Charles Deltrejo was not always the calm and feared figure he would eventually become centuries later among the versouls. Long before eternity, before power and immortality, he was simply a human boy marked by illness, poverty, and a deep fear of death.
Under his mortal name, Charles Ferraud, he was born in the 18th century to a Spanish mother and a French father. He spent much of his childhood in Spain until the economic crisis of the 1720s forced his family to return to France in search of a better life.
His father eventually found work as the head gardener for the prestigious Periwinkle family, at an imposing residence located in Paris’s Latin Quarter. Charles worked alongside him among rose gardens, fountains, and elegant courtyards, standing out for his strangely magnetic beauty and a refinement that seemed unnatural for someone of his social class.
It was there that he met Elisabeth Periwinkle, the only daughter of his employers.
At first, language seemed like an impossible barrier for the young man who had just arrived from Spain. However, Elisabeth, educated in multiple languages, spoke Spanish fluently. What began as secret conversations hidden among the gardens slowly evolved into a forbidden and deeply passionate romance, one they managed to keep hidden for more than a year.
But love between an aristocrat and a gardener’s son was doomed from the beginning.
When Elisabeth’s strict father discovered the relationship, Charles and his father were immediately expelled from the estate. Even so, the lovers continued communicating in secret thanks to Gerard, the residence’s new gardener, who acted as a messenger between them.
“Versouls remain in control because we dominate the situation, and the sansamé fear us.”
While Elisabeth dreamed of escaping with him to Perpignan to begin a new life far away from Paris, Charles was hiding a far darker secret: his health was rapidly deteriorating, and the fear of death was beginning to consume him.
On the night of August 29, 1726, wrapped in a gray travel cloak, Charles attended his final meeting with Elisabeth beneath the Portal of the Last Judgment at Notre Dame Cathedral.
That night, driven by terror of disappearing and seduced by the promise of immortality, Charles Deltrejo betrayed the only person he had ever truly loved. After stabbing Elisabeth Periwinkle with a golden knife, he delivered her to a versoul named Isabel to complete the ritual that would transform him forever into one of their kind.
Since then, Charles has carried the weight of that decision for centuries.
In the present day, he stands as one of the most influential figures among the versouls. Unlike many of his kind, he is not ruled by impulse or irrational violence; he is a cold, patient, and extraordinarily intelligent strategist, capable of understanding the fragile balance that separates the human world from the hidden one.
Yet beneath his composed exterior, the memory of the night he sacrificed love for eternity still remains buried deep within him.
Discover the complete saga.
The boundary between worlds is about to break.
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