Introduction Lore ~ How it all Started Part 1

 As many are aware, I am a true day walker. I'm sure many are wondering how it came about that a vampire of noble descent and a lowly day walker chose to be together. Between journals my father wrote and left after his passing, and the persistent questioning I would do towards my mother. I am able to recount a clear picture of how Akio and myself came to be. Below is the story of Rolan Zaros, 1st in line of the noble vampire house of Kieran and Yuna Endo, a relatively uncommon day walker:

It was a typical Friday evening, when Rolan had come to visit his father, Count Zaros at his castle. As the 1st in line and eldest son, he often visited his father's castle to help with family business and attend vampire soirées held at the castle. It was the end of the month, so this would have been the 2nd of usually two visits to his father's castle each month. Unlike his siblings, Zariah his older sister and Danesh his younger brother, Rolan did not live in the castle with his father. Rolan had decided once he was old enough to move out and live in his own quaint castle a few cities away to find freedom from his rather ruthless and demanding father. Rolan, you see, was a quite gifted and smart vampire. From a young age, he mastered his vampire skills with ease, excelled at the top of his vampire classes, and as respected by those around him. Yet he was a quiet one, and the complete opposite of his father: a rather gentle soul who would rather be alone and study and practice his vampire crafts. This often led to clashes with his father, who wanted him to take over the title of Count of the house of Kieran. Because Zaros was a feared and ruthless vampire, he expected the same of his first-born son. This led to Rolan eventually leaving the castle to live alone, under the pretext that he wanted to further study vampire history and vampiric skills. Zaros took it as it just being a rebellious period and let it be, as long as Rolan would visit the family castle at least twice a month and attend vampire business and all gatherings as a representative of the house of Kieran. 

Rolan was a tall and lean, yet muscular vampire. His hair was a dusty silver color. Long in the front, parted swept over one eye. His eyes were red like rubies, just like most noble vampires. His expression was almost always stoic and if lost in thought. Unlike Zaros, who was count and had the long flowing count robe. Roland was usually wearing a red blouse shirt with a white scarf tied around his neck that hung down. He would wear a long black overcoat that went down to his knees. Black trouser pants and a gold buckle bend that went around his waist. This is how he looked as he entered the castle that fateful night to answer a call from his father. 

As Rolan walked the lower halls of the castle towards his father's office room. He passed by the cages of the holding cells his father used for humans he had caught to feed on until they were to be disposed of. During that time, and even to this day, it was quite common for noble vampires to have "blood slave" cells. They would have their familiars or vampire underlings catch humans and put them in the cells so they could feed on them until the human lasted no longer. The remains of those humans would rather be given to rabid familiars who had lost control or disposed of somewhere far away from the castle. Rolan didn't much care for this. It was one the reasons he didn't particularly like staying in the castle. Although Rolan was a vampire, and did feed on humans, he didn't particularly care for the inhumane treatment of them. Each time he would have to walk the halls towards his father's office, he would be reminded of the cries of the humans held in the cell, and those that were withering away in suffering. Rolan had intended to just close his eyes and walk quickly past the cell chambers as he usually did, but for some reason he happened to open his eyes and glance over. 

And that's when he saw her. Sitting in a corner, mumbling softy "Someone...please help...". From the moment he saw her he knew there was something different about her. She had an aura different from the other humans in the cells and had a different aura from any human he had ever seen. She was a beautiful young woman, even though it was clear she had been fed on for some time. She had long light purple hair and glimmering yellow eyes. She had on a tattered purple and blue dress and a red and black pin on her hair. Before he could look away, the young girl's eyes caught Rolan's gaze. It was only for a few seconds, but it was enough for Rolan to feel the pain and suffering the young woman was feeling. Although he had been numb to seeing people in the cells and the conditions they were in, for some reason, this time, it send a chill down his spine, and he quickly walked away towards his father's office chambers.

It didn't take long for Roland to finish up his duties with his father. They discussed an upcoming vampire soirée that was to take place later the following month and Zaros had some paperwork he wanted Rolan to go over, as he wanted him to follow in his steed in terms of leading a vampire house. Once his visit was over, Roland decided to take the back door out instead of passing those slave chambers which left him feeling a bit odd. While his father did question him why he was using his secret exit, he just gave an excuse that it was quicker and left. "They'll all be dead and gone by the time I visit again, best to forget about what I saw." Roland said to himself as he headed home.

It ended up being about four weeks before Roland was summoned back to his father's castle. The whole time, the image of that strange girl never left his mind, but he figured it would be wiped away as he passed by the cells this time. Normally after 2 weeks they were rather empty or new victims were in there as humans can from the start could only survive a maximum of two weeks in confinement. As he strode by the locked cells, he stopped dead in his track and looked in almost shock, as he saw the same girl, in the corner, in almost the same conditions as he had last saw her, maybe a little bit paler. This confused Roland. Vampires never kept a blood slave for over two weeks, and humans never survived being one for more than two weeks. Yet there she was, still mumbling "please...let us go." as she gazed down at the floor this time. Roland closed his eyes, taking in the smells of the surroundings. He could smell the human blood of those that had recently been fed on, and again, he was struck with surprise. There was an unfamiliar smell mixed in with the blood. A smell of blood he had never smelled before. Was it from that girl? He thought to himself. He tried to shake off the odd feeling he had and quickly walked down to his father's office chambers.

Distracted by what he had experience, halfway through his conversation with his father, Rolan found an opportunity to pause and ask: "Father, who is the captive with the purple hair? It's unusual to see the same captures when I visit...?"

"Of course, my parodical son would pick up on that" Zaros replied as he got up from his desk and walked over to one of his paintings on the wall, a moonlit night over a grassy field. 

"Have you ever heard of a day walker?" Zaros asked as he turned towards Rolan.

"Day walker? I thought those barely existed." Roland replied.

"Oh, they exist my son. And that girl you noticed is proof of it. They aren't easy to come by, but they exit, and they make for an exquisite meal, I might add. Zaros said as he walked towards Roland

"But how? She's not able to escape. I thought day walkers were vampire hunters normally?" Roland asked as his father walked over and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"This old nose isn't good for nothing. All it takes is a tiny scratch and I can smell the aroma of something as exquisite as that. Besides, it's not like a day walker could overpower an ancient noble like myself, and a little psychic wizardry from your sister keeps that one in a daze where she can't escape. Although, not like she could since I keep the blood resources quite low on that one." Zaros explained. "Anyways, my boy, now that you have brought this up, I do have a request of you. In two days', time I will be heading out for the annual ancient houses gathering. Since I know, you are going to throw a fit and refuse to go, I'd like to keep watch over blood slaves, that special one in particular. I'll only be gone a week, surely you can stomach saying in this castle for that short amount of time?"

"Why don't you ask sister or brother to do it, why me?" Roland responded as he glanced away.

"Unlike you, they actually take part in the gathering that I ask of them. While you may only come to a handful, they go to just about all of them." Zaros retorted as he shook Rolan's shoulder and then walked back to his desk.

"I'll be back in two..." Roland solemnly responded as he headed out of his father's office and returned home.

Once two days had passed, Roland returned to the empty castle. He was reluctant to go down where the blood slaves were kept. He spent the first two days reading in the library and practicing his vampiric powers in the training grounds in the back courtyard. But each day, he would be reminded of the young girl and forlorn expression. Sometimes he would imagine hearing her voice saying "please...let us go". He would try to focus more on his book or practice harder, but he would often be too bothered and go off to do something else.

On the fifth day, he decided to check on the cell chambers. Up until then, he had just let the trusted maids or butlers check up on them and bring them provisions. But on this day, he figured, maybe he could shake off the imagery by accepting what he saw and picturing the purple haired girl as a vampire hunter in the cell, instead of a frail beautiful woman.

When he got to the cell chambers, he found the young girl, sitting on a bushel of hay seated closest to the cell bars. She glanced up at him as he walked towards the cells, but then quickly looked down when he stopped in front of her cell.

"We didn't do anything to deserve this..." The young girl murmured as she looked down towards the ground.

Roland found this odd, just as he had the past visit, because normally, anyone under his sister's spell would be in a zombie like trance and not be able to even speak.

"What is your name?" Roland asked, curiously wondering if she could even respond under the trance.

There was a long silence. Long enough that Roland figured that she was indeed just trance speaking, but as he was about to step away the girl faintly replied "Yuna....Endo Yuna.."

Roland tried to hide the surprised he felt when the girl actually answered his question. Before he knew what he was doing, he kneeled down and got close to the cell. "Why are you in here if you can speak? Shouldn't you be able to get out?!" He said to her.

Again, there was an awkward pause before Yuna answered, "...The spell is strong...I'm always so weak from the feedings...and they put me under each time afterwards."

"Are you a...day walker?" Roland as curiously.

Yuna suddenly, scooted away from the bushel of hay she was sitting on and slowly moved towards the back of the cell. She didn't respond and looked away towards the wall, with an expression of fear and worry. Roland quickly stood up, his hand to his mouth with an expression of both surprise and wonder. He could tell by her response that the answer must have been yes. He never thought he would come across a day walker. They were not only a rare type of vampire, but usually only come across as vampire hunters. To see one, trapped in a cell, weak and afraid, made him question the vampire literature that documented day walkers and their destructive history with vampires. As he stood there, he thought about the history classes he had where they learned about the famous day walker Christof, created by the founder of the house of Morieve. Morieve had discovered a day walker and in a quest to replicate and use their powers, he spent centuries trying to figure out how day walkers came to be and to eventually raise one up. Christof had been a day walker, raised by Morieve to live as a vampire of nobility, in an effort by Morieve to gain more power and influence. From what history told, Christof eventually betrayed Morieve, and wiped out the entire clan. He was the first day walker vampire hunter. He not only was able to wipe out a whole ancient vampire clan but threatened the existence of the others. Over the course of 20 years, the vampire houses had to come together to track him down and take him out. Ever since then, vampires saw day walkers as threats and rare blood opportunities, while the few day walkers that would appear rather chose the route of becoming a vampire hunter like the legend of the vampire hunter Christof. Although Roland didn't know, it was common for day walkers to just choose to live among humans and try to avoid vampires all together.

So, this surprised Roland, that a creature similar to of legend, that was able to wipe out an entire ancient house of vampires, and threaten the existence of others, was locked in a cell, like any other human.

"I'm not like my father" Roland suddenly said to Yuna, "I prefer to not keep blood slaves as I think it's quite barbaric. And... I'm not here to take your blood. I'm assuming you are, indeed, a day walker, but I mean no harm. I just found it surprising that someone like you would be in front of me now."

Yuna lowly lifted her gauze and looked up at Roland. "Why...?" she meekly asked.

"I'd like to just talk, if you don't mind?" Roland asked, as he sat next to the cell. "I actually don't get along well with my father. I've always been one to just study and train, rather than dwell in vampire nobility. So, unlike him, I'm more interested in knowing your story, since vampire literature liked to focus more on the vampire hunter aspect than anything else."

Yuna slowly sat up on the bushel of hay and considered Roland's question. "What do you want to talk about?" She asked.

"Well, for starters, how did you end up down here, if you don't mind me asking?" Roland asked.

Yuna looked down again, as if she was hesitant to respond, but after a few moments responded "I... was careless. I live as a human and generally avoid doing much during the nigh time, since that's when you...vampires are active. I just happened to be taking something out to the back of my antique shop one evening because I was running out of space. I was carrying too much, and an item fell and cut my arm pretty badly. I... really should have tended to the wound right then and there, but my stubborn need to finish things in one go made me stay out there and finish stacking the items so they could be picked up the next morning. I think your father...well Zaros must have been in the area the time, because before I could make my way back inside, he was in front of me and pinned me to the ground. I couldn't fight back at all, no matter how I tried, he was too strong. All I remember before passing out was him lapping up the blood dripping from my arm before I woke up in this cage."

"He is known to visit the city at night at time, to make it seem as though he is a normal count of the area. Your blood must have given off a distinct and strong smell that attracted him to you when you cut yourself." Roland responded, his face in a bit of frustration. "And you said you weren't able to free yourself, even though you are a day walker? Couldn't you have tried during the day?"

"Zaros fed on me to the brink of death. According to the other girls that were in the cage at the time, I was out for two days. When I awoke, I was famished and was provided food and drink. At the time I didn't hesitate to consume it. But the next day when I figured I could maybe muster enough to try to break out, Zaros came back and drained me before I could put up a fight, and again, made me too weak to do anything. After that second feeding a female vampire came in and put her hand on my forehead. After that, even if I recovered physically, mentally I have to power at all. It's been a month of this." Yuna explained, forlorn and distraught. 

"I'm certain that was Yelena who mentally altered you. My sister is a powerful psychic vampire, so my father probably ordered her to manipulate your mind so that you have constant brain fog." Roland responded to her as the pondered her story. After a few moments, he stood up and then began to walk towards the exit. "I'll make sure the servants bring out extra nutritious foods. Luckly, both my father and Yelena are out, so you don't have to worry about those feedings, nor the mental manipulations, which actually should be wearing off soon.

Roland motioned to one of the servants and then headed out of the cell room towards the upstairs. Yuna's existence fascinated him. But the sun was about to rise, and he didn't want the servants to take notice of that. But, as he lay in his coffin that morning, he couldn't help but picture Yunas face, beautiful, yet forlorn. Her voice echoed in his ears. Needless to say, Roland didn't get much sleep that day.

The next evening, Roland immediately went back down to the cells and sat down to talk with Yuna. This time though, he had given many tasks to the servants, so none were around for the conversation. 

"Is it ok if I call you Yuna?" He asked as he sat in a chair next to the cell. Yuna sat on the same bushel of hay next to the cell bars, across from him. She nodded in agreement.

"I've sent all the servants away, so you don't need to worry about them being around. I did this because I wanted to ask if it was ok to learn about where you came from. Or, I guess I should say, how did you end up as a day walker?" Roland asked, as his curiosity for knowledge and history could be read on his face. 

By this point. Yuna could sense that Roland wasn't a bad vampire. He hadn't attacked, even after feeding her well, and actually had conversations with her, unlike Count Zaros. She felt comfortable, and because of that, she explained her backstory to Roland. In detail she explained that when her mother was a little over 8 months pregnant, working in the grain field at dusk, while her father was rounding up cattle on the other side of the farm, she was attacked by a vampire. She struggled for her life and tried to fight off the vampire with the grain knife she had to cut the wheat. She managed to get a cut off that did leave vampire blood dripping on her and to the ground below her. This was probably because the sun had just barely set and isn't a perfect time to hunt for a vampire. It was probably famished or reckless. None the less, she couldn't overpower the vampire and it fed on her until it thought she was dead. But her cries a she had fried to fight off the vampire were heard by her husband and the vampire could her him yelling from afar as he headed towards the wheat field. Yuna's mother was on the brink of death as she laid on the ground, but some of the vampire's blood, that had splashed on her face during the scuffle, dripped into her mouth and she unknowingly swallowed it. This made her dying mother crave more, so he crawled with the little bit of life she had in her to the little pool of vampire blood that stained the ground, and she lapped it up. By the time Yuna's father had finally gotten to the scene, her mother was changing. Her body shaking and trembling as it went through the process of dying and becoming undead.

 Yuna explained that her father knew at that moment his wife was rather dead, or a turned vampire and he grabbed a nearby chicken in case of the latter. When her mother sat up, as a newly changed vampire, her husband handed her the chicken, which she bit into and ate. Yuna explained that her father, even though fearful now that his wife as a vampire. Still worried about the unborn child. So, to satisfy his wife's cravings for blood, he would sacrifice their farm animals to her and for a time, that was enough. Both were unsure about the unborn child, but a month later, Yuna was born and seemed like a normal child. When Yuna was around five years old, her father tested his theory and told her to eat a chicken like her mother. Yuna did, and that's when they knew she was a day walker. Yuna explained that her father raised her to live as a human and to only drink blood from animals if she felt the need. Because at this point Yuna felt comfortable around Roland, and he stopped to ask clarifying questions and genuinely seemed interested in her story she proceeded to explain her childhood. When she was around seven years old, that's when her life changed. People had started to go missing in their village. Their bodies were never found, and it was as if they had vanished. Everyone in the town said that the village was haunted. One night, Yuna's father found her mother in the act of feeding off of a human in one of the barn stalls. He had a fear that it was his wife's doing, the missing residents, and with resolve in heart, he slayed his vampire wife that night with a steak through the heart. After then, they sold their farm and moved to the current town, where Yuna grew up with her father. Yuna had no desire to hunt vampires, nor attack humans like her mother. She just wanted to live like a human like her father. Yuna completed her story by explaining her resolve to live as a human was why she didn't have much power to fight off Count Zaros and all she wanted to do was to return to her little shop and live her quiet life.

Roland looked very solemn as Yuna completed her story and laid her back on the cell wall. Yuna's story contradicted what he knew about day walkers, and it also was a heavy one at that. It almost pained him to look up at her knowing that his own father was part of making someone who already had a rough life even miserable. "Thank you for sharing your story with me. I now understand that day walkers are much more complex than I had been taught. I..uh..think I'll have the servants bring you another hearty meal and let you rest up. I think I've bothered you enough" Roland finally responded and then quickly sat up and headed towards the exit.

A little flustered herself Yuna quickly replied "Th..thank you, for listening to my story, and for showing me that not all vampires are evil."

Roland looked away quickly before she could see his face and he quickly went up the stairs to let the servants know to prepare more food for Yuna. After giving the servants orders to bring more food down, Roland noticed that he didn't quite feel himself. What is this feeling he thought? He tried to shake it off as he headed to the main part of the castle and to the library, one of his favorite places. He sat in the castle library shifting through books to pass the time and the odd feeling that had overcome him. Suddenly, he dropped the book he was holding, the sound of the book hitting the floor echoed across the library. In that moment, it had dawned on him that his father would be returning in two days. He knew the moment he returned, he would go down and feed from the remaining blood slave he had, Yuna, and this made his stomach turn. He decided to rest early that evening and ponder about what to do.

~* Part 1 End *~  ~* Part 2 The Escape Coming Soon~*

Art by: @snerplues