Moments ago,
Kealion's POV
The heavy velvet curtains were drawn, keeping my private chamber in the familiar, comforting dimness. I rose from my rest, not needing the sun that was reluctantly rising over Eldoria. I had never needed it.
My reflection in the wide, imposing, gilded mirror - an antique relic from an age when human kings still feared us - stared back with cold, unnerving perfection.
Raven-black hair, eyes that burned the deep, dangerous red of smoldering embers. These were the eyes of a true predator, a prince whose blood carried the heavy weight of centuries of unquestioned dominion. I was scarcely older than twenty-one in appearance, yet I had witnessed nearly two centuries of existence pass me by.
Today, however, the immense weight of my power could not stir a single flicker of genuine feeling within me. Just a profound, aching emptiness that had become my constant companion.
"Another tedious, meaningless obligation," I muttered, fastening custom cufflinks shaped like stylized ravens at my wrists. "Another collection of eager sycophants pretending at brilliance they do not possess."
The thought brought a familiar chill of pure boredom that always accompanied mandatory royal duties.
Aetherion Academy was simply another gilded cage. My mother, the impossibly regal Fourth Queen Elira, had insisted: "You will master law as deftly as you wield a blade. The future of our dominion demands absolute mastery."
Duty was the only chain that held me, forcing me into this political theater. I chose Supernatural Politics & Law, but my true interest lay in the minor I selected: Arcane Arts & Mysticism – Necromancy & Death Rites.
Death, I found, spoke more unvarnished truth than the living ever dared to.
I left my high-rise residence and completely ignored the convoy of royal limousines waiting. As I walked past, Lucien, one of the younger, lesser princes, rushed after me, already panting and breathless.
"Your Highness," he called desperately, "it is absolutely expected that you arrive in proper, royal form! The royal limousine..."
I stopped and cast a single, chilling glance over my shoulder. Disdain for such fragile vanity was clear in the deep red glow of my eyes. It was enough to silence him mid-breath.
"I do not need to flaunt my blood to prove it flows true and dominant," I replied, my voice a low, commanding register that carried the full weight of my profound weariness. "Let the others drown in ceremony. I prefer the quiet efficiency of silence."
I stepped into my own sleek black Lexus - a rare, precious commodity of personal freedom - and was gone in moments.
I drove myself, the towering city architecture blurring past until I reached the ancient, imposing walls of Aetherion Academy. The main gates were already a storm of noise and excessive display. I rolled silently and unnoticed into the crowded courtyard, dreading the political games to come.
I flicked my sharp, predatory gaze across the scene. The academy officials were already fawning over the ostentatious limousine of my superficial cousin. A swarm of lesser noble vampires clustered there, their sycophantic laughter grating harshly at my nerves. I closed my eyes for a moment, wishing the entire tedious day would simply cease to exist.
But then, the monotony shattered with an unbelievable sight.
A startling, impossible silver gleam pulled my eyes across the courtyard. It was as if the moon herself had literally descended.
A magnificent carriage swept into view. I recognized the ancient high magic immediately - a craftsmanship only creatures of my age could identify. Its pure white frame was inlaid with veins of vibrant silver light that pulsed like living moonstone. Harnessed to it were two colossal, breathtaking moon-dragons. Their very presence was a wave of raw lunar energy.
The sight instantly silenced the entire courtyard, the shock stealing the breath from everyone. Even the preening princes beside my car froze mid-gesture.
The carriage halted, from within the dark interior stepped a girl with hair of impossible, pure silver, cascading like spun starlight over her delicate shoulders. Her deep purple gown shimmered. The sacred mark of the moon sigil rested faintly, yet distinctly, against the pale skin on her left wrist.
My lips curved slowly, not in amusement or scorn, but in something far sharper and more unsettling: Pure, unadulterated interest.
I had been certain this day would bore me to death. Yet here was a presence that sliced through the crushing inertia like lightning across a midnight sky.
The whispers confirmed her identity: Lumira.
"Lumira? But - wasn't she… wasn't she dead? Buried?" Shock and fear rippled outward.
I watched Luna Selene and Lady Ivy, the two ladies rumored to have worked so hard to erase her, standing across the way, frozen solid, their faces drained of color.
I leaned further back in my seat, watching the silver-haired girl with narrowed, calculating eyes. I recognized the cold steel in her posture, the quiet, contained vengeance in her crystalline gaze. She walked as if she were born only to rule, completely unconcerned with the thousand judging eyes upon her.
Life, suddenly, did not seem quite so dull.
As Lumira moved toward the academy hall, the sycophantic vampire princes rushed my window.
"Your Highness," one said with a wide, eager grin, "shall we escort you to the check-in booth? The academy certainly awaits the presence of its brightest star, Prince Kaelion."
"Yes," Another quickly chimed in, "Let us show those lesser mortals and the ridiculous witches what true nobility, united under the vampire banner, looks like."
My fierce gaze did not move from Lumira. The silver-haired girl who carried herself like both a queen and an impenetrable enigma. The one whose unexpected, spectacular presence had instantly and utterly eclipsed the tired pageantry of the entire elite.
"Perhaps," I murmured, my voice low, a private admission of shock and fascination, "life here will not be so boring after all."
And for the first time in a very long while, I, the centuries-old vampire prince felt the deep stirrings of something dangerously close to genuine anticipation.