1. Vivor
2. Vampire
3. Once a cheerful, lively boy, an ordinary rascal from a peasant family, now – after a necromantic ritual – a gloomy, pensive teenager, 12.5 years old.
4. A semi-toy knuckle-duster, traded from a neighbor boy for his father's pipe (oh, I got a beating from my dad then), a worn linen shirt, canvas trousers.
5. FROM
6. I will never forget that day, and I will never stop blaming myself for the death of my loved ones... Oh, I see a slight bewilderment in your eyes regarding such well-articulated speech from a peasant teenager? Don't worry, it's just that HE brought something good, something useful with him... for example, the ability to express myself eloquently.
So... excuse me... it's hard to talk... that night, my father and I were sitting near our dying cow, trying to do something to ease her suffering in her last hours... It was past midnight... And then they attacked.
There weren't many of them, maybe seven or so, but they acted with lightning speed. An ugly creature with a nasty, unusual, somewhat feminine face strangled my father. I will never forget that face. And poor mother... why did she go to the barn at that very moment to see how we were doing? These creatures made her one of them... as they did with me. But I am a separate story.
Grabbing me, the vampires retreated in an instant. Someone in the village was already awake and rushing to help, but fate had other plans.
I lost all sense of space and time. I remember some forest, a clearing, a large circle on the ground, they were along the circle, and I was in the center, crying, trembling, on the verge of madness. The creatures brought their sorcerer from the darkness. My mother used to scare me with such sorcerers when I was naughty. Poor mother... So, they brought this even more disgusting creature, a lich, and he began to perform his spell, making magical gestures over me and occasionally sprinkling and pouring some vile substance on me.
After the spell was completed, all the creatures, including the sorcerer, convulsed. I thought it was ecstasy, but it wasn't. A minute later, they all died.
And I... I started to feel a little better, my breathing became more even, and my thoughts became a little clearer... And most importantly, I felt HIM inside me. My namesake, the cause of all my troubles, the restless soul of a once-noble lord who disgraced his name by taking the path of a necromancer, Count FRANCOIS de VIVOR, supposedly dead for the last 70 years.
The vampire thralls, together with their sorcerer, gave their power in the name of reviving their idol. Reviving him in me. To carry out the ritual, a mortal no older than 15 years old, named the same as the Revived, was needed. I know all this from HIM, although, no, I expressed it incorrectly. Simply – HE is ME, and I am HIM, that's why I know all this. However, not all of his knowledge is available to me now. As HE "told" me, time will pass, and I will learn more if His Excellency deigns to lift the veil of mystery.
I have been with him for a month now. I'm afraid to say it, but it's true – he has become familiar, useful, and... INTERESTING...
7. Mistrad