Letters 15 &16

Secrets flow

Letter 15 Isadora to Callum

Callum,

I keep turning everything over in my head. What you tell me is so alarming and yet it feels true. The question is who. Who is behind it all, pulling the strings, threatening our world.

You must tell me.

You must tell me.

You are the oldest being I have ever known. You understand our realm and its workings more deeply than anyone alive — or otherwise. You were there when my mother was taken. I am certain you know more than you have said. I feel it, Callum, the way you feel a storm before it breaks. Are you sparing me from something? Or are you protecting someone else entirely?

Surely you understand that I must know who is keeping the beast hidden — and who is trying to release it. And why. What becomes of us if the beast rises? What becomes of everything?

Please. Stop keeping the whole truth from me.

I must know.

With warm regards,

Isadora

P.S. I wish I could meet you to talk about this in person and to … finally meet.

Letter 16 Callum to Isadora

My dearest Isadora,

Vampires do not speak as mortals do. Having lived through more human lifetimes than I care to count, we learn early that discretion is survival — that what we know, and what we reveal, can mean the difference between safety and ruin. It has never been easy for me to lay myself bare.

And yet I find I cannot withhold this from you. For your mother’s sake. And for yours.

The web of those responsible is wide. There are figures who had a hand in the beast’s creation, others who signed the decree securing him beneath the Royal Library, and still others now working to set him free upon our world. The list is long — but one name runs through all of it like a thread of pure evil: Lord Zakin, who has held his seat on the Vampire High Council for the past four hundred years.

I have watched Zakin for a long time. Combed through records, followed rumours, traced connections others chose to ignore. I believe he was involved in the beast’s very creation. I know he was among those who signed the decree of imprisonment. And now I fear he is the one trying to undo it.

How did I come to this conclusion? Years ago, whispers reached me about Lord Zakin and a golem from another realm — a secret fraternisation, carefully kept. But there are no true secrets in vampire society. Letters surfaced, speaking of clandestine meetings in the mountains. And the timeline, Isadora — the timeline is damning. Shortly after those letters, references to a soul-devouring beast begin to appear. Then the Accord is signed, and the beast is never to be spoken of again.

Now I believe Zakin is stirring that power of that beast back to life. Recently there have been rumours about the vampire lord’s mind — that he has lost too many he loved that grief has hollowed him out, that someone with ambitions for his council seat has been slowly poisoning him, that the grind of the undead life has worn him down. Whatever the cause, I fear he has become dangerous in the way only the truly unmoored can be. I think he wants to unleash the beast. Not for power. For ruin.

You ask about safety. I will not lie to you and pretend it is easily found. But I want you to know this: I will do whatever is within my power to keep you safe. You have become precious to me — more than I know how to say in a letter.

Which brings me to your postscript. I have read it a dozen times. I want to meet you too — you cannot know how much. But I am afraid. Not for myself. For you. The closer you are to me, the closer you are to all of this. And that I cannot bear.

With affection so great I can barely manage it,

Callum

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Past Letters

You can read the first letters here:

1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8, 9&10, 11&12, 13&14

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Have a great week, my friends,

Jo-Ann