Aurelius Chronicles: Lord of the Mountain (Book 1)

PROLOGUE

In the region of old Transylvania, “perched high in the Carpathian Mountains ”stood an ancient Kingdom, Aethelred.

House von Caerstein ruled its northern frontiers with iron discipline and cold nobility.

King Hadrian von Caerstein was a titan known throughout the Free Kingdoms as 'Frostborne' 

​It was a title earned due to realm he ruled, the harsh cold northern.

Legends tell that King Hadrian stood as tall as a spruce and carried a broadsword forged from a meteor. His presence alone was said to warm the coldest courtyard. When he spoke, even the ancient, stubborn mountain peaks seemed to bow their snowy crowns in acknowledgment.

​Hadrian was the anchor of his kingdom, his honor an immutable law. He was a father who ruled by virtue and a man whose greatest strength lay in his absolute certainty of right and wrong. He protected the bloodline, the Von Caerstein legacy, with the fury of a thousand.

Married to  Isolde Erzsébet Zalvári

Queen Isolde of House Von Caerstein, born a princess of a rival northern kingdom, A Hungarian princess.

Came to the Carpathian frontiers as a bride in a fragile peace treaty. Regal and poise with a mind as sharp as any strategist’s.

Wise, compassionate, and quietly formidable, she became more than a queen, she became the heart of the realm, guiding her people, tempering her husband’s strength, and shaping the destiny of her children and kingdom.

King Hadrian and his Queen Isolde had four sons, four heirs taught that greatness was born through blood and duty.

Cassian, the eldest,  He has dark, slightly wavy hair, steel-gray eyes, and sharp, noble features that reflect both strength and intelligence.

He carried the weight of inheritance like armor, ruthless and cold.

Darius, the second, has a striking, charismatic presence that contrasts with his elder brother’s stoic authority.

He has dark hair, slightly tousled, and sharp brown eyes that hint at cunning and charm. His facial features are noble yet softer than his elder brother’s, with a confident smirk that suggests both wit and mischief. He lived for battle, a well known drunkard and womaniser

Edric, the black sheep, A tall and imposing member of House Von Caerstein, known for his cunning mind and mastery of politics. He has dark, neatly kept hair streaked with silver, piercing steel-gray eyes, and sharp, angular features that convey intelligence and authority. 

And then there was Aurelius, the golden, beloved by the people, the youngest and most handsome brother of House Von Caerstein.

He is tall, with a commanding yet graceful presence. His chiseled features, strong jawline, and warm, piercing brown eyes exude both nobility and approachability.

His golden-blonde hair, inherited from his mother, blessed with a gentle heart and a courage that did not need proving. Thus earning him the title "Aurelius the noble"

Their early years were marked not by peace but by a growing terror.

For beyond the dark pines of Aethelred, a demon hunted the night.

For decades, the northern Carpathian frontier had been the site of constant conflict. Rival kingdoms sought to claim the fertile valleys and strategic passes of House Von Caerstein, but time and again, they failed.

Battles were waged on icy cliffs and mist-shrouded forests, and though the invaders were clever and well-armed, the resilience, strategy, and vigilance of the Von Caersteins always held.

Frustrated by repeated failure, one of the rival kingdoms turned to dark and forbidden means.

They sought out a sorcerer of terrible renown, who promised a weapon unlike any blade or army could match.

From the sorcerer came a demon, a being of destructive power and insatiable hunger. Released into the Carpathians, The beast ravaged the land, laying waste to villages, slaughtering soldiers, and leaving the once-thriving frontier in terror and ruin.

No one knew its name. But they called it Malcor 

Some said it was a cursed beast from the old wars.

Others whispered it was born from the kingdom’s sins.

It killed without pattern, peasants, soldiers, noblemen, leaving their bodies untouched , their souls utterly consumed

Fear settled on the kingdom, and terror filled the people's heart 

Then, one day on a moonless night, the demon struck the heart of Aethelred 

The royal carriage, returning from a diplomatic feast, was ambushed.

By dawn, the king and queen were dead, their bodies found the next morning.

The kingdom trembled.

With the king's death, the enemy saw an opportunity to invade

War drums echoes

House von Caerstein rally all the help they could find

The brothers rode to war....

The enemy forces surged forward, hoping to take advantage of the chaos, but the Von Caerstein brothers were unyielding.

Steel clashed, arrows whistled through the fog, and the cries of men and beasts filled the frozen valleys.

Cassian led with commanding precision,

Darius struck with deadly skill, and Edric orchestrated their maneuvers with unmatched cunning.

Aurelius on the other hand was more interested in the Malcor looking for everyway to eliminate it.

For two weeks the battle raged on, and in the end the Von Caerstein won

the battlefield was a ruin of blood and fire. The enemy had been routed, their banners trampled underfoot, and the Carpathian frontier had survived but Malcor remained.

It had not been slain, its fury and hunger still burned, a lingering threat that none could ignore.

They hunted the creature, but each clash ended in failure.

Cassian’s strength could not crush it.

Darius’s blade could not outrun it.

Edric’s strategies failed to ensnare it.

The kingdom did not fear the invaders but the deadly demon that hunts the night.

After the battlefield fell silent and the brothers regrouped, Aurelius wandered through the ruins of their ancestral hall, the weight of their loss pressing on him.

Amid the shattered banners and burned tapestries, he found a hidden chamber in the castle keep, a place only the eldest heir was meant to enter, which he knew he shouldn't.

Inside, ancient tomes and scrolls lined the walls, chronicling the deeds of generations past.

One scroll caught his eye, a detailed account of House Von Caerstein defending the Carpathian frontier centuries ago, not with armies alone, but through the symbolic authority of the family crest.

The silver bat entwined around a crescent moon had long been more than decoration, it was a relic of the house’s dominion, blessed by the first rulers to command respect from both men and beasts of the mountains.

As Aurelius read, a realization struck him, the crest could project the will of his bloodline over the land itself, asserting control over intruders who would not submit to the house’s authority.

With no time to waste, he took the scroll to his brother Cassian.

Aurelius clutched the sacred Von Caerstein crest in one hand and the ancient scrolls in the other as he approached Cassian. “This… this could be the key,” he said, his voice tight with urgency. He explained everything he learned.

“But only a rightful king can command it.”

Cassian’s eyes gleamed with determination. “I am the solution! Cassian laughed,  grabbing the scroll fromAurelius.

We’ll find Malcor and end this.” With that, he mounted his horse, the other brothers following close, and they rode into the mist-shrouded valleys in pursuit of the crimson-eyed horror

When they finally confronted Malcor, Cassian raised the crest high, invoking the authority of the house, but the beast merely snarled and advanced. Nothing happened.

The second time and the third time still nothing

Darius stepped forward snatched the crest from Cassian, confident, and laughed. Yet nothing happened.

Then Edric, each attempting the ritual, but the crest remained inert, its power untouched.

The three brothers exchanged anxious glances.

Finally, all eyes turned to Aurelius. “You,” Cassian said quietly, “try it.”

Aurelius’s heart pounded, but he lifted the crest with steady hands, reciting the words from the ancient scroll.

A silver light shimmered across the mountains, sharp and commanding. Malcor recoiled, its shrieks echoing through the cliffs, then, as if recognizing the dominion of the rightful heir, it retreated toward the outermost border.

The brothers watched in awe as Aurelius guided the beast through the treacherous passes, eventually chasing it into the desolate, mist-choked outlands where it finally took lair on the kingdom’s periphery, Aethelred borders, a   jagged cliffs beyond the kingdom.

Only those foolish enough to approach the border now faced its wrath, the heart of the Carpathians remained safe. 

Finally the threat was eliminated 

The people hailed Aurelius 

Noble lords toasted him.

Ladies of court praised his valor in hushed, breathless tones.

And when he stood beside Maria, the most beautiful maiden in the land, his betrothed. 

The kingdom looked upon them as the future.

A new dawn.

A new era.

A new king.

But admiration can sharpen jealousy.

And jealousy, in the hearts of brothers, can become a blade.

Cassian, Darius, and Edric watched the cheers rise for the youngest.

The crown drift toward him instead of one of them

Their envy festered into something poisonous.

And so, they lured Maria from the castle, lied to her that Aurelius awaited her, that he wished to meet her beyond the old forest.

They led her instead to the demon’s lair.

A paige sent by his brothers told Aurelius of what happend

But before he reached the cliffs, it was too late.

Maria’s body lay broken near the jagged cliffs of Malcor’s lair, her blood staining the snow.

He got down from his horse, ran to her, "Mariaaaaa" he shooked her pale body violently,  but she was gone.

Rage and grief tore through Aurelius like fire. He spurred his horse, charging at the beast with a ferocity no mortal should hold. Steel met fang, courage met darkness.

 In a final, cataclysmic duel.

​ Fueled by despair, and finally found the creature’s weak point.

He drove his sword home. The Malcor gave a screech  that could explode the brain. and in its final death throe, it lunged, burying its cursed fangs deep into Aurelius’s neck.

​The demon was dead. But the price was paid.

Pain, blood, and unholy fire surged through him.

​Aurelius felt the icy venom spread, the sudden, sharp, unbearable craving.

When he looked at his own hands, they were pale as grave wax, and his vision was stained crimson.

Cursed.....the youngest prince was no more.

That night Isolde youngest son died…

and something immortal rose in his place.

A creature of night.

A vampire.

His brothers, watching from afar. saw not a hero, but a monster. When they rode back to the castle to claim the throne, they found him waiting. Driven by a rage, vengeance  and a thirst that would never be quenched, he lunged at them, his screams echoed through the halls as he tore through his brothers.

​The carnage did not end there. Every courtier, every guard, every servant who had once sworn allegiance to him, every face that reminded him of the world that had betrayed him, was slaughtered. When dawn broke, the great Castle of Aethelred was silent,  it's banners soaked in blood,

 Aurelius remained, bound to the cold stone by his curse and his rage. The fear of his vampiric wrath spread like plague, and the surrounding hamlets became abandoned, silent, terrified places.

Thus earning him the title King of Ashes

For 500 years, the castle slept.

Its stones blackened.

Its halls frozen in time.

Its tragedy sealed in dust.

Until now.

Far across the ocean, in modern-day New York, an art student preparing a art history project boarded a flight with her classmates heading to Transylvania in search of a mythical, abandoned fortress spoken of in old myth tales.

A maiden who bore uncanny to the dead prince bride "Maria"

And as she stepped foot onto the ancient soil of Transylvania 

something old stirred in the darkness

A heart that had not beaten in five centuries.

Aurelius opened his eyes.

And thus began a love story, a forbidden romance that bore evil itself, one that could either redeem the cursed prince or history repeating itself

And destiny began again.