Chapter 29: Chapter 29

Time passed but I was unable to know how long I had been locked up. I no longer had any notion of day or night, so everything was confused and, with the drugs, I was dozing most of the time. I was still entitled to two meals a day. Which coincided with my escape plan, which was to get Blake to regain his strength. Of course, I had never felt so bad in my life, but my determination was such that I was barely feeding myself now. Blake forced me to do it anyway because I was visibly losing weight. I didn’t care, and I was all the more glad to watch Ethan moping around in concern for me. I fell ill and coughed constantly so I was entitled, in addition to drugs, to a cocktail of antibiotics. My comfort hadn’t improved, except for a blanket that my brother had brought me.

I hadn’t seen Gregory and Yanosh since that horrible night. It was the short, plump man who gave me my injections now and Ethan brought me my meals. The little man was called Gilles and used telekinesis to inoculate me with the product in the syringes. He was so bad that he almost stuck one in my eye. He gave me the impression of training with this macabre little game but I preferred to deal with him than with the other two. Besides, he felt no attraction for me and remained perfectly insensitive to my overdeveloped pheromones. Even Blake was sending me more vibes than that poor guy. I couldn’t explain it to myself, but it was one less problem to manage.

Ethan was still trying to communicate in thought, and I fell silent, more resolute than ever. Yet it’s thanks to him that Gregory and Yanosh were absent. According to Ethan, the master had agreed when my brother had threatened to kill the tall redhead before crushing the Scandinavian’s neck. Obviously, I would have preferred him to take action, but in my misfortune, I had at least the satisfaction of no longer being in front of those two pigs. Ethan, desperate to reconnect somehow, had struck up a conversation with Blake Burton Race for the first time. The latter tried desperately to reason with him, but Ethan remained closed off, irrevocably subjugated by his master. Despite his stubbornness, Blake was convinced that a serious doubt was beginning to subsist in my brother, in particular by the fact that Magnus had originally planned to keep me in one of the tower apartments and not in a dungeon. He had suddenly changed his mind when he first saw my face. It was a detail that Ethan couldn’t explain, any more than the physical and moral torture he was putting me through. But he constantly found excuses for him, convinced by his master of the need to act in this way because of my stubborn character. He was careful not to reveal the nature of my resemblance to a wife he had murdered with his own hands.

I also learned more about Eleonore. Blake was much more talkative since he regained his strength and no longer talked to himself. He found more and more confidence in his words and I realised that the man pulling himself together, in front of me, was much more determined about his intentions than he let on. Physically, he remained thin because he was no longer used to eating so much. It was sometimes difficult to finish most of the plate and his body rejected all solid food the first few days. Blake suffered enormously from this physical regeneration because no one normally constituted would have supported what he had endured for two or three centuries. He himself no longer knew how long he had been locked up here. But he was Blake Burton Race, and now I knew the whole story.

And this story really began the day he met the fascinating Isabelle Castellane. As a teenager, she was visiting a rich lord of Massât, in Ariège. She accompanied her father, a farmer who came to sell his cattle to support his family. The lord, devoid of humanity, had seized all his goods and left the poor man totally ruined. Blake hadn’t moved a finger to help him but he had noticed Isabelle. She was more attractive to him than any woman of his age (that is, he was thirty years old in the thirteenth century!). He had therefore requested an interview with this young girl who, as he suspected, was in full caste awakening.

He had met few of his kind since his own birth, and for a very long time, he and Magnus thought they were the only ones like them. They remained side by side for several centuries, surveying the British Isles. Blake explained to me that their growth had slowed since their adolescence. At first, they believed they were immortal, and only after two centuries did they realise that they would physically pass adulthood. Their growth slowed down over the decades and they celebrated their 20th birthday in the 8th century! They had established their fortunes over time and avoided getting involved in conflicts opportunistically and through their powers. But during an ordinary dinner among wealthy English gentlemen, events got out of hand when Magnus openly boasted that he was the most powerful of the whole table. His remarks betrayed an undisguised cynicism and some were so offended that he was challenged to a duel three times. He won the first two without using his formidable skills, but the last proved more difficult to thwart. His opponent, strong from the experience of the first two failures and incredibly clever (for a human, according to Blake), had managed to injure Magnus by asking one of his friends to intervene by surprise and stab him in the back. Magnus was hurt, but his incredible gift of physical longevity made him less sensitive to pain than anyone. He took a long time to heal but he remained inexorably alive, his body always finding a way to recover from the slightest injury. Blake had the same gift. But, to stay in England, a rumour about their powers could not spread. However, that day, Blake assassinated the traitor who stabbed Magnus and had to massacre all the witnesses of the scene before both fled toward Scotland. Of course, they knew that, a few decades later, no one would remember these two cursed brothers, and so they could one day return to their country of origin.

I must admit that the detachment with which Blake told me the whole story sent shivers down my spine. But the more he told me the story of his life, the more I yearned to know more. It also had the merit of providing me with a distracting escape from my dismal situation. Blake was more than happy to finally have someone to talk to, as he thought he had lost his mind after all these years of loneliness. Here, the prisoners were only passing through and never returned. Magnus would starve them, order his minions to torture them, and then kill them with his own hand. For some time now, Blake had been watching helplessly at his brother’s excess. But that evening, in England, it wasn’t the first time that he noticed the changing character of his younger brother. His thirst for power began to become a serious problem, but once he arrived in Scotland, he hadn’t resolved to leave his brother.

They went east where Magnus was determined to establish his superiority. But the youth of their appearance and their various psychic manipulations did little to gain them admission among the elite of the time. Moreover, the turmoil with the Church was more and more inconvenient, they had to change regions several times so that their absence of old age wasn’t noticed and they were condemned to the stake. During one of their stops, they met another caste, Egeria. In her thirties, very pretty and strangely single, this woman was unlike any other. She welcomed them to her home, Mortain Castle. They met other caste there, and in particular young men. Egeria also used her charms perfectly to shelter them for free and had formed a small network responsible for finding other similar people and protecting them from the Church. Only loyal servants, close friends and a few caste who were more than delighted with their fate were admitted to the castle. When she met the two young Burton Races and their sharp English accents, she immediately guessed that, before her, her destiny unfolded. She was the owner of the castle, inherited from her family over the centuries. She had a significant power of telepathy that allowed her to turn any situation to her advantage, without omitting her immortality that she thought exclusive until then. The day she met the Burton Races, she experienced her first bout of clairvoyance. Egeria immediately understood that she would be forever bound to Magnus, but she didn’t reveal anything to Blake. Magnus took advantage of the best room in the north wing while his brother occupied one in the south wing. She had, at that time, such a dominance over them that she had taken them both as a lover. But, her visions very quickly began to become unbearable for her health. She took up residence in an apartment fitted out for her in the Pomona room, and then I remembered the singular door at the back of this large circular room. She was isolated from everyone. The slow decline of the one who was almost a queen for her fellows left her blind and almost mute.

Against all odds, she gave up the castle to Blake, Magnus was mad with rage. It was then that he developed a kind of morbid jealousy for his brother, and a few years later, a violent altercation broke the fraternal bond that had united them for so many centuries. Blake took it upon himself to leave the castle for a while and found a home near Carcassonne, France where he settled. He didn’t meet Isabelle until a few decades later.

Over time, he thought very often of this young girl with incredible abilities and remembered with delight the irresistible attraction he had felt for her. After the Massat episode, he set out to find her. She had become a mother when he saw her near her village, a baby in her arms. Her dignified and determined presence clashed with her miserable appearance. She immediately recognized him as the man who had witnessed without the slightest emotion the ruin of her own father. Blake hadn’t had time to react when Isabelle threw him miles into the air. He landed so far and so hard that it took several days to regain full use of his body. He had never seen such power in a woman.

Before her execution, Blake was visited by an old lady who asked him to raise Eleonore. Isabelle entrusted her baby to him from the depths of her jail, after a painful negotiation with the Inquisition. He was seized with a real case of conscience and thought, despite all the inconveniences that would result from this decision, that he had to grant this last favour to the young woman. Because she was ready to entrust him with the treasure of her life rather than finding a human who couldn’t protect her. She had understood that Eleonore had to be educated by a caste so that she never met the same fate as her mother. He learned that all these years, Isabelle had known who he was without ever coming forward. She had only counted on Blake’s repentance to think that he would accede to her request, and that was the case. He agreed to raise Eleonore as his own daughter.

The first years were the happiest of his long life. He spoke of her with a blissful smile and his thin face was transformed. He had taken his role as a father to heart and made her a distinguished young girl whose beauty was matched only by her ability to captivate the people around her. She had inherited the same powers as Isabelle, but her gentleness made her a person who wasn’t inclined to use her gifts arbitrarily. One mundane, sunny morning, Magnus paid a surprise visit to his older brother. The inevitable happened. He immediately recognized her immense potential and saw in the youth of her sixteen years an easy way to use her formidable powers to his advantage. But, worse than this revelation, he fell irrevocably in love with her. Blake tended to believe that the unique bond he shared with her made the young girl even more attractive to her brother. He was also convinced that Magnus was totally crazy about Eleonore because he found in her a caste who lived up to his expectations. Unfortunately, these feelings were mutual and Eleonore wasted no time in leaving Blake to marry Magnus. Blake was mad with rage and worried every day about his daughter. He had never forgiven himself for having let this union take shape before his eyes, but he still had the mad hope that Eleonore would manage to channel his younger brother’s passion.

A few years later, he received a mysterious letter from a member of the Church of England. The message asked him to travel to London alongside Magnus to settle a centuries-old legacy story. The message was signed: a chosen one. Blake, driven by curiosity, went to London and was quite surprised to see his brother present at this strange meeting. Magnus had taken with him an Egeria more than ever weakened by all these years of ordeal and walled in silence. It was a young and important clergyman who received them that day. He called himself Morgan and was well aware of Magnus’ activities at Mortain Castle. During the absence of Blake, Magnus had only increased his entourage of caste servants, and the man of God called Morgan had, on his side, carried out the same projects by constituting a large group of faithful. This caste had such a thirst for power that he boasted of his supremacy over England and his cordial relations with the pope. The country was still in contact with the Vatican at that time, it hadn’t experienced the schism caused later by King Henry VIII of England. Morgan even had a mad desire to establish caste supremacy in front of the rest of the world and wished, in order to do this, to create a veritable army of the chosen ones. Blake and Magnus thus discovered his true intentions. Morgan wanted to convince them to join him in this crusade. Magnus silently attended this interview. Blake could see that his brother despised him, jealous of not having had the idea for these crazy ambitions first. But, during the meeting, an unexpected event occurred. Egeria was seized with very violent spasms and screamed in pain. All powerless against the force of her delirium, they immediately understood the importance of her words when she tirelessly repeated her prophecy. Blake saw in his brother’s eyes a flame ignited. Those of the strange man of the Church were animated by the same passion. When Magnus returned to Scotland, Blake hesitated. Should he return to Mortain Castle? He wasn’t ready to make up his mind on that yet.

Beyond the story which turned out to be more exciting day by day, Blake undertook to start some physical exercises in order to strengthen his frail legs. He also regained his psychic powers which, although weak, managed to convince Gilles of the success of his injections on him. Blake had a knack for manipulating weaker minds, but his greatest speciality was physical and telekinetic power. He confessed to me one day that he no longer believed that he would recover them completely.

I wanted to know more about the power of Magnus and learned that his most developed power was that of mental manipulation. He could in a second destroy a brain or make it do his bidding. Blake was convinced that his brother must be unable to exercise this gift on Ethan or on me. I recognized in these words what Salomon had confided to me and his inability to read the minds of my brother, Carmichael and myself. Blake countered that Carmichael wasn’t immune to his father’s powers. And it was then that we were going to discuss this mystery that Gregory and Yanosh appeared and took me away again.

The tall redhead was showing his scariest smile and Yanosh was staring at me with his marble eyes. My heart was pounding as the elevator climbed the endless floors of the tower. I no longer dared to imagine what would happen to me once I reached Magnus’ lair. And there, I was struck by the inexplicable presence of a person whom I hadn’t seen for several months.

“Olivia!”

Not a word. With a blank stare, I was unable to know if she understood anything about the situation. She stood there staring at me before returning her absent eyes to Magnus Burton Race. He showed his widest smile when he saw my surprise.

“If you join me, you will find some semblance of life with your friend and your brother. Do you really wish to let yourself die in this prison rather than serve me?”

Immured in profound silence, Magnus’ satisfied look didn’t bode well for me. He nodded towards Yanosh who tied me to a chair while his master whispered in the ear of my almost completely motionless best friend. After a moment, she walked toward me without saying a word.

“Olivia! It’s Eve! You hear me, it’s Eve!”

She stood in front of me and, with incredible strength, punched me in the face. I rocked hard against the ground, lying several metres from her.

“Very nice start! Again!” Magnus encouraged her before I passed out.