A Bloody (And Public) Domaine (short story)

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Stand well clear, Jo!

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A Bloody (And Public) Domaine was the sixth story in The Book of the Enemy.

Heavily featuring Count Dracula, it notably established him to exist in a state of "quantum possibility", constantly shifting between different backstories and personas, thereby reconciling the myriad of conflicting accounts given of the public domain ghoul in previous stories.

Summary

Godfather Gideon and Godfather Auteur are at the stop of the Shadow Spire, with Loa circling it, in the Eleven-Day Empire listening to a recording of Godfather Morlock's personal testimony on a phonograph.

Morlock admits to being fascinated in the role Vlad Tepes has played in the war, examining his body, which "experiences multiple branches of history". The normal history of his life has only a tangential impact on the war, the massacre at Targoviste caused the Celestis to take note of him. But his future life has multiple strands, being resurrected by Mal'akh worshipers, or people believing in Stoker's novel and so him becoming Dracula, and one thread, more interesting than the others, a woman in a black dress, the mother of monsters, Lilith. Dracula survives, builds an empire, and vampirism even becomes fashionable. Indeed, in this timeline there was a fleet of organic timeships, blocking the timeline of a Dracula who didn't ever die.

Auteur is writing a story, an epistolary novel, which he claims is all true. Though, only true once he has written it. Gideon reflects that he risks the wrath of other faction members by associating with his old friend, a prisoner here in the Shadow Spire. But Gideon humors Auteur, even if he can't believe that the Enemy is Dracula.

A letter, from Mina Harker to Abraham Van Helsing

Two weeks ago they found Jonathan Harker naked, skinned, and tied to the door of a church. She wrote to him then, but hasn't heard back. She writes to him now as well, but expects no response.

Gideon objects. Van Helsing, not back for the sequel? Auteur explains that he had other business in Transylvania. The plot of the movie Brides of Dracula.

Mina Harker's Journal

The Count told Mina that others would die if she did not go to him that night. So she headed to a Bedfordshire mine, a mine built by invaders who found something, a new kind of History, that annihilated them. Dracula has been told by Lilith that this History is his to take.

Gideon objects, a timeline where Dracula was resurrected by a higher power and rewrites history to become the Enemy? Why would Auteur write about this one, especially since they know for certain the Enemy isn't related to the Yssgaroth. Auteur hands him a section from the cultists' bible.

The Dragon Scriptures, The Master’s Gospel, Chapter Four, verses One to Twenty-Three

On the trip towards England Dracula spoke with Lilith and she showed him the Spiral and History and the Forefathers behind the Very Fabric, craving her touch. She says to Dracula that he is not Yssgaroth, but more, refined, no longer taint, he is...

Gideon asks what he is, but Auteur hasn't written it yet. He admits there's some degree of creative license involved, he isn't saying word for word what the loa are telling him. Gideon is frustrated with the man who considers himself the author of the Spiral Politic, but sighs and continues.

Mina Harker's Journal

Mina is captured by cultists and made to kneel before Dracula. As he demeans her, the mine begins to break down, and "the blood of the earth" begins to flow in. Harker lunges at Dracula and stabs him in the heart as he drinks in a goblet of the fluid.

Gideon still refuses to believe that Dracula could be the enemy and leaves the Shadow Spire. On his way out, the Loa swoop down and consume him, with the last one, a straggler, nibbling at the flesh, taking the form of a bat.

Characters

References

to be added

Notes

Continuity