From the Private Papers of Vlad Dracula
Sealed Addendum — Expansion Myths & Horizon Containment Archive
There are whispers of a new world.
They arrive as rumors always do—fragmented, embellished, desperate to be believed. Sailors speak of land beyond the mapped sea. Clerics argue whether such places exist within God’s intention. Merchants calculate distances without understanding scale. Hope, when starved, invents geography.
The name attached to the loudest of these rumors is Columbus.
He believes he has found escape.
This is a common error.
Rova informed me today that she has already dispatched observers. Spain first. France second. Quiet placements. No interference yet. She understands that it is not discovery that matters, but interpretation. New land does not threaten the Night. New meaning does.
They will not escape the Forever Night.
This must be stated plainly.
The Night is not a dome over Constantinople. It is not a curse pinned to geography. It is a condition—of power, of continuity, of human organization under pressure. Where hierarchy follows blood, fear, and endurance, the Night arrives eventually. Sometimes it simply takes longer to be named.
Columbus believes distance equals freedom. He confuses horizon with absolution. He imagines that a place untouched by our systems will remain untouched once encountered. This betrays a profound misunderstanding of how worlds are colonized.
The Night does not chase.
It waits for infrastructure.
He will believe the first violence he commits is necessary.
That belief will finish the work for us.
Rova’s spies report that the courts of Spain and France are already discussing division—who will claim, who will baptize, who will extract. They speak of God and gold interchangeably. They speak of salvation with ledgers open. This pleases me. Familiar language travels well.
If a new world exists, it will not remain new.
If it resists, it will be corrected.
If it flourishes, it will stratify.
And if it believes itself free, it will invent monsters to justify conquest.
At that moment, the Night will no longer need introduction.
I have instructed the Dusters not to intervene directly. Interrogation will suffice. Let Columbus speak. Let him describe what he believes he has found. Men reveal their future crimes most clearly when they think they are confessing destiny.
Should the rumors prove false, nothing is lost.
Should they prove true, the lesson will endure:
You cannot outrun a system by crossing water.
You can only delay the moment it recognizes you.
And recognition, once achieved, is always thorough.
The ocean is not a boundary and the Forever Night does not expand.
It is rediscovered.