Act XV, Hyperpolia (13)
Thirteen
While Dalia stayed home to help with the cooking, Yubi had to find a way to avoid her gaze and secretly head north to Granny Vanera's cottage. If he couldn't do it during the day, he would wait until night; if he couldn't get bread, he would take some dried fruit, but sometimes he couldn't get away. A week later, he followed the path into the birch forest by the swamp, and cautiously knocked on the door, only to find that the annoying insults no longer came from behind it.
Two rough-haired dogs burst through the door, dragging Yubi in by the teeth, holding his shoes—the fearsome witch people talked about was lying helplessly on the small couch by the campfire, too lonely to get up.
Yubi immediately threw the basket into the house, closed the door, and hid in the shadows. The vampire removed the ring and once again used that miraculous power to prolong her life. He succeeded. Granny Vanera opened her eyes, turning her cloudy pupils to look at his face.
“I’ll stay here for the next few days.” Yubi put the ring back on with her hands behind her back, opened the door to let in the sunlight, and said, “I’ll go home to get some food and supplies.”
He thought he was about to receive another harsh criticism. "Go," Granny Vanera sighed kindly, "come and keep me company, so that someone can hear my last words."
“A monk came to me and said Grikli has been found. Yakov is handling his trial matters…” When they arrived home, Dalia held Yubi’s hand. Yubi felt her palm was burning hot, like charcoal. “I’m going home to wait for him, to wait for him to come back… I thank you all; you saved my life and the children’s life, and you saved their father’s life…”
But now, the more Yubi hears these words of gratitude, the sadder he feels. "You must live well," he says. "You must cherish life."
“We can all live well.” Dalia squeezed his fingers. “God bless us!”
After seeing Dalia off, Yubi hurried north back to the Chud people's hut. "God help me," he couldn't help but think, "but what about those whom God doesn't protect, those who don't believe in God, those monstrous creatures burdened with sin? Can they live well?" The vampire walked alone in the snow, taking shelter in the low, earthen shack to help Granny Vanera start a fire. He had only been gone a short while, yet the elderly woman was already leaning against her fur pillow, unconscious.
As if to dispel the smell of death in the room, Yubi stubbornly brought over a lot of firewood, determined to make the fire burn brightly. He took off his ring a second, third, and countless times, forcefully waking the half-dead witch. As soon as Granny Vanella opened her eyes, he affectionately took her thin, bony, dry, and withered hands, as if he could transfer the power of life from his palms to her.
Even though she was perfectly healthy, Yubi stared intently at all her veins. Even if a fragile person is cured of all their ailments, they cannot escape the shadow of death. Must they sell their soul and freedom? He couldn't understand why he insisted on leaving this poor old woman in the world, why he insisted on defying death.
He waited patiently, hoping his efforts would bring about some mysterious miracle, salvage some unfinished regret. He diligently cleaned the house, cooked meals for the old woman, and spent his days there, caring for all the poultry and livestock. Finally, one night, a rosy glow appeared on Granny Vanera's face, and she opened her eyes and looked around for a while.
Yubi leaned close to her and kissed her freckled cheek. "You're awake!" he laughed happily. "If you had stayed asleep, I would have taken over your house."
"My house, the chickens and geese in the house, and two dogs. Spinning wheel, cupboard, chisel..." The dying man uttered only fearless words, "After I die, you can take whatever you want."
“Then you’ll say I’m taking advantage of you and refusing to pay back the debt,” Yubi advised. “You’re still alive.”
Grandma Vanella pursed her thin lips and suddenly trembled with fear.
“I know you.” Her gaze fell on Yubi’s red eyes, and she murmured, “I know what you are, and I know where you come from.”
Yubi was startled, realizing he had forgotten to put his mother's ring back on. A vicious hunger welled up within him. He remembered he had forgotten to bring blood—Yakov had been gone for a week, there had been no prey, and he had long since run out of fresh blood to drink.
“Do you know? I once found the secret of vampires in the most hidden secret place.” Granny Vanera spoke strangely. “They are a kind of terrible nocturnal evil spirit, with the power to hover between life and death, and are resurrected corpses. They are best at finding the weaknesses of people’s hearts, using that trick to trick people into drinking their blood, in order to satisfy their evil nature.”
“That sounds terrifying.” Yubi gripped the veins on her hand tightly. He knew his own hand was as cold as ice, but the hand he was holding was almost as cold.
"All vampires are cursed by the devil. They are the embodiment of humanity's fear of death, the price of being tempted by evil. They were either not properly buried, or their mothers were possessed by evil spirits during pregnancy."
“We should really get rid of them all,” Yubi said, “so that the world can be brighter and more radiant.”
“How could that be possible?” Granny Vanella sighed deeply—Yub felt that this breath would never return to her body. Her lungs collapsed weakly. “Humans will always fear death, and will always be tempted by evil. As long as these cannot be eliminated, vampires will always exist.”
"That person should learn not to fear death, and should learn to resist the temptations of evil."
"Then that person is no longer human, but a god."
Yubi found his hand being gripped tightly. He couldn't understand how this frail body could still muster such strength. Granny Vanera chuckled like a witch again, her face flushed with a suffocating red. The fear of death seemed to recede from her. She forced herself to loosen her grip, only gently stroking the back of Yubi's hand.
“One day, you too will die like me,” she prophesied.
Yubi's eyebrows furrowed sadly at these words. "...But I am teetering between life and death," he said. "I don't deserve to die like a normal person."
“You don’t understand,” she repeated. “One day, you will die. Nothing in this world lasts forever; everything will eventually perish. This is an unshakeable truth.”
"...Should I then fear death and succumb to evil temptations?"
“My child, you should fear death, you should succumb to evil temptations!” Granny Vanera suddenly burst into tears. “Don’t take this as a curse, take it as a blessing. It is because people are destined to die that they can live well in temptations!”
Yubi wasn't sure he fully understood the sentence. But many things came to mind. He thought of his mother's death, his sister's newborn life, his brother's legacy, and Yakov's love. He watched as tears streamed down Granny Vanera's deeply lined cheeks, soaking every wrinkle. That single tear stole the light from her pupils.
Somehow, he seemed to feel his existence became more solid in the long and boundless road ahead.
As evening fell, Yubi dressed the body in mourning clothes and straightened its braids. He opened the door and released all the living animals. "Find your own way!" he cried out to the cold forest, "You are free!"
But just as he did so, he saw a bald monk blocking the edge of the birch forest, casually grabbing a chicken and clutching it to his chest. "Has that Chude witch finally died?" The monk shivered with cold, stamping his feet as he approached the house. "Did she leave any will? Did she have any descendants?"
“No,” Yubi answered him honestly.
The monk peeked into the room. "From today onward, this land and these livestock also belong to the monastery." He pulled a birch bark document from his robes and began to write and draw on it. "If you wish to stay here, you will need to pay taxes again."
Yubi shook his head uninterestedly, put on his beaver fur hat, and turned to go home. He had only taken a few steps when the monk caught up with him in his carriage, scrutinizing his behavior.
"Did you know?" the monk said, waving his whip with a mixture of regret and pride. "News has come from the East that Jerusalem has fallen and been taken by the infidels."
"Is that so?" Yubi walked slowly on the snow. "That's something that's so far away, it doesn't really concern us."
“You shouldn’t be so cold-hearted, it’s really not pious,” the monk rebuked him. “I only spoke to you because I thought you were a respectable person and could understand these words.”
Yubi wanted to say something sharp and incisive like Yakov to shut the guy up—but he was too bad at cursing and couldn't think of anything for the moment, nor was he in the mood to think about it, so he could only remain silent.
“I’ve also heard that the Third Crusade is about to begin,” the monk continued boasting. “Not only that, but a knightly order is also coming to the north.”
"The North?" Yubi frowned. "Coming here?"
"right."
“There are no Saracens here.”
"There are Chud people here, and they are heretics just like you." Before driving away, the monk uttered a terrible sentence, "Just a few days ago, I saw the Pope's knights in Novgorod. They wore white robes with black crosses sewn on their bodies."
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