The Seasonal Debt

The rain in the Vampire District did not feel like the life giving water of my home. It felt like liquid needles. It was cold and grey and carried the scent of old metal. I stood on the center of the bridge that separated the Summer Court from the Under City. Behind me my people were already retreating into the safety of the green woods. They did not look back at me. They were too busy clutching their fading silks and whispering about the debt that had finally been paid. I was the debt. I was the princess of a sun that was barely flickering and now I was being handed over to the dark.

I kept my chin high. My skin was warm despite the damp chill of the night. It was a natural heat that radiated from my very bones. I could feel the steam rising off my shoulders as the rain touched my skin. I refused to shiver. I would not give the monsters on the other side of the bridge the satisfaction of seeing me weak.

A group of men stood at the far end of the bridge. They wore sharp black suits that looked like they cost more than a year of harvests in the Summer Court. They did not move. They did not blink. They stood with a terrifying stillness that reminded me of statues in a graveyard. Their eyes were fixed on me. I could feel the weight of their hunger and their curiosity. To them I was a battery. I was a source of a power they had not felt in centuries.

"Step forward Lady Elara." One of the men commanded.

His voice was thin and dry. He had skin the color of old parchment and eyes that looked like dried blood. He did not move to help me with my single trunk of belongings. He simply waited.

"I am not a dog to be whistled for." I said. My voice carried across the stone bridge. "If your King wants his prize he can come fetch it himself."

The vampire flinched. The temperature around me spiked by a few degrees. I could feel my inner fire responding to my anger. The mist near my feet began to swirl and evaporate. I was a Summer Elemental and even if my magic was fading I was still dangerous.

A heavy black car sat idling behind the guards. The engine made a low predatory hum. The back door clicked open. A man stepped out into the rain. He did not use an umbrella. He did not seem to care that the water was soaking into his expensive wool coat. He moved with a lethal grace that made the other vampires look like clumsy children. He was tall and broad and his hair was as black as the midnight sky.

This was Silas. He was the King of the Obsidian Spire. He was the man who had bought my life to save his dying city.

He walked toward me. Each step was slow and deliberate. As he got closer I felt a physical wall of cold emanating from him. It was not just the weather. It was him. He was a void of heat and light. He stopped three feet away from me. His eyes were not red. They were a silver so pale they were almost white. They were the color of the moon on a winter night.

"A prize." Silas said. His voice was a low vibration that seemed to settle in my chest. "No. You are not a prize. You are a debt. And I have come to collect."

I stared back at him. I did not look away. I wanted him to see the fire in my eyes. I wanted him to know that he might own my presence but he would never own my spirit.

"The terms of the treaty were clear." I said. "I am here to provide the heat your city lacks. I am here as a diplomatic guest and not a prisoner."

Silas tilted his head slightly. A small smirk touched his lips but it did not reach his eyes. He looked like a man who had forgotten how to smile a long time ago.

"A guest who cannot leave is a prisoner by any other name." Silas said. He reached out a hand toward me. He did not touch me. He hovered his fingers just an inch from my cheek. I could feel the intense cold of his skin fighting against the warmth of mine. The air between us crackled with a strange energy.

"You are very bright Elara." Silas whispered. "It has been a long time since I have seen anything so bright."

I pulled away from his hand. I picked up my trunk and began to walk toward the car. I did not wait for him to lead the way. I was done with the bridge. I was done with the Summer Court. I was ready to see the world that had stolen my future.

The guard tried to take the trunk from me. I pulled it back.

"I can carry my own weight." I told him.

Silas watched me with an expression I could not read. He followed me to the car and opened the door. The interior was lined in charcoal velvet. It smelled of leather and ozone. It felt like stepping into a tomb. I slid onto the seat and moved as far to the window as possible.

The car began to move. I looked out the window as we crossed the threshold into the Under City. The green of the forest vanished. It was replaced by black stone and iron. Huge skyscrapers reached up toward a sky that held no stars. Flickering blue neon signs lit the streets in a ghostly glow. There were no trees. There were no birds. There was only the endless cold of the dark.

I saw people on the sidewalks. They were vampires of all kinds. Some looked wealthy and powerful like Silas. Others looked gaunt and hollow. They were huddled in doorways and clutching thin coats around their bodies. They looked like they were freezing from the inside out. When the car passed they turned their heads to watch us. They could smell me. They knew that the sun had finally come to the City of No Stars.

"You are staring." Silas said.

He was sitting on the other side of the car. He was looking at a digital tablet. He did not look at me but I knew he was aware of my every movement.

"I have never seen a place so dead." I replied. I kept my eyes on the window. "How do you breathe in here? It smells like ash and old blood."

Silas finally looked up. His silver eyes were cold.

We do not breathe for the scent of roses Lady Elara. He said. "We breathe for survival. My people are starving for the light you waste on your gardens."

He leaned forward. The movement was so fast I did not have time to react. He was suddenly inches from my face. The temperature in the car plummeted. I could see my own breath frosting in the air.

"You think you are a martyr." Silas hissed. "You think you have been sacrificed to a monster. But look at them."

He pointed a finger toward a group of children standing on a street corner. They were pale and thin. Their eyes were wide with a desperate kind of hope as they watched the car.

"They have not felt warmth in a generation."Silas said. "Their magic is gone because your people hoarded the sun. I did not take you because I wanted a princess. I took you because you are the only hearth we have left."

I felt a surge of guilt that I did not want. I had spent my life in the golden fields of the Summer Court. I had never thought about what happened to the light after it left our borders. I looked at the children and then I looked back at Silas.

"Then you should have asked for help." I said. "You did not have to buy a person."

Silas sat back and crossed his legs. He looked out the window at his kingdom.

"Asking is for the weak." Silas said. "I prefer a contract. It is much more reliable."

The car began to climb a steep hill toward a massive spire that dominated the skyline. It was made of obsidian and glass. It looked like a jagged needle piercing the dark heart of the city. This was the Obsidian Spire. This was where I would live. This was where I would burn until there was nothing left of me.

We pulled into a courtyard paved with black marble. The guards opened the doors. Silas stepped out and waited for me. He held out his arm as if he were a true gentleman taking me to a ball.

"Welcome to your new home Elara." Silas said. "Try not to set anything on fire on your first night."

I ignored his arm and stepped out on my own. The air here was even colder. I could feel the stone beneath my boots sucking the heat from my body. I gathered my inner fire and pushed it outward. I felt a glow begin to radiate from my skin. "The frost on the marble began to melt.

I will make no promises Silas." I said.

I walked toward the Great Hall of the spire. I did not look back. I could feel his silver eyes on me. I knew this was just the beginning of the debt. I was a Summer Elemental in a land of eternal winter and I was going to make sure Silas felt every bit of the heat he had paid for.

The entrance to the Obsidian Spire was a cavern of black glass and polished stone. It felt like walking into the throat of a great beast. There were no torches or lamps to greet us. Instead the walls themselves seemed to bleed a faint violet light that did not provide any warmth. It was a cold glow that made the shadows in the corners look deeper and more alive. I kept my hands clenched at my sides to keep them from shaking. I was a daughter of the sun and this place felt designed to swallow me whole.

"This way." Silas said.

He did not look back to see if I was following. He knew I had nowhere else to go. His footsteps made no sound on the marble floor. I on the other hand felt like every step I took was a drumbeat in the silence. The heat from my skin was already fighting the unnatural chill of the hall. I could see the faint trail of steam rising from my damp clothes.

We passed through a set of massive iron doors that opened without a sound. Beyond them lay a staircase that spiraled upward into the darkness. The air grew thinner and colder as we climbed. I felt the weight of the stone above us pressing down on my chest. It was a physical pressure that made it hard to catch my breath.

"How many people live here?" I asked.

My voice echoed off the walls. It sounded small and fragile in the vast space.

"As many as need to." Silas replied.

He reached the top of the stairs and paused at a landing. He turned to look at me with those piercing silver eyes.

"This level is yours." Silas said. "You will find everything you require for your comfort."

He gestured toward a set of double doors carved with patterns of frost and thorns. He pulled a heavy iron key from his pocket and held it out to me. Our fingers brushed as I took it. The contact was like a shock of ice water. I flinched but I did not drop the key.

"Am I to be locked in?" I asked.

I gripped the cold metal tightly. I looked at him and waited for the lie.

"The lock is for your protection Elara." Silas said. "Not all of my subjects share my patience for the Fae. Some of them would prefer to drain you dry tonight rather than wait for the warmth you promised."

He stepped closer to me. He was so tall that I had to tilt my head back to see his face. He smelled like winter air and something ancient.

"You are a precious resource now." Silas whispered. "I suggest you treat yourself as such."

"I am a person." I snapped. "Not a bag of grain or a pile of coal."

"In this city those things are more valuable than gold." Silas said. "Sleep well Little Sun. We begin your work at dawn."

He turned and vanished back down the stairs before I could argue. I stood alone on the landing for a long moment. I listened to the silence of the tower. It was not a peaceful quiet. It was the heavy silence of a place that was holding its breath.

I pushed the key into the lock and turned it. The mechanism was smooth and heavy. I stepped inside the room and gasped. It was a suite of rooms larger than my entire cottage back home. There was a massive bed draped in black furs and a fireplace made of white stone. Huge windows stretched from the floor to the ceiling. They looked out over the sprawling dark city below.

I walked to the window and pressed my hand against the glass. It was freezing to the touch. Below me the City of No Stars looked like a graveyard of light. The blue neon flickered in the distance but most of the streets were shrouded in shadow. I could see the faint outlines of the slums where the poorer vampires lived. I thought about the children I had seen in the street.

I turned away from the window and walked to the fireplace. There was no wood in the hearth. There were no coals. It was just a cold empty pit of stone. I knelt down and placed my hands on the base of the chimney.

I closed my eyes and reached deep inside myself. I searched for the spark that lived at my core. It was smaller than it used to be. It was a flickering amber flame that felt weary from the journey. I whispered a word in the old tongue of my people. I pushed a sliver of that heat through my palms and into the stone.

A soft golden glow began to radiate from the hearth. It was not a fire of wood and smoke. It was a fire of pure essence. The stone warmed under my touch. The chill in the room began to recede. I watched as the frost on the windowpanes melted and turned into tears of water.

I sat back on my heels and watched the light. It was the only bit of home I had left.

A soft knock sounded at the door. I stood up quickly and wiped my hands on my skirt.

"Who is it?" I called out.

"Dinner is served Lady Elara." A female voice replied.

I walked to the door and unlocked it. A young woman stood in the hall. She was pale like the others but she had a kindness in her face that I had not expected. She carried a silver tray laden with covered dishes.

"My name is Mina." She said. "I am to be your attendant while you stay with us."

She walked into the room and set the tray on a low table near the fire. She paused when she felt the warmth of the hearth. She looked at the glowing stones and then back at me. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"It has been a long time since I felt a real fire." Mina whispered.

She reached out a hand as if to touch the warmth but she stopped herself. She looked at me with a mixture of awe and fear.

"Is the King always so cold?" I asked.

I sat down at the table and lifted the lid off one of the plates. It was roasted meat and root vegetables. It smelled delicious.

"He is the oldest of us." Mina said. "He has forgotten what it is like to feel anything else. He carries the winter in his heart so the rest of us do not have to."

"That sounds like a very lonely way to live." I said.

I took a bite of the food. It was seasoned with rare spices that made my tongue tingle.

"Power is always lonely." Mina replied. "The King does what is necessary for the survival of the city. He does not ask for thanks."

"He did not have to take me." I said.

Mina looked toward the door as if checking for listeners. She leaned in closer to me.

"He did not just take you to save the city Elara." Mina whispered. "The Obsidian Spire is cracking. The very foundation of our world is freezing over. If you had not come the tower would have fallen by the next new moon."

She stood up straight and smoothed her apron.

"Eat your fill." Mina said. "You will need your strength for tomorrow. The King does not like to be kept waiting."

She bowed her head and left the room. I heard the lock click from the outside. I was alone again.

I finished my meal in silence. I watched the golden light of my fire dance against the black walls. I thought about what Mina had said. The city was not just cold. It was dying. And Silas was the one holding it together with nothing but his own frozen will.

I walked back to the window. I looked out at the dark horizon. Somewhere out there the sun was rising over the Summer Court. My people were waking up to green fields and warm breezes. They were safe because I was here in the dark.

I placed my forehead against the glass.

"I will not let you break me Silas." I whispered.

The heat from my skin left a fog on the window. I watched it fade into the night. I went to the bed and curled up under the heavy furs. I did not blow out the light in the hearth. I let it burn. I needed to remember that even in the heart of the winter a single spark could stay alive.

I fell into a restless sleep. I dreamed of a forest made of glass and a king who was made of ice. In the dream he was reaching for me. He was not trying to hurt me. He was trying to keep from shattering.

I woke up when the first grey light of morning touched the room. There was no sunrise here. There was only a shift from deep black to a dull leaden grey. The fire in the hearth had gone out. The room was freezing again.

I stood up and dressed in a gown of heavy amber wool. I brushed my hair until it shone like polished copper. I was ready.

The door opened before I could reach for the handle. Silas stood in the hallway. He looked exactly as he had the night before. He did not look tired. He did not look like a man who had slept at all.

"It is time Elara." Silas said.

"Time for what?" I asked.

"Time to see if you are as powerful as your father claimed." Silas replied.

He turned and began to walk down the hall. I followed him. We did not go back to the Great Hall. Instead we went deeper into the heart of the tower. We descended a hidden staircase that smelled of damp earth and ancient magic.

The air grew colder with every step. My breath was a constant cloud of steam. I felt the fire in my core beginning to stir. It knew where we were going. It knew that something was waiting for us in the dark.

We reached a massive circular chamber at the very bottom of the spire. In the center of the room was a giant forge made of iron and gold. It was cold and silent. Chains as thick as my waist held it in place.

"This is the Heart of the City." Silas said.

He walked to the edge of the forge and placed his hand on the metal. A layer of frost immediately spread from his touch.

"It used to burn with the light of the first sun." Silas said. "It powered our lights. It warmed our homes. It kept the shadows at bay. But the fire died a hundred years ago."

He looked at me. His silver eyes were bright with a desperate intensity.

"I want you to wake it up." Silas commanded.

I looked at the massive forge. It was huge. It was a mountain of iron. I felt like an ant standing before a god.

"I cannot do that alone." I said. "My magic is not enough to light something this big."

"Then find a way." Silas said.

He stepped toward me. He grabbed my wrists with his freezing hands. He pulled me toward the forge.

"My people are dying Elara." Silas hissed. "The ice is coming for us all. Light the forge or we will all die in the cold."

I looked at him. I saw the fear behind the iron mask of his face. He was not a king. He was a man who was terrified of the dark.

I looked at the forge. I looked at the cold iron. I felt the fire in my heart begin to roar.

"Fine." I said. "But stay back Silas. You might not like the heat."

The basement of the Obsidian Spire did not just hold the Forge. It held the silence of a thousand years. I stood before the massive iron structure and felt the cold biting into my marrow. The air here was different than in my rooms. It was heavy and stagnant as if the oxygen itself had frozen in place. Silas stood behind me. He did not offer words of encouragement. He stood like a shadow cast by a dying world.

"Touch the iron." Silas commanded.

His voice was a blade of ice. It cut through the thick air of the chamber. I looked at the dark metal of the Forge. It was covered in a layer of permafrost that shimmered like crushed diamonds under the faint violet light of the wall sconces. The machine was a mountain of jagged edges and ancient runes. It looked hungry.

"It will drain me Silas." I said.

I did not turn to look at him. I kept my gaze fixed on the frost.

"A forge of this size requires a massive tithe of spirit. If I give too much too fast I will collapse." I explained.

"Then do not collapse." Silas replied.

I felt him move closer. He did not touch me but I could feel the vacuum of his presence. He was a void that wanted to be filled. He was a predator waiting for the first sign of a wound.

"You were sent here to serve a purpose Elara." Silas whispered.

His breath was a ghost of white mist near my ear. It made the small hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"My city does not pay for ornaments." Silas continued. "It pays for results. The Council is watching the meters. The grid is failing in the lower sectors. Now light it."

I gritted my teeth. I reached out and pressed both of my palms against the freezing iron.

The shock was instantaneous. It felt like a thousand needles were being driven into my skin. The Forge was a hollow vessel and I was the liquid fire it had been waiting for. It felt my heat and it began to pull. It was not a gentle draw. It was a violent suction that tugged at the very center of my chest. I felt the amber spark in my core flare up in a desperate attempt to defend itself.

"Argh." I gasped.

My knees buckled. I felt my energy flowing out of my arms and into the dead machine. A dull orange glow began to throb deep within the iron belly of the Forge. It was weak. It was pathetic. It was a flickering candle in a vast dark cathedral.

"Is that all you have?" Silas mocked.

I looked up at him through the strands of my copper hair. He was watching me with a look of bored detachment. He did not care that I was shaking. He did not care that my skin was turning a sickly pale shade of grey. To him I was a utility. I was a tap to be turned until the water ran dry.

"I am trying." I wheezed.

"Try harder." Silas said.

He stepped forward and placed his hands over mine. He pressed my palms harder against the biting iron. The combination of the hunger of the Forge and the unnatural cold of Silas sent a jolt of pure agony through my nerves. It was a collision of extremes. I was caught between a frozen god and a starving machine.

I screamed. The sound echoed off the obsidian walls like a wounded animal. I pushed every bit of my will into my hands. I stopped trying to hold the fire back. I let it flood outward.

Suddenly the orange glow brightened. A roar of heat erupted from the center of the Forge. The chains rattled against the stone floor. The very foundation of the Spire began to vibrate with a low rhythmic thrum. For a single second the room was filled with a blinding golden light that chased away every shadow.

Silas did not pull away. He watched the light with an expression of hungry fascination. The heat should have blistered his skin. It should have turned his fine wool coat to ash. Instead he seemed to drink it in. He looked like a man who was seeing the face of a god for the first time.

The light died as quickly as it had come. The Forge went back to a low steady hum. The golden glow faded into a dim copper pulse.

I fell back onto the cold stone floor. My lungs burned as if I had inhaled smoke. My hands were red and raw from the cold and the friction. I could feel the fire in my core flickering like a candle in a hurricane. I was empty. I felt like a hollow shell washed up on a dark shore.

Silas looked down at me. He did not offer a hand to help me up. He did not even look concerned. He looked at the Forge which was now radiating a faint dormant warmth. He looked at his own hands. They were smoking slightly from the contact. He flexed his fingers as if feeling life in them for the first time in centuries.

"It is a start." Silas said.

He adjusted the cuffs of his shirt as if he had just finished a mundane chore.

"You will return here every evening." Silas said. "You will feed the Heart until the city streets glow. You will push until the frost on the Spire melts. If you fail to meet the quota I will find other ways to extract what is owed."

"You are a monster." I whispered.

I managed to push myself up into a sitting position. My arms felt like lead. I glared at him with every ounce of hatred I could find in my depleted soul.

"I am a King." Silas corrected.

He stepped closer until the toe of his boot brushed my skirt. He looked down at me with a cold pitiless gaze.

"And you are my property until the debt is settled." Silas continued. "In the Summer Court you were a princess. Here you are a spark in the dark. Do not forget your place again Elara."

He turned and walked toward the stairs. His coat swished against his boots with a crisp sharp sound.

"Mina will bring you something for the pain." Silas said without looking back. "Be ready for the gala tomorrow night. I want the aristocrats to see exactly what I bought. I want them to know that the winter is ending because I willed it so."

I watched him disappear into the shadows of the stairwell. I touched the stone floor and felt the lingering warmth I had left behind. It was small but it was there.

I lay back on the cold floor and closed my eyes. I was not just a debt. I was a weapon. Silas thought he had bought a battery but he had brought a sun into a house made of glass. One day I would find the strength to turn this heat into a fire that would melt his frozen heart into nothing but a puddle of regret. I would burn this city to the ground before I let him take everything I was.

I waited for Mina in the dark. I listened to the Forge. It hummed a low dark song that sounded like a warning.

I was a Summer Elemental. I was built for the light. But as I sat in the darkness of the Spire I realized that fire did not just bring life. It also brought destruction. I looked at my red raw hands and made a silent vow.

I would give Silas his warmth. I would give him all the heat he could handle. And when he was finally warm enough to feel pain I would show him exactly what happens when you try to cage a star.