ACT TWO: PROLOGUE — THE COURTYARD GARDEN — 1790
Establishing Photograph: The Courtyard Garden — 1790
(LESTAT drinks from THE VAMPIRE MARIUS. He experiences THE SWOON and receives images from the life of MARIUS: a Roman scholar, a dark Druid ritual, as a Fifteenth Century artist in Venice, his young apprentice ARMAND, brief images of ENKIL and AKASHA. Finally, MARIUS pushes LESTAT away and seats himself on a garden bench.)
[Marius:]
I read all the messages you left for me on all the walls throughout Europe.
[Lestat:]
I knew I felt your presence!
[Marius:]
I must say I did not expect you to go down into the earth so soon. Most of us experience the first death much later. After a century or two.
[Lestat:]
The first death. You mean it's common to go into the earth like I did?
[Marius:]
Among those who survive it's common. We die. We rise again. Those who don't go into the earth for periods of time usually do not last.
[Lestat:]
[eagerly] Tell me… tell me of your secrets. I want to know how long you've lived. I want to know the real story of Akasha and Enkil. I want to know if you believe there is a God…
(MARIUS laughs.)
[Marius:]
I cannot prove the existence of God if that is what you expect from me. And I will not speak of Akasha and Enkil.
[Lestat:]
Why not?
[Marius:]
There are some mysteries that must remain so.
[Lestat:]
Marius, you know I can't let it rest at that.
[Marius:]
[firm] But you shall. The legends are mine to reveal when I reveal them.
(Not used to being admonished, LESTAT falls silent.)
Is there nothing more you wish to know? I have come a long way.
[Lestat:]
Armand said that we all eventually go mad or into the fire.
[Marius:]
Most do. Not all of us have the stamina for immortality. Lestat, If you are to survive, you must live out one complete human lifetime as soon as you can. If you do not, you will always envy mortals for what was stolen from you.
[Lestat:]
I had a life in Paris… with Nicolas.
[Marius:]
A young man's life. You need to suffer loss… see others die… feel the passage of time…
[Lestat:]
[painfully] I suffered loss! It drove me into the earth.
[Marius:]
You must have this lifetime, Lestat. Plunge into it completely. Experience all of life, and then question that experience, again and again, until you have found peace with what you are.
[Lestat:]
How is it possible to find peace when the Thirst drives me to kill every night?
[desperately] Am I evil, Marius?
[Marius:]
Do you believe you are?
[Lestat:]
No. [confused] Yes. I cannot shake the belief that killing is wrong. I still have the desire to do what is morally right and good, even as the Thirst overcomes me, even when all I want is blood.
[Marius:]
And that is your dilemma.
[Lestat:]
Will I ever find a way to solve it?
[Marius:]
I do not know. But you will not solve it sitting here with me. Go. Live out your lifetime. Plunge into stream.
[Lestat:]
You mean for me to go now? I've spent ten years looking for you. We've barely begun our conversation. I can't imagine leaving you. There is so much you have to teach me.
[Marius:]
I can tell you stories forever, but they are no substitute for living.
[Lestat:]
[he confesses] I cannot bear the loneliness.
[Marius:]
And so, you will make companions. But choose them with care. Make them because you love them. And never make one as young as Armand. That is the worst crime I ever committed against my own kind. Armand has no substance. He is a dead thing… empty. He believes nothing. He loves nothing. He exists in a void of deepening despair. I will regret him for as long as I go on.
[Lestat:]
Come with me.
[Marius:]
A tempting thought, but I am required elsewhere.
[Lestat:]
[desperately] What if I can't find you again? Or you can't find me?
[Marius:]
I can find any one of us if I choose to. But you must not speak my name to others. I will not be known by our kind.
[Lestat:]
What will you do to me if I do?
(MARIUS laughs.)
[Marius:]
Lestat.
(He embraces him.)
[Lestat:]
[a last plea] Don't send me away now. I have nothing but time. Let me stay with you for a year… or ten… or fifty….
[Marius:]
[firmly] Go to the New World, Lestat. Be the first of our kind there. There's a barbaric little city on the southern coast. I think you will find it interesting.