Chapter 3: The Eclipse Approaches
The Eclipse Approaches
The nights grew longer as the Crimson Eclipse drew near—a rare celestial event prophesied to shift the balance of power among the vampire clans. The Sang Adiratna estate buzzed with preparation, unease lacing every word, every step, every breath of the undead.
Nara felt it too. Her transition had given her more than heightened senses and speed. She now saw threads in people—their fears, intentions, desires. It terrified her.
And Elan was still missing.
Despite everything, she couldn't believe he was the traitor. There was sincerity in his warnings. But the council had declared him a fugitive. A kill-on-sight order was issued.
Adrian grew colder each day, absorbed in planning with the council elders. Nara, once his priority, now found herself alone more often than not. She understood the pressure on him—but the doubt lingered.
Was he hiding something?
---
One evening, Nara slipped into the archives—an underground chamber housing the history of the Sang Adiratna. The air was thick with ancient incense and guarded by magic she could only sense, not name. She searched for records on the Darah Hitam, hoping for a clue about Elan's accusations.
She discovered texts bound in human skin, writings in dead languages. One entry made her stop cold:
"The Crimson Eclipse shall mark the awakening of the old blood, when vampire shall devour vampire, and the betrayer shall rise wearing the skin of love."
She read the phrase over and over. Wearing the skin of love.
Was it about her? Adrian?
A soft voice startled her. "You shouldn't be here."
It was Suryanita.
"I had to know," Nara replied. "The prophecy... what does it mean?"
Suryanita's gaze was unreadable. "It's an old text. Interpreted many ways. Some say it speaks of Elan. Others... of you."
"And you? What do you believe?"
"I believe love is dangerous. And those who love are often blind."
---
Nara returned to her quarters and found Adrian waiting. His expression was tense.
"You've been in the archives."
"You're spying on me now?"
"Protecting you. Those archives hold knowledge that can undo even the strongest minds."
"Like the prophecy?"
Adrian said nothing.
"Do you think I'm the betrayer?" she asked.
His silence hurt more than an answer.
"I need to find Elan," she said firmly.
"No. It's too dangerous. If he's aligned with the Darah Hitam—"
"What if he's not? What if he's telling the truth?"
Adrian stepped forward, voice low. "If you go after him, Nara, the council will see it as treason. Even I won't be able to protect you."
"Then don't. I never asked for your protection."
She turned and walked out, leaving behind the man she once thought she knew.
---
Using the sensory tracking skills she'd learned, Nara followed faint traces of Elan's presence through the jungles of Ubud. Her heightened instincts drew her to a concealed temple ruin, covered in moss and guarded by magic.
Inside, she found him—weakened, bloodied, but alive.
"I knew you'd come," he whispered.
"You have to tell me everything. Now."
Elan looked at her with hollow eyes. "Suryanita... she's the traitor. Not Adrian. Not me."
Nara reeled. "That's impossible."
"She's manipulating the prophecy. Using it to secure her control. She's been feeding the Darah Hitam information so she can crush them during the Eclipse and emerge as an unquestioned ruler. Adrian suspects something, but she's bound him with blood oath magic."
"Why didn't you tell the council?"
"I tried. She framed me."
Nara sat back, stunned. "Then we have to expose her."
"We can't. Not without proof. And the Eclipse is in three days."
---
Returning to the estate under cover of darkness, Nara avoided the guards and entered the sanctum where Suryanita kept her personal relics. Hidden beneath wards and illusions, she found scrolls containing the original prophecy—and handwritten notes in Suryanita's script rewriting parts of it.
Proof.
But the moment she turned to leave, the torches flared.
"You disappoint me, Nara," came Suryanita's voice. "So much potential. Wasted on sentiment."
Guards emerged. Nara fought, her new abilities blazing through her—fangs, claws, fury. But she was outnumbered.
Just as she was about to be subdued, Adrian arrived.
"Let her go," he commanded.
Suryanita raised an eyebrow. "You would defy me for her?"
"I would defy you for the truth."
He turned to Nara. "Run. I'll hold them."
She didn't want to—but she obeyed.
---
With Elan's help, she fled to the mountains, carrying the scrolls. There, they met an ancient vampire named Pandita Brahma, a neutral elder believed long-dead. He was a guardian of the old prophecies and agreed to read the scrolls.
"You have truth here. But truth alone won't save you. The people must see it."
He taught them a ritual—an ancient projection that would allow the council to see the unaltered prophecy during the Eclipse ceremony.
It would be dangerous. And once revealed, the war would begin.
---
The night of the Eclipse arrived.
All vampire clans gathered beneath the blood-red moon. Suryanita stood before them, ready to claim absolute power. But before she could begin, Nara stepped forward, scrolls in hand.
"I call for the Rite of Revelation," she said.
Gasps.
Suryanita's eyes narrowed. "Denied."
"You don't have the authority to deny it," said a voice.
Adrian.
And behind him, Pandita Brahma.
The ritual began. The sky shimmered. The true prophecy emerged, hovering in bloodlight.
The betrayer was Suryanita.
Panic erupted. The Darah Hitam, already waiting, stormed the temple. Vampires turned on one another. Blood stained stone. Chaos.
Nara fought side-by-side with Adrian, every movement a dance of survival. Elan led a group of rebels who sided with them.
It was war.
---
By dawn, the temple was rubble. Suryanita had fled. Many elders were dead.
The Sang Adiratna had survived—but forever changed.
Adrian, wounded but alive, took Nara's hand. "You saved us."
"No," she said. "We saved each other."
But deep inside, she knew this was only the beginning.
The world had seen blood.
And the night was not yet over.
Shadows of the Aftermath
The temple grounds still reeked of smoke and blood. The war had ended, but the cost was immeasurable. The Sang Adiratna Council had been fractured, with its eldest leaders either slain or defected. Suryanita's betrayal had plunged the vampire world into political chaos.
Nara walked among the ruins, her steps slow and steady. Where once there was pride and power, now only ash and echoes remained. The night felt heavier now, quieter.
But peace was not to be found in silence.
Adrian emerged from the eastern corridor, his arm in a sling, his normally impeccable attire torn and stained. Despite his injuries, he moved with authority. Survivors followed him like shadows—new allies, rebels, even former Darah Hitam warriors who had turned against Suryanita in the chaos.
"We need to form a new council," Adrian told Nara. "One that reflects what we fought for. Truth. Balance. Choice."
"They'll resist," she said. "The other clans, the purebloods, the old guard. They'll never follow a turned vampire like me."
"Then they'll have to be reminded who bled to save them."
---
Over the next week, the estate became a hub of diplomacy. Representatives from clans across Asia arrived—many skeptical, others furious. The Eastern Vampiric Alliance threatened to revoke their allegiance. The Southern Courts refused to acknowledge the new leadership.
At the center of it all was Nara.
She stood in sessions for hours, defending her choices, arguing for unity. For every insult hurled at her—"bloodtraitor," "mongrel," "halfborn"—she returned with logic, passion, and grace. But beneath her calm, a storm brewed. The power within her had grown since the Eclipse. Something ancient stirred in her blood.
---
Elan, healed but wary, warned her in private one night: "The old power you carry—it's not just from Adrian. It's from the ritual. The prophecy changed you."
"What do you mean?"
"You're not just a vampire, Nara. You're something older. Older than the clans, older than the council. You're a Key."
"To what?"
"I don't know. But others will try to find out. And not all of them will ask nicely."
---
While Nara faced threats within the court, a darker one emerged outside. Villagers began reporting sightings of wild, feral vampires attacking at random—no allegiance, no structure. Rogue fledglings born of panic and chaos.
Adrian assembled a team to investigate. He insisted Nara remain behind. "You're too valuable to risk."
"I'm not a symbol, Adrian. I'm a warrior. I go."
He relented.
The hunting party traveled to the outskirts of Yogyakarta, where the attacks had been reported. There, they found horrors: entire villages drained, corpses desecrated, signs of blood rituals that predated even vampire lore.
They weren't just rogue fledglings.
They were worshipping something.
---
In a forgotten temple carved into the cliffs, they found the truth. Onyx altars smeared with blood. Symbols that pulsed with malevolent energy. And at the center, a shrine dedicated to an entity named "Ratu Darah."
The Queen of Blood.
Elan's voice trembled as he translated the inscriptions. "She is the mother of hunger. The first to thirst. Sealed in flesh. Bound in night."
Nara felt the words echo in her bones.
The Key.
"This shrine is a summoning site," Adrian said. "Someone is trying to bring her back."
"And I think I'm the door," Nara whispered.
---
The group destroyed the shrine, but the ritual had already begun. Across the region, similar temples had been activated. Something was stirring beneath the surface of the world.
Back at the estate, tensions peaked. The Southern Courts withdrew, declaring independence. Mercenary vampire factions began offering their blades to the highest bidder. A civil war loomed.
Nara stood before the council—newly reformed, fractured but determined.
"If we don't unite, we will fall. Not to Suryanita. Not to the Darah Hitam. But to something far worse."
She presented the shrine's artifacts. The evidence.
And the blood began to whisper.
---
That night, Nara dreamt. She walked through endless fields of bone, a red sky above. At the center stood a throne of skulls, and upon it sat a woman with crimson eyes and hair like flowing ink.
"You wear my blood well," the woman said.
"Who are you?"
"I am you. Or what you will become. I am Ratu Darah."
Nara woke screaming.
---
Elan confirmed the worst. The ritual to awaken Ratu Darah had partially succeeded. A fragment of her essence now lived in Nara.
"If she takes over... there'll be no stopping her."
"Then we stop her before that happens," Nara said.
"How? By killing you?"
"By finding the full ritual. And sealing her again."
"That could kill you."
Nara's expression was resolute. "Then I die on my terms."