The Darkstorm Legacy: The Bloodline of Ventigus

[Moogie]

This is the character history of Iris Osiris. This story coincides with part of the history of the Darkstorm family, and will explain the sudden end to Ventigus\' line and the disappearance of his son. The story is WIP (Work In Progress) ...as are most of my stories...

WARNING: This story contains swearing, but has been blanked for posting on these forums. For the unedited version, please visit the Incensio Tenebrae forums here.

Btw, for anyone wondering, the Xacha\'s name is pronounced \"Kah-ma-zos\". Not so much a mouthful as it seems when written.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter One: A Dark Storm Arrives


The sky was dark and the heavens thundered with lightning and rain. The thick clouds had long since blotted out the sun and cast their omnious shadows across the fields of Fortune. The rain fell heavily onto the drenched earth, the grass disappearing in puddles of sloppy mud that glistened and rippled under the relentless attack of the storm.

It was here that a young girl\'s life as a normal human being was about to abruptly end in a bloodbath that would stain her memories for years to come.

Iris Osiris had lived in the nearby village of Fortune for all of her life. She had always been the troublemaker of the settlement\'s children; she would bully her siblings into doing things for her and then blame them if they were caught in the act. Of course, this tactic did not work for long, as all the parents in the village got to know she was behind most of the mischief that ever happened in the area. However, punishments and lectures did nothing to stop her troublesome tendancies. It was at the advent of her thirteenth birthday that Iris\' despairing parents turned to their last hope; a fight school called Jugend.

Jugend was a school for people of all ages that attempted to teach discipline and comradeship through skilled fighting arts and the use of innate magical abilities. It had been founded by a master of war, Rak\'akhan, who wished to pass on his extensive fighting knoweledge after he officially retired from Talad\'s 5th Legion army. For thirty years, the school had stood proudly in the center of Hydlaa City, teaching Rak\'akhan\'s unique style of combat to many students from all over Yliakum and achieving a high rate of success against other such schools.

Her parents packed all of her belongings and sent her on a hired carriage destined for the city. Iris stuck her tongue out as she departed and sat grumpily in her seat as they left the village. Many times she grumbled angrily at her parents for doing something so cruel to a little girl like her. What harm was there in leaving her alone? What kind of stupid punishment was this? Her egotistical thoughts kept her occupied as the carriage clattered and rumbled along the cobbled road.

Iris was glad to be finally leaving her dull village life behind, but the thought of going to some fight school left her feeling anxious and alone. For the first time, her actions in the village began to make her feel guilt towards her friends and parents for the grief and worry she caused them. She realised that, for all the fun she had at the time, her ways had left her with no friends, and nobody to love or care about her. Before long, she was silently crying for home, but the carriage would not take her anywhere but her fated destination.

The carriage entered the Fields of Fortune at the same time as a great storm had rolled overhead and began crying its tears to mock the girl\'s pitiful guilty pain. The raindrops pattered against the roof of the carriage softly as it slowly made its way over the broken, crumbling road. A strange silence seemed to suddenly dominate Iris\' senses; she listened intently through the drizzle, but heard nothing... too much of nothing. There was no wind howling as there should be during a storm in such an open place. She could hear no birds twittering angrily at the sky from the safetly of the trees. Even the wheels of the carriage seemed to fall silent; infact, she noticed they had slowed to a complete stop.

She listened for a moment more before cautiously shifting over to the door and poking her head outside. She called to the driver... no response. Frowning, Iris swung open the door and carefully lowered herself onto the muddy ground. She screwed her nose up at how dirty the splashes of rain had already dirtied her shoes, and how she was already soaking wet having only left her shelter for a mere second. The rain had indeed begun to fall much harder now, more than she had realised. The skies darkened and Iris could no longer locate the sun behind the clouds.

It happened just then. She leapt back, horrified, as the body of the driver fell to the ground at her feet. A gaping wound in his torso sent blood and gore splashing up as his body impacted the ground with a wet splash. The girl screamed in horror as she was coated in droplets of thick red blood. Not a second later, a terrifying scream could be heard from the road behind. Turning, Iris saw none other than her own mother, running across the field away from the burning village in the distance. Iris shrieked in horror; both as she saw the thick pillars of smoke rising from the houses, and at the spearhead that suddenly thrust through her mother\'s ribcage and cracked it open in an explosion of blood. Nothing would ever erase the memory of the expression she saw on her mother\'s face as her body flew a few steps forward and fell stiffly towards the ground. A mixture of absolute pain and fear shrowded the kind features that Iris had always seen on that face. As the body fell lifeless to the floor, the spear was thrust back up through her chest as it stuck against the ground. A few small chunks of flesh and a spray of blood exited with the spear as it fell heavily beside its victim.

[Moogie]

Chapter Two: Embrace

As the body of her mother fell, it revealed a tall figure shrowded in a magical darkness. Only his eyes seemed to be unshielded; they were deep pools of red, with lizard-like pupils thinly eyeing her from the center of iris\' that seemed to stretch all the way across his eyes. The shadow took a few small, casual steps forward, and bent down to pick up his spear. Iris, who had been paralysed with fear up to this point, took the chance and began frantically running away across the field. She had only taken a few steps before she slipped in the mud and crashed down onto the soggy ground in a heap. She cursed, scrambled to her feet, and tried again. And again. Each time she gained some speed, her footing would betray her and sent her down once again. Her little heart thumped fearfully and tears streamed down her face as she looked back at the carriage; the shadow was still there, standing by her mother, and Iris had not moved more than ten yards.

The tall figure chuckled to himself. This was last survivor? This runt of a child? But she had only escaped by chance. Still, there was no denying tradition. She was the last, so it had to be her.

Striding slowly towards the terrified girl, the man reached inside his breast pocket and flicked a switch. At once the shroud of darkness dispersed, revealing a tall, dark, handsome Xacha. Although young in appearance, his face betrayed signs of age beyond normal human boundaries, and was pale, even moreso than the usual skin tone of an average Xacha male his age. He stepped up beside Iris and brought his foot firmly down on her torso, effortlessly pinning her to the ground. She squirmed under his muddy boot, staring in fear at the bloody spear he held loosely by his side. Her body began to shake as he squatted down closer to her, believing he was about to gut her apart like he did with her mother.

However, as she watched, his lips contorted into a thin smile. As his smile broadened, two unusually long, sharp teeth could be seen, cruelly pointing down from his upper jaw and slightly curved inwards, lightly pressing against his bottom lip as he grinned. Iris\' eyes widened with horror; this man, this Xacha stranger... this murderer... he was a vampire? What the hell was going on? Her fearful expression seemed to amuse him, and in a low, rough voice, he began to speak.

\"I have destroyed your village. Slaughtered your parents. Drank the sweet blood from the open necks of your once-friends. What does this make you feel, little girl?\" He asked, raising an eyebrow and pressing down on her with his foot. She did not answer. \"Hmm...\" He mused, examining her young features. \"You\'re the last. Do you know what this means? Well?\" This time he reached down and gripped her chin in his hand, firmly but with care not to damage her. Even still, this shocked her into replying. She struggled to move her jaw under his iron grip.

\"F*** you!\" Is about as much as she managed, before struggling in vain to remove his hand, scratching and clawing at his wrist and trying her hardest to kick him with her feet. The smile disappeared from the Xacha\'s face and he roughly pulled her up by her face, holding her aloft in the air as she whimpered and struggled.

\"I\'ll tell you, if you don\'t know.\" He said simply. The rain dripped down his hair and nose as he spoke. They were both drenched and muddy now, but it mattered little to either of them. The storm relentlessly continued to thunder overhead as if it would never cease. \"It means you will serve under me as my blood child for the rest of eternity. Whether you want to... or not.\"

With that, he threw the girl back to the ground with ease. The impact knocked the wind out of her as she landed heavily on her side. As Iris lay at his feet, coughing and sobbing in the mud, the man removed his gloves and shoved them into his coat pockets. Kneeling beside her, he pulled Iris onto his lap by her shoulders and raised her head towards his. He smiled again, this time showing his fangs at their full, unnatural length.

With a bloodthirsty groan, he moved his lips to her neck and placed his fangs against her smooth skin. The touch made the girl shiver involuntarily, pleasing his senses. When he suddenly sank his teeth into her neck, she screamed louder than any time she could remember in her life; the pain spread immediately from her neck and paralysed her entire body, making it convulse as her precious life was diverted from its course and out of the two neat wounds in her neck, punctured by the cruel teeth of her captor. The Xacha drank hungrily for several minutes untill he could feel her body relaxing as death approached. It was now, he knew, that he must make the embrace. To bring her back from the brink of eternity, and give birth to a new vampire in his bloodline.

The vampire bit his own tongue untill he could taste the blood in his mouth. Then, closing his lips over the wounds in Iris\' neck, he forced his blood into her bloodstream. His reptilian eyes, half closed, watched the young girl\'s pupils dilate and slowly change shape. As he performed the embrace, her emerald eyes became just like his; the pupils formed into thin, lizard-like slits, and the whites of her eyes were slowly engulfed by a deep emerald shine. Life began to return to her body as her blood supply was replenished at his expense; he weakened as she regained her strength. When he felt she had been given enough to survive the ordeal, he released his grip and her body fell back to the rainsoaked ground. Darkness invaded Iris\' senses as she blacked out from pain, and she remembered nothing more untill the great storm finally lifted from the fields of Fortune.

[Moogie]

Chapter Three: Awakening

Iris awoke to a dull throb in her temples. It took several minutes for her vision to return to her changed eyes, and she looked up from the ground slowly, dazed and confused. The fields seem to have long since dried out after the great storm of yesterday, and the grass could be seen once again swaying in a gentle morning breeze. The girl managed to painfully lift herself to her feet after many failed attempts, and as the sun began to rise over the horizon, she limped her way slowly over to the carriage, which had silently waited for her return throughout the night.

As she approached, her skin seemed to become irrasistably itchy and hot. Iris hobbled towards the shelter as quickly as she could, scratching furiously at her arms, before the itchiness turned to a deep burning pain. She frowned, not understanding the meaning of this, untill she suddenly realised: it was the sunlight! With a shocked gasp, Iris realised she had become a vampire... a dispicable creature of the night who\'s skin would turn to ash if exposed to the sun. She pulled back her lips and prodded her teeth, confirming the suspicion, much to her horror. With a new sense of urgency, she hopped the last few meters towards the carriage and dove inside, slamming the door shut behind her in a hurry.

She exhaled in relief, her body shaking from the pain which immediately started to die down. She was safe... for now. But what next? Sit here for hours waiting for darkness to come? Her mind conjured images of the previous night\'s massacre... the burning village... her mother\'s brutal death... and... him. Him. The Xacha vampire who had caused it all. What was his name? Where did he come from? Why... her? To her own suprise, Iris\' troubled thoughts kept her occupied for most of the day. Before long, the sun had started to sink behind the line of trees that shielded the fields, and she slowly, cautiously, abandoned the safety of the carriage.

It didn\'t take long for her to reach the village gates, which were broken and smouldering from the fire that had since been doused by the storm of two nights ago. Her injuries had healed, almost miraculously, and Iris felt strangely stronger than before. Of course, it was a normal side-effect of vampirism, but the girl knew nothing of such things. She had lived in the sheltered village her entire life and was taught only what she needed to know to live life in Fortune. However, her friends had sometimes talked about monsters and other abominations, including vampires. Most of the tales were folklore, half-truths, but Iris was somewhat glad that the rumour about sunlight had proven to be true. She was certainly bright, but doubted she would\'ve known to hide from the sun once the burning sensation took over her senses earlier today.

She slowly entered the scene of devistation; bodies littered the sides of the roads, their faces all familiar to her as friends and relatives. As she saw each corpse cry out to her from beyond the grave, her reptilian eyes welled up with tears of grief. All around her the houses had been burnt to the ground, and as she approached her own house, she broke down in tears, collapsing onto all fours as she sobbed. Totally absorbed in her pain, Iris did not notice the shadowed figure approach her untill his feet stood a few centimeters infront of her shaking hands.

The girl was taken completely by suprise by his approach. She leapt back in an instant, shooting her eyes up in terror as he swooped down to grab her. She yelped and struggled, but he caught her by her hair and yanked her painfully forward. Iris sobbed in pain and gripped his hand, holding herself up, terrified that her weight would rip the very hairs from their roots as he lifted her from the ground. A familiar click sounded from within the figure\'s coat and the shroud of shadow disappeared, revealing the same Xacha male she had encountered before. She eyed him fearfully as his eyes narrowed and his lips formed a thin, omnious smile.

Though terrified, Iris had too many questions for this man, and she forced them all out at once, screaming and kicking at him in anger. The Xacha was not amused. Gripping her by the neck, he squeezed lightly to cut off her air supply. He successfully shut her up, smiling as she gaped and gasped for breath, and took his time to begin speaking.

\"You are Iris. You are the last survivor of this desecrated town. In my bloodline, tradition dictates that the last survivor of the Genus Defaeco ritual is worthy of the marvelous honour of becoming one of us. Thus you have been turned, sweet Iris, into a creature of the night. Though, it is more than obvious that you need to learn much before you could be of any use to me...\" The man explained, eyeing her from head to toe as he paused to assess her reaction. Iris stared at the man\'s smug expression for a few seconds, his words stabbing into her mind like poison daggers. She wanted to ignore him, she didn\'t want to believe, but somehow she felt it... she felt the cold, cruel truth in every syllable that emerged from his fanged lips. Smiling wickedly at this, he continued his lecture.

\"You have no choice. But the question is, what are you going to do, if you choose to refuse me? Wander this earth for eternity- Alone? A vampire shunned from his own clan is a mistake. A failure. We are all doomed to be hunted and slaughtered by herds of mindless bloodlusting humans...\" He brought the girl, who was by now listening intently, closer towards his face as he spoke. \"Join me, sweet Iris, and mature into a killer worthy of the Darkstorm bloodline that now owns you...\"

Iris\' eyes opened wide when he spoke the name of his bloodline. Darkstorm? As in... \"S...Seperot...?\" she gasped. The Xacha did not seem to understand her sudden outburst. He loosened his grip, allowing her to speak more freely. \"Seperot Darkstorm is a vampire??\" she asked curiously.

\"Seperot...? The name is unfamiliar to me, sweet Iris... Tell me, who is this other Darkstorm you speak of?\"

\"Stop calling me \'sweet Iris\'...\" she grumbled. \"Seperot is... or, *was* the leader of the Rangers guild. He\'s pretty famous... people know him as the Master Rogue.\" She adjusted her grip on the Xacha\'s wrist as he continued to hold her up. This guy\'s strength is amazing, she mused silently. \"You mean you\'ve never heard of him?\" The Xacha looked thoughtful for a while, but his expression remained blank.

\"I\'m afraid I know nothing of him. But thank you for this information, sweet Iris... I think I shall find this Seperot and... ask him a few questions of my own.\"

\"Hah, good luck...\" Iris scoffed. \"If you can find him, I\'ll join your stupid blood clan and be your personal b****.\" The Xacha laughed and set her back on the ground, grinning as she rubbed her sore neck and eyed him with contempt.

\"Very well, sweet Iris. I\'ll hold you to your word.\" Iris glared at him for calling her that annoying name again. \"I will begin my search immediately... but first, take this.\" He reached into his breast pocket and removed a small device, throwing it lightly to Iris, who caught it in both hands and quizzically examined it. She noticed he had already turned to leave, and called out to him.

\"Hey, wait...! Wait! What is this? What\'s your name anyway?!\" He stopped, turning his head slightly.

\"You can call me... Camazotz... sweet Iris.\" He grinned and continued to stroll down the road. While he was still in earshot, he called back to her again. \"Use that device to travel during the day. Farewell for now.\" With that, he suddenly leapt into the air, an impressive pair of bat wings ripping through his coat and beating heavily to carry him into the mist of night. Iris stood, staring in awe at the sight and already overwhelmed by the night\'s revalations. As she stood amidst the ruined village, she mulled over her new knowledge and wondered what to do. She felt a pang of hunger, and her stomache growled angrily at her. Frowning, her eyes lingered on a nearby villager\'s body. Slowly, so slowly, she approached it.

[Moogie]

Chapter Four: Fully Fledged

The years seemed to roll past so quickly for Iris. A vampire\'s life is eternal, thus the normal human perception of time becomes warped and shrunk out of proportion. This is also due to a vampire\'s unnatural speed and agility, inherited directly from the bloodline; the strength determined by the original vampire\'s own attributes. It was clear to Iris, then, that the Darkstorm line was a powerful force in the world, and she would be foolish to turn her back on it. The power she managed to conceal in her slim, young figure as she matured was astonishing.

Iris had become infinitely coldhearted and vicious since her embrace. She had nothing and nobody in the world anymore to care about- not even herself. Nobody even knew her name... except, of course, Camazotz, who regularly checked up on her progress and sometimes taunted her into a complete frenzy, looking highly amused at how angry he could make her with his teasing. This and her own bloodthirsty hunger had slowly turned her into a cruel, ruthless hunter of the night. Exactly to his liking.

One day, almost three years since that stormy night in Fortune, a young man stepped out of Kada\'s tavern in Hydlaa city. Stopping rather unsteadily in the doorway, he turned to bid a hearty farewell to his drinking partners, and a special goodbye to the barmistress, who glared back at him, thoroughly unamused by the drunkard who had been patting her bum every time she delivered another ale to his table. He began staggering down the dark streets in the general direction of his home, chuckling to himself, unaware of the predator that lurked in the shadows nearby. The Ylian passed by a particularly dark alleyway, senses too dulled by alchohol to spot the pair of keen emerald eyes blazing in the darkness as Iris lunged out of her hiding place. As the man continued to joyfully wobble home, he did not hear the muffled screams of the woman being dragged back into the alley he had just passed, a pair of hungry fangs already sinking into her neck. If there was one thing the vampire had learned thus far, it was to never pick the most obvious targets.

Iris Osiris, now a seasoned killer, made her way back to her underground home, situated deep within the sewers of the city in an abandoned network of unused pipes. It was here that she spent her days now, hiding from the terrible sun, from vampire hunting parties, and the feeling of her hunger growing untill night approached and she was able to feed once more. She received no visitors; in fact, she had no social contact at all (bar listening to her victims plead for their lives). It came as a suprise, then, when Iris, who had settled down in her makeshift bed to sleep for the day, suddenly heard a voice echo down the tunnel towards her. A very familiar voice, she realised. Iris sighed to herself and her heart sank as she looked up to see Camazotz approaching her silently.

\"What do you want...\" She grumbled, sitting up and turning away from him as he stopped next to her.

\"I believe I\'m here to claim from a little promise you made a while ago, sweet Iris.\" He smirked. Iris looked up, eying him quizzically. \"Do you remember when I first came to you? You told me of this man... no- this *cat*... Seperot. And you said, if I were able to find him...\" Iris gaped.

\"You actually found him??\" She asked. Camazotz\' grin widened and the girl stood up quickly, taking a few steps back. She wasn\'t sure whether he was serious, but she didn\'t want to find out. The Xacha held out his hand.

\"Come here.\" He said. Iris did not move. \"You do not believe I found him, do you? Then come. Let me show you myself.\" He beckoned with his hand. \"I promise I won\'t intrude on your personal space, Iris... at least, not untill I\'ve shown you \'the great Seperot\'. I\'m sure you\'d love to meet him, wouldn\'t you?\" He snickered. \"All the young girls seem to fall for the lovable rogues. You seem more interested in a petty thief and a feline than a healthy, strong specimin such as myself.\"

\"You\'re nothing but a monster...\" Iris spat in contempt, to which he chuckled lightheartedly. It was true that Iris had wanted to meet the mysterious Enkidukai, but an offer from this Xacha would be anything but a sincere one. She simply did not trust him after the countless times he had taunted and teased her, trapping her in caves, dangling morsels of food above her head as she starved, chasing her out of hiding places whenever she tried to hunt. A few times he had even drawn a weapon to her and they had sparred untill Iris fell, injured by his blade. Camazotz would then leave her to tend to her wounds and return a few days later to tease her some more. Did he think her a fool to take this offer blindly, with no proof, no trust that he could show her the Master Rogue? And where was his guarantee that he would not violate her as she had so stupidly promised the day she was embraced?

[Monketh]

Ah, finally conjured up some time to read this.

Beautiful and well crafted, especially in avoidance of the word \"was\", as I often overuse.  Interesting subject.  Will you continue it?

Edit: Comments are all too rare here, it leaves one wondering who read it, and if they liked it.

[Moogie]

Well, these chapters were written some months ago, but I do hope to continue it. It was originally written as the history of my alt character Iris, but I\'ve adapted it into a larger plot to coincide with Sep\'s Darkstorm family line. We hope to make the whole thing a very large and detailed RP history, so perhaps there\'ll be stories written for the other family lines at some point also. Thank you for the comment.

[DepthBlade]

I started reading this before but got side tracked so I eventually got it read and here is some comments for ya...

Mmmm the concept is all to familiar as was it not when Rome conquered Egypt, Cleoptra was not to be killed but to be taken back to Rome as prize but then she killed herself? Somewhat simular but heh..

I liked it, not a big fan of Vampire mythology because it is all so meh Various..maybe is the word. Although I did like this and I really enjoyed how Iris actually spoke out her mind like a normal person would and wasn\'t fake in reactions and attitude toward the situations. Heh and \"Sweet Iris\" is getting somewhat caught in my head now.