Princess Alesana Claes stood on the edge of the abyss which houses her doom. She did not think the events of the last five years would lead her here, but as she looks into the eternal darkness and watches it grow and devour her world, she starts seeing the connections.
She shouldn’t have trusted Duke Alexander and should have sided with the Murata clan. She should never have relied on her brother who has the ambition of a war hungry barbarin and the mind of a child. She could have saved her mother, killed her father, and saved her people from certain doom. And most of all she shouldn’t have trusted Daemon Rowe.
Daemon comes up behind her and holds her in a hug. His long fingers almost cover her entire emaciated waist. He grips her sack of dress in distress. Alesana doesn’t move nor push him away. She is resigned to her fate. She doesn’t even want to know his motives anymore. She breathes deeply and is ready for the plunge.
“I did not want this” Daemon says in his heavy voice which echoes into the cavern they are standing over. “I tried to save you once more, but once again you are lost to me.” His voice is full of sorrow and regret. Alesana becomes confused.
“What do you mean?” she turns around to face him. Looking into his amber eyes which glow even in the darkness around them.He is just as beautiful the first time they met. He grabs her hand and puts it to his cheek and closes his eyes. His skin is smooth to her. It feels like time stops for a moment before a sob is echoing around them. It is not coming from her but from him.
“I’ve been trying for ages to save you. Almost a millenia, yet you keep dying. There is only one strategy I have yet to try.” He opens his eyes and drops her hand. He pulls out the Celestial blade gifted to him four years ago by her. She stiffens. When one is killed by such a blade they're soul is pierced and they can neither join the gods nor the demons below. Alesana becomes visibly scared.
“Do not fret.” Daemon says “Everything will restart back to five years ago, and I will try again.” He plunges the sword into Alesana which causes extreme pain throughout body and soul. Alesana has only seen him use the sword once before and the agony that coursed through Clan Leader Murata looked excurtating, and now Alesana is feeling the same pain. Though the thing that strikes just as deep in her heart is the look on Daemon’s face. He looks grief stricken and lost as he pushes her into the abyss.
Why is there such a look on his face? What could have caused it? He’s the one who killed everyone and sided with Lucian, why is he the one who seems to be carrying so much grief? He has won.
Yet, Alesana could not help but feel despair for him, instead she prays to the gods which have abandoned her. She prays to start again, she prays for her regrets to be erased, she prays for one more chance, and most of all she prays for Daemon's happiness. Even though he may not deserve it, she can’t help but to forgive him. He was her first friend and greatest knight. They shared everything together and she eventually fell in love though she never told him that. She adds this to list of regrets as well. Companionship that Daemon and Alesana had is hard to come by and even harder to stop one's heart from loving them even when they betray.
As Alesana’s mind starts fading and the darkness starts invading her body and erasing her banal existence she dreams. She dreams of the day when Daemon and her first meet. They met in her fathers courtyard before he became king. Her father gripped her shoulder tightly. He did not want a daughter, especially one as fragile and hopeless as herself. She was born with a weak constitution and a dead mother. Her father, Duke Marsh, never forgave her for her mother’s demise. She was his favorite mistress and the only one to give him a child. Her father’s actual wife and the woman Alesana calls mother, Dutchess Umma, was a soldier from a giant clan though she was no giant herself, she acted and fought like one. She also refused to have children with her mortal human husband. Umma and her father shared no love. The marriage was one for a treaty between giants and the realm of humans. It is also said that Umma’s true love was a giant slain in the battle against humans and giants.
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As her father grips her shoulder, snow starts to fall and sprinkle onto her emerald dress which matched her eyes and contrasted nicely with her dark skin. Another reason her father dislikes her, is that her dark skin is a reminder to people around them that she is a bastard and his only choice of heir.
She looks across the courtyard at the knights training and sees a few boys her age. She was thirteen at the time.
“Commander Viven” her father calls out
A girl of six feet and heavily armored walks over to them. Commander Viven was the best fighter in the realm and the tallest. Alesana doesn’t know why she stays employed with her father when Viven could work for the king himself.
“Yes my lord” says Viven with a bow.
“Where is Alesana’s new personal guard? I wish to introduce them.”
Viven seems nervous by this inquiry.
“I have found someone who fits your descriptions and needs, but are you such that you do not want someone with more experience for the lady?” Viven looks at Alesana with pity in her eyes.
“Nonsense. Any guard trained by you is enough for her”
“Very well” Viven rose from her bow and shouted “DAEMON”
A thin boy who was training with the boys Alesana’s age stood at attention mid-swing with his sparring partner.
“Come here boy!” shouted Viven once more.
The boy ran over. He was wearing the typical sparring attire which was a thin shirt with light armor over it and loose pants. His skin was tanned from the sun and should have disappeared due to it being winter and practices being held inside the estate. Daemon also had pitch black hair, almost the shades of Alesana’s but darker. What struck out the most with Alesana was his eyes. Amber. The color of Demons and myth folk. People with such eye color used to be hunted and killed out of fear of what potential magic or evil they hold. It was only recently that such killings stopped.
“This is Daemon Rowe, he shall be your new personal guard.”
She examines the boy more and sees how thin he really is. The shirt hangs off him, the armor does not fit at all, and his pants are rolled up to just keep them on him.
Ah ,Alesana thinks, this is why Viven seems concerned.
The boy was new, malnourished, and barely into manhood, and he was to be her personal guard. This was a sign of how much her father cared about her. Yes, she is his heir, and no matter how many mistresses he took or begged his wife, it doesn’t seem like he will be getting another child any time soon. Yet, she was still disposable to him. He can name a random child his heir or find himself a ward. He doesn’t have to choose her, but he has and she is expendable.
Alesana tries to maintain a calm attitude, but Daemon seems to see her distress.
He bows deeply and takes her hand. His hand is full of wounds from the sword training. His blood stains her gloves.
“I promise you my lady, that no harm will come to you.” He peers up at her with piercing eyes “I will become strong, I will become the greatest knight of this realm, and I will protect you with body and soul. The only being which will part be from your service is death itself.” His sincerity in such a dramatic pledge caused her to blush deeply.
“Good god man. That almost sounds like a marriage proposal. All you are is her personal guard.” Her disgruntled father walked away annoyed.
Viven stared down in Daemon’s bent state in confusion like she couldn’t believe he said such words to her. Viven also walked away telling Daemon to come back to practice once Alesana is done with him.
“Um…you can rise.”
Daemon rose and continued looking her in the eyes. She felt like she had met him before though she knew that couldn’t be true.
“Have we met before?” She questions for peace of mind.
Instead of answering her he grabs her hand again and kisses her knuckles, and whispers “I cannot lie to you”. She stands there entranced before he leaves back to his training.
She does not lower her hand that he has let go of because she feels something take hold but cannot describe what.
Alesana stays in this memory. Her body is eaten by the shroud, her soul is pierced, and her mind is in a haze or memory. She knows there is no afterlife for her, yet her mind is full of a life she could have led so she sheds one single tear before ceasing to exist.
At least this is what is supposed to happen. Instead she feels a pull deep within her chest. It feels as though someone is gripping her inside and pulling her out of the abyss. She feels as though she is moving but knows that this is not possible. The laws of magic and physics cannot allow such things but she is. Yet she is being pulled towards a white light. Before she knows it, the light has consumed her and she disappears.