Distorted Flame

A young maid enters the young lord’s chamber, her eyes gleaming into the darkness in silence. The young lord was seated on his bed near the roaring fire. “Milord Vincent?” the maid asked softly. The lord turned to her in silence, his eyes dull and with out emotion. “Did you do as I ask?” the lord asked. The maid nodded as fear swelled inside her. She pulled the beautiful dagger from her bodice. “The dagger you wanted Milord.” the maid bowed slowly as the lord took the blade from her pale fingers. “Now leave me.” the lord ordered. He turned his eyes back into the fire. The maid nodded and moved toward the door. Just as she reached for the door she heard the lord cry softly under his breath. “I’m unwanted and unloved! What darkest of dark days dawns upon me? Fate means to slay me and give me a divine retribution!” The lord went silent and sits on ground before the fire with hands over knees. The maid moved silently in the shadows, unseen to the lord. The lord rolled the dagger in his fingers as his eyes gazed, lost in the flames of the fire. Slowly he spoke aloud again, “Woe to me for I could not woo my dearest Victoria even though she be the queen of hearts and thus has wooed my heart and gone away with it!” The lord pulls the dagger into his strong fingers, the blade aimed at his chest. He muttered, “Dearest dagger I pray thee find thy mark true!”. Suddenly the maid came to his side and ripped the dagger from the lord as he went to drive it into his heart. Tears swelled in the young maid’s eyes as she stared into the face of the lord. The lord gasped in his terror. The lord slowly stared into the fire again as if the maid was not even there. The maid listened to the lord’s last tale of his betrayed love as he once again spoke, “Why doth thou wish me to suffer all what evils fate wishes to cast upon me? One such as I cannot live with live with out love! You have cast me away and yet bring me back to toy with me yet again? Fair Victoria I say “Nay!” to such treachery! Thou hath stolen my love and doth bring thy soul back for more torture?! My ill fated love ends with thy dagger yet again and thou wish to stay in after life till end to it’s time!” The lord took the dagger from the maid even though her fingers still where wrapped around the handle. The maid cried silently as he rambled on again, “What love I could have given thou my sweet Victoria! As to my wooed heart I say “Aye!” For thou did woo mine! Only death shall clam my rage filled heart. Bring forth my divine retribution for a cast away wooed soul!” The lord looked into the maid’s eyes for the first time. “My dear maid, please help me drive this sweetest blade into my broken heart.” The lord asked softly. The maid nodded and then she wrapped her fingers around the handle while looking into the lord’s eyes. The lord and the maid slowly eased the dagger to the lord’s chest. “Quickly, all at once.” The lord whispered. Together they thrust the dagger into his chest and his crimson blood slashed to the floor. The maid gasped and let go of the dagger. Blood rose to the lord’s lips as he smiled up at her. “Truly beautiful you are tonight. I thank thee for you kindness, dear maid.” The lord muttered as he closed his eyes for the last time, with a smile spread across his face. 1

The maid dried her eyes on her sleeve and turned and looked down upon the lord’s blood stained lips. “I shall give your dear Victoria the retribution she is owed in return for your death.” The maid wept before she left the room and vanished into the hallway.2

Later in the evening a young girl came to the call upon the young lord. Her soft knocks on his chamber door where left unanswered. “Milord Lady Victoria calls upon you.” The young woman called. She pressed her ear against the door to listen for him but only the silence of his death dwelled inside. The young maid came from the shadows of the hallway. “Be you, Lady Victoria?” she whispered from behind the girl. The girl spun around rather startled at the maids presence. “Who be you?” she asked the maid. “I am Julia Sinclare, servant to lord Vincent you call upon.” Julia said quickly. “Greetings to you.” The girl bowed before she continued, “I am a servant of Lady Victoria. She wishes to call upon your master.” The girl looked back toward the door before settling her eyes back upon Julia. Julia glanced back at the door, her face shallow once she thought to her lord’s body still on the floor before the fire. Julia looked back at the girl with a shy look of disgust. “What house is this Lady Victoria from?” Julia questioned. “Sinclare. Are you not her younger sister?” The girl replied. Julia’s eyes filled with fire. “Yes, she is my relation. Lord Vincent is ill and shall not see guests this evening. He requests that I see to anyone who wishes to call upon him. So please take me to Lady Victoria.” Julia said. The girl lead Julia down the winding halls and to a large oak door. “This is the chamber of Milady. Shall I call upon her for you?” The girl asked. Julia shook her head, “I am her sister. I shall call upon her.” Julia whispered. The girl bowed and took her leave. Julia pulled a dagger from her bodice, the same dagger lord Vincent had used in his death. The blade gleamed in the dim light as Julia silently opened the chamber door and slipped inside. She silently walked down a small hallway and into a large richly dressed bed room. She crept closer to the bed but suddenly stopped short once she had noticed the blood on the floor surrounding the bed. Julia willed herself onward. The smell of the blood was over powering as Julia came closer to the bed. Her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting and peered on the bed. Julia brought her hand to her throat as if to choke her gasp away, the dagger clattering to the floor. Julia’s lover, lord Cladwell, lay sprawled out across the bed sheets of bed. A dagger lay embedded in his chest which barely rose and fell with his shallow breaths. “Horatio!” Julia cried and flung herself at the bed side. “Julia?” Horatio spoke his words barely reaching Julia’s ears. She took his cold hand and held it against her cheek as she let her tears slide down her face. “Yes my love, I am here. Who has done this to you?” she sobbed. Horatio was silent for a moment. “Come closer dear one. I don’t have long.” he begged. Julia arose and crawled on to the side of the bed, her face bent toward his. She could smell his blood and could feel the death pulling on his soul. “Your sister had just be rid of her lover lord Vincent. She came to me to play me the fool and make a false love with me to rid lord Vincent of any chance of wooing her again. I refused her and in her rage she drew her dagger and...” Horatio spoke before cutting short. “My sister has taken you from me!” Julia cried. “Hush my love. Kiss me and end my pain.” he called to her. Julia fell silent and her lip quivered as Horatio used the last of his strength to pull the dagger from his rib cage. He cried out in pain as the blade left his flash. “Julia....”he spoke and looked up at her with the same passion her always had for her. Julia bend forward and kissed him as his last breath left his body and death took his soul. 3

“Dance in the stars my love.” she whimpered as she closed his eyes.4

Julia closed the large oak of her sister’s chamber. She walked down the hall in a slow inhuman pace. A rapier that was slung low around her waist bounce against her hip as her pace quickened when she started to near the ball room of the castle. A Masquerade party for the prince was being held in the large ball room. As Julia stepped into the large arch of the doorway, she pulled on her mask that only covered the top half of her face. The mask was jet black with silver jewels embedded in it to resemble moonlit tear drops. She rushed into the crowded ball room in search of Lady Victoria. After pushing her way through the crowded entry way, she came to the main dance floor. Couples danced in a fast pace that was set to place by the orchestra that played on the stage in the corner. Julia quickly spotted her sister on the dance floor. Victoria danced with the price himself in a dark red ball gown. “Seduction of the prince now?” Julia asked herself aloud. She rushed in the dance floor among the royal couples. Victoria spared her no noticed as she crept behind the prince. “Lady Victoria?” Julia asked as she took her by the arm. “Your majesty, do you protest if I take Milady for a dance?” Julia asked softly and bowed to the prince. “By all means” the prince muttered and bowed to them both before taking his leave. “Milady?” Victoria asked as they joined the others in dance. Julia drew closer and whispered, “The tears of pity I would have wept for you have turned to tears of scarlet hatred!” Victoria frowned. “Dare girl, I have only know you for the moment! How can you say such things to me without knowing me?” Victoria barked. “My dear Lady I know you all too well. You where the death of lord Vincent and my love Lord Cladwell!” Julia yelled with venom in her words. People stopped and stared as Victoria shoved Julia away. Julia ripped the mask from her face and stared her sister in the eyes. “Have you gorged yourself at last in your quest for blood at the death of my master and dear love?!” Julia cried out loudly. Julia drew her rapier. The room quickly grew silent except for the oblivious orchestra. “Lust is lust dear sister! I have no backward glances at their deaths!” Victoria growled and grabbed a sword from a nearby lord. People back away quickly as she pointed the blade in Julia’s direction. “And because you have no compassion for their deaths you must die!” Julia screamed. Victoria growled and ran forward and tried to strike Julia with her sword, only to have her attack blocked by her sister. “Do you wish to make me prey in your conquest of souls?” Julia yelled as she sprang forward in a thrust toward Victoria. Victoria blocked her sister’s thrust but Julia had drew a dagger and stabbed it into Victoria’s heart. Julia let go of the dagger and swung her rapier upward into her sister’s rib cage. Crimson blood ran down the blade of the rapier as Victoria stumbled backwards before falling to the ground in death. Many of the women in the crowd screamed as Julia rushed from the crowed when the prince’s guards came to try and arrest her for the death of her sister. She ran down the halls of the castle only to be cornered at a large balcony with the sea’s coast below it. “By the power of the royal crown you are under arrest!” a guard said as they approached. “To dance with thy love in a sea of stars in the fairest death.” Julia whispered before jumping off the edge of the balcony into the sea below.  5