Blood Cloaked

Oracion's POV

I can still see it, that gleaming glow of moonlight shining through cracks in the walls. It's searching desperately for something...someone. It really does make me think, 'I don't really know her, do I?' I look towards Mousai after she ducks her heads in and out of what appear to be used cells.

Her expression now seeming pretty nonchalant despite her previous warnings to me earlier, whether it's because the killings have nothing to do with her species or her confidence in me being able to...solve this issue. "Something bothering you?" She turns quickly, probably feeling my gaze a little too hard.

"Not at all." I answer. But it clearly doesn't satisfy her.

She walks up closer to me, bouncing between the stone bricks and hiding from the light. "You seem to misunderstand Oracion. I like you, I trust you..." Her eyes tint to one of gold briefly, "but don't for a second think you can lie to me and get away with it." She smiles, tilting my her head after dropping from her tip toes as she patiently waits for my answer.

"Who are you? I think I finally deserve to know at least that." I answer honestly.

She hums, "That's all that was bugging you!?" She laughs. "I don't think you deserve it, not just yet anyways."

"And what would qualify me for that?" I wince at the squeaky doors she continues to open.

One falls from the hinges, crashing to the floor and creating a hole to a lower level under the castle. We both stare at each other as if trying to blame each other for the accident despite knowing it was only her fault, "Complete what you've set out to do, I'm sure we'll find each other after that, deal?" She extends her hand out to me across the hole.

"I guess." I grab her hand.

"Great, ladies first." She aggressively pulls down on my hand, catching me off guard and flipping me into the hole first.

My ass hits the ground first landing directly on top the rusted metal door, "It's...safe...I guess-" I rub my back to soothe it, only to be slammed back down with an, "Obnoxious amount of weight." I cough out.

"Excuse me?" She comments.

"You're excused, now get the fuck off of me fat ass." I place my hand against her back, lifting my torso to smile at her before shoving her to the ground next to me.

"The sheer-audacity" She spits with malice, getting back to her feet to dust herself off.

I open my mouth to speak but the air feels sharp, feeling as if I've inhaled something that shouldn't be airborne. "There's something here." I comment with a whisper. Leaning lower down to the ground as I try to make out the space around us. With the only real direction leading down, we glance at the uncountable amount of staircases leading directly towards the centre of what seems to be an arena for...animal fights? Chains upon chains lined up and broken, replaced, coated in rust and blood from where the cages used to be dragged in.

With the harsh moonlight shining through the top, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that someone's sitting there, holding something between their hands and moving their mouth back and forth, chewing. I begin approaching it with caution but Mousai puts her hand in front of me. "It's already noticed us, Oracion."

I look at her, confused as the thing hasn't even reacted to us. "You've only been around one so I'm not surprised. But that isn't an animal. It hasn't given us the time of day cause it doesn't think we're worth its attention yet." She speaks with haste, pushing her hand deeper into my chest further as she tries to get me to back up.

"You said you can take them all on, right?" She asks me.

"Confidently." I answer.

"They all hide from the light as they burn in the sun, they all walk within the moonlight...but this isn't just a normal one. A ritual only a royal can do, a body made of flesh with a soul waiting to be filled. You've killed Mael, Eragon never leaves the castle...so who is this vampire that carries the blood of a royal." Mousai riddles.

"Great, now in a language I can understand."

She looks at me, smirking as if I said something ironic. "In order to turn you need to be bitten, killed as well as consume the blood of the one that bit you. This unborn vampire, is unnaturally strong for one that's not even past that second stage." She explains.

With a hushed whisper I attempt to respond, "And how do we turn them back?"

"Kill the one who bit them." 

She scoots past me a little bit, brushing past me and sitting in one of the seats lined up to face the centre of the arena. "Go on then, behead it as you so sought to for the rest of them." She gestures towards it.

I take it as a compliment towards her confidence in me, taking the chance to test myself against it as I did Mael. Taking step by step at my own pace and kicking some pebbles down them. As I make my way to the edge of the moonlight, but something becomes more and more apparent to me. His brown hair that's drenched in blood, the torn clothing of rugged black that I'm all too familiar with. "Vampires were humans, Oracion. And I can hear from the song of your beating heart that you've recognised who this is, haven't you?" Mousai sings from the back.

He tosses the carcass of what appears to of been a rabbit or something along the lines of one. "You're here." He crooks his head to the side. "This is what Mael was hearing...all those years." He grabs his head, clawing some of his hair out from his elongated nails.

"Ira" I answer peacefully.

"I can see it, your name. Carving itself into my skin, coursing throughout my blood and whispering along the halls. Oracion, Oracion, Oracion." He turns to me with bloodshot eyes as his iris phases in and out of his regular hazel to red.

A whiff of dust is kicked up as his figure disappears. Followed by a gentle 𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘬 resonating through the open space. His arms now wrapped around me in an embrace that would suffocate any other. "Please...I can't take this." He whispers in my ear.

"How did you end up here!?" I try to pry him off a little but he doesn't let go.

"It's the blood...liquid remembers. Visions of where I'm meant to be...who I'm supposed to become. They're leading me North, so that's where I'm going." He answers, inhaling deeply along my neck before letting go of me but forcefully shoving me to the ground.

"Don't let him leave just yet, Oracion!" Mousai shouts, "You killed Mael! Making his brother, Eragon the only one capable of fully turning your friend!" She advises. 

"Oracion this, Oracion that. Don't you get tired of hearing that shit!?" He yells, speeding towards Mousai, destroying the stone seats in his way towards her.

She smiles like some sort of mockery, walking out of his pathing and down the same set of stairs that I came down. "Those within the state of purgatory can't receive the blessing of music, my voice won't work on him." She taps my shoulder, shoving me forward a little bit.

"Oracion, Oracion, Oracion, that's all they're saying, that's all they know how to say!" He yells again, throwing out his bloodied hand that taints the floor. 

I look around briefly, not understanding something. "Where's Freya? Requis?" I ask, trying to distract him.

He covers his eyes as if they're paining him, "Once Indura figured out you left, he chased after you. As did we." He begins swaying as he attempts to make his way towards us. "I was following behind them as best as I could, trust me I tried to resist it, I really did. I was even eating myself to contain it haha." He laughs, holding up his arm full of irregular teeth marks like some sort of trophy.

"Ira." I deadpan, holding my hand across the hilt of my sword.

"You'd kill me that fast?" He combs through his hair, slicking it back with fresh blood. "Even despite all we've been through? Without even fully hearing me out? Fuck you. Honestly." He spits, now coming face to face with me as he places his hand forward, aiming towards my throat.

"You'll cut my hand off before I can even get my hand around you, won't you?" He asks.

I don't answer, instead tightening my grip as I prepare to gut my friend.

He extends his arm further, holding a fist that suddenly pokes a finger out to point to an entirely different direction. "Happy?" 

I turn my head, noticing the two women laying against the wall, letting go of my breath as they're seemingly untouched. "I-" My voice falling silent as something fills my neck.

The seconds that he was latched onto me for, feeling like centuries as the depth of betrayal fully sits within my stomach, digesting into a rotten bile ready to leave my throat at any moment. He eventually pulls away, staring at me with a blank expression after taking a few steps back and bumping into Mousai.

Her hand carrying a broken blade as she was ready to pierce his back, but that wasn't what happened. "Oh." He answers groggily as my blood drains from his mouth and onto the cold stone floor. "That's...what a human tastes like?" His eyes fade as they roll to the back of his head. I manage to catch his body just before it slams across the floor, laying him in my lap as I look up at Mousai for some sort of answer.

But she just shrugs her shoulders as if disappointed, tossing away the blade and walking towards the women. "They'll be awake soon, but I can't promise he truly didn't drink from them." She judges.

I look down at him, wiping away the blood from his mouth. "I believe him." I answer back, knowing he'd never want to betray my trust to that extent. Nonetheless his own trust.