The Vampire & Her Witch

Chapter 1048: A Final Act Of Defiance

Eleanor moved slowly as she stood up from her comfortable, luxurious feeling cot, placing her bare feet on the cold stone floor of the dungeon cell before she could lose the strength of her conviction. Her body still ached, and her joints protested as she took a few steps away from the cot and the comfort of her goose-down pillow to stand in the middle of the dungeon cell, but to Eleanor, the minor aches and pains were a balm on her wounded heart.

She deserved to suffer, here at the end, for betraying Jocelynn’s confidence, and though it hardly felt like enough, she would make up the balance in the end. Slowly, moving carefully so that she didn’t fall and arouse the attention of any guards posted in the dungeon with the noise of her chains, Eleanor brought her knees to the cold stones of the dungeon cell, before stretching herself into the same position of complete supplication that she’d used to invoke a minor miracle of Holy Light in her cell just a few days ago.

"Thank you, Brother Percivus," she said with a faint smile on her lips as she offered up genuine thanks to the Inquisitor for giving her the strength at the end to do what she must. The shivering, chattering, half-dead Eleanor she’d been when he entered her cell would never have had the strength or clarity of mind to do what she had decided to do with her final moments.

As perverse as it was, she was truly grateful that she could reclaim the gifts of nourishment and comfort that he’d used to tempt her for a far nobler purpose.

The ritual she was preparing for was as old as the Sisterhood of Confession itself, and it had been forbidden for almost as long. In her convent, only the Mother Superior herself knew the formal words of the prayer that had been passed down for generations, but every Confessor who donned the Crimson Hood was aware of the lengths to which the founders of their order would go in order to protect people whose struggle to regain the Light was more important than a single Confessor’s life.

Jocelynn certainly wasn’t someone that the Church would have chosen to lavish such protection on. She wasn’t a prince, or king, or heir to any throne. She wasn’t a pillar of the church, or one of the wealthy merchants who paved their path to the Heavenly Shores with offerings of gold and jewels to the temples, or a champion fighting against demons on the front lines of a Holy War.

But that didn’t matter to Eleanor any more than her lack of a formal ritual mattered to her. Jocelynn mattered. She’d suffered greatly for her wrongs, and she was working hard to find her way back to the Light. She loved her sister, loved her family, and she was learning to fight for the things that were important in her own life. As far as Eleanor was concerned, that was more than enough to make her worthy, even if they hadn’t been kinsmen.

Eleanor had already learned that she didn’t need the formal words of the Church’s prayers in order to create a miracle. A simple sailor’s shanty had been enough to summon Holy Light in her darkest hour of need. So, whether she knew the words of the Church’s prayer or not, she had faith that her words would reach the Holy Lord of Light’s ears, and that he would bestow on her one last, final miracle for the woman who had come to mean more to her than her own life.

"Holy Lord of Light, my time has come at last.

This body breaks, but my spirit still burns bright..."

She knew that this was the end, and she accepted that fact. Perhaps, if she were lucky, she could linger on for a few more days, but she’d placed herself on a path that was difficult to return from the day she offered so much of her own strength to the Holy Lord of Light to save Jocelynn’s life from Bors’ delusional assault.

Now, she would bring her life to a close on her own terms, providing what aid to Jocelynn she could without depending on Percivus to honor his twisted words.

"I offer up the last flickering flames of life I hold,

That they may illuminate the way for the one I choose to guide..."

Jocelynn’s path from here would still be long, dark, and filled with danger. She needed strength to persevere, and a light to show the way, and Eleanor was willing to give all of her strength in order to become that light.

Slowly, in the darkness of the dungeon cell, a soft, golden light began to radiate from Eleanor’s body, as if the Holy Lord of Light had descended into the darkness of her cell to listen to her final prayer.

"By the oaths that Confessors know and keep,

I have heard her confession, her guilt, and her remorse.

Though she is young and has strayed far from the path of the Light,

She sees clearly now, and has struggled all the harder to do what’s right..."

Eleanor was proud of Jocelynn. She had come so far from the woman she had been when she left Blackwell County, and she had much, much further still to go. Some might think that she had begun a journey toward greatness, but Eleanor didn’t care whether Jocelynn found greatness, fame or wealth.

The Church might wish for a person receiving such a blessing to dedicate the rest of their lives to a good and godly cause, but for Jocelynn, all Eleanor wished to see in her cousin’s future was the simple happiness of finding a place where she could be loved. If she could struggle long enough to find someone who would love her and return the love and devotion that Jocelynn had demonstrated her heart could give, then that would be miracle enough.

"I bind my spirit’s final flames to her heart,

And pledge all that remains of my life to her.

Where she is weak, add my strength to hers.

Where she has fallen, let my faith lift high.

Where darkness seeks to claim her wandering steps,

Let my Light illuminate her path, to show her the way..."

By now, the faint golden light that covered Eleanor’s body wreathed her like a fiery nimbus of golden flames, radiant and pure, enveloping her body as if she lay on a funeral pyre. In her hand, she clutched tightly at the remnants of her Confessor’s robe, feeling the soft, comforting fabric for one last time before she let it go, and with it, all of the pain, the cold, and the heartache that haunted her every moment in this dungeon.

"Jocelynn," Eleanor whispered softly. "Please receive this gift from me. May it see you safely through the night, until you can stand once more in the Light..."