Twin Star-Internment-Forward

Emmaline knelt next to the oblong stone box encasing her beloved Emilian.  She wept bitterly and had taken to spending most of her time there, within his tomb. The incense, fragrant wood, and resins burned her sensitive eyes, throat, and nose but they were necessary to help mask the odor of the decaying corpse.  She ran her hand over the cold, ornate stone and marveled at the beauty her beloved’s death had produced.

Makeda spent more than two months preparing the tomb and embalming her leader’s body.  She had allowed Emmaline to help her with the cleansing and purification process, wherein they bathed his body with a wine from Egypt, then a mixture of water and natron—a mineral similar to salt.  Once it was complete, the young girl dismissed her, refusing to listen to Emmaline’s ravings of protest.  She explained that the process the body had to undergo was too upsetting for her to watch.  

Once alone, Makeda removed the organs and bathed them in wine, desiccated them in natron, then wrapped them in fine linen, before placing them in jars.  She placed small linen packets filled with natron inside the body, then covered Marin’s body with the mineral.  

While she waited for the body to desiccate, Makeda worked diligently to carve the stone that would become his coffin.  She applied paints in beautiful designs and hieroglyphics, along with depictions of special moments in his life.  She melted her gold jewelry to make a mask and sheaths for his fingers and toes.

Once the body was ready, she removed the packets of natron. She carefully bathed him with water, then applied oil and resin to his brittle skin.  She removed the organs from the jars and replaced them in his body, then filled it with myrrh, cassia, and other spices, as well as resin. Makeda, then, sealed the incision and the wound encompassing his neck with gold and applied beeswax to the mouth, nose, ears, and other orifices.  She placed the gold sheaths over his fingers and toes and carefully wrapped his entire body. She put gold leaf over his digits, then wrapped him again, carefully placing amulets within the linen.  Finally, she placed the bejeweled gold mask upon his face.

Makeda gathered the mourning vampires and asked them to help her place him in a wooden coffin Declan and William had prepared.  They lowered him into the stone sarcophagus and sealed it. Makeda explained that she had bestowed Marin the burial of a pharaoh to express to the gods his station among them and her love for the man who had saved her from her bitter detachment and loneliness.

The coven took their leave, then, no longer willing to stay within the reach of The Guard.  However, no amount of debating could convince Emmaline to leave Marin or Declan to abandon his hunt for Maximus.  The two had stayed behind, while the coven sailed for Spain, leaving Emmaline to her grief and Declan to his obsession.

Declan appeared in the doorway, drawn in by the woman’s sobs. “Emmaline, ye must stop this!  Ye will not find solace within this tomb.”

The beleaguered woman turned to face him, “I do not care for solace, Declan.  These humans have taken my beloved from me.”

“So, ye would spend eternity wastin’ away in this cave?”

Anger surged through her, “And what do you know of it?!”  His pained expression calmed her, and she realized what she had done. “Forgive me, Declan.  If anyone knows how I feel, it is you.”

“Emmaline, ye must survive this.  Marin would not want ye ta do this ta yerself.  I know it hurts but ye must find another way ta grieve.  I must leave soon ta hunt Maximus.  Every night, it becomes harder ta return here, as his trail gets further from us.  I do not wish ta leave ye in such a state, but I cannot lose him.  I must avenge Iona, or I will never see peace.”

She watched the man for a moment, then asked, “Has the hunt helped with your grief?”

He winced and looked away, “I do not know.  I cannot afford ta grieve ‘til he is dead.  It is all I have allowed meself ta think about.  I must survive ‘til I have ripped his head from his shoulders.”  His last words came out in a growl.

Emmaline had never seen Declan angry until his wife had been killed.  He had always been soft-spoken, happy, and kind.  He was a lot like Marin, in that respect, but he cared little for leadership or politics.  Emmaline could also see that Declan had found a way around his grief.  He had embraced his anger, instead, driving him to hunt the cause of his pain.

A calm washed over her, and she stood.  “We will hunt together, and we will have our revenge. I’m owed retribution for what Maximus did to me and I think I will enjoy watching you destroy him.  I will use this endeavor to formulate a way to repay that woman and her friends for what they did to Marin.”

“Are ye sure ye wish ta do this, Emmaline?  Avenging Iona is me burden ta carry.”

“Declan, Maximus is not a kind man undeserving of this fate, and I may need your help in my endeavor.  That woman surrounds herself with powerful allies.  Any act against her will take careful planning and execution. Marin was correct to chastise me for my choice in poisons.  Had I chosen more wisely, the woman would be dead, and I would still have my beloved. I must correct my mistake.”

Declan nodded his assent, and they left the tomb to prepare for the hunt.

---

Maximus Triarius watched the house and barn from the shadows of the copse of trees.  He pulled his hood forward to better shield his sensitive eyes and skin from the glaring sun that had just peaked over the horizon.  The last two and a half weeks had been difficult, but he had finally found a suitable den for his nefarious purposes.  It was quite a distance from the estate, but if he kept his prey at a steady run, they would be there by sunset.

He was a patient man, but the seriousness of what the humans had done weighed heavily on him.  There were few he cared for other than himself, but the possibility of these creatures having a means to wipe out the vampire race vexed him.  He had no desire to be a member of a dying race, nor did the idea of gambling with his life appeal to him.  

That small taste of blood on his tongue had burned like acid and threatened to send him heaving his stomach contents onto the ground.  Had he ripped into Marcus’s throat, the results could have been disastrous.  The idea that they could give some concoction to the masses frightened him.  How would it be to never know who was tainted so?

He bared his teeth in frustration and anger.  This man would tell him everything he needed to know, and then he would destroy all who knew of this cure.

The carriage lurched and jostled Vespin Cresswell and Dr. Eldric Potts.  Vespin grumbled in frustration, “Miranda had best be correct in this assumption of hers. I despise these trips into the uncultured countryside she loves so much.”

“Personally, I think it’s a waste of time, Vespin.  She is a woman and is afflicted by bouts of irrationality.  I have important research I need to be attending to, instead of traipsing around the country, hunting nonexistent survivors of the Vampire Virus.  I am close to something vital; I can feel it.”

“Your views towards women are why you are still single, Eldric.  Miranda is an intelligent woman.  There is a reason she was placed on the council, even if it is far from civilization.”

“Your infatuation with this woman has clouded your mind.  I would have thought you had given up on it, after so many years.  There are hundreds of women in London and more than one has attempted to curry your favor.  You should accept one of them and leave this woman to be swallowed up by the wilderness.”

Vespin shook his head, “Believe what you will, Eldric.  Miranda is a proud woman.  If she is writing to me, it is for good reason.  My parting words to her were not kind.  Something is amiss at this outpost.  Of this, I am certain.”  He turned to the window and watched as the forest seemed to swallow the carriage. “If she is correct in this, you will thank me for my ‘misplaced infatuation’.  What would the crown do for a cure for this horrid disease?  More importantly, what would they do for the man that discovered such a thing?”

He turned back to the severe looking man.  “The claims of the woman’s survival and the side effects, alone, are fascinating, but this man…  If she cured him somehow, we are looking at the find of a lifetime.  This could change everything, Eldric.  No more fear of being bitten.”

The doctor huffed, picked up his medical journal, and started thumbing through it again.  Vespin sighed, as he knew the conversation was at an end.  He had been lucky to draw the man out of it, to begin with.  He knew he could not convince his friend of anything he had not seen for himself, but he had hoped that the man would at least show some interest.  Eldric’s research had become an obsession of late, and Vespin was beginning to worry about the man. No matter, they would be at the outpost soon enough and if Miranda’s accusations were true, his friend would have a new obsession to follow.