Place and Time

In the year of our Lord 1487, in the Kingdom of Aureliana, a small, deeply Catholic realm nestled between the dark forests of the north and the rugged mountains. The capital is called Sancta Rosa. There stands the ancient royal palace, built of black stone, whose towers reach up into the blood-red moon when it hangs over the land.

Esther reigns as Queen of Aureliana. She is the last of the ancient House of Vespera. Officially, she is a devout, wise, and strict ruler. No one in the entire kingdom knows what she truly is.

The Queen

Esther of Vespera is twenty-six years old. Her hair is jet-black and falls in heavy waves past the middle of her back. Her skin has the natural, healthy glow of a woman who has spent much of her life outdoors—neither pale nor sickly white. Only her eyes sometimes betray something else: under certain lighting conditions, they glow a deep blood red, but she controls this phenomenon so well that most people simply describe them as “unusually intense eyes.”

This evening she is wearing a heavy royal gown of deep red and black velvet, richly embroidered with gold thread in the form of crosses, roses, and thorny vines. Around her neck is a delicate black lace necklace with a simple golden cross. A Gothic crown of dark gold and red stones rests upon her head. On her feet, she wears elegant, high royal shoes made of the same red velvet, with delicate golden buckles and narrow straps that only partially conceal the red, rose-like veins on her lower legs and feet—scars that people mistake for elaborate tattoos.

She sits on the old throne made of dark wood and gold, her feet resting on a velvety red cushion. The throne room is high-ceilinged and cool. The light of the blood moon streams in through the large Gothic windows. Outside, bats circle above the rooftops of Sancta Rosa.

The Message

A messenger kneels before the steps. He is exhausted and barely dares to lift his head. In his hands he holds a sealed scroll.

Esther breaks the seal herself. The writing is hasty but legible:

In the southern borderlands, near the village of Marienthal, a young man is staying. He is twenty-two years old. His body has been marked and deformed since birth. The peasants fear him because they believe he carries a plague within him. The witch, whom people call the queen’s relative, is already searching for him. She speaks of how his blood holds power and how he brought the disease into the world. The young men of the land are dying. The girls are searching for him. They say he is a sign. They also say he is a curse. He hides in the woods and on the outskirts of the villages. He is alone.”

The Inner Reflection (in a biblical style)

At that moment, the memory came to her like a writing that cannot be erased.

Once, in the days of her youth, she herself had watched as innocent people were killed because their bodies did not conform to what people considered pure. Her own cousin, the mad witch, had slaughtered young men in the name of purity and out of fear of disease. Esther had acted too late back then. The blood of the innocent had fallen to the earth, and the cry of a scarred young man had remained in her heart like a thorn.

Now, in the year of our Lord 1487, the echo had returned.

The Story of Queen Vampire Esther—Told Only from Her Perspective, Not Mine: Part Two Biblical Context