to fall back as soon as the alarm was set off.
They put the plan in action. As soon as Vlad and his soldiers arrived at the enemy camp, Vlad told the guard in fluent Turkish that he was an army's auxiliary force. Also that he had some information concerning Vlad's location and forces details. The guard could only let him inside with his soldiers, not thinking that they were suspicious, especially when he heard Vlad fluent Turkish.
They entered the enemy camp. Soon Vlad separated with his small army from the rest of the Turkish soldiers and searched the tent he thought Mehmet would be. They found a grander tent that was similar to where generals and commanders would stay. He entered in force, thinking that he would capture Mehmet alive or straight kill him in the best chase. In the end, they failed miserably. They entered the Mahmut and Issac Pasha's tent.
Having failed the assassination attempt, Vlad, with his troops, left the Ottoman camp and retreated to the country's capital. He was mad for his failed attempt to end this war. In his fury, he ordered to impale every Turkish captive they had regardless of being a soldier or citizen.
"If you think you're a monster for having a vast army and winning your wars with pure numbers, I will show you what a monster is. Have all the captives impaled!
Let's leave a gift to our Turkish friends." said Vlad in the vision.
Vlad could feel the fury and sadness from this memory fragment but couldn't do anything to change it. Soon the vision changed again. It shifted to two people having a conversation.
A blonde-haired and a black-haired man were starring at each other. The tension was hot in the air.
"So you're telling me that you will not support my fight against the Ottomans? What about old man Sixtus or the Venetians that invested so much just to beat the damn Turks?" asked the black-haired man.
"You don't understand Vlad, is of no use to fight now against the Ottoman's, even if all the Christians say that they will support me and you, they will not offer any real support I can only make peace with them and focus somewhere else." said Matthias to Vlad
Vlad rose from his seat and took steps to leave the room, but he left some words behind before leaving for the good. "Corvin you will regret this choice, the Turks will be just like a thorn or better a lion breathing behind your ears."
And so he left, but somehow the real Vlad was still in the room looking coldly at Matthias Corvinus, who was still sitting on the chair.
"Someone call for Jiskra, I have a new job for him." said Matthias in a hurry.
Not long, a new person entered the room. It was a well-muscled man with a full beard and mustache.
"Yes my king, what do you ask of me to do?"
"Go capture Vlad, he shouldn't be too far from here but make it silently to not disturb other waters, I will deal myself with the pope and Venetians. We can't let this man break everything we have done so far in welling our relations with the Ottomans."
And so the vision ended here. Vlad was feeling empty. He was expecting new visions, but he was waiting for something to happen.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Vlad's head, when he was executed, flew up a little bit made it at last on the ground. The still grinning expression was on his face.
As for the conscience of Vlad, it was getting darker and darker. At first, Vlad was fearing for the worst but adjusted as milliseconds passed and only watched and waited for his new journey.
Something happened at last. Some gray mist started to surround Vlad's conscience walls.
The gray mist kept on pouring inside until he couldn't see anything. But he felt that the gray mist was something that he was familiar with. It felt like when the death of the enemies surrounded him.
At long last, a silhouette of a man started to form from the surrounding mist.
