No one but the gods know what Death is like. They have always been a figure shrouded in long grey robes. Their face hidden, their voice but a cold whisper. Some believe them to be a walking skeleton, who reaps the souls of the dead. Others believe them to be like the other gods, who appear human. One thing is certain, Death is a god no one should cross, for they control the very concept of death in their hands, bony or otherwise.
Religious Records Study.
The sun hung high in the sky, shining over the city formally known as Bloodhaven.
A lot can change in a thousand years, the sturdily built, Gothic like structures no longer existed. The Palace that once dominated the centre of the city, now stood alone surrounded by shoddily built wooden one and two story houses, and poorly maintained dirt streets.
The city had expanded west, following the fresh water river the city was originally built upon.
Clear divides were made between the rich and poor. The palace was in, what was commonly referred to as the Old City. Now at the edges of the whole city, it became the slums where the poor and homeless gathered.
To the west, the further you head, the more value the buildings had. None reached higher than five stories, made of clay brick and wooden supports. The roads went from dirt, to cobble, to slabs, the further you travelled.
Bloodhaven, was once known for it’s symmetry. The circler walls had been built with such perfect dimensions, it was a wonder it was possible.
Those walls had long been demolished to make way for the new, uneven shape.
As if to spite the vampires further, the humans of the past, built a new castle, that attempted to tower over the palace and the rest of the city, at the furthest reaches of the west city surrounded by decadent manors of the new nobility, within tall, white walls, it stood as the symbol of their own might.
Even if the people of this city didn’t care for the old empire, they still prided themselves for their ancestors massacre of the Vampires.
This, is where the name of the new city came from. Riverbane. For it was said the river flowed crimson with the blood of vampires that day.
Riverbane was split into sectors, each controlled independently by a noble lord. It was up to them to manage the sector, as directed by their king.
The Vampire Palace, now a museum, was sitting within the slums. For most noble lords, they would consider it a dead weight. A stain upon their pride as a noble, and a money sink. However, for Lord Mathieu Hastings, all that mattered was the museum.
No one cared about the slums, guards patrolled the streets, that was enough for security. All with the exception for the museum.
For as long as the museum has been a museum, a toll and tax has been assigned from the rest of the city. All Hastings need do, was collect his money, and pay as little to the guards and museum workers as possible, the rest lined his silk pockets.
It was a loophole that has lasted for generations, and as such, every noble in and outside the city of the kingdom wanted the slums for it’s virtually free income.
Which was why, at midday, a report about the museum’s barrier still being up, effectively locking down the entire place, arrived on his desk, he decided not to report such a thing to the king. After all, image was too important for him, he adopted the wait and see option.
My breath caught in my chest, as I hear the all too familiar sounds of footsteps echoing along the hard stone floor.
Each step, alternating in weight and sound. I easily recognise the way he walks.
My tormentor.
Why?
Why am I always in pain?
Why am I always suffering?
I’m scared.
My flesh burned.
My skin cut and torn and beaten and bruised.
My bones broken again and again.
Every day, I am used and abused. Pain is my every waking hour. Even in my dreams, I see him. Laughing, gleaming enjoyment out of my suffering.
His footsteps grow closer.
“Hehehehehehe!”
Laughter, his laughter, his creepy laugh echoed though my very being.
I’m scared.
Lucy’s glowing red eyes snapped open, blazing crimson as a strange red aura burst out from her body. The world around her seemed to be made up of a black smoke, swirling around at high speed. The darkness crashed against solid objects, her bed shaking as if an earthquake was shattering the world.
Yet she couldn’t move. Frozen on the shaking bed. She couldn’t breathe.
Her eyes caught sight of a figure made of grey shadows, it was hard to see against the dark cloud of wind, but their eyes shone just enough.
She tried to attack, her fear building as her body refused to obey her. As her fear grew, the black smoke of shadows seemed to get even more chaotic.
She felt a strange presence wash over her. Entering her. It was strangely calming, soothing.
The weight on her chest lessened, her stiff body relaxed somewhat. Sounds became muted as the figure leaned over her. A saddened smile, and sorrowful eyes looked into her own.
Everything went black as if a switch had been flipped.
As the chaotic darkness cleared, the devastated royal bedroom became visible once more. The only thing that had been left untouched, was the bed Lucy lied upon.
Shards of glass embedded into all four walls from the mirrors, bits of wood and other furnishings no longer recognisable had been pulverised and swept all over. The soft royal red carpet torn and ripped from the floor, even the curtains that once hung over the bed was nowhere to be seen.
The shadowy figure continued to lean over Lucy, their hand softly brushing her head as Anna stood nearby, glaring harshly towards the figure.
“‘Darkness’, what are you doing?” Anna spoke, not a shred of respect nor reverence to the god can be heard.
“I’m sealing her memories,” a strange whispered voice came from the figure, even though their mouth did not move.
“Sealing? No, we need her to remember.”
“You don’t understand, Spirit. I’m not sealing her memories of her time as the Progenitor. That, was already sealed by her own hand.”
“Then what?”
“Her soul is damaged.”
“She’s a progenitor,” Anna replied, still glaring.
“Yes, but even a progenitor’s soul can be damaged. It will heal, over time. But her memories are dangerous. This loss of control is evidence enough, is it not?” the god finally straightens up, looking towards Anna.
“What do you care, ‘darkness’.”
“…”
“…”
The two seemed to glare at each other, neither one seems ready to back down.
“It had to be done. The seal isn’t permanent. As her soul recovers, her memories will return. But it wont be just her memories of her first life, but all the lives she had lived. She has suffered greatly. Enough for her mind to shatter multiple times, enough to crack and weaken her soul. If she had been a normal soul, it would not have survived to return to us. Those memories might be a problem if left alone. My seal will ensure she is ready to recall those traumatising memories.”
“…”
“I must go now. You need to reteach her how to control her power. I must have a word with Darkness about her Progenitor.”
Anna’s eyes widened as her brain registered the figures words. Then she saw it, the figure’s form reshaping into a being wearing long, old looking tattered grey robes. Their face was not visible under the long, oversized hood that flopped over their face, nor was their voice recognisable other than a strange whisper.
It was only visible for a second before it vanished.
“Death,” Anna whispered, just to confirm to herself what she saw more than to address the god. After all, Death was the only god that didn’t interact with the living mortals of this world, nor interact with the churches or faiths.
“Be sure to take good care of her, Spirit Empress,” the whispered voice echoed back to her, almost as if confirming her suspicions.
Anna grimaced, she had been glaring at the god of death full of loathing and hatred, thinking them to be Darkness this entire time.
She was sure she could handle a god or two in her domain, probably not kill them, but handle them nonetheless. All with the exception of three. And death was counted among those exceptions by proxy that she didn’t know anything about them.
She shook her head. It didn’t matter anyway. Here in her domain, she was practically a god herself, which probably was the reason why they have never retaliated against her attitude towards them.
By the time Death had left, the damaged walls, floor and ceiling had been completely restored. With a swipe of her hand, the destroyed furniture that had been shattered and left all over, vanished, leaving the room bare with only the bed Lucy was peacefully sleeping in.
With a sigh, she walked to Lucy’s bedside, lightly stroking a stray hair from her tear stained face.
There was a lot of work to do. Generating a barrier around her oldest friend, she called for her servants to get to work. Replacing everything that had been destroyed. With luck, the room should be back to normal before she awoke.
Anna didn’t know what Lucy had dreamt of to cause such a destructive reaction. The Lucy she knew, would never lose control over herself like that.
It seemed it was time to train her once again.
Lucy let out a short breath, she had long since gotten used to the duality of feeling both familiarly and complete unknown of her surrounding.
Right now, she stood in a large room, 100 by 70 metres in size, give or take. The size of a sports arena in many worlds.
The floor was a solid grey stone, the walls lined with thick, wide sandstone coloured slabs. The roof was incredibly high, at least five floors worth, with a dark stone covering it. It was a marvel to look at, especially since it was all underground.
It was also very empty.
“Welcome to the sparring arena, milady,” Anna spoke in a cool tone, standing with the elegance of a professional maid.
“Right. A large room, impressive?”
“Quite,” Anna replied, ignoring Lucy’s sarcastic tone, “the walls, floor and ceiling are lined with powerful enchantments, along with being covered with barriers, powered by the magic vein below the crust similar to the ones protecting the palace above. Along with my Domain, it is enough for two beings of extreme power like us to spar without worry of disturbing the city.”
“Okay…” Lucy had no idea where this was going, or how she should react. Should she be impressed? Awed? It was just a large room to her.
The tour she was being given was quite the shift in activity she had been doing for the past several days, that was, reading Lucy Blood’s old diaries.
One thing she got from that, was a desire not to remember her supposed old self. The later entries talked a lot about the desire for her life to end. The stark opposite to how she was now.
“So… where next?” Lucy questioned. The look on the maid’s face caused her to hesitate, almost dread the answer.
“You need training, milady.”
“Training?” Lucy replied slowly, the mare word caused her chest to tighten, and a strange crimson aura seeped out of her body, almost chaoticly.
“Yes, milady. And my prove is right here,” Anna pointed to the strange aura surrounding the currently anxious Lucy, “you are closely connected to your element. Your emotions will effect it greatly, and can manifest as such. In the worst case, your magic can go completely out of control and start destroying everything around you. You need to relearn how to fully contain, and control your power.”
Lucy stared at the aura she was emitting. Her fear being forgotten as curiosity took root. She had seen aura’s before, knew a thing or two about them.
The power of an individuals aura could be known by how visible it was. The stronger a person was, the more solid it appears. The deep crimson was almost like a river of blood than a light phantom she had seen before.
“Controlled by our emotions…” she muttered.
{She is correct,} Lucy heard the fragment speak, for the first time since she first woke up. {You lost control a while back, Death appeared to seal your memories.}
Death?
{Indeed. Death is in charge of all mortal souls. They seemed quite interested in what happened to us. I had a short conversation with them, but couldn’t tell them much. You do need training, you can not allow your power to go out of control. I can help, but you still need to practice. Anna will be of great help.}
Wait, what’s this about Death?
“Are you done conversing with your fragment, milady?” Anna suddenly interrupted.
“Eh? You know about that?” Lucy asked shocked.
“Yes. It means you managed to use the technique we developed to seal your memories back then, though it failed for the purpose we had in mind. However, if the fragment is still active, it means you are unable to fully unseal your memories.”
“Technique?” Lucy asked confused, the aura around her faded away as the tension leaves her body, “why would you make a technique to seal memories?”
Anna’s usual stoic face seemed to drop ever so slightly. “We had hoped that sealing your memories would allow you to regain what you had lost, but it didn’t work.”
“What I lost…” Lucy had an idea of what she was talking about, she had read a few diaries of her old self and found them quite depressing. Especially about how her old self was forcing herself to express emotions she could no longer feel to her own daughter.
Emotions such as love.
Lucy knows what it feels like to be unloved by her own parents. All the more the reason she never trusted them, if an unfeeling version of herself could actually bring herself to fake it, just so the child didn’t suffer for it, it truly shown just how monstrous the people that were her birth parents in her former lives were.
Lucy’s eyes widened slightly, shocked at herself for a change. [Did I just…] She was never one to look back at her own existence. She didn’t feel bad about it, she had grown past it. Always going forwards, never looking back.
At least, that is what she tells herself.
She shook her head.
Doesn’t matter. I’m not her. To be quite frank, I don’t want to be her. Even if I choose to use her name.
She had an opportunity to be something more. More than some dirt poor bandit or slaver killer.
“We’ll start with assessing your current knowledge of Aura,” Anna spoke with a sombre smile, “then, we’ll be working on control and operation.”
The training, in a word, was boring. Though Lucy would admit she didn’t know nearly as much as she thought on the topic. She was never a Aura user, nor a mage in her past lives.
Never had the ability to do anything. She was told multiple times how much of a rare existence she was. Usually while on an operating table by her torturer slash researcher. The fact she had power now, made her want to use it even more.
Thankfully, it seemed her control was something akin to riding a bike. Even though she didn’t remember learning how, she could control her Aura easily. Though the disappointment on Anna’s face wasn’t hard to miss.
Aura, as explained to her, was the excess magical power a being created. The more Aura one had, the more powerful the user. The Aura can be controlled as with any magical ability, excess power or not. Most mages had this Aura, and used it to augment their own spells, true masters can use their Aura without tapping into their own magical reserves.
None magical users had their own Aura, and can train it to augment their physical abilities too. Though most people don’t consider a Aura user to be a mage, it was still magical use.
What you can or can not do with your own Aura depended upon how one thought and trained. Which was the reason most mages are unable to augment their bodies physical abilities. It required physical training most of all, and Aura manipulation required a instinctive use for physical augmentation.
Most mages didn’t have such instincts. Those who did, was a rare exception.
Hours passed, Lucy sat crossed legged on the floor as Anna remained standing, giving advice when needed.
A crimson light calmly hugs her body, flowing around her with ease.
“It seems you can control your Aura, but you need to be aware of your own emotions. Aura can be effected by strong emotions. Anger, fear, hate, all can have destructive consequences to your immediate surroundings if left unchecked.
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel such emotions, but you must be aware of how your power reacts, and lock it down. Losing control of your aura and power could kill innocent people around you if you are not careful.”
“I understand,” Lucy replied calmly, opening her eyes.
“Good. I think this will do for today. I would like to test your combat capabilities next. However, we will do that tomorrow.”
Lucy nodded. “That’s fine. By the way, can I ask you something?” Lucy tilted her head. She wanted to ask the maid this since she woke up, and found fresh clothes to change into.
“Anything,” was the simple reply.
“I searched for them, even searched in the wardrobe, but, why isn’t there any underwear I can wear?”
Indeed, right now, Lucy was pantiless. She didn’t much care about it, nor did she care that she was flashing her maid her uncovered privates the entire time she was sitting on the floor. Modesty was as foreign as a happy childhood to her regardless. She has spent entire lifetimes nude before, however, after a few ‘accidental’ glimpses of Anna’s white panties, she knew underwear existed. She just couldn’t figure out why a Queen of all people, didn’t have any in her wardrobe.
“Oh,” Anna tilted her head, obviously thinking how to answer, “if you are uncomfortable, I can get you some?”
“I don’t really care if I wear them or not, but since you are wearing them, why don’t I have any?”
“You… didn’t want them any longer.”
“Huh? I didn’t want them?”
“Yes, I believe your reasoning was, ‘they get in the way.’”
“Ah,” Lucy nodded in understanding, “you mean, get in the way of sex?”
“Yes. At the time, you were using sex as a crutch. But even that, you lost interest in.”
That was quite blunt of her. She didn’t approve of it. Got it. “I see. I don’t care if I have them or not, however, it might be best if I have some in the future. No rush though.”
“Understood, I’ll have some new undergarment made for you right away,” Anna happily replied.
She definitely didn’t approve, Lucy thought.
{What? Why does it feel like you are judging me? I’m you! You are me! You’re judging yourself!} her fragment suddenly came back to defend herself.
Maybe. I’ve used sex as a weapon in the past, and I’ll admit, it does feel good. But it sounds like old me, used to get around, a lot, if ‘panties got in the way…’
{You just called yourself a slut,} her fragment vanished with that last remark. It felt strange that a fragment of her past self, felt the need to defend her past self’s actions to her present self. It wasn’t the worst thing she’s been called, but for Lucy now, sex has always been a means to an end. Never once has she done it simply for the pleasure of the act.
All she could do was shrug her shoulders and move on. Maybe things will change now.
Sex is the last thing on my mind anyway.
“Milady, there is an issue that can’t be delayed any longer,” Lucy looked up at Anna, still sitting cross legged as before.
“What issue?”
“A request for your presence. The Princess, your daughter is demanding to see you.”
“!” my daughter? for the first time in her memory, she felt a strange sensation in her chest. She didn’t know what this sensation was, but it caused her breath to quicken slightly.
“I have delayed for a day, but she is threatening to break through the doors to see you. She has the power to do such a thing, and I do not wish to harm her. I believe it is best if you two meet, even if you do not recall her, she wishes to meet her mother.”
Anna paid close attention to Lucy’s reaction to the news. Whatever she was looking for, seemed to make her happy.
“Shall we?”
Lucy looked up, staring at the hand offered by Anna to help her back to her feet. “O-okay…”
Nice, our stories seem a lot alike. Keep up the good work btw 👍! I'm happy to see the vampire fantasy genre growing in popularity finally.
I may have been partially inspired by your story and other vampire type of stories to write mine...
which is great by the way! 10/10, would recommend 'I Was Reincarnated as The Queen of Vampires?!' to any vampire lover! 
Thank you for reading! ヾ(≧▽≦*)o
@IGLXenix Thank You! I like yours too, there’s another really good one on here that’s been doing great as well.