Astor quickly used his strength to jolt open the cell door, and broke her shackles. Lilith immediately jumped up, and hugged him tightly. He returned the gesture, holding her close, as if he never wanted to let go. After a few more moments, they separated a bit, but still held one another. Lilith looked at Astor’s face and placed her hand on it, saying she never thought she would see him again. He replied the same, and expressed how great it was to be reunited. The two were lost in each other’s presence.

I hated to interrupt the magical moment, but I cleared my throat quietly to remind them of my presence. Astor looked at me, and then realized he’d forgotten I was even there. He introduced us, and Lilith replied with her full name: Lilith Moncreth. Astor informed me she was the princess of Didymo, the twin empire to Vrykolakas. When his ancestor Belmont was appointed the first vampire king, he entrusted his close friend Trevor Moncreth with building another stronghold for the vampire race to call home, by uniting numerous vampire family houses. Trevor succeeded, and as a result, a new kingdom was born. Lilith then told me how Astor and she came up together since infancy. It was apparent they had been close, and were the best of friends. When I expressed this, both looked at one another, before a silence overcame them. Astor confirmed my observation, which was a fact, he said, that the evil warlord did not miss, either.

When the war was just about done, Astor and Lilith were fighting side by side. The evil warlord insisted that any Rathegalia be taken hostage, and not killed right away. So when Astor and his friend were finally cornered, the troops held them there until the evil warlord arrived. Then, after he did, he noticed how the two refused to leave each other’s side. He forced Astor to watch as they beat Lilith relentlessly, before imprisoning her in the dungeon. Next, they forced Lilith to watch as they stripped Astor of everything he had, beat him, and then carry him away to be exiled forever. It was the last time the two saw each other.

But now, they were reunited. Lilith said that the time had come for vengeance, and Astor agreed. She, as much as the prince, wanted to kill the evil warlord. Astor then asked where his cousin, Gracion Rathegalia was being held. Gracion was the other Rathegalia the evil warlord kept alive when he won the war. Gracion was kept as a reminder of the Rathegalia House’s downfall, while Astor was exiled. Lilith shook her head, though, and said he had died long ago. The moment grew somber. It was not the answer Astor was hoping for.

After he mourned his cousin for a moment, Astor began bringing Lilith up to speed, so we could continue our journey, as we did not have any time to waste. He explained everything we had been through since I arrived at his place, and Lilith, impressed at hearing our feats over Leviathan and the Luso werewolves, decided she, too, would help Astor get me to the portal. She was grateful that I had helped not only bring Astor back, but that I was willing to give my blood to save him. There was only one problem. She was extremely weak. The soldiers rationed tiny portions of aima to her every now and then, but sometimes she would go without anything for days on end. Astor did not know where any aima was, and neither did Lilith. Thus, there was only one thing to do: offer her my blood.

I told Lilith to drink from me as Astor did. She initially refused, saying it was not the way of vampires anymore to drink human blood. I told her in order for us to be successful, though, she had to be 100%. We could not hope to kill the evil warlord and get me through the portal, if we had to carry her everywhere, and protect her during battle. Astor agreed. Therefore, Lilith fed on blood from my veins.

She, like the prince, drank as if she had not fed in ages. She was careful to not drain me too much, so I would not be weak for the rest of our quest. Then, after a minute or so of ingesting my blood, Lilith stepped back, and began to revitalize. Her hair had been dull, but suddenly became bright gold. Her eyes had been dead, but were now bright green. Her sickly body grew healthy, and looked fit as ever. She was a brand new vampire. More importantly, she was ready to join us in taking down the evil warlord, and getting me home.

Lilith wasted no time taking the lead, and when Astor said we could not find our way out, Lilith looked at him, and asked if he truly forgot the secret passageways. The prince looked puzzled for a moment, but then the light of remembrance illuminated his face. He told her to lead the way, and before we knew it, we were zipping through the dungeon near one of the side walls. From there, we followed it all the way back near the gate, where we were dropped off by Renard. There was a crevice hidden in the corner, and after slipping through it, we were inside the castle walls. There were steps leading up, and Astor shook his head, having realized he walked us right past it when we had initially tried to find our way out of the dungeon. I told him it was a good thing he didn’t remember, because if we had not taken all those detours, we would have never run into Lilith. They both agreed, and then I said we could have done without the mikroteros, though.

The path inside the walls was tight, something I said I wished they mentioned. They did not think to say anything, though, as it was used by them when they were young vampires, so the passageway seemed much bigger. We were able to navigate them, luckily, and they provided an all-access pass to Castle Rathegalia.

Every room on the way up had some space in the wall that we were able to look through, and watch what was going on. We could see all of the soldiers on patrol along the path we were taking. We could also see the ones who were sleeping on the job. I asked how the passageway came to be. Astor told me it was rumored the passageways were originally built as a way for some of the members of King Belmont’s advisory court to sneak concubines in and out of the castle during extended stays. Another rumor was, the passageways were built by workers loyal to werewolf rebels, in an attempt to give the werewolves an easy way to infiltrate the castle, and kill the royal vampire family. The truth, though, was that the passage was built during the construction of the castle to help the workers get aima supplied to them throughout the day. They were smaller so the overall structure of the walls did not have to be adjusted, and because they were a tight fit, they would usually send kids up and down them with buckets of aima. After the castle was completed, they thought they closed off all the openings to different floors, but they did not, and Astor and Lilith found them later on.

Eventually, we reached the armory. Lilith told us we needed to make a stop here, so she could pick up a sword and shield. And that we did. Astor led us through the opening, and once inside, we snuck up on the guards and put them down. Then, Lilith went straight to the cases to see which weapons were still in good enough shape to be used in combat. Meanwhile, I marveled at the history on display. Astor explained to me the story behind some of the weapons as we waited for Lilith to finish. We then came across a display which read “King Leon Rathegalia”. It was the case holding his father’s weapons and armor…

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