Sharpie Love

    "I'm going to tell you the story of two little Roman boys: Flavius and Decimus. Twins, these two. Sold into slavery by a superstitious father. Their mother had seen that they were sold into a good household, so neither of them ever had reason for complaint. They were treated like sons by a Master and Ma'am who's children had left them to their old age. Slavery could be a great deal like adoption in that era.
     The little boys were visited frequently by their mother, but grew up under the stigma of the dualism that forced them away from their father, their birthright. They had each other, though... For a time. Decimus grew ill with a wasting sickness and died when the twins were into the first year of their second decade. This left Flavius to face the world on his own. He felt like a part of him was missing... His laughter... His love...
     The remaining twin's Master lost his wife only a few years after and this left the two, an elderly man and a teenage boy, to themselves. They did well for a time, but soon the old man followed his wife into the beyond. He had left Flavius a freedman with his own servants and his own estate. The young man could not understand his freedom. His slaves were his friends and his estate was his home.
     Flavius lead an uneventful life as a freedman for the next three years... and then he found his brother. Or should I say that Decimus found him? His beautiful brother had magically retained the stature of his eleven years... Flavius knew that he must be insane. Perhaps he had contracted the same wasting illness that had taken his brother. He remembered the hallucinations that Decimus would speak about during his fevers and Flavius had grown gaunt through lack of care in the years since his Master's passing.
     Flavius' health declined over the next few weeks and the strength of his hallucinations took over his life. He freed his slaves, sold his home... Then Decimus came to him... Stroked the hair from his eyes. 'Flavius' he said.... 'Flavius, be with me... We can be together forever, you and I... Brothers again... I love you, Flavius. You mustn't leave me again...' and Flavius relented. He felt he had lived twice his own lifetime for having outlived Decimus'. Even in death, the most important thing to him was his brother. There was an ache in his side that used to be filled with the warm hip of his brother pressed against him as they worked side by side in the kitchen or in the stables.

This story was related to one of Asher's companions upon being asked "How came you to be? How is it that you have no family?"

        He begged the apparition to grant him death, to grant him an eternity to make up for leaving his brother's side... and the apparition sank its fangs into his fevered body for the last time and lead him through a blood ritual that left him drifting in a well of his own dark despair, cradled in the once innocent arms of a fragile little boy. He died there, in his brother's arms... and was born into Darkness quite without knowing it. Decimus had been kind, embracing his sibling just when the dawn sunlight would pass him into sleep, to spare him the pains of his failing corpse.
     Flavius woke the next evening in a strange place, freshly bathed and wrapped in linens he had never seen before. He sat up and his head was clear, his body rejuvenated... He sat up and Decimus was waiting for him... and he explained it all. Flavius had been embraced in love... and he must exist for love of the brother who drew him over. It was impossible for Flavius to accept, but he tried... He tried because he did love his brother.
     Years later Flavius would be drawn into a deep sleep by that same sire. Decimus had come to realize that his brother would not thrive as a vampire and sought to exile him to a purgatory that may strengthen him for a later rising... It was a rising that would not come until centuries later... Centuries later when the Empire was nothing but a joke on the lips of Romans... and there was Decimus again...
     Flavius remained loyal to him, despite the cruel circumstances that had left him imprisoned in his own flesh. He studied his magics, honed his war skills, all to please Decimus but there again came a time that he was found to be displeasing. He was to sleep for the next thousand years. Flavius awakened to the Renaissance on an English manor. His brother had done well for himself and was now known as Sir Maximillian Albright... But Flavius was unable to forgive the torment of life beneath the world, sensing the years go by as he drifted in the delirium of torpor...
     He left Decimus and found his own way out into the world. He lived at odds with his brother for years at the height of British society. With the fall of Renaissance into industrialism he slowly became discontent with all of society, not just his brother. It was during this time that he would be mistaken for a much more ancient and powerful vampire and become known simply as Asher...
     I would not see my brother again until the mid 20th century... Decimus had then become known simply as 'Stephen'... and he found his way into the tight circle of my compatriots... Why had he sought me out again? Because he feared I had learned to love another... Though I denied it at the time, he was right...
     It was for Rowan that I took Decimus' life."