Fate Comes Knocking on the Door
This article is a part of Spooktober 2023 and is still a work in progress. Written for the Fate prompt."No, no, no-no, no," Niamh screamed as she woke with her entire body on fire, every muscle cramping and burning. Her caretaker for her entire life, Rohan Hancóc, burst into her room with fire blazing around his fists and eyes seeking out an attacker. All he found was his ward, all of halfway through her seventeenth year, writhing in her bed and screaming denials. "Shh, shh," he soothed, moving to comfort her by placing his hand on her burning forehead. Niamh whined and leaned into his cool touch, blinking blearily up at him. "Don't fight it, little one. It will just make it worse." "It hurts," she cried, sobbing quietly. Then Niamh rolled, curling her body into a ball, and clung to Rohan's sleepshirt. "I don't want it," she sniffled. "I don't want it, Roo." Given that she hadn't called him that nickname in years - not since she had been a small child unable to correctly pronounce his name - Rohan gathered that slim form of the girl up into his arms. He cradled her head against his shoulder despite the risks given what she was going through and just held her. Niamh shivered and shuddered as her body cramped and ached, but being held and comforted helped. Even if Rohan wasn't her blood, he was her family. The only father she had ever known. "I don't want it," she repeated again weakly, closing her eyes as her jaw and skull began to ache. "Please. Please. I don't want to die." "Shh," Rohan soothed, petting her hair. "It will be alright, little one. I have you. I won't let you be alone." Niamh curled into him as the pain continued to chase her, wishing that were true. Rohan could keep that promise for a while...but not forever. Not when fate was catching up to her. The blood of Cael Ward that had lived in her veins since she was born had decided that now was the time to change her. To kill her. To take the girl that had been Niamh Ó Conaill and kill who she had been. Whoever the girl would be that would come after...it wouldn't be the girl she was before. Niamh Ó Conaill, ward of Rohan Hancóc, was dying. Soon Niamh Ó Conaill, the half-cursed spawn of Cael Ward, would be born.
Timeframe: 1670
Location: County Kerry, Ireland
Event: Niamh Ó Conaill wakes up in pain and is comforted by her caretaker, Rohan Hancóc, who's raised her as his ward since she was born.
Consquences: The blood of Cael Ward that tainted Niamh Ó Conaill in her mother's womb finally turns her into a half-cursed, a mortal human cursed with the longevity and minor benefits of vampirism.
The younger sister of Darragh and Daman Ó Conaill was hidden from the world for a long time, adopted by Rohan Hancóc after her mother came covered in blood to his door. Despite being blood cursed, Rohan raised her as his daughter and his children by birth also saw her as such, a trend which has continued to present day - though only some of Cahir Hancóc's descendants still acknowledge her. While she does think of the Hancock sect as her family, one day she hopes to still be able to reunite with her brothers.
As the only other person present when Marie Smith came begging for Tirlagh Hancóc's aid, he was the first person she came to. Covered in blood and slowly dying, she begged him to save her daughter even if she was blood cursed. That her baby girl deserved to live. With a young son of his own, he swore that he could protect the girl with his life...and he also was the one who burned Marie Smith's body to ash at her request as she lay dying with her own knife in her heart.
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