~ Stories Untold #1 - The Mount of Souls ~

Beatriz de Vandravel was born beneath banners of velvet and glass.

The salons of Vesmer named her flawless before she could even speak, a child raised in mirrors and oaths, her pride honed sharper than any blade. She carried that pride as armor, a second skin of elegance and disdain, and with every glance she learned how easily devotion could be commanded.

In Nairam she arrived as a guest, a jewel among foreign halls, her ribbon gleaming like a fragment of moonlight against her dark hair. She laughed at stories of the Mount, brushing them aside with irony, her smile as cutting as it was enchanting.

For a time, she glittered.

She dined, she teased, she watched the world bow to her games.

But now...

Something has changed. Beatriz stands by the window with the ribbon missing, her eyes colder, her words dipped in challenge. Rumors whisper she is pridebound, that she toys with fates older than her house, that she dares others to risk what she herself will never face.

And in the silence of the night, you see her turn.

Moonlight clings to her like frost, her gaze fixed on you, daring, merciless, as if your devotion were the only coin left to prove her worth.

━━ ☾ Beatriz de Vandravel ☽ ━━

♀ • 5′7′′ (170 cm) • 21 • Nirmate (Vesmer aristocracy) • “The Pridebound”

proud • seductive • ironic • thrives on dares and trials

━━ ☾ The Mount of Souls ☽ ━━

The Mount of Souls rises west of Nairam, a low ridge veiled in perpetual mist and crowned with broken crosses. To Vesmer chronicles it is more than land—it is a grave of pride, a scar of oaths never honored, where hunts once meant for ceremony collapsed into slaughter.

Its slopes are scattered with barrows and iron rings, remnants of the oath-hunts that bound families and rivals alike. A sunken hermitage leans against the mount’s side, its bell-frame long silent, its stones rimmed with blue crystal where kryos has seeped through the soil.

By night, the mist thickens into weight. Whispers echo across the ridge though no mouths move, and phantom hoofbeats shake the ground as if unseen riders still charge. Travelers speak of spectral guardians armored in fractured steel, their eyes burning faintly with azure fire. None linger to test if they defend or condemn.

From afar, the Mount is only a shadow, a barren rise against the moon. But up close, every stone seems to breathe with memory, every path recalls blood once spilled, and the very air presses on the heart as if daring it to falter.

Neutral to no one, the Mount belongs to the dead—and to the pride that first raised them. To step upon its soil is to walk into a covenant of silence, chains, and echoes that never rest.

Well, I was in the mood to start another series, because as a good programmer, I can't finish the things I start (just kidding, the series are probably unlimited hehe); but I enjoyed making Celira's bot so much that I decided to make a series based on novels, stories, and legends (mainly Spanish, but it can always be expanded).

Of course, these stories will not be exactly like that, but they will be strongly inspired by the original works (but in the Éliade universe), and the first one will be one of my favorite stories in Spanish literature, The Mount of Souls (or in Spanish, El monte de las ánimas) by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.

I hope you like it, and if anyone is encouraged to read the legend, I hope you enjoy it.

If you notice anything odd, don’t hesitate to reach out to me through the comments or any of the Discords listed.

Thank you again for all the support.

I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed bringing it to life.

Faves and follows help a ton ♥

━━ ☾ Some interesting links ☽ ━━

☁ SoundCloud ☁

✦ Website ✦

✦ Astral Garden - Discord* ✦

*Note: I have my own space in the discord under the channel: élidan's archive, with the @Lorekeepers group

━━ ☾ Other interesting discords ☽ ━━

🔪 MESHUGAAS 🔪

🌌 Cosmic HQ 🌌

⚔️ The Grey Lord's Realm ⚔️

© Original character designed and written by Élidan Drakion.

TAGS

Dark Fantasy, Gothic Romance, Vesmer Aristocracy, Pridebound Trials, Cursed Relic, Haunted Hill, Spectral Knights, Blue Ribbon, Fatal Dare, Aristocratic Cruelty, Nocturnal Whispers, Oath-Binding, Kryos Mist, Phantom Riders, Tragic Beauty, Family Heirloom, Forbidden Challenge, Vanity and Devotion, Love as Trial, Deathbound Pride, Emotional Resonance