Naskita

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Deconoir (Deco-nwär), a large bustling city that sits on the border between the birthplace of technomancy and a large forest filled with fey magic. The city acts as a neutral ground between the two regions, combining natural magic with artificial magic. Although the land was considered neutral, it was not shy of conflict between the magic users. An elite force of mechanical beings guarded the city alongside police of the crown using divine magic. However, they were not the only ones.

Within the city lies a church; beautifully decorated with stained glass images of Gods and Goddesses. On the outside surface, everything seemed to be like a normal church. Priests, priestesses, and many seeking patronage visited the church frequently. However, beneath the large marble structure lies a secret. A guild hall of individuals who takes care of what the police will not. This guild can work alongside the police and perhaps sometimes against them. This was home to many; this was The Guild of the Hidden Eye.

Those within the guild disguised themselves as priests and priestesses running the church above. Down below, they would train themselves on how to strategize, steal, capture, and even kill what the police would not. The Guild and church were run by one individual known as “The Warden”. He was the one who was in charge of gathering unique individuals he deemed worthy to be members. One of those members came to be known to the public in later years as The Phantom Blade. Guild members knew her as Naskita, or Key for short.

The Warden welcomed Naskita at two years old into the church. Upon her arrival there were the horrified expressions of those who came to pray in the church. They caught witness of the small child in the arms of men covered in blood. With every wail her sharp shark-like teeth became visible, her long tail dangled below her, and her piercing yellow eyes darted around the room. Those who saw her in the church called her a fiend, a curse, a bad omen and more. People were scared of the demon child whose cries echoed off of the walls. The people were scared because of what she looked like, but the guild members present said nothing at all. 

When The Warden approached, those who feared the demon child fell silent as she cried. With a smile, he proceeded to grab her and hold her. Cradling and rocking her back and forth humming a calming tune. Her cries slowly hushed as she began to fall asleep. The Warden declared her a test of the gods. He proclaimed that if a demon child can walk a righteous path, then those who follow can seek salvation alongside her. Those within the church were like putty in his hands, hanging onto his every word. Of course it was all a show. 

Naskita was a child born of blood on the altar by his command. A sacrifice gave her a life in the world she would live in. The Guild of the Hidden Eye called her the Key to the beginning of a new world of magic, malice magic. 

Within the Church lies many mirrors. It was believed to many that the mirrors acted as a gateway between those on the mortal plain and the divine. But for 8 year old Naskita, they were a perfect place for her to make faces at herself.

The Divine Maiden of the Church would always catch her in the act. Unlike the Warden who would scold her, The Maiden would join her. She was a gentle person with a kind heart. She was the one who taught Naskita the ways of using magic and connecting with the Gods. The Maiden was not like the others. She was a woman of pure faith and belief in the greater divine.

As a child within the church, Naskita would undergo training as a priestess with her. One particular day was different from the others. Naskita, in her white robes, knelt before the statute of the Goddess Junon. Her eyes were closed as she listened. She was listening for a voice to call out to her like it does for The Maiden. There was nothing but silence. Every time she tried, she never heard the voice.

She calmly opened up her eyes and looked up at the large statue with its angelic wings.

“I’m never going to hear her voice! It’s pointless!”

“Now, now Key. The voices of the Twelve will call out to you one day. There is no need to be discouraged. You just need to have faith and believe in not only them but yourself as well. Hera will call to you one day.”

“Hera?”

“Sorry, you would call her Junon in this place of worship as advised by The Warden.”

The Maiden had a warm smile and glow to her with those words. She gently caressed Naskita’s cheek.

“My, my you really are a beautiful child,” she calmly edged Naskita over to one of the mirrors for the two of them to look at themselves. “You remind me more and more like my daughter. I wish you could’ve met her. She had such a beautiful singing voice.”

“Where is she?”

“There was a terrible accident in the woods the day you came to us. She has now crossed through the mirrors to a different land.”

“What was her name?”

“I named her after one of the stories from my homeland. She was my darling Ekho, my muse.”

Naskita walked closer to the mirror placing her hand on her reflection. The second her hand made contact, the glass shattered in a crackly blue energy and an echoing scream pierced her ears. The Maiden pulled her quickly away as pieces of glass fell to the ground. Blood began to drip from Naskita’s hand as the same crackling blue energy was fizzling around it. Naskita was terrified at the sight but tried hard to keep her tears in.

“The child needs to control that witch magic of hers before it hurts someone else,” came the booming voice of the Warden.

The two of them turned around to see him standing at the doorway to the under level.

“Naskita, it is time. Come with me at once,” he ordered.

She followed the orders, her pure white dress now stained red with blood. She quickly turned back to see The Maiden glaring at the Warden. For a woman as kind as she was, the cold hatred that was emanating from her body was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine. The Maiden began to pick up the glass fragments laced with Naskita’s blood. However, she was not alone. There was a teenage girl standing by the now broken mirror. She wore a similar dress to Naskita’s with flowers in her braided hair. This was someone she had never seen in the church before.

“Sir who is that girl over there?” She looked up at him to ask.

“Nonsense, there’s no one over there. Now quickly change out of those clothes and do something with your hand. We have work to do.”

Before heading down the stairs she heard a whisper in her ear, “Don’t go with him”.

Naskita responded to the whisper to see who it was, but no one was around her. The girl by the mirror was also gone.

“Junon?”

"Why?”

“What’s happening to me?”

“What’s going on?”

"I feel pain”

“You will never be with the Divine”

“Where am I?”

"Stop ignoring me"

“Where are my children?”

-“You did this didn’t you?”

“You will pay!”

“What have you done?”

“Listen to me.”

“Murderer”

“Demon.”

“Devil Child.”

-“Listen to me!”

“Wretched being”

"You deserve death”

“LISTEN!”

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick……I pulled my face up from out of my hands and stared at the clock that was on the wall. The golden pendulum swinging back and forth as the room finally fell quiet.

“Are you ok?”

Came the calming voice of the Maiden. She sat at the end of the table in her usual white gown sipping a small cup of tea. At the other end was Flocksura, my best friend from the forest, my partner in crime. As a centaur he usually stood tall and proud, but the look on his face was of worry.

 “These incidents have been happening to you more frequently I’ve noticed.”

“It seems like after every mission it happens. It’s been getting progressively worse over the last year.”

“Have you told the Warden?”

“He says it’s just all in my head.”

“And what if it’s not?”

“It doesn’t matter. He wants me to continue, to get stronger, and learn to control my magic. He keeps saying to keep myself under control and to not risk everything that he’s worked for.”

I placed my head down on the wooden table as Flocksura came around and placed his hand on my back.

 “Maybe I should work solo until you can figure things out,”

I sprung from the table, “NO!....no…you can’t go out on your own, we’ve been partners since we were thirteen. I mean we’re Lock and Key! I get us into places and you keep people out. I get the info and do the assassinations and you handle the guards and keep people from poking around. It’s what we do.”

Flocksura looked down and let out a sigh.

“Key…it seems that after every assassination you have one of these…episodes. Besides, there is something that I’ve been meaning to tell you. I’ve been drafted to fight in the war.”

My heart sank. After the death of the king, a full scale war had started up between technomancers and natural magic users. Flocksura’s homeland was at risk due to the high output of magic. He was growing increasingly worried for his family’s safety. It was only a matter of time…

He’s been talking about the war for quite some time and I’ve tried to convince him to stay out of it. I was pissed off, so I stormed out of the room slamming the door behind me. The voices started up again. They were getting louder and more aggravated the longer I walked down the hallway. Grabbing my head out of pain, all I could hear were their screams within my own frustrations. I opened the nearest door and slammed myself up on a bookshelf. A book had fallen off from the top shelf hitting my head causing the voices to immediately fall silent. I realized at this point that I was in the Warden’s study room.

The book was some kind of grimoire. It was black with some kind of purple tendrils all over it. I opened it up and saw a ritual. A blood ritual that involved magic of malice.

 “Good, you found it.”

I looked at the mirror that was in the room and saw the little girl that I saw many years ago. She was standing next to me in the reflection wearing the same white dress. She smiled as her body began to emit a black smoke. Words came out of her mouth but the voice wasn’t the same….it was his….

 “You’ve ignored me for far too long. Now will you finally listen to me?”

It’s times like this that force me to reflect on my life…it’s like reading a book. Books…I always hated books. The maiden would read books on the divine to me while the warden forced me to read books he deemed useful towards my development. I tried to avoid books as much as I possibly could, but there was one book I was drawn to. It was a book from the Warden’s office. The book was in a different language I couldn’t understand. I hid it from everyone and covered it in a cloth wrapping. I didn’t want people to know that I had this book, especially the Warden. 

            My days were dedicated to trying to decipher this book while Flocksura was fighting in the war. I started taking less assignments and focused on trying to piece together this book. I didn’t know where to start. The language was unlike anything I had seen before. It was months spent trying to figure out the language with no results. I tried seeing if it was Sylvan, Dwarvish, Gnomish, whatever I had access to within the guild and church to use to decipher it. 

            My nose was buried in the damned book trying to make heads or tales of it. The days had passed in mindlessness until there was a night where I sat in the church alone. I had the book in my hands in the dimly lit room. I sat at the feet of Junon next to a book of the divine hoping that it might help me. The Maiden had come inside, her usually beautiful gown drenched and covered in mud from the rain outside. She came in baring news of Flocksura’s death. My best friend? Dead…impossible. He was stronger than I was. I could never beat him, no one could…he was like a storm…he was…he was my…I looked at her…she wasn’t crying at all…why…didn’t she love him? Where is her proof…? As I stared at her, the voices began. It started out as whispers, growing louder as time went on. I could see words were coming out of her mouth but they were being drowned out by the voices. Voices that agreed with me for once. He can’t be dead, there is no way, she’s lying…liar…”

“Key I’m begging you please listen to me! You’ve been consumed by this book, I know you have been. I wanted to tell you sooner, but I needed to wait until the time was right. You need to get out of her. The warden killed Flocksura and used the war…” her words were being drowned out by 

The pages caused a small cut to bleed on my finger onto the book as she threw it behind her.

            “YOU’RE LYING!” I screamed, lashing out at her as a beam of green energy laced in blood appeared from my wrist. 

The blast struck the maiden, sending her into the statue of Kieas the God of the Dead. The force of the blast cracked her skull open as she fell on top of the book. The voices fell silent as I came to the realisation of what was happening. 

Everything was a blur…she was dead, he was dead…both of them were gone. She wasn’t lying and yet…I killed her out of my own anger to silence…her…voice…the voice of the divine…the voice…of someone who I cared about…she wasn’t lying…she’s gone…he’s…gone…gone…it’s just me…and…the warden…what did she say about him? I can’t remember…and I’ll never get to ask…I…can’t think…

Days went by and I often found myself face down on the floor with bottles in hand. I was in a downward spiral after their deaths and it angered the Warden. But I didn’t care…it silenced all of the voices including my own. It even took me months to look at that book again…the book stained with her blood. When I finally opened it up again…her voice appeared…it was as if…she was reading the book to me like she always did…the  words laced in her blood…were…making sense.

A dark creature will be under your control to listen to your every order. This creature is a child of malice. It can be used as a beacon of chaos disrupting the balances of life and death. It will connect to the spirits of the dead and those of the living bringing fear to those who oppose you. It can create hexes, bind souls, raise the dead, and unleash horror all at your command. In order to harness its true potential three locks must be broken for it to grow and be yours. The first is the lock of the body. Strengthen the body and train it to withstand the powers that it can hold. The lock will only be broken once it’s reached the right maturity and it can begin controlling the powers within. The second lock is the lock of the mind. Bring the creature to a state of insanity. Break its mind in any way possible so that it can lose control of itself. Make it weak. Then you can break the last lock.The lock of the soul. With the right body and a broken mind the soul can be bound to yours for you to control. It will be your puppet answering to all commands and granting you a life of immortality with its own soul. Fail to break any locks and the creature may succumb to its own powers. 

A dark creature, a child of malice, a beacon of chaos, a puppet. All of these were words written within the scriptures of the blood magic tome that belonged to the Warden. All of these words were what outlined the path of my life. Everything that I did, everyone I loved, everything was so that I can be the perfect beginning to his reign. I realised all of this after my blood had gotten onto the book and allowed me to understand the infernal scriptures. 

He needed to break the three locks for the ritual to truly work. He wanted me to be perfect in his eyes. That’s why it took him so long to break the first lock. I had to train under him and the maiden to control the powers that are within and to build a strong enough body to withstand it. 

When the time was right, he broke the second lock. He killed my best friend using the war as his reasoning. He had ordered his men, the same ones I trained with, to kill Flocksura. The Maiden was trying to tell me this before I killed her out of anger. I only learned this after finding the plans in his office. I was already in pain, but then I was drawn to pure rage. Emotions swelling within me causing me to not think straight. I ripped the pages of the ritual out of the book and shredded them. The voices in my head, the same voices of all of those I had killed were screaming as the world felt like it was spinning. I was created to kill and be controlled. Those I cared about were killed because of me so that I can be the monster he wanted me to be. The voices were right to call me a demon or a devil child. But through those voices eventually came a voice I wanted to hear the most. It was his voice at last. 

His voice had been there since the very beginning. I was stupid to ignore him for the longest time. But not anymore, I began to listen to him more and more after finding the book that started it all. He told me I had a purpose beyond what that stupid book said. I had a meaning to my life. A gift that he didn’t want to see go to waste. I didn’t care anymore and only wanted to kill the Warden for all of the pain and suffering he caused using me. I didn’t want the Warden to succeed in his plans. I wanted him and all others involved to pay for the lives I had taken and those that were taken from me. The voice in my head told me that they could make it happen, all I needed to do was to ask. And so I did. The start of the pact was made and the final lock was being broken binding my soul to the being that had its eyes on me my whole life. 

I don’t remember what happened and that’s what scares me. Things were a blur after that point, but I remember the scent of blood. The screams of people. The clattering of metal. And seeing a monster in the reflection of a pocket mirror on the ground. What I saw was a dark creature bringing about chaos in that mirror. I still wasn’t processing things, focusing solely on trying to kill him. The Warden was standing in the middle of the cold street with his arm raised up and the tome floating near him. He called me a disappointment claiming that I was ruining his perfect world and his perfect plan. I went after him but I was starting to feel weak after losing control for so long. He tethered me to the statue of Junon. Using the same techniques as the Maiden, he called upon the powers of Ciel, the god of thunder to rid of the darkness. A tree was struck with lightning and fell at the base of the statue igniting into a blaze. The blaze continued to grow and spread until everything was lit with the glow. The Warden stood in the middle of it all and controlled the flames that took over the entire district. I was bound to the statue and was too weak to break free. I was still in pain. Not physically. I could hear Flocksura and the Maiden call my name and that’s when I finally came to my senses. I had realised what was happening and that I had lost control like the book said I would. But I was back in control again for now. I’m not strong enough to control this and that made me scared that someone else could like the warden. However, the voice…no my patron will guide me, he will teach me, and he will show me what I can do.

It was warm to me. Everything around me was warm even though it was a cold day in the city. I was bound to the statue of Junon as the flames surrounded the area. My flesh burning along with the malice that had overcome me. The bodies of the guild members strewn all over the ground from the massacre caused by my bloodied hands. But when I looked at my hands tied to the stone, they weren’t mine. I turned away from them to see him. His arm outstretched before me with the same disappointment across his face. He was covered in blood and barely standing as he cast his magic from that damned book. This was his fault. I never asked for any of this to happen. My whole life, was his fault. I was his puppet, his pawn, his toy to bring about a new world of magic. And for what? All of the lives I have taken? All of the lives that were taken from me? He wanted this new world to rule for himself and I was his catalyst. But it was finally over and I had won. He couldn’t control it and neither could I. I closed my eyes and let the darkness take over, my body feeling colder as the whispers of the dead were finally silenced.

But there he was. It was his voice that spoke softly to me, “Well done. Feel proud of what you’ve accomplished. But now is not the time for rest. Wake up Naskita. I still need you. You have a job to do.”

My eyes opened as I sprung upright feeling the pain from the arrows digging into my body.  

One, two, three, four. At this point I’ve lost count of the time that has passed. I’m not even sure how much of it has passed since I left them behind. I knew in the end that this was for the best. This was what I had wanted in the end wasn’t it? To be able to control the thing that The Warden wanted out of me. Yet here I am, sitting in a medical room being examined. Another day, another failure. The longer this has been going on the more I’m getting used to it. This made my previous guild seem like nothing.

I was alone in the room for the time being after being told that I couldn’t continue any more for a while. No one was giving me an answer why, but I had a sinking feeling that it had to do with the continuous failures. Failures in training, failures in missions. I was holding the team back and I hated that. But this time was different since I’ve started not feeling quite like myself. The red flags continued as I tried to read the lips of the doctor as they spoke to him.

He stood towering over the poor sap as the two of them addressed what was the elephant in the room. I was in the dark for pretty much everything these days and yet I was being closely monitored. The demonic attributes stemming from the demon foot taking over more of my leg since the last examination. When my foot was first cut off, it was just growing from my midcalf. Now the cursed thing was going all the way to my knee.

After speaking with the Doctor, he came into the room and stood in silence watching me as I fixed my clothes. There were a few bandages here and there, but the sense of dread was what was eating at me more. I looked up at him hoping to find some answers, but he continued to stare in silence. That sinking feeling of dread continued with the sense of disappointment emanating from him. He turned his back to me and started to walk.

“Come,” came his voice prompting me to follow him.

We walked through the halls of what I have now come to call home. All kinds of people were living within these walls following every order like the soldiers we were. Many with a unique skillset and talent to get the jobs done. We were all the assassins of Hades, chosen by him respectively to carry out different types of acts and responsibilities.

As soon as I saw the rest of my team, I turned away out of embarrassment. Despite seeing some of their concerned faces, it still didn’t change the way I felt as I walked into Hades’ main room.

The room was lit by the many candles along the walls with a collection of mirrors lining one of the walls. Books decorated the shelves in a variety of colors and sizes, each in a different language. Some were tomes, others were texts and stories. Papers lined the table of various maps I couldn’t read. He sat in his large chair as I continued to wait for the lecture to be directed my way. I stood there before him much like how I did as a child with The Warden.

Not a moment too soon, his calming voice spoke, “Why did you agree to join?”

My face furrowed caught off guard by his question. I didn’t know how to answer at first, but after a moment of thought I replied, “Because…I wanted to be able to control the thing that was inside me. This magic that I have. I felt like this was the best choice for me.”

“I want you to walk over to the mirror and tell me what you see,” I followed his arm as he pointed towards the large mirror standing at the other side of the room.

I walked up to it, the golden frame holding onto the mirror as I stared into my reflection. I examined everything about it. Every corner of the frame, the detailing of my face and clothes, the books behind me. All I could see was me.

“I see me,” I replied to him.

“Look again,” he said slowly.

I didn’t understand what he wanted out of this as I continued to stare at my own reflection. The longer I stood there, the sillier it was starting to feel. I was about to address it to him before I realized what was going on. The eldritch branding on my shoulder was creeping out of the collar of my shirt. I watched it slither around on my skin like a snake as it was creeping up my neck and onto my face. More of it was appearing around the other side as my skin was slowly starting to darken. My eyes, turning from their usual golden color to a bright flaming blue as black surrounded them. My hair turned blue as the dark antlers grew and towered. I was starting to feel panic come over me as I watched my other foot turn into the same demonic canine foot as what I already had. My fingernails elongate as my hands turn black.

“Tell me, what do you see?” he asked again slowly.

Blue flames began to form around me in my reflection as the panic and fear continued inside of me. A flash of a memory I had forgotten came to mind. The same creature ransacking and murdering the entire guild that had raised me. Blood covering the walls and ground with bodies piled everywhere within the chapel. The same emotions of rage and anger that had killed The Maiden. The memories of the chaos that this thing was capable of.

“Is this some sort of parlor trick?” My voice quivered as my eyes couldn’t look away from the site before me.

“Answer me,” he demanded with a loud voice.

The longer I stared, the more out of control the voices were starting to get.

Demon

Monster

Devil Child

I’m scared.

Don’t do this.

Help Me

What are you doing?

NO

Screams and yells of the voices finally caused me to break away from the gaze of the beast as I keeled over in pain. Clutching onto my head I closed my eyes to help control them. It had been a while since the voices had gotten this bad. It was almost hard for me to silence them. I screamed out from the pain that they were causing me.

I fell to my knees on the ground trying to listen to what was in the room, but there wasn’t anything that I could pinpoint to silence the voices. When I thought all was lost, I felt pressure on my back. Upon contact, the voices were silenced entirely. Hades had his hand firmly on my back as he used the other one to help me up from the ground.

I looked at him in the eyes and then back at the mirror. The flames were gone but the monster had remained. It looked like me, normal me but the antlers of my tiefling heritage remained. A single tear of blood fell from my eyes as the antlers began to disintegrate before me. With a gentle movement, Hades wiped the tear from off my face.

“I saw it. The thing from the reflection from that day.”

“Good, you see what I see in you. Now do you know why I chose you?”

“Not really, and I question that every day at this point. And don’t give me some special chosen one bullshit. That’s the kind of stuff you read about and I’m not here for that kind of sugar. There’s no way you chose me because of this…thing.”

“You’re right.”

I was a bit perplexed by his response but was waiting to hear what he had to say.

“Every single one of those who set foot within these halls has something I will nurture and grow. Each will become stronger and more powerful with my guidance and teachings. Some want to for pure power, others for thrills, others seek revenge. All will follow my directions for a common goal. My goal.”

As the words revenge came from his mouth, I could feel a shiver crawl up my spine.

He walked around the room returning to his chair, “You are but one of many.”

I didn’t understand what he meant until I saw them. Ghostly apparitions of children, there were several different of them of varying ages. Each one of them shares demonic traits like me, some more severe than others. As they cried or talked, no sound could be heard. As if they were being silenced by the same thing that silenced me during one of the times I had been captured.

“I don’t understand,” I proclaimed.

“You were but one of the many children that man tried to create. Although unlike the others before you, you were the only successful one. Do you know why?”

I shook my head still not following what he was trying to say to me.

“Because you were the only one to listen. You listened not only to me, but others as well,”

Whispers came back into my head but were manageable this time as he continued. As I had done so many times before, I focused solely on his voice and let the others be quiet as I listened to him.

“You predecessors were too scared to listen to the whispers of the grave. They feared The Warden that raised them and you to the point where they refused to listen to anyone else. That eventually lead to their own demise.”

Ghostly flames appeared around each one of the children as their small bodies distorted into horrific eldritch entities that crumpled and turned to ashes.

“Because they listened to just The Warden alone, they were unable to retain and control the powers that were growing rapidly within them. Their small frames were unable to contain the chaotic energy that was the malice within them. I tried to warn them, but their fear became their demise.”

A small ghostly image from the flame rose. It was me as a child. I watched as the child started to grow older as he continued.

“You on the other hand, were the first one out of his creations to respond to my voice. In doing so, you listened more to the one you call The Maiden. You allowed your emotions to grow, and you even learned to love.”

An image of Flocksura appeared with a slightly younger version of myself.

“This allowed me to help you control the magic within you, contain it properly within you. You didn’t let the fear control you like it did with the others.”

“That still doesn’t really explain it. Why me? Why not Shay or someone else for that matter? Why am I so special to you?”

“You’re not.”

Again, I was caught off guard by his response as he continued to speak.

“I chose you because I saw the potential in you. I saw the power that was within you. I had followed the children of malice for some time, but you were the only one to respond to my call. Why? Why did you turn away from The Warden.”

“I guess…” I hesitated for a moment, “because I didn’t like being bound to him. I wanted to be free and do my own things. I didn’t want to be treated like an obedient dog that he could just release at any given time. I wanted to retain my sense of freedom…not just for myself either. I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be happy because I wanted to.” I turned and gazed back at the mirror behind me, “I wanted the others to be happy too. Flocksura, the Maiden. I wanted them to be happy no matter what I did or became. So, I guess, I listened because I didn’t want him to take any of that away from me.”

“And yet, look at what happened to them.”

In the mirror reflection I could see Flocksura. I rushed over to the mirror to see him lying on the ground of a battlefield. I could hear his voice calling out for help. I wanted to help him but knew that there was nothing beyond the reflection of the scene Hades was showing me. He lay bloodied on the ground as technomancers of the new world fought with the magic users of the old world. Through a blast of magic, the scene changed to the chapel where I had trained with The Maiden. Her limp body hanging on the statue. Her chest bloodied from where the statue had poked through her.

“Why are you showing me this?” I said with sadness.

“To remind you of your emotions. None of this would have happened if it weren’t for him. He was the one to send your partner to war. He was the one who told her to speak with you in that state. They lost their lives so that he could break you from your emotions. He was trying to retain control over you, but he was too late, and you were already mine.”

  He came up behind me and grabbed me by the throat. Lifting my chin as he held onto my wrist with the other hand. I closed my eyes and listened to his calming voice, refusing to let his sudden movement falter my thoughts this time. I was not scared and remained calm.

“Because you listened to me, we joined in a pact and broke the chains of his control on you. I get a recruit with powerful magic I will grow. In exchange, you still get to retain your every thought, emotion, and aspects of your life not like what he would have given you. He was going to take everything away from you. Everything that makes you who you are so that he could use you like a mindless monster. You don’t want that do you? All I ask is for you to follow orders respectively and in a timely manner. Follow my orders and you can become as powerful as you want to be.”

I opened my eyes once more after he released my throat. In the mirror I saw the burned body of The Warden. He was in a medical bed speaking to a nurse. I gazed in horror realizing that the man was still alive. The tome that created me sitting at a table next to him.

“How is this even possible. I thought that book burned to a crisp with me that day.”

He looked away at the nurse and towards the mirror. A grin came across his face as he made eye contact with me almost as if he could see me.

“Stop this! This can’t be real,” I screamed angrily.

“This is no trick, he will do it again.”

Anger was swelling up inside of me at the thought of him taking another innocent life and putting them through the same rigorous training and continuous trauma that he had put me through. The pain, the suffering, the fear. I didn’t want anyone to be turned into a tool of his creations to bring about his fake ideology of a perfect world. We were never his children; we were his weapons and he needed to be stopped.

The antlers began to grow from my head once more as I barred my teeth foaming at the mouth in anger at the realization that he was alive. Eldritch energy began to flow from my hands as once again the voices grew louder.

Kill him.

End his life.

Murder

Stop Him

He deserves it.

“What do you want?” Hades whispers into my ear quietly.

“I want to end him.”

“Why?”

“Because he needs to die for this cycle to stop. Not just for what he did to The Maiden or Flocksura, but for the others before me. I will end him. I will destroy everything if I must to kill him.”

“Is that your true goal?”

“He will perish!”

“Good, I will help you with your goals if you help me with mine. Follow my orders, learn my lessons and I will help you so long as you obey me. Not just for those souls that are already lost, but for the souls still wandering with the living.”

Still locked onto The Warden, he slowly turns his head. I follow the gaze to the other mirrors on the wall. In each one of them were familiar faces. Mavari braiding her long hair, Celtra tinkering, Lorel examining her face, Tear reading, Blautz eating. It was all of them within the party house as the anger within them turned into concern. I turned back to see the Warden standing right up out of the bed and close to the mirror. I was taken aback for a moment as I stepped back into Hades. He placed his hand on my shoulder as blue flames surrounded the image of The Warden in it.

“Do as I say, and you will stop him from creating his perfect world. Fail and you will turn to ash.”

“Yes, my lord. I vow to continue to serve as a loyal servant in exchange for helping to end my creator’s life. No matter the cost, he must die by my hands.”

“Excellent,” he paused standing upright, “Because of your little affair with a celestial,” he waves his hand to clear the flame to show the man I had encountered on the Brine Isles, “You are advised to reflect on this for now. Feel that anger within you, feel hatred, love, and nurture these emotions. These will be key in controlling the malice that you are. When the time is right, I will call you.”

I walked out of the room, focused with the voices chittering in a low volume in my head. That sinking feeling of doubt gone. Walking past the group again I didn’t make eye contact with them, but I could tell they knew something was going on.

Returning to the same small room as before, I grabbed ahold of the handheld mirror. Using the same magic as before I was able to see a glimpse of the others in the party house. Every once and while I use this to see them and make sure they are ok. Following them and their journey as they continued without me. I missed being around them after growing to care a lot about them. I was doing what I wanted to do to become more powerful and control the beast within me. That way no one else would have control over it. But now, I wanted to control it and take my revenge. The Warden will die by my hands. This was my goal. 

The Maiden Calls them (Greek Origins)                                   Naskita Calls them (French Origins)

The Olympians                                                                                  The Divine

Zeus                                                      =                                             Ciel

Hera                                                      =                                             Junon

Poseidon                                             =                                             Mer

Demter                                                =                                             Saison

Athena                                                 =                                             Sagesse

Apollo                                                   =                                             Soleil

Artemis                                                =                                             Chasse

Ares                                                       =                                             Guerre

Aphrodite                                           =                                             Aimer

Hephaestus                                        =                                             Volcan

Hermes                                                =                                             Messager

Hades                                                   =                                             Kieas