Mihai

Te pabaren mange memelia. (May you burn candles for me.)



Mihai was born sometime in the early teens in rural Germany. Where, he doesn't know any better than his birth year. In his opinion, he's not from anywhere. He's simply Rom.

Nearing the late stages of death from tuberculosis and following a concussion that (to MIhai's mind) maimed his face, the young man was turned by Aurel, childe of Elijah. Before MIhai even woke up, he was taken captive

by a family of hunters and spent the ensuing decades locked in a basement. About five years before the beginning of the chronicle, he was liberated by Audrey.

''Te den, xa. Te maren, de-nash.'' (When you are given, eat. When you are beaten, run away.)

Mihai is a Malkavian in the grandest sense, loaded up with all kinds of crazy. He even looks disturbing, with an honest-to-God hunchback, a spiderlike walk, and a nasty facial tic. He's autistic (which, admittedly, has nothing to do with being a vampire), schitzophrenic, anxiety-ridden, and very dependent. His world centers mainly on his grandsire, Elijah, his ghoul, Graham, his kitten Machka, and occasionally what attention he can glean from Etienne. His days are spent reading and playing his violin, though people are always dragging him to Elysium.

But Mihai's greatest purpose and his ultimate calling are entirely religious. What it is he believes is tricky for anyone but Mihai to get their head around, an amalgamation of traditional Rom superstition, a liberation theology-steeped brand of Catholicism, and what goes on in his mess of a head. Either way, he can burn a vampire to a crisp with his rosary, should he so choose.

''Te aves yertime mander tai te yertil tut o Del. ''(I forgive you, and may God forgive you as I do.)

Ideally, he'd really like to be left alone. Realistically, he'd like to complete whatever arbitrary stream of tasks will enable him to be left alone again. In all likelihood, nothing about you interests him, and if it does, you'll mostly hear about hobbits and Graham and the pretty church he attends.

Akana mukav tut le Devlesa. (I now leave you to God.)

(Mihai's journal)

(A Christmas Story)