1 Abandoned By Blood
-Alexis Lycan, 18 Years Old-
Alexis slowly walks down the hallway of the rundown building he has calls home. Shoddy walls and peeling paint greet his eyes. He looks up at the ceiling, littered with holes and cracks, and sighs bitterly. Dreading the conversation he is about to have with his parents, he plods along. Said conversation will be more like a demand than anything. This practice has happened repeatedly over the course of the past few generations like a depressing tradition. He takes one look back at the hallway once he reaches the door and sighs once more.
"Might as well get it over with." he mumbles to himself and opens the door slowly.
"About damn time you got here; we were waiting forever!" A gruff voice barks out immediately.
Alexis looks at the man who spoke, his father, and studies his face for what he knows is the last time. With unkempt grey hair and full scraggly beard, Jordan Lycan looks nothing like the picturesque lord most people imagine when they imagine nobility. Duke Jordan Lycan is 37 and was a pale skinny man, suffering from hardships and malnutrition, all brought about by his own incompetence and tyrannical rule.
"I am sorry father" Alexis bows slightly to the pathetic man in front of him. Then he turns to his left and gives a small, gentle smile to the frail woman sat upon a rickety chair. "Mother."
"Alexis" she whispers before turning away slightly with shame and sadness in her eyes.
Veronica Lycan was once a beautiful and lively young woman with ash colored hair that almost seemed white and iridescent in the daylight. She was a peasant from the sole village the Lycan family still ruled over. Veronica had just turned 14 years old when that same beautiful hair caught his father's eye. The Duke marched into the village and demanded she marry him. Being a low-class peasant, she was powerless to refuse. His mother was now 32 years old, a sad and broken woman, who was but an object for her abusive husband.
"You called for me father?" Alexis asks while turning back to the man before him. Jacob Lycan gives a mocking smile as he spreads his arms out suddenly and steps forward slightly.
"You have become a man today, Alexis! You are finally 18 years old!" The man speaks loudly with the same mocking smile on his face. "As any great father would, I have prepared a gift for you." The duke then rummages through his broken-down desk and produces a single sheet of paper and a quill pen.
Alexis' eyes narrow when he sees the paper, which was stamped with the official seal of The Dragonair Imperial Court. He knows exactly what it was but says nothing.
The man continues in the same tone. "I have decided to grant you my title of the Lord of the Lycan Dukedom!"
"...Thank you, Father." Alexis says emotionlessly.
-
For generations now the Lycan Dukedom was a dukedom in name only. Years and years of incompetent rules left the once prosperous land ravaged and picked apart by its surrounding neighbors and debt collectors. The Lycan family now only ruled over a single village and empty land surrounding said village. Were it any other house, the Imperial Court would have rescinded the title of Duke and left them as just another of the hundreds of Baronets littered across the vast Empire.
However, before the founding of the Empire, when the armies of the first Emperor came to conquer the then Kingdom of Lycania, they meet fierce resistance. The outnumbered but elite and disciplined army paired with the near perfect leadership of the Lycanian King meant that conquering them would be all but impossible. After months of a tense stalemate, the Lycanian king did something that shocked the would-be Emperor. He offered to become a vassal of the soon to be founded Empire to avoid the bloodshed of his people. His only condition was that the Emperor would take the Lycanian's only princess as his wife and swear that the Lycanians would never be anything less than a Ducal house which served directly under the emperor in power. The Emperor gladly accepted and when he founded the Empire, a clause was added to the laws that would uphold the agreement for all time.
-
After Alexis signs the document giving him control over the 'Dukedom', his father smiles widely and claps his hands once.
*CLAP*
"Fucking finally!" his father cries out. "Those debtors were swarming me like damn flies!" Jacob Lycan, free from the crushing debt of the Lycan family, turns to Veronica who was still sitting on the chair and exclaims "We're leaving!"
"Yes, husband." She says softly while glancing at Alexis with tears forming in the eyes.
The former duke arranges his prepacked bags and checks them to make sure all his belongings, and anything valuable really, were inside and ready to go. He then jerks up suddenly like he had a great idea.
"You know what?" Jacob smirks cruelly while looking at his wife with lustful eyes "let's use the bed one more before we leave."
"Yes, husband." A shaky voice replies while she trembles and looks down at her lap fearfully. Subconsciously, she began shifting away from him slightly.
"Hurry up woman!" Jacob demands as he grabs his wife tightly by her arm and drags her to an adjacent room. "Congratulations, Duke Lycan." he says mockingly while still dragging the crying woman to the room.
Alexis shakes violently with rage as he watches his mother get dragged away. He clenches his hands so tightly that he draws blood, and it starts to drip down and splatter on the floor. The blood looks strangely dark, almost black in places. He didn't notice.
"I'll save you mother, I promise... I'm just not... strong enough... yet." he whispers pitifully to himself as the door slams and tears slide down his face. It mixes with the blood on the floor.
He hears snickering from the other side of another door and his blood boils even more. The laughing men are bandits and thugs that his father hired, numbering six in total. They were not hired with gold, as there was none, but with permission to pillage and rape the woman of the village whenever they wanted to. All they had to do was protect his father.
Alexis hates these vile men. The bandits hurt and assaulted the people of the village in broad daylight, and he could only watch in shame as they did what they pleased. They were the main reason he couldn't help his mother. Alexis was now the Lord of the land and protector of these people. He was supposed to save them, to help them.
"I'll save you" he repeats quietly as he leaves the room.
The blood on the floor darkened. He didn't notice.
-
Alexis awakens the next morning as the door to room opens, admitting a petite young maid with blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes. She smiles slightly at him and bows. She was an orphan picked up off the street on a rare visit to the capital. 18 years old and beautiful, she has served Alexis since they were both very young. They grew up together.
"Good morning, Lord Lycan." She says with a soft voice.
"Morning Sabrina." Alexis replies and sits up slowly. "Are they gone?"
"Yes, Lord Lycan. Both the lord and lady left early this morning, before first light."
"Former Lord" Alexis smiles bitterly and glances at the paper he signed yesterday on the old desk in his room.
"My apologies, Lord Lycan. Former lord and lady."
Alexis gets out of bed, wearing nothing but his underwear, and approaches the table that has his only set of clothes on it. The clothes were folded nicely and with care. Evident of Sabrina's attentiveness to him. He smiles fondly and reaches to grab them, but Sabrina scoops them up first.
"Allow me, my Lord." She says in her usual soft voice as she helps him dress.
When he is finished, he looks at the dingy mirror that's propped up in the corner. He had inherited the ash-colored hair of his mother and the black colored eyes of his father. He has a beautiful face that is just now starting to grow in a beard. His body is lean, but not healthily so. Once he added some pounds and filled out, he'd be an extremely attractive young man.
His parents have left him, one maliciously, and one involuntarily, saddling him with a worthless title and thousands of golden dragons in debt. His lands are in shambles and in a state of severe disrepair. The one village he now rules over was poor beyond measure and emotionally scarred from the constant attacks from bandits. His home was basically a shack, barely livable. He had almost no vassals to his name, as most have left, and rightfully so.
Alexis straightens his posture and turns to Sabrina, "Let's go." He declares as he walks to the door and out into the hallway. Sabrina follows, walking behind him and to the left.
"Yes, Duke Lycan."
