"Immortality is not the gift they promised. It is the echo of every heartbeat I took to earn it."
— Lucien D'Arcy, circa 1764
Before he became the pale lord of Blackridge Hollow, Lucien D'Arcy was a man of faith, fortune, and ruin.
He was born in 1602, in the old D'Arcy Manor that still overlooks the Hollow from the northern cliffs—a mansion that bleeds when the moon turns red.
His family were scholars and nobles, patrons of the early church that once stood where the Hollow's ruins now lie. Lucien, the youngest son, was known not for strength or wealth but for his charm.
He loved art, poetry, and sin.
But above all, he loved Aurelia Voss.
The Mortal Years
Lucien met Aurelia when she was a healer's daughter, tending to the sick during the first plague. She smelled of lavender and smoke, her hands always warm even when the world froze.
He wrote her poems, built her statues, and promised her eternity — unaware that eternity would answer.
When the plague reached Blackridge Hollow, it came not as disease but as transformation. Men turned pale, feverless, blood-hungry. It was a sickness of the soul.
Aurelia fell ill first. Her blood would not clot, her reflection flickered in the mirror, and her eyes caught the moonlight like glass.
Desperate, Lucien sought help from a wandering alchemist who promised a cure that could defy death.
The cure required a trade: one life for another, one soul for one breath.
Lucien accepted without hesitation.
The Bargain
The ritual was held under a lunar eclipse.
Lucien gave his blood, his breath, and finally his humanity.
Aurelia awoke—alive, radiant, untouched by decay.
Lucien smiled, relieved.
But when she kissed him, she tasted iron.
And when she looked into his eyes, she saw no reflection.
He had saved her life but damned his own.
He became the first of his kind — a man without pulse or prayer.
Aurelia fled from him that night, terrified of what he had become.
Lucien searched for her for decades, crossing oceans and wars, drinking from the dying just to remember her warmth.
When he finally found her, she had become the priestess of the Lunar Lineage — the same Aurelia who would one day summon him to the frozen lake and bind his fate in the Covenant of Silence.
The Curse of Lucien D'Arcy
The Covenant gave Lucien peace but no rest.
He was cursed to live each century under the same moon, reliving his sins through the blood of others.
Each time the Red Moon rises, his heart beats once — just once — to remind him of the life he stole.
They say he keeps her portrait in the manor's east wing, untouched by dust or time.
Every full moon, he speaks to it as though she still answers.
And sometimes, the servants whisper, she does.
The D'Arcy Manor
Even now, the manor stands as a monument to sorrow.
Its mirrors are covered, its candles never burn more than halfway. The scent of old roses fills the air, though none grow nearby.
No human servant enters past midnight, for that is when the halls begin to hum—a low, mournful tune said to be the song Aurelia once sang to calm him.
The town believes Lucien died centuries ago, but those who live closest to the cliffs know better.
When the mist thickens, they see his silhouette standing by the highest window, watching the moon as though waiting for her to return.
Elias Thorn's Note (From the Archive Journal)
"The portrait's eyes bleed silver when the Red Moon rises."
"The seal of his ring matches the one found on the Covenant Scroll."
"He is not a monster of the night. He is the night mourning the loss of the sun."
Closing Words
Lucien D'Arcy was not born a vampire. He was made one—by love too deep for life to contain.
And though he walks among the living dead, he carries a heart that beats for only one reason:
He believes that one day, when the right blood awakens the Covenant again,
Aurelia will return.
Or worse—
she already has.