Who: Eric Where: The castle When: At night Open to: Vala Thread: Single
Eric woke just after sunset. He knew that Vala would be working at the tavern this evening and that Bastian would be working in his bookshop. For the first time in a long time, he found himself with an evening all to himself, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do on his own. He remembered Vala telling him about a pool in a chamber beneath the castle, remembered her telling him that it had enabled her to see and hear people that had cared about her back in her reality. There was only one person that had really cared about him where he'd come from, and Eric missed her more and more with each night that passed. He wanted to see his progeny, wanted to hear her voice again.
He spent a while searching the first floor of the castle for the stone stairwell that Vala had described that led downward into the chamber. He found it and then descended, the air growing cooler and damper as he went farther down. Finally he arrived at the pool. He sat down beside it on the chilly stone, waiting to see and hear the vampire that he'd turned, that he regarded as a sister, daughter, friend, and business partner all in one.
He'd been expecting to see Pam at Fangtasia or at her house, surrounded by fangbangers or her nest mates. Instead, he saw her in the palace of Queen Sophie Anne in New Orleans. He stared into the pool, watching the forms of his progeny and the Queen become more solid and lifelike until it almost felt as though he were in the room with them.
***
"Any news of your maker?" Eric heard Sophie Anne ask.
"No, your majesty," Pam responded, holding the queen's gaze. Eric was proud of his progeny for showing no weakness in front of their monarch.
"Perhaps it is time to find someone to replace him as Sheriff," the queen mused aloud.
"I do not believe that Eric is dead, your highness," Pam said. "He's my maker. If he'd met his final death, I would have felt it."
The queen's eyes narrowed. "And yet you have no idea where he is, even after months of searching. How do you know that he wasn't taken by drainers and left to burn in the sunlight when they'd finished with him? Or, since you insist that he's not dead, how do you know that he didn't simply tire of his life here and move on to start over again somewhere else?"
Pam shook her head, her long blond hair swaying with the movement. "Eric wouldn't just walk away from his life here without so much as a word goodbye. He's more loyal than that. He took his position as Sheriff of Area Five very seriously, and he enjoyed living in Louisiana."
"And yet, that is exactly what he appears to have done," Sophie Anne countered. "He's disappeared without a trace. No one has seen him or heard from him in over six months."
"Maybe he was taken somewhere against his will and kept alive," Pam suggested.
"Wishful thinking, if you ask me. I can't keep him in a position of power in my realm when he's nowhere to be found."
Pam's gaze turned colder. Eric knew that it was his progeny's way of hiding her emotions. "I could continue to fill in for him-"
"No." Sophie Anne shook her head. "No, Northman needs to be replaced, and I think you're just the one for the job. Pamela Swyford de Beaufort, Sheriff of Area Five. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"
***
The sound and the image faded, and Eric was once again alone in the underground chamber. He felt terrible for having left Pam alone with the responsibilities of his position as Sheriff and having to deal with the Queen. He wanted to be able to tell her that she was right about him, that he wasn't dead and that he'd been taken through the portal against his will. He wanted more than anything to be able to tell her that he was alright and that he hoped to come back one day if he could manage to find a way off of this godforsaken floating rock, and that he hadn't abandoned her on purpose. The fact that he had been able to see her and hear her but not communicate with her frustrated him to no end.
He wasn't even aware of how long he sat as still as a statue in the dark at the side of the pool as he thought things through. Nor was he aware of the tears of blood that leaked out of the corners of his eyes and coursed down his face as he let himself feel the sadness at being separated from his progeny possibly for the rest of his existence. He'd never even had a chance to say goodbye to her.
Eventually he rose to his feet and climbed the stone stairs slowly, emerging in the darkness in the castle proper. He felt sad, and lost, and alone, all things that he rarely allowed himself to feel.