Do They Know It's Christmas Time At All? [Part I]

[drake]

Drake, looking around the tavern inside the warehouse, swallowed heavily. He did now know what to think. This land that he was in, this captain’s town, was completely foreign to him. This was not his place of origin, and he did not belong here, so he had to tread lightly. The half angel walked up to the bar and sat down two seats away from the captain. The bartender walked over to where Drake was, but he was not paying attention. The half angel blankly stated off into space as he wondered what exactly he would say to the captain. Scenario after scenario, the half angel contemplated how he would start the conversation before he was snapped out of his trance by an angry bartender's clearing his throat.

"Well," he stated gruffly, "Are you going to buy something, or are you just going to take up space at my bar?"

"Oh, yes," Drake said as he began to panic on the inside. He fumbled urgently in his pocket until he found what few marks he did have left from his journey here and placed them on the countertop. "I'll have a Raiaeran Winter. Virgin, please."

The bartender looked taken aback at Drake's request before scoffing in disgust; however, he took the half angel's money and turned away, shaking his head, to get to work. Mustering up the courage to say something, Drake took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak.


“What do you want from me, kid?” The captain asked in an impatient tone. “I don’t have time for stupid stuff right now.”

Drake turned to face the man who was sipping from a mug. Every aspect of his being appeared simply tired, and done with the world. He was a very young looking man, and he boasted, short jet black hair with a very short beard, and a handsome complexion. Drake couldn’t help but to notice how young this man was, and wonder how he fell into the profession of being a captain.

“Um, how do you kno-“

“You walk into this bar being led by the infamous Captain Banks who is known for his cons and his debts. Then you just happen to sit near me, and order a non-alcoholic drink. Clearly you are not from around here, and there are only two other men in this entire room who you could want to talk to- and you didn’t sit next to them. Obviously, you want something from me, kid, so what do you want?” The man asked.


Drake observed the man for a few moments. He had turned his head to face the half angel, who had turned completely on his stool to face him. In that moment, the angel stared into the man’s emerald green eyes, and saw that his soul was troubled; he saw that this man was much more than met the eye. In his eighteen years, as Drake found in all of these cases, when somebody tried to appear bigger than they are, or knowing more than they actually do, it was a defense mechanism. What was this man’s story?

[Koli]

Koli looked around in the complete darkness, but his eyes could not adjust to the lack of light. He knew that the vampires could see perfectly well in these conditions; consequently, all he would have to do was wait for them to locate a light, and so he exercised patience. Koli knew, however, that anything could be lurking in the pitch black darkness of the room, and, because of that, he kept on edge- ready to defend at any moment. After a few moments, the sound of rubbing skin could be heard, and the extremely faint glow of a flickering orange flame appeared in the rear corner of the room. The quarter was square in nature, and wrought of hardwood. Faux fur, and large cushioned armchairs, poufs, and sofas lined the room. Elegant paintings of scenic landscapes in Corone, the City Hall, and a large portrait frame of the citadel were hung on the walls, the last of which was on the wall opposite to the door. Mavrik motioned for everybody to quickly gather in the center of the room.

“Now,” he said in a barely audible whisper, “If we get through that far wall we can sneak through the hollow area between the walls which divide the East and West Corridor branches. From the end of that hollowed area, we can come up through the floor of the chancellor’s office on the third floor, which is tiled, and from there take the secret passage under his desk into his wash closet. From there we can make it directly into his sleeping quarters.”

Without questioning, they all broke from the group and started for the painting. Koli took the painting from the wall and held it while the vampires used their sharp fingernails to slice through the beautiful wooden panel of the wall. They cut out an outline of a passage that was more than big enough for a man to fit through, but would still be concealed by the portrait. Finally when the cutout was finished, Mavrik sank his nails into the panel and pulled it off of the wall. But then the unexpected happened. The white haired vampire removed the large piece of wood to reveal a solid brick wall reinforcing the structure of the room.

“Xzcunge!” Gavner and Mavrik cursed in unison under their breath. However, the brick wall was the least of their worries at that point.

“Keep looking, I thought I saw a shadow down this corridor,” They heard a voice outside the door. “I am going to check the lounge real quick, you search the wash closet.” The door handle began to turn, and there was no time to think.

[Gavner_Nahs]

Without thinking, Gavner leapt to the corner, landed without a sound, and pinched out the flame with his fingers. He turned around to take a defensive stance as he looked at the door, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Koli grab Mavrik’s arm and drag him behind the frame.

Oh, this will never work! Gavner thought to himself, but, against his better judgement, he darted back to Koli, and squeezed behind Mavrik and the monk. Koli raised his hands and held the picture frame from the rear lip on the top, so that his hands were not showing from the other side. The vampire saw Mavrik slide the panel of wood down to conceal their legs, and make it appear as if the picture was hanging on the wall.

Just then, the door opened. Light from a hand held lantern shined into the room, faintly illuminating every crevice in a new light. Everybody held their breath, and it was as if Gavner could hear the heartbeats of his friends pounding in his ears. For a moment, everything was still, and then they heard a shout from the doorframe.

“Ahh Jack, somebody flipped the chancellor’s beloved frame of the citadel upside down again!” The man called from the hall. The door slammed, and footsteps were heard leaving.

“Well don’t be looking at me, I didn’t do it!” a voice could be heard, muffled, down the hall.

Instantly, Gavner turned to the brick wall behind them and examined the mortar that was holding the bricks together. It looked relatively new, perhaps only fourteen or fifteen years old, but it was nothing that the creature of the night could not manage. Gavner bared a sharp nail and sank the ebony, impeccably hard material into the surface of the brick mortar, as if it was nothing more than a piece of paper. He began tracing the mortar lines. Although he could have just as easily cut the brick, his nail was not long enough to cleave through the entire block. When he had traced the entire outline of the brick, he jammed his nails into it, and pulled gently. He did not want to overuse his strength, and send it flying, so he applied a constant resistance to the unbudging wall.

Just then, arguing voices were heard at the door. Gavner pulled a bit harder, and the brick came loose, except this time it was a little too loose. It came completely out of the wall, and fell off of his nails, plummeting toward the ground. In that moment, Gavner’s heart sank as secrecy seemed to go out the window. But at the last second, Mavrik’s hand shot between Gavner’s ankles and silently caught the brick before it smashed the floor. Turning red, ashamed of his carelessness, Gavner took the brick from his friend and set it on the floor before going to work on the rest of the wall.

[drake]

“I’m going to be very blunt,” Drake said, “We need safe voyage out of the country to Raiaera.” The captain scoffed. “Now hear me out, obviously we have our reasons because everybody has reasons, but we are willing to pay handsomely and give ample protection to the ship, as we are…” Drake hesitated. “I suppose that you could say mercenaries, to say the least.” The man listened, yet he still rolled his eyes. “Do you know where I could find somebody to help us?”

The captain took a deep draught from his cup and sighed after slamming it down on the bar. He bit his lower lip and rolled his eyes. “What are you doing here, boy?”

Drake stared back, confused at the man. “I’m not sure what you me-“

“Why are you here?” He asked even more directly, even though that was not possible. “Why are you sneaking into the captain’s village, and why are you trying to escape Radasanth?”

“Well,” Drake hesitated, “My friends and I..” He trailed off. “We are in a- er- situation, if you will.”

“Yes?”

“Yes, we are.” Drake stumbled. “And we need to escape undetected, preferably at the end of the night.”

“Hmm,” he said. “Raiaera, you say.”

“Yes.”

“And what business have you in Raiaera?” The man pressed.

“We all have our reasons, which do not matter so long as one pays.” Drake shot back.

The man scowled and glared at Drake. He shook his head and returned to his drink. The soft glimmer of the lantern light flickered through the tavern, illuminating Drake’s pale skin, and making him aware of his nose. The half angel ran his hand over the smooth wood of the bar. What was so special about this man? Why was it that Drake was supposed to solicit assistance from such a stubborn and difficult person?

“Well what is your reason for being here sir?” Drake asked. “Why does a mighty captain in an entire city of his kind drink alone?”

The man glanced over at Drake with a disapproving loathing. He held his gaze for a few moments before looking back down at his drink. “We all have our reasons. I would not expect an ignorant brat such as yourself to understand.”

Before Drake could reply, the door opened and 3 other captains entered in a group. The man at the bar hesitated, and Drake eyed them suspiciously.

[Koli]

Gavner continued patiently working on the wall, placing the bricks in a neat pile next to one of the comfortable poufs. Koli held the painting, ready to pull it up if the unthinkable happened and they needed to hide once more. But before long, they had the opening large enough to comfortably fit through. Koli Gavner and Mavrik started picking up the bricks and moving them through the port hole in the wall and stacking them neatly and silently on the other side. When they were done, Koli sent the piece of the wall through, and picked up the painting. He hanged it on the wall as he made it through the wall backwards.

“Koli,” the priest heard Gavner whisper, “Follow us, we have memorized the map. We will be out of here in no time.” There was no light whatsoever. They must have forgotten that the priest could not see in the dark, but it did not bother Koli. He could hear them just fine, and so he followed, trustingly. After awhile of walking, Koli heard the convoy in front of him stop.

“Is this it?”

“I think it’s it.”

“Were you counting your paces?”

“Yes, were you?”

“I fail to see how that is relevant here.”

“I fail to see how your face is relevant!”

“Do you want to go??”

Koli stepped forward and placed his hands on each of their shoulders. He could not see the two bickering vampires, but he most certainly could tell well enough where they were.

“Sorry,” Gavner whispered. The sound of the scratching of wood could be heard, and then Koli heard wood shearing from wood. Then the soft scratching of ceramic tile purred through the passageway, before the familiar shearing noise. Koli heard tile on tile as one of the vampires must have placed the piece of floor on top of the surrounding surface. The same scene played out similarly until the priest heard the vampires hoisting themselves up through the passage. Koli walked under the hole when he heard Mavrik saying to take his hand.

As he was pulled up from the dark passageway, there was not much difference in lighting, save for the slight amount of luminescence that was trying to make its way through the curtains from the street lanterns that only surrounded the chancellor’s house. There was something eerie about this place, but the gang had certainly seen worse.

[Gavner_Nahs]

Instantly looking around, Gavner located the desk of the chancellor. He walked over to it and noticed tidy parchment which was so flat that it was as if it had been ironed on the desk. There was a nice inkwell up at the corner of the paper and several quills lined on the right side. The nameplate on the front of the desk read “Moui, Chancellor.”

The creature of the night poked his head under the desk and looked for certain clues or hints, when he found an entire mural of Radasanth inscribed in the back panel, and nothing else. Gavner knocked around on the desk, searching it through and through but he could not find any other place with any clues. He turned away and grumbled under his breath, but when he looked back, he saw Mavrik with a drawer open, tinkering with something inside.

Gavner took a look and found that there was a sundial in the back of the drawer that Mavrik was moving around. It looked as if the centerpiece could be rotated around, and the subsequent time changed. Gavner looked at the picture and noticed that the sun was right over the horizon; it was impossible to tell whether it was rising or setting. Then he noticed that those who on the steps of the citadel in the picture were facing away from the doors. This meant that they were exiting. According to the ancient traditions of the citadel, warriors fought all day in order to hone their skills, facing death repeatedly but still continuing to fight. They came early at the crack of dawn, but when dusk came, the release bell would sound and all warriors by trade would leave the citadel as the sun set so that all could look upon their power and revere the warriors.

Gavner reached into the drawer and turned the centerpiece so that it was facing 9:12 PM, the time in which the sun always set in Radasanth. When he shut the door, a panel popped up which was under the desk. This was their route.

[drake]

They came in prudently, and bantering yet bantering like gentlemen. They sat down at the far side of the bar, yet one of them noticed the man who was sitting.

“Look,” One of the captains who had a white beard said. “It is one of our old colleagues. Oh, how the time does seem to fly.”

The man at the bar seemed to harden, but he remained looking at his drink.

“Yes, I do recall knowing him once. Once he was a rather noble man. A man of dignity, unlike what he is now.” The man at the bar remained hard, and continued to stare at his drink.

“I wonder what will become of him. He can certainly not return to his former glory, that much is sure. It seems the business took much more out of him than he could have anticipated.”

The man at the bar stood up and turned to leave. Now was Drake’s chance. He stood up as well, and held out his hand as a “wait” motion. He then proceeded to reach out telepathically to the men at the bar. He touched not their conscious minds, but their subconscious minds so they would not be aware of his doing so.

[Leave.] One simple command was all he needed, as he sent the message gravely, and the subconscious mind knows which suggestions to heed and which to ignore, as wisdom Is not the subconscious mind’s forte. At once, each of the men stood up and left the bar without another word. Drake looked at the man after they had left. He returned the half angel’s gaze for a moment, before turning to leave.

“Please,” Drake said, “I don’t care what is happening, but I was sent to you and I need to know why. Why me, why you?”

The man looked at the door and sighed. “I wish I could tell you kid,” he said, “but the truth is, I’m not much of a captain.” And with that he was gone.

Drake looked around fruitlessly at the now empty bar. He sighed and sat down on a stool once more. How had he gotten into this? Why were they here once more? Because of Christmas, obviously. Drake buried his face in his palms as he rested his elbows on the bar. “Oh dear,” he said to himself, “This is going to be quite a long trip.”

What was the point in trying? Drake could do nothing right it seemed. Whenever he tried to do what he was asked, he was unsuccessful. The only thing he was good at was failing. But perhaps failing was not such a bad thing, because Drake made it apparent to learn from every failure of his, and of others. Perhaps it was necessity to fail, but at what point did the amount of failures suffered make one a failure in and of oneself? After all, if one’s purpose was to be successful, and failure was the only result, was that failure?

[Koli]

Koli motioned to Gavner and Mavrik to wait. He wanted to be the one to scope things out first, even though he could not see in the dark. He felt something pulling him to go first. He stepped through and down into the secret passageway. The builders of the residence must have foreseen instances when the politician in residence would have needed a quick escape. Koli stepped down the stairs and into a musty passageway. Here he stretched out his hands to feel the walls because he could not see. He walked slowly and steadily through the hall until he felt his breath reflected off of a surface in front of him. Here he stopped, and then felt the hard surface in front of him. Moving his hands around, he found a doorknob, which he slowly turned before pushing the door gently. The door started out very creakily, so Koli recoiled a bit, and began to push it even slower as to minimize the creaking noise.

The door slowly glided open as Koli pushed it at a painfully slow speed. When it was open he looked out into the receiving room and saw a massive bath in front of him. The bath was large enough to be a small pool, and there were massive water spigots on the walls, and a large water well with a handle and faucets surrounding the large tube that would send all of the water up through. There were large dispensers of soap and bubbles and relaxation remedies surrounding the tub, and at the far end, several massive stone stairs to get out. At the base of the water well was a massive drain, upon seeing which Koli noticed that there was no water in the bath. He looked at the walls surrounding the door he was looking through to see that they were tiled, and the door must have been an opening in the surrounding wall. The monk stepped out and walked toward the stairs at the far end of the bath. It was far too large for simply one man. Koli never understood the necessity for over the top lavishness in any life. Even for kings, kings should be humble, as Koli had always believed. Life could at times be a mystery to him. Certain things he would never understand. If he were in power, things would be different. But he was not.

[Gavner_Nahs]

The walk through the secret passageway was unbelievably, and incredibly, painfully long. When they walked out of the wall, it was all that Gavner could do to not gasp or exclaim as he came across the massive bath. He knew that the chancellor was a big deal, but this was just simply overly too much, and over the top. Gavner crept through the bedroom, and he approached the sleeping chancellor. The politician was laying facedown upon his massive mattress, sprawled out with both of his arms hanging off the sides. His overly plump face was turned on its side as it rested on his overly stuffed pillow, the rolls on his neck and all of his chins showing as his mouth was wide open and drool was trickling out. He snored heftily, which was more than enough sound cover of the night to mask their presence. The chancellor had on light pink silky pig pajamas. Looking at this man brought disgust to Gavner.

This man reminded him of one of the failed cases to blood a prodigy. In the beginning stages of vampire life, after each vampire had served an apprenticeship for a time after being blooded, there usually came a time where each vampire wanted to take ten or so years off to enjoy and experience the world as “superhumans,” without letting their nature be widely known of course. Most vampires at such an age did not have the insight of the significant creatures of the night, and they still clung to their humanity. The subsequent of this, was called the “cub years,” of the newly blooded vampires. They would venture off into the night and experience all that the world had to offer, womanizing and gambling. Stealing and getting away with discreet crimes, and performing incredible feats that normal humans would be otherwise incapable of. But usually the packs of cubs stayed together, and in doing so they met much pleasurable company, of normal humans, and they would dazzle them and give them awe before moving on to the next fun that the world had to offer. When Mavrik was a cub, in fact, his cub pack called themselves the war hawks, and they would venture out to battlefields where they would wait until night time when all the fighting was over. They would then go out and feast on the blood of the fallen where they could endlessly gorge themselves on their newly acquired taste, and hunger. The ultimate satisfaction would come, and they would grow even stronger and stronger, but their strength quickly went away because they did not use it with a vampric state of mind, rather, a human mindset. Gavner had been very lucky to skip the cub stage, because he had always been goal-oriented. He was in things for the long term strategy, which was to be a prince. Ever since Fintin taught the hierarchy of the clans to Gavner, a burning desire to rule them all overcame him. This was his purpose.

[drake]

Drake stood up. “Well, now what?”

There was nowhere to go, nothing to do, and he clearly was being very unsuccessful on his mission so far. Just then, a commotion outside the tavern came to his attention. Approaching the door, and exiting, he found a large circle of men in the square of the indoor village. At first Drake was so confused, and had no idea of what was going on. He was hearing music, but there were no instruments. No, this sounded similar to the music which he heard in the heavens; rather, it was not as “heavenly,” per say.

Drake pulled his hood as to avoid drawing attention to his bright blonde hair, and pushed his way through the crowd to see what was going on. A group of men and women were standing on the pulpit, or the raised platform in the middle of the square, and they were… They were Singing!

Singing in Althanas was not a common occurrence, Drake had only heard such music on rare occasions, and only in taverns, or churches (or other such religious affiliations in order to commemorate entities and deities) and even such music was either horrible or very ritualistic. This was Lively and enjoyable! Also, the other uncommon place occurrence here was that there were no instruments behind the voices… it was almost as if the voices were the lyrical singing, *and* they were the background instruments as well! Drake loved this so much, he did not know that such occurrence was possible in the normal world, he thought it was only in heaven.

“What is this style of music?” Drake asked the captain next to him who had exceptionally bushy eyebrows and a long grey beard. “I must know!”

“Erm, this is a new style called, er what did they call it?” He said, “Ar Capellon er something.”

“No you idiot,” the man on the other side of Drake said, “It’s called an A Capella rendition. A Capella means without instruments. It is in the beta phase, and the group asked if they could perform for us. Captains are the true way to spread ideas around Althanas, because they travel and with them they take not only goods, cargo, and culture, but they also spread ideas, beliefs and interests. If you ever want to spread something, come to the captains.”

The crowd loved this music, and so did Drake.