Elixir of Flesh by Joseph Kranak
Chapter 10
The Pen
Lucian’s meeting was convened the next day in the early evening. Crowds sat on the pews of the church. Everyone of importance was there. Andrei and his wife Ileana sat next to each other, speaking quietly and confidentially. Cornel, the blacksmith, sat in the middle, still wearing his work attire, not speaking to anyone but sitting stiff and confidently in his calm and stoic way, his short black hair combed for the evening. Beniamin sat near the pulpit in colorful, formal dress, anxiously reading a long scroll. He sporadically stopped to adjust his wig, or straighten his jacket. Josif sat in one corner in his dirty work clothes, huddled by himself and with a posture of anger and bitterness. He stared at his son, Anton, who sat next to Vasile and hadn’t addressed his father. Josif’s eyes burned into Anton’s back, but the boy wouldn’t turn around to notice them, occasionally trading words with Vasile but mostly remaining silent.
After some minutes of waiting, Lucian emerged from his office, dressed formally in doublet and hose, his usual white, powdered wig on top. He bowed before the crowd with extra flourish and began his speech, “My fellow villagers, I have called this meeting to apprise you of the latest developments, development which I think you will find eminently fortuitous in our situation. As you know, the threat of the vampires has been a peril looming over our village since long before any of us here crawled from our mother’s womb. Yet, nothing has been done about it, except to lock ourselves in at night and pray that the vampires fail to knock down these flimsy doors we hide behind. That is, nothing has been done about it—until now.
“In the interest of all citizens of Vallaya—and in fact of all citizens of this great land and of Ardeal and Valahia and all our neighboring countries—I have taken it upon myself to negotiate an end to all hostilities between vampires and humans, from hereon and in perpetuity.”
Lucian’s announcement brought a sudden clamor of speech from the crowd. Many people had already anticipated this development and it only confirmed that the rumors were true. Yet still, to hear it now from Lucian’s lips brought emotions pouring out. Many of the citizens cried out in celebration, including Josif, who cheered on the news with a vociferous shout. Others among the crowd expressed quiet hostility and anxiety towards the vampires.
“No longer will we have to fear them stealing our children at night!” Lucian jubilantly announced, trying to ride the wave of excitement from the crowd, “No longer will we have to fear them raiding our towns. The threat of the vampires is over, from hereon and in perpetuity. One day in the future we will look back on this era with a quaint reminiscence and wonder what it was that made us once so afraid. We will say to ourselves, ‘what could’ve made us cower in fear? These vampires are our neighbors, and our friends.’ For, from now on, the monsters of the night are no more monsters but companions.
“From now on anyone caught murdering a vampire will be treated the same as any other murderer. No longer will vampire killers be excepted from our rights and laws. And we no longer from theirs: we shall be given the privilege to punish vampires who commit crimes against us, the same as if it were one of our own. Today we leave behind those old fears and embrace a new prosperity in which progress will no longer be hindered by fear and in which possibilities will reach higher than we once thought possible.”
“When will this agreement take effect?” Andrei cut in at this point. It appeared as if Lucian had quite a few more words to say, though not really any new information to convey.
“We will make an official announcement at Terem, in three days. A binding agreement will be signed before all present, and our town’s practice of vampire hunting will cease to be legal, and, the great power of God be thanked, will cease to be necessary or desirable as well.”
Anton looked at Vasile, who gripped Anton’s shoulder to comfort him. He quietly told Anton, “We’ll continue to hunt until the agreement is signed. I promise we’ll bag you another kill before you have to go back to farming.”
At the end of the meeting, Andrei’s only response was to quietly tell Ileana, “We’ll have to raise the prices on our vampire wares to control supply.”
Anton could not react so calmly. Once back at Andrei’s, he unleashed the full passion of his disappointment and despair. He pounded the walls, he wept and cursed himself for his stupidity. “My father was right and I was such a damn fool!” he told himself over and over again as he hurled tears from his eyes and fell to his knees.
It was only with great difficulty that Vasile was able to coax him into attending the hunt that evening. Anton’s stubbornness tried the patience of even the infinitely patient Vasile, who told him, “Our time is limited. We must get out there and do our work as soon as possible.”
Anton could only moan and complain, “What’s the point? It makes no difference. I might as well just go back to father, concede that he was right and give up this whole business.”
Eventually Anton did concede, and he followed Vasile out that night, but they found no success.
The next afternoon, Anton went to Andrei’s and purchased the vampire medicine that he had promised Constanta. Andrei had a dizzying variety of different products, which Ileana explained for Anton, “We have medicines for bones, skin, liver, brain, eyes, and more. They’re made from the respective parts of the vampire’s body: the bone formula is made from vampire bones, and the skin formula from vampire skin and so on. Just make a request. We also have a general formula, which is a mixture of most of the varieties together. It’s not quite as potent as the individual medicines, and if you’ve got a particular problem, I’d recommend getting something specifically for that. But it is our most popular product and good for general health.”
Anton indicated he’d like the mixture. Ileana brought to him a small wooden box, which was tied closed with a string. Ileana carefully opened it to display the contents inside. Wrapped in a red cloth was a brown mixture, ground down like grains in a mill to a course powder that emitted an awful stench.
Ileana continued to explain: “Our products are of the finest quality. Our philosophy of business is that reputation is as valuable and easily swept away as gold dust, and the only way you’re going to weigh down your reputation is with consistent, high quality. We could dilute our products with dirt or chalk or human remains, but we don’t because they wouldn’t work as well; some of our customers would notice and our reputation would be trashed. We might be able to sell, but we couldn’t continue to demand the same high prices without the reputation. That means we wouldn’t make nearly as much money as we do now. So, we also aim for the best possible quality.”
Anton brought the medicine to his little sister, who was glad to see her brother and happy to receive presents, but looked on this particular present, with mixed emotion. “It’s very kind of you, brother,” she acknowledged with a forced smile. Anton pressed her to eat some immediately, to see how her body responded.
Anton told Constanta, as she held the vampire medicine: “You’ll want to mix it with something.” He fetched a bowl of boiled oats and mixed in some of the medicine. It made the otherwise lightly flavored oatmeal potently awful. But Constanta ate it down to appease her brother.
After retching a bit at the taste, she calmed down and could begin to feel the effect. It was overwhelming. She could feel it inside her body like a vapor slowly suffusing from the pit of her stomach to her fingertips and toes. A rush of energy, which surged through her body, followed behind.
She leapt up and told Anton, “This is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever eaten in my life,” and kissed Anton profusely on his cheeks, leaping about and cheering with excitement.
Anton smiled and said, “Wow! It seems to work even better for you than for me. I’ll definitely have to get as much as I can for you.”