Venatores Noctis: Unlikely Foundations: Chapter 1 – Pushed into Destiny

Chapter 1 – Pushed into Destiny

Nevar dreams about the day he lost his family a memory that haunts him to this very day. He was seven at the time and afraid of bringing home his bad test scores from school, so he wandered through the town until he realized that he would get in even more trouble if he came home late. By the time he went home, he saw some strange people enter the house, which stopped him from going any further. He was always afraid of talking to weird looking strangers, but this time, his instincts were correct as these people hypnotize the rest of his family and exit the house with his family in tow. Despite wanting to do something, he was frozen in his fear and didn’t go anywhere near his house until his family was far in the distance.

Turning to look at the house, he remembers the reports of what vampires do to their victims that they use in their blasphemous sacraments. He sees the broken, bloodied, and desecrated bodies of his family with his eyes focusing on the cut throat and torn out heart of his infant brother. Seeing this is enough to make him fall down in tears and not want to do anything about it.

“I’m useless. I couldn’t do anything then and I can’t do anything now to save those who are suffering the same fate,” he says to himself.

“Stop being so hard on yourself,” a familiar and comforting voice says to him.

Nevar looks up to see his father looking at him with a smile.

“Father…I’m not worthy to be called your son. I can’t be the same hero you were,” Nevar admits.

“You will be. I know it. Don’t doubt yourself and remember to trust God to help you in everything you do,” his father says.

“I do trust God. I trust Him more than myself.”

“As you should. Do that and you will never fail.”

Nevar feels himself beginning to wake up and he tries his best to will himself to stay in the dream.

“Wait, don’t let me wake up, father! Tell me more! Grant me your intercession from your Heaven!”

“I will and I’ll never leave you. You needn’t worry so much. You are my son after all.”

The young man calls out to his father again as he wakes up. Even though he is disappointed that he is awake, he puts aside his feelings to focus on his morning prayers. After his prayers and getting dressed, he takes his family’s whip and heads out for training. Nevar passes by several others that are his age that are practicing with warrior priests and knights from the army teaching them. Many of his peers ignore him while others take note.

“Why bother coming out if you don’t fight?” one of them says as they pass by him.

“I…I’m training to,” Nevar answers.

“With the ‘skill’ that you’ve shown on our assignments, I’m surprised that you train at all.”

The young knights walk away and leave Nevar to sulk in his embarrassment. That is until his teacher comes to him after overhearing the conversation.

“Do not worry about what they say. They only want you to be able to defend yourself. If not, then I expect to see them soon in the confessional,” his teacher says.

“Uncle Rinaldo! I’m ready for today’s training, sir,” Nevar says as he follows his teacher to the training site.

“Are you? You look like you’re letting what your peers said get to you.”

“No, it’s not that. At least not completely that. I saw my father in a dream and was reminded of him and what the vampires did to my family.”

“Then you received a message from Heaven and your saintly father. I wish my brother would visit me in a dream sometime. What did he say?”

“He reminded me to trust in God, not to doubt myself, and that he’ll never leave me.”

“That’s great! Why does this trouble you?”

“I wish the dream could’ve lasted longer so I could be with him longer and so he could give me more of his wisdom.”

“Follow me and listen to what I have to say then if it is wisdom that you want. Today, we’ll train outside the noise of the city and judging eyes of both your and my peers.”

“Yes, uncle.”

Nevar and Rinaldo go out to a homestead outside of the city. While looking at it from a distance, Nevar appreciates looking at it from the outside and the surrounding area.

“Beautiful even from a distance. You’ll never find a city like Rome anywhere else in the world,” Rinaldo says.

“Yes, she is though I can’t say the same for sure since I’ve only been to one other city besides this one. Thank you for bringing me out here, uncle. Despite the city’s loveliness, the change of scenery is refreshing,” Nevar says.

“Your peers mock you for your combat ability and cowardice in battle. Prove that isn’t true by fighting me with all your strength.”

The two begin to fight and Nevar manages to fight on even ground even as Nevar uses a whip and Rinaldo uses a sword and shield.

“Good, good! Those friends of yours don’t know what they’re talking about,” Rinaldo complements.

“They’re not my friends nor do I fight the same way on assignments. Most of the time, I cower behind everyone and only come out when absolutely needed.”

“That isn’t so bad.”

“What do you mean?”

“You come out when you’re needed. What else can be asked of you?”

“I just want to do more like my father.”

“What about like your uncle?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you, uncle.”

“Haha, you didn’t. Your father wanted to be lots of things and he was. He brought honor to your family when it had less than none by being an honorable knight of the Church. When we first met on the battlefield, I thought he was an arrogant man who wanted nothing more than glory and honor. Even after getting to know him better, he would always say that he was a better fighter, but it was through fighting with him, I saw the God loving man that he truly was.”

“Are you saying I should be in the kind of battles that he was in?”

“No, not at all. Besides, our wars were fought against heathens and heretics rather than monsters. I’m just saying that you’re like him in the way that you’re there where you’re needed even when others don’t want you. When your father came back as a vampire, he was bothered by the fact that he came back in the way that he did and couldn’t save your mother and siblings. In spite of that, he saved us from the powers of evil and came back when he was needed, so what I’m also saying is that you never really know the moments you are actually needed and when you are, you can accomplish great things.”

“Thank you for your wisdom, uncle. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Rinaldo spares with Nevar for a time with breaks in between until the sun begins to set. At this time, Nevar makes the two dinner as they enjoy the sky and each other’s company.

“I’m glad you’re becoming a fine cook as well as a knight,” Rinaldo says.

“Thank you for all you’ve taught me. I don’t know what I would do without you,” Nevar says with a gentle smile on his face.

“It’s the least I can do. I just pray that I can stay the man you look up to and better. Ha! After all this talk about wanting to be more than what you are, you have me talking the same way. Another thing you should learn is that God provides us with the skills and resources necessary for the day’s work. Don’t worry about tomorrow because the same loving God that gave you the gifts of today will do the same for you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be sure to remember that as well and the many blessings I’ve already been given.”

Nevar and Rinaldo go back to the barracks to rest for the day. Because of today’s hard training, Nevar doesn’t bother taking off his armor nor putting away his family’s whip and just falls on his bed to immediately fall asleep. As he dreams, Nevar hears someone calling out to him. He doesn’t know who this voice belongs to, but in his drowsiness, he follows it since it sounds familiar to him. Following it outside of the barracks to its source, Nevar looks around until he is directed by the voice to his horse. Again, he looks around for the source of the voice and begins to finally wake up.

“Wait, what am I doing here?” he asks himself.

It is then that he sees two hooded figures wandering around the area.

He asks them, “Hey, are you the night guards? Have you seen anyone around here or am I going crazy?”

“That’s the son of Raven,” one of the strangers whispers to the other.

“We should kill him and bring his head back as a reward,” the other stranger whispers back.

“No, we should bring him back in pieces or force him to be like us like how we did with his father. Maybe make him into a serf. Perhaps, he will be different.”

“Perhaps, we should have our fun with him first then go from there. Do you agree?”

“I agree. That is the better option.”

The whispering of the two is barely audible to Nevar, so he takes out his whip and shakily prepares for a fight.

“Get out of here you two! You don’t want to mess with someone like me,” Nevar says in a failed attempt to intimidate them.

“What can you do to us, boy?”

“You’re nothing like your father. You can’t possibly do anything to us.”

The two strangers reveal themselves to be vampires with hollow black eyes and skin as pale as the moon. This scares Nevar into taking action and whipping off the arm of one of them as the vampire narrowly manages to escape a quick death.

“You’ll pay for that,” the vampire says before charging at Nevar.

Thanks to his training, Nevar anticipates this and whips the vampire in half before it can reach him despite its inhuman speed. Following up his attack, Nevar whips the head off the second vampire before it can react to what happened to the first. Despite this display of skill that would impress anyone, Nevar stands frozen in fear unsure of what to do next because he fears if there are any more vampires lurking in the darkness. It is from this darkness that shadows leap out, but don’t attack Nevar. Instead, after what feels like agonizing minutes of waiting, Nevar retreats back to the barracks to report the vampire attack, however, explosions and the sounds of fighting stop him from doing so.

All this sudden commotion scares Nevar’s horse and by the time he takes his horse out of the stable, it runs off while not listening to his instructions and hardly goes where he wants it to as it tries to avoid the fighting. Nevar tries to make the most of this predicament by killing whatever vampires and beastmen that he comes across while appearing to look like a child on a horse. Eventually, his horse makes it outside of Rome where the vampires are attacking from. They come out of portals that connect to the place they’re coming from.

“That’s the son of Raven! Get him!” one vampire says.

“Why here of all places?” Nevar says as he still struggles to control his horse.

Because of all the vampires and beastmen around him, Nevar focuses on defending himself. Even while doing this, he can see an invisible force kill the enemies he can’t reach and just assumes that a group of Rome’s defenders are fighting alongside him. His horse charges through the enemy until it goes through the portal. This is where the horse finally listens to Nevar’s instructions, but it is too late for him to go back through the portal as it has closed. Wondering exactly where he is so that he can get back home, Nevar looks around to see that he’s in front of what’s known as the Tower of Blasphemy.

“Of all the places to end up. Why, God, does it have to be here?” Nevar says as he begins to fear for his life.

This tower is home to most if not all vampires in the world where the most powerful vampire lords meet to coordinate their plans and make deals with one another. Its construction is otherworldly as different bits of large castles are grafted to it, and yet, it manages to stand with all its pieces set in place. At this moment of desperation for a way out, an angel manifests in front of Nevar. Two swords float by its side along with two eyes that each look into three directions at once. The angel’s golden wings also float to its side with three bits of it floating downward like hanging crystals. It doesn’t seem to have a face nor a body in its gold and black cloak. Instead, only a mouth and hands folded in prayer can be seen.

“Oh, thanks be to God you’re here! Please, holy angel, you must get me out of here,” Nevar says to it.

The angel’s head twists in confusion in a way that a normal human head would break before it says. “Why would I do that? It is I who brought you here because God needs you to be here.”

“Wait, was it your voice that I heard calling me in the night?”

“Yes, and I was the one leading your horse and defending you from the slaves of evil. I am your guardian angel.”

“My guardian angel? It’s an honor to finally see you after talking to you so much, but can you tell me why God wants me here?”

“Because you are to defeat the vampires and save the world from their influence like your father did.”

“Me? I’m hardly one of the best knights. Even if I was, I’m only one man and that castle contains armies. It’d be better if I went back to Rome, helped them, and got their aid. We could also use the help of my uncle!”

“Do not worry about them nor your uncle. They will take care of themselves. You, on the other hand, have a task and an enemy before you.”

“How can I possibly do this by myself?”

“You are not alone. I am here with you, your family and the saints in Heaven are interceding for you, the holy souls that you offered your rosary for are praying for you. God got you here and He will get you out. Are you beginning to lose your faith in Him?”

“No, not at all.”

“Then you must proceed with the task at hand. Your destiny awaits you.”

Nevar swallows his fear before looking at the tower that seems to reach past the clouds. He takes out his whip, grips it, then swings it down as if throwing away his cowardice and walks to the building hoping that God hasn’t abandoned him to a terrible fate.