The Tale of Adrien and \'Rrny

My name, my dear interloper, is Adrien Martin Girodelle. But you, beautiful creature, can call me ‘Drien. Many people I have loved through the centuries have called me that way, and I wish to share the connection with you. As I will share many other secrets.

For starters, I would have to say, I am an immortal, as you human mortals would like to call me. A vampire, maybe, for I feast on human blood, or maybe an incubus, as I delight in their warm embrace, maybe I am both, maybe I am none. I guess I can leave that for you to judge.

I was born in the year of our lord of 1439, when the continent was ripe and humanity was so tenderly lost. Many people at the time still walked with their heads lowered, in fear of the all mighty creator that could come and judge them.

I was, unfortunately, not one of them.

All my life I had been raised as the Dauphin’s playmate, having being adopted by the Countess from the neglecting family of farmers that wanted to throw me into the river. For your own protection and mine, I shall not refer to their names, and I hope you will be able to forgive my presumption.

As the years progressed and my love for my friend the Dauphin grew until it was hard for me to look at his handsome face without blushing, I realized I was quite different from the other boys my age.

We would go to mass every morning and his hand would snuggle itself in my thigh, his warmth seeping into my clothes and scorching my skin.

So happy we were. So very in love.

But then the Countess came home that night, tears streaming down her cheeks and her slender hands curled into claws.

“That bastard of a King!” she shrieked, smashing mirror after mirror without mercy. “To have dropped me aside for that whore! Who does that old bag of bones thinks he is to call me old!! I will have him pay!!”

It was not a secret in our house that the Countess was the King’s mistress, and apparently, now she had been replaced by another noble, a much younger woman.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this simple dismissal was the event that marked my downfall into the world of the eternal.

Harry read, an eyebrow raised in disbelief as he laid in his daughter’s bed, her head tucked gently in his stomach as she read her own book.

“So, this Adrien guy was a French nobleman?” he asked. Lily turned to him, eyes wide.

“Not really,” she said. “I mean, he is, but he is not and… agh! Daddy! I can’t tell you about it without spoiling the surprise!”

Harry sighed, and continued to read. He had promised his daughter he would read the whole book at least, as he wanted to see what was so special about them.

According to the novel, The Countess was so envious of the King’s new mistress that she called warlocks and magicians from all over the continent and beyond to regain her former beauty. Many promised she would end up as the most beautiful woman in court, but the process would be slow and painful, for the ingredients of the potions and ointments would burn her skin off before re growing it all with new shine and paleness.

It was then that The Countess muttered the damning words for the first time, or so Adrien narrated: “Try them on the boy first.”

And the vicious cycle began.

Each potion, ointment and magical cure was tested on Adrien first, and if it had a satisfactory effect, The Countess would use it.

The result? Two beautiful creatures with pale skin and shinning eyes were created, but only one was happy with the change.

Adrien sobbed every night, enveloped on the Dauphin’s arms, whimpering as his burnt skin grew back on his legs or chest and all his body hair fell from his body.

The Countess was turning me into an ethereal beauty, when I only wanted to be a man, Adrian wrote. Describing in morbid detail as each and every ebony lock had fallen from his head to be replaced by golden hair that was as awe-inspiring as painful was the process.

Harry winced then, wondering how his little princess liked such monstrosity.

The year that my fingernails were replaced by iridescent porcelain was the day The Countess hit bottom in her depravity. As one of her friends had complimented her on her beauty, another, more envious noblewoman reminded them all that while beauty was important, it could only last so far, as all of us were to grow old and die one day.

That very same night was the night ‘Rrny came to our house.

Even to this date I can’t be quite sure why I keep calling him ‘Rrny, after all he has done to me, all we have been through, but the sole image of his fanged smile brings heat to my putrid blood in ways I am still ashamed to admit.

Harry sat up on his daughter’s bed, raising an eyebrow.

This Henry character appeared to be a demon from what they called “The Abyss”, a place where all angels were sent after the big heavenly war.

Henry, for that was the demon’s name, had once been a soldier for the heavenly army, but had easily been corrupted by another demon and had fallen with all the others.

He never told me his real name, Adrian narrated. He always said that calling out his divine name would cause my death and he couldn’t stand the thought.

Henry had then promised The Countess eternal beauty and grace, so no man would be able to resist her charms. She had eagerly agreed, but, as always, she wanted the change tested on the boy first.

“And what will you pay in return, dearest Countess?” asked ‘Rrny, his forest green eyes eyeing me lustfully.

The Countess had noticed the attention, and her ruby-red smile widened.

“You can take the boy, if you like, as soon as The Dauphin has no further use for him, of course,” she replied, her voice musical and light.

‘Rrny smiled, his razor sharp teeth glinting under the candle light.

“I believe, Countess,” he whispered, wrapping his strong tan arms around my waits. “That we have a deal.”

That night was the first Rrny slept in my bed, The Countess supervising my change into one of the eternals with morbid curiosity. As she was satisfied she stated that her own change should happen at dawn, just in time for the King’s birthday ball.

But, as the almighty creator is wise, her greedy wish would never be fulfilled.

Albus peered into the room to find both his father and little sister sitting in bed, their eyes glued to their books.

With a tired sigh he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Dad, James and I are hungry,” he muttered, his eyes determined. Lily nodded her head, her eyes devouring her book.

Harry nodded.

“That’s nice son,” he replied, passing a page.

That very morning our door was destroyed by the guards who, driven by The Countess suspicious activities, had gone to arrest us.

The Countess raved and screamed, she needed Henry to finish the deal. She wanted her eternal beauty.

‘Rrny, on the other hand, just smirked at her.

“I gave my gift and got my payment,” he said lightly, his tongue running over his sharp fangs. “I believe I have nothing else to do here.”

The Countess shrieked, pointing with her bony finger at me.

“THE BOY! HE’S A DEVIL! A SINNER!” she said, her eyes frantic. “THIS IS ALL HIS DOING! I SWEAR!”

The guards, usually dimwitted, stared at eachother and then at me. I must have been nothing of what they were expecting, considering I was still as small as intimidating as a child. Still, the Captain took my by the shoulders and decided he might as well take me before the King. There might be a chance, he said, that I was an accomplice.

Albus stood by the door, now seconded by James. Both staring at their father.

“Dad, I’m gay,” said James, his eyes narrowed.

“I’m glad, son,” Harry muttered.

“So am I dad,” continued Albus, clearly amused.

“Oh, good, good,” Harry replied, passing pages furiously. Adrien had been dragged to court and awaited his punishment, for what? He wasn’t sure. And Harry definitely HAD to know.

Old noblewomen passed me by, their disfigured faces covered by their ornate silk fans as they whispered to eachother.

I tried not to hear them, to ignore their words and the way they almost spit at me. I was chained and cold and I wanted to cry so much.

Then one of the King’s sisters stopped to stare at me for a second before turning to her friend. The shameless woman, everyone hated and avoided her.

“Imagine my poor brother’s suffering, Kattarina,” whispered the old bat. “His own son, conspiring under his nose.”

That, of course, caught my attention. Had something happened to the Dauphin? Where was he?

Kattarina, the old woman’s maid nodded, her nose wrinkling in obvious distaste.

“Thanks god our merciful King has acted,” she said with mock sadness. “To have a son hidden from him by that wicked Countess. And that the child would share bed with his own brother? Thanks God Allmighty our Dauphin is marrying a god aviding bride.”

The news hit me like a block of ice.

That couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t!

My Dauphin, My love… and I… that couldn’t be true!

Then of course, I remembered the Countess’ drunken rambles. Of how I used to look at her with the eyes of her love during my childhood, and how I didn’t deserve her mercy since my father never wanted me.

Was I really.

The cold Countess, the one that damned me… was she really… my mother?

“Dad, James and I are fucking,” Albus tried then, his lips curling into a wide grin.

“That’s bad, kids, don’t do it,” Harry mumbled, his eyes full of tears.

As soon as the King had discovered that Adrien was his son with the Countess and that said son had been sharing his bed with the Dauphin, his own brother, all hell broke loose. Harry couldn’t put the book down as a trial was held for the boy.

He tried to plead he didn’t know himself, that the Countess had experimented on him before she did anything on herself. He told them he had been forced. Nothing worked. The Dauphin faced Adrien with poison and accusations. Called him a Demon, a Monster, and swore in God’s name he would get his revenge.

The King stared at him through it all with eyes full of pity, well aware that most of his little boy’s pleas were true.

“As you cannot die, my son,” the King said suddenly. “I shall not torture nor murder you.”

Adrien’s eyes were full of tears as dark as night, staining his milky skin with twin lines of black.

“However he must be punished, father, the disgusting Demon!” roared the Dauphin.

The King nodded.

“From this moment on you will be kept under heavy lock in the highest tower of our prison,” he dictated, his eyes lowering. “Where you shall remain until God All Merciful has pity of your damned soul.”

As the guards dragged me I cried no tears, there was nothing left for me to hold onto. Nothing for me to worry about.

Among the crowd, ‘Rrny waved at me and whispered seductively that I could always disappear with him. He could take care of me, his eyes seemed to say.

I shook my head and let myself be locked.

I would endure my punishment as stoically as I had endured everything else.

Harry felt himself cry as he passed the last pages of the book, where Adrien described in detail his imprisonment, and how he could see the Kings and Queens come and go from his window. And suddenly, out of nowhere, men and women dressed as commoners tore down a wall of his cell, staring at him in shock and awe.

“Look at this!” a woman cried in outrage. “To hold a child so young prisoner! The King must pay!”

The crowd roared their agreement while the woman took me into her arms and caressed my cherubic cheek.

“Don’t worry, little one,” she whispered. “No monster is ever going to hurt you now. We are a free Republic and nothing will ever make you cry. The monsters are gone.”

But I only had eyes for the tendons of her neck and the way I could hear her blood pulsing inside frantically, calling me with its siren’s song.

Part of me laughed from joy, another from relief.

A darker part of me, the part that was ‘Rrny’s child, chuckled at their naivete, because they didn’t realize that the monster was right there with them, forever.

And that was it, that was the first book of Von Schwartz’s series. Harry idly realized James and Albus were staring at him expectantly, but he had other priorities in mind.

“Lily, princess,” he said softly, placing a fatherly hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “Where’s the second book?”

Albus started laughing while James snorted in disbelief and muttered something about ordering a pizza. But none of that was important when Harry just had to KNOW what on earth had happened to poor Adrien now that he had been freed.

Lily turned to her father, her eyes wide and light.

“Sorry, Daddy,” she said. “Mary Ann borrowed it before the end of the year. I’ll get it as soon as I go back to school and I’ll owl it to you, ok?”

Harry shook his head.

His children were going back to school in two weeks!

And he needed to know NOW!

“That’s ok, princess,” he said, standing up. “I’ll go get a copy myself.”

Albus continued to laugh as his father passed him by with a pat to the head. James yelled at him that he’d better bring them diner since he was going out, to which Harry promised he would.

Lily blinked at her brother.

“What time is it?” she asked curiously.

Albus turned to James.

“Ten Galleons that dad comes back late, after reading the damned book and without diner,” he said amusedly. James rolled his eyes and went to the phone.

“We all know he’s going to do that,” he snapped. “ ‘Can’t believe he fell for that stupid book.”

“I wonder what he’ll say when he realizes he’s reading a homoerotic novel,” Albus commented.

“You won’t snap pictures, will you?” James asked.

Albus shook his head and followed his brother, listing all the toppings he wanted on his own pizza.

Lily tilted her head to the side before shrugging. Her brothers were so mean to her Daddy. With another shrug she laid back on her bed and continued to read. She just knew that the shadow stalking ‘Drien had to be ‘Rrny.

To Be Continued