Mortality: The Story of Mortanius

Chapter Ten

When he awoke, someone was wrapping a bandage around his forearm. He opened his eyes to see a vampire kneeling over him, carefully bandaging the burn on his arm, which was covered in some kind of healing salve. He tried to sit up, but the vampire pushed him back down.

“No, you are not well.”

“How ... how did you ... ?”

Janos immediately appeared at Mortanius’s other side. “We felt you, Mortanius. The Guardians share a powerful connection. All the Guardians felt what happened here. We came as soon as we could.”

“You felt ... ?”

“Sometimes, powerful emotions can be felt by the other Guardians. It’s like a psychic link that we share with each other. We felt your fear and your anger.”

Mortanius struggled to think back to the night before. He barely remembered what had happened right before he lost consciousness. When he remembered what he had done, and realized what Janos implied, he felt scared. Had the other Guardians felt all the hate and rage he had felt? If they came here, they must all know what Mortanius had done. He tried to turn away from Janos, suddenly too scared and ashamed to face him.

“Yes,” Janos said softly, “we know what happened. What you did, I mean. Believe me when I say that none of the Guardians think any different of you, Mortanius. You have nothing to apologize for.”

“I ... I killed that man ...”

“Yes, we know. Do not dwell on it.”

Mortanius tried to say more, but Janos silenced him and made him drink something that he said would help Mortanius heal. He slept most of the day and when he awoke again, the sun was already beginning to set. He ate some food, which made him feel better, and the vampires allowed him to get up. His head throbbed with pain and his arm was sore under the bandages, but other than that he was unharmed.

To his amazement, all of the Guardians were there, as well as many other vampires. Janos, Aleph, and the others that Mortanius didn’t know so well, as well as Lora, Romanen, and Moebius. Lora and Romanen wisely kept their distance, knowing Mortanius’s feelings for them.

Some of the vampires came forward to express their sympathy. Some did not, but Mortanius could care less either way. The vampires didn’t have families or parents, and they couldn’t understand how Mortanius felt. Some of those who spoke to him sounded sympathetic and sincere though, which he appreciated.

Mortanius’s house was no longer there. All that remained was a pile of charred wood and remains. The remains of Mortanius’s life.

“We recovered the bodies of your mother and sister,” Janos said softly. “I cannot tell you how sorry I am, Mortanius. We felt that it would be better for you not to be there to see them. We have prepared your family for burial. We have also removed the bodies of the men responsible for the attack.”

Mortanius wanted to ask what they did with those bodies, but he really didn’t care. Bury them, burn them, leave them for the scavengers. It didn’t matter to him.

At the side of the house, close to the woods, the three coffins were lined up by three graves the vampires had dug. Each grave, according to simple custom, had a stone grave marker with the name of the deceased. Mortanius didn’t ask the vampires how they knew the names of his family.

Mortanius felt tired again. “I don’t know what to say.”

“We don’t know your family’s burial traditions.”

“Neither do I. I’ve never attended a burial.”

“Do you want any time alone?”

Mortanius walked up to the coffins and shook his head. He had released all of his grief the night before. His family was gone now, there was nothing to be done. Whatever pain and sadness Mortanius felt had already been exorcised. Now, he just felt tired and weak. He was the Guardian of Death, after all. Death came as no surprise to him. He had lived with it very closely for years now.

“You can bury them,” Mortanius said. “I don’t think I want to stay here anymore.”

“I understand,” Janos said.

As Mortanius walked away from the graves, Moebius appeared out of the crowd and approached him. He looked much better than when Mortanius had seen him last. He was clean and healthy, no longer the scrawny little street urchin he’d been when the vampires found him. After two years with them, he had gained not only weight and height, but education and maturity unbecoming of his age.

“I guess we’re both orphans now,” Moebius said.

Mortanius nodded slowly. Finally, he said, “Do you remember your parents?”

“No, not really. I know they died, but I don’t even know what happened to them. To tell you the truth, the vampires are the first real parents I’ve ever had.”

Mortanius knew that Moebius was referring to Lora and Romanen, but the fact that he called them “the vampires,” lumping them in with Janos and the rest, told Mortanius all he needed to know about their relationship.

“I’m sorry that I never got to meet your family,” Moebius said. Mortanius had promised once to have Moebius come and visit them, but the promise had never materialized for whatever reason. “What are you going to do now?”

“I don’t have much choice. I have nowhere to go.”

“You’re going to stay with the vampires?”

Mortanius looked back over his shoulder. The vampires had already placed the coffins in the ground and were shoveling dirt onto them. Janos and the other Guardians watched the burial with expressions ranging from sadness to concern. None of them made eye contact, but they were surely wondering the same thing.

“For a little while.”

Moebius nodded. “For a little while,” he said, repeating Mortanius’s words. “You know they’re going to convince you to stay with them. They might seem sad about all this, but it’s exactly what they want.”

There was no bitterness or anger in Moebius’s words, as if what he was saying was merely common sense, but Mortanius could still feel Moebius’s deep-rooted distrust of the vampires. Apparently, despite living with them for two years, Moebius’s feelings toward them had not changed at all since that first night. Somehow, Mortanius had expected the opposite.

“They won’t let you leave again,” Moebius said, keeping his voice low, perhaps so that the vampires could not hear him. “You know that, right?”

Mortanius turned to look one more time at the graves of his family. “Yes, I suppose I do.”

<--Previous Chapter|Next Chapter-->