Alexander lunges at the bars of his cage towards his captor, Gilles de Rais. Hezikiah Dare quickly puts a hand on Alexanders arm, as if he were telling him to wait just a bit longer...
“How could you have known my grandfather?” he asks de Rais.
“I guess I’ll tell you the story” says de Rais. “I haven’t told anyone in quite a long time.”
TOLD IN FLASHBACK
In the late 1420s, the nobleman Lord de Rais studied the occult and met a man named Francesco Prelati, who informed him of a demon named Barron, to whom they made sacrifices for eternal life. He was a young and bloodthirsty man at that time and quenched his thirst on the battlefield in the Hundred Years War. He fought alongside Joan of Arc in the battle that freed Orleans, the entire time wanting to kill her himself as an offering to his demon master, knowing the reward would be great. He later conspired with Bishop Pierre Cauchon to put Joan of Arc on trial and ensure her execution. In 1429 she was then sacrificed to the demon named Barron in public, under the guise of an execution. She was filled with the spirit and love of a nation of people, which the demon feasted on. Gilles received great power and fortune for her sacrifice, but he was greedy and continued to sacrifice young peasant children. He tortured them, violated them, and ate their flesh.
His deeds were discovered and he was hanged. His power and charisma was so great that he had the parents of his victims praying and crying for him at his execution: even the executioner also knelt weeping for him.
One of his servants dug up his body and he retreated to the other side of France. In 1571, under the name Gilles Ranier, he was once again captured for his crimes and convicted of lycanthropy. He became known as The Werewolf of Dole. He again rose from the grave after his execution and this time fled to England.
He hunted heavily in London, which is where he met Ananias Dare. Ananias and his wife Eleanor were married in a church on Fleet Street, a place de Rais remarks he would return to centuries later. Eleanor would become pregnant just before the two set out to help establish a colony in the new world. When de Rais sensed that the woman was pregnant he could feel there was something special about the child and joined expedition. The child was the first to be born of two British citizens in the new world. Virginia Dare was her name. She, like Joan of Arc, was pure, and infused with the hopes and dreams of an entire country of people. She had a powerful life force that Gilles de Rais took and offered to his demon, once again gaining him a great reward of power and fortune. He never returned to the colony after stealing the child. He was absent when Melmoth descended upon the colony and unaware of what happened.
BACK TO THE PRESENT
After he finishes telling some of the gruesome details of his early life and how it relates to Hezikiah, Gilles de Rais stands in front of the cage that holds Hezikiah and Alexander with an evil grin of satisfaction.
Hezikiah looks at Gilles de Rais and says, “Alexander…”
“Yes?” the student replies.
Hezikiah grins sadistically as his spider swiftly runs through the wall behind him into the room and up to the top of his shoulder, bearing its fangs at de Rais. “Now we fight.”
Continued in Hezikiah the Witch-Boy #3
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