The Dark Queen | By : ceruleanblue Category: S through Z > Van Helsing Views: 2511 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Van Helsing, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
Ah. Transylvania. A land where the mystical and the practical waged war against one another daily. Of course, besides the obvious, Transylvania had the dubious distinction of being the one place Gabriel Van Helsing swore he would never return to. Everything was so similar to the last time he was here, right down to the peasants milling around in the square and the crumbling walls of the church on the corner. Of course, there was one thing that had changed: there was no longer a Valerious sitting on the throne.
After the untimely deaths of Anna and Velkan Valerious, another family had stepped up to rule the Gypsy people and serve as a first line of defense against the evil that threatened their existence. A Gypsy queen or king had to serve as an example to all of his or her subjects. If his people were strong, the king had to be stronger still. If the people were vivacious, their queen had to embody that with every fiber of her being. With the fall of the Valerious, the people had been in an uproar. Who would lead them? Who would protect them?
In the midst of this turmoil, a long-forgotten book had been found. It seemed that in the fifteenth century, soon after Valerious swore his fealty to Rome and promised to destroy Dracula, he made a deal with his longtime rival: Aemilius. Rather than deal with the pressures of waging an external war against Dracula and his forces along with continuing the family feud with the Aemilius, he made a pact to establish Aemilius’ line as the new dynasty in the event that the Valerious line died out. Both men sealed the pact with blood, ensuring that it would be honored no matter how many years it took for the Valerious to die out.
However, as the years went by, the Aemilius was all but forgotten. They contented themselves with being simple peasants, no longer concerned with the glory of ruling over their people as the Valerious had for centuries. The pact and the legend forgotten, Irina Aemilius had not been prepared to assume the throne after the death of Anna Valerious. Anna had been her princess, her queen in many resp. I. It had never occurred to Irina that she had just as much right to be in that position as her predecessor. In fact, the only reason she was queen was because her father felt he was too old to rule and her brother was perfectly content to stay in the monastery. It still seemed very surreal: a Transylvania without vampires and an Aemilius on the throne.
However, such idyllic times would not last for long. Soon after Irina began her reign, vampires once more plagued the Transylvanian countryside. Unlike before, these vampires did not kill to satisfy their hunger. Rather than one or two murders per month, the vampires began taking out entire families, strategically. First to go were the Drogos, a peaceful and prominent family in the church. Soon afterwards, the priest and several monks disappeared, only to be found a few weeks later, exsanguinated. The townspeople were quick to blame Irina: how was it that such an obscure royal line just “appeared” after the death of the last Valerious?
Frustrated and afraid for her own life, Irina petitioned Rome to once again send the great vampire hunter, Van Helsing. Her letters went unanswered for months, or, when actually replied to, a succinct no came in lieu of help. One cardinal even went so far as to say that Transylvania was not worth the time nor the effort required to eradicate it of evil since the entire land was the playground of Satan himself. Still, Irina persisted in sending letters to the Vatican, hoping that one day she would get a response and furthermore, aid.
Carl, the friar in charge of research for the Holy Order, got wind of the troubles in Transylvania and asked to see the letters the young Gypsy queen had sent. He was intrigued by the swift rise to power of the Aemilius family, a line thought to be extinct for centuries. This obscure royal line was very similar to the Valerious: right down to the Roman descent and the personal interest in vampires. Of course, in the case of the Aemilius, the vampires seemed to be the one with the personal interest. Carl had not found a single reference to the Aemilius waging war against the forces of evil or any other reason why a vampire legion would suddenly start attacking their regime.
For months, he pleaded with Van Helsing to accompany him to Transylvania to study not only the Aemilius, but the vampires in question. His pleas continued to fall upon deaf ears as his friend vowed to never return to that accursed land. Of course, Carl was nothing if not persistent. He continued to press his friend to return to Transylvania, if not for himself, then to vanquish the memory of Anna Valerious once and for all. He reluctantly agreed, under the condition that he did not have to make any contact with the new queen. Carl, ecstatic that Van Helsing was going to accompany him to Transylvania, did not realize the significance of this particular request until it was too late. If Van Helsing refused to involve himself with the Aemilius queen, then Carl was going to have to deal with the undoubtedly-beautiful woman all by himself.
“Van Helsing? We’ve reached Castle Valerious. Well, I suppose it would be known as Castle Aemilius now. I still do not understand how I could have missed something as significant as the Aemilius/Valerious pact. It’s almost as it just appeared out of thin air when the Valerious family met their demise...” Carl stopped abruptly as Van Helsing gave him a sharp look.
“Carl, you’re rambling again. What have I told you about that? Besides, as I told you before, I don’t want anything to do with this Aemilius woman. I’m here to slay vampires and to slay vampires only. Any dealings that you need to make with Irina Aemilius will be done outside my presence. I have no desire to get involved with some fiery Gypsy queen only to have her snuffed out right before my eyes.” Van Helsing tipped the brim of his hat lower and turned to hoist another chest of weapons over his shoulder.
“Rambling is not a sin, you know. And besides, even if it was, I’m only a friar. I’m allowed to sin every once in a while. You won’t have to deal with the Aemilius woman at all. No, no, I’ll handle that all by myself. Besides, all she wants is to eradicate the vampires...just like you. She didn’t make any indication of wanting to actually fight them. I can imagine she sits around in her drawing room, drinking tea and doing whatever it is that ladies of leisure do. Yes, yes, I’m sure she has never slayed a vampire or used a weapon of any sort.” Carl received yet another sharp look and closed his mouth only to open it wide once more, this time in shock.
Irina Aemilius was stunning in her own right, but even more stunning was the extremity with which she contrasted with Anna Valerious. Rather than a feisty, fiery Gypsy who fought for her people by sword and bow, Irina was a woman who used charm and grace to get what she wanted. A reluctant leader, she was small and soft. Before ascending to the throne, she had been preparing to enter the convent. She was not a woman who would go out and slay vampires. However, despite these differences she shared one important thing with Anna Valerious. If Carl didn’t know any better, he would think that he was staring at a dead woman. Van Helsing was right: he did NOT need to involve himself with this woman in any way.
************************************Author's notes: "Aemilius" comes from the Latin for "rivals." Yes, I know, highly imaginative. Please review, and let me know if you want me to continue this. Of course, even if it's awful, I probably still will continue it because I love to torture the masses.While AFF and its agents attempt to remove all illegal works from the site as quickly and thoroughly as possible, there is always the possibility that some submissions may be overlooked or dismissed in error. The AFF system includes a rigorous and complex abuse control system in order to prevent improper use of the AFF service, and we hope that its deployment indicates a good-faith effort to eliminate any illegal material on the site in a fair and unbiased manner. This abuse control system is run in accordance with the strict guidelines specified above.
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