Icy callused hands grip my face, snaring my words as they leave my lips. I feel the dry skin scrape across my skin. I can smell the smoke of fires lit and the iron of blood spilled. I cry out in surprise and grapple with the clutching hand of my attacker. I try to pry the fingers from my face at first, but the crushing strength of her hands proves it’s impossible, so I resort to other methods. Digging my nails into her hand, drawing blood but not enough to spill. Before I could cause any more damage, she drew her stained blade to my neck.

She leads me closer, forcing my cooperation with the threat of death. The chilling surface of plated armor hits my back, and my first desire is to create as much distance as I can. The hand covering my mouth and the blade against my neck causes me to think twice before attempting anything rash. Slumping against my attacker, I try to think of a way to break free and run, but fear is struggling against me. I fear death and what I will be robbed of with just a twist of a wrist.

The moment drags on; I observe all that is around me, for that is all I can do. I look around and see the town of my people burning to the ground, homes built into the trees tumbling over as their strength is stolen away from them. The smell of the smoke and ash is thick, but that isn’t what invades my senses. The body of my father lay just a few feet away from me, though he is not the only one I take notice of. Blood, the coppery smell of it, is crowding my senses the most and causing my skin to prickle, bile rising at the back of my throat at the carnage that lays before me.

Unable to turn my head to look away from all that has been taken from us, I close my eyes and try to calm my fear-filled heart. I listen to the surrounding sounds, trying to focus on this sense as everything else reeks of death. Crackling and popping of burning wood, the rushing of blood, and the steps-plated boots, but no yells of pain or crying out in fear. No more sounds of dying elves and with that realization I feel the blade tear through my neck.

My eyes shot open and as she lets me go, I collapsed to my knees. Gasping in the air in shock at the sudden loss of support, I gag and cough after the air enters my lungs, for that wasn’t all that followed when I took it in. Hot liquid runs down my throat and I feel the front of my dress get wet. The pain isn’t what registered, not at first, just the inability to breathe. My lungs burn while I gasp for air but receive only blood.

Drowning in my blood, I start to panic, my hand reaching up to cover my neck and hoping to stem the bleeding if only a little bit, but any angle I try to use to stop it isn’t working. Blood is gushing in between each finger and the lack of air is causing me to be lightheaded. Falling onto my side, I try to focus through my fear to try and cast any magic to stop the rush of blood. The inability to breathe in this ocean of blood is causing my magic to falter.

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The corners of my eyes start to darken and my mind starts to haze. I frantically look around to see my surroundings, my panic and fear still plague my heart. I catch the color of fresh blood in the air and I turn to look. I was mistaken, it wasn’t blood but long scarlet hair waving in the soft breeze running through this village of embers and ash. She is ordering soldiers around but it sounds distant and muffled, the rush of blood still running through my ears.

I look towards her face and try to etch the small intricacies of her into my memories, I will never forgive nor forget the figure coated in the blood of my people. They took everything and burned down the rest, they are thieves of life and happiness and should be hunted down for their cruelty. I gasp once more, desperate for air but receive more boiling liquid in my lungs, the pain causes me to flinch, coughing and gagging I struggle to keep my eyes open with the quickly dissipating energy I have left.

I watch as the soldiers order each other out of the village. They rush out on horseback but my eyes trail my scarlet killer as she rushes out. Never looking back to see if I died, she knew that I didn’t have much time left. I can feel it, the energy I have left slowly leaving me with every heartbeat. I look up to the sky which is now wide open with the absence of the trees that once covered my town, now collapsed around my home as fuel for the fire.

Ash lands on my face as my tears fall, but I can’t weep. I cannot express the sorrow in my heart, the lack of energy stops any attempt left, no I am left here broken, a wasting husk that cannot truly cry. My eyes close as the dark corners finally reach over my sight. I stare into the endless abyss behind my eyes.

I think about the things I will miss as I continue to looking into the ceaseless darkness, wishing I could continue with the peaceful life that was filled with so much love. A chilling hand grips on my heart and squeezes, being reminded that I cannot live that life causes the cold that took hold of me to burn.

Rage blossoms inside me. Hot in my veins and echos the bubbling liquid in my lungs. Wishing for what I will miss in life washes away from me and is replaced with revenge. The thought of it breathes life into me. Excitement at the thought of killing her, at killing everyone that she has ever loved screams inside me.

I cry out into the abyss for a chance at exacting my revenge, at giving what she gave me tenfold in return. I want to annihilate the entire species and I scream every desire for my revenge into this yawning void. As my last strand of consciousness slips through my fingers, I feel something stirred inside the abyss. Something is staring back at me, observing me, and has heard me. It reaches out.

I couldn’t tell what it intended to do or if it ever reached me as I fell deeper into the eternal sleep that had been clawing at my heart for every beat that it struggled to give out. My existence changed at the moment. I could feel it inside me. My soul shattering like a pane of glass hitting the ground.

My existence warps, changing its shape. The cracks inside me spreading and sealing. Every inch of my skin burned with the intensity of the fires raging throughout my village, melting away the old me and reforging me into something new. The feeling of boiling liquid washes over me and seeps through my skin, searing away from my skin and leaving me raw. I lay there, pain radiating through me, pulsating with every heartbeat.

I do not know how much time has passed. The darkness still surrounds me. Slowly, the pain recedes and numbness takes its place. Soon even numbness fades and then the sensation of feeling starts to prick at my skin. At first, it starts with my chest and slowly spreads throughout my body, reaching every limb. My head being my last, starting from my neck and reaches upwards and as soon as the feeling returned to my whole body. Tentatively, I opened my eyes.