A ring of twelve sliver swords surrounded a small and thin girl no older than seventeen.
In an expansive ballroom of purples and pinks, a small army had just broken the atmosphere of the party. The few cries of panic and died down and now worried whispers assaulted the backs of the knights all dressed in sliver plate armour covered in a variety of symbols respecting their houses. However, the Twelve swordsmen were dressed in both a different lighter armour and wore the same mark the numeral V. They were paladins of the council of light the true rulers of humanity’s last bastion.
The woman in question didn’t seem disturbed in the slightest. In fact, her clam appearance was unsettling to the watching noble men and woman. But their ignorance was the only thing stopping complete panic and fear from consuming them. If they knew the true nature of the woman in front of them, fear would not begin to describe the feeling prey feels when it meets a preditor for the first time.
She gently raised her hands, a small black ring on her pinky finger. She was wearing a purple dress that had an open front revealing deep cleavage. The dress fell to her heels but seemed to have been secretly cut to allow for easier movement. The dress wasn’t flashy and was very modest compared to just about any other dress present that was either extremely revealing or overly flashy. The dress gently hugged her waist and revealed smooth but defined hips. Her face was beautiful however she wore no makeup and her eyes had this tired and clam look. Her eyes gave off a similar expression to an ocean but the many dark lines around them showed her fatigue but her expression remained one of a stale empty feeling. Her eyes were a deep green.
The rooms residents parted as a man with shoulder-length blonde hair approached the twelve paladins. He was wearing a golden chest piece with silver sleeves and a frilly dressing around his wrists. His pants were white but the image of a red rose wearing a crown was worn on his back.
“ For the crimes of witchcraft and worship of false gods you have been sentenced to life imprisonment inside the pit… why did you do this? Why did this have to happen my love?” The man spoke with very with a bitter voice. There but his eyes showed his contempt for the woman in front of him. It wasn’t as far as pure hated and seemed to be closer to disgust than anything. Which was in great contrast with the fear shown in the eyes of the witnesses the moment the word witch was used.
“ Fate leaves no prisoners and shows no mercy, I simply had to know my curiosity devoured me a long time ago, but on a happier note my dear prince I am happy to hear I will be keeping my pretty little head I would hate to part with it so soon. It’s a great relief that I don’t have to hide in the shadows anymore spending every day watching over my shoulder and I am happy I will never have to see you again.” Her words were dull and lifeless but the conversation seemed far more civilised than the paladins were expecting and a few eased up while others were put on edge by how easily things seemed to be going.
“ It wasn’t me that gave on us… it’s good to know that and yes I am also happy that I will never have to see you again. You have disgusted me from the moment we first meet. Take her away and throw her into a hole so deep she will never see the light of day again.”
“ Yes your highness, All gag her and bag her… someone get the anti-magic chains and watch out for poisons… guards don’t loosen your guard she a fucking freak.” Slower the twelve moved in directed by a man with a golden braided hair who was there defacto leader of the group.
“ I raped your fuckings cats… and they like it.” The woman said that as calmly as possible but it was clear the prince was deeply disturbed but also cautious and a bit worried. Eventually pulling someone that resembled a knight towards him and with a hissed voices he whispered in his ear. The knight followed up by running out of the room.
“ Somone shut the freak up,” The leader of the paladins said with a fearful glance at the princes now slightly annoyed face.
The woman fell to her knees and started to cough profusely as the back of a blade slammed into her stomach.
“ Stara, I hope you will live long enough to experience even a tenth of the pain you inflicted on others.” These were the last things the prince would ever say the Stara Evre daughter of the once-famous duke because from this day forward she would be known as the Black Hearted Witch, the Great Deceiver but her favourite title would become the Oracle of Endless Winter.
But as her body fell to the floor she let out a small and hidden smile… because everything was going exactly as she planned.
———————_____________———————
She was dragged across a cold mossy stone floor occasionally hitting her head on a rough path or rock that littered the ground. Two guards pulled chains and dragged her towards an increasing abandoned-looking and dark tunnel. One of these guards seemed to walk with a bit of a limp and was clearly older than the other. She made no motion or movements but had this contentious look on her face as if she was being pulled on a relaxing ride in a fancy chariot but her situation was much more awful then her emotions would show. The guard that dragged her wonders if she was crazy or putting up a front but ultimately they didn’t care. Over fifty army soldiers pulled her with anti-magic chains the type used to catch human-eating monsters and the peak of nature dragons. She almost regretted her determination to never walk unless she had to and seeing as how they wouldn’t just leave her behind she felt it was fine to be dragged to her new home.
Occasionally she would have to spit of sand that would get in her mouth or tried to shake it out of her hair. She wasn’t very used to sand but she already had a strong opinion about it and that was it tasted terrible.
“ Hey… is she really a witch?” One of the two individuals pulling her chains and raging her turned to ask the other a question that got him a look of disappointment then annoyance.
“ Shut up and focus newbie.” The gruff-voiced other replied with a rough breath. Stara made a mental note to kill him later for struggling to pull her and the half-ton chains. “ Hey newbie,” He said an angry look in his eyes. “ Pull your fucking weight. Look at me here huffing and puffing you’re fine enough to ask me some stupid questions” He said and handed the chains over to the other man.
Now holding two chains with short black hair he frowns for the fraction of a second then returned his expression to a neutral smile that was clearly fake. His eyes were clear but a bit hazed and he was wearing a metal helmet that covered his face with a fabric that was made of thousands of small metal rings that covered his face from his nose down. He was wearing a shoddy looking metal vest with a greyish blue coat over his back. Thick burn marks covered his shoulder and metal black gloves were wrapped together by chains to stop them falling apart, the left-hand index fingertip was poking out and so was a part of the thumb but mostly the gloves seemed to be holding together. Throwing the chains over his back and grunting slightly he pulled and with relative ease started pulling Stara along down the hallway.
“ Hey, senior could you at least hold the torch in front of me so I can see?” The younger guard
“ Yeah! What the fuck do I get out of that? No, I think I’m gonna go back up, now don’t worry there's like thirty mages down the hallway ready to seal her away or some shit. Look just don’t fuck it up when I’m like off fucking around or I’ll beat you.”
“ Wait so your just gonna leave me here? No, you got to at least stay with me till we get to the mages.” The younger guard stopped to look at the other as he turned and walked away.
“ Nah I don’t fucking think so this floor gives me the fucking chills probably why no one ever goes down here and if you complain I beat you so shut the fuck up and get to-“
“ I cannot allow that.”
“ What! You dare talk back to- KukLaaa” With a twist and gentle movements the younger guard walk towards the man and at speeds, he could see but not react to Dawn broke his neck. However, he did so imperfectly and a strange sound escaped the guard’s mouth before Dawn decided to just twist the head around his neck like an Owls completely breaking the man’s spine in the process. Dawn dropped the man and watch as his head bounced twice. He thought it was odd that it bounced twist.
“ Hey, sis you ok in there?” He turned with a growing inquisitive look in his eyes, more curiosity than worry. Walking forward he crouched down beside Stara who replied with
“Yep! All warm and cosy you even added the heating function to my socks I asked for so I wouldn’t get cold feet!”
“ Hmm you have small feet so I had too.” He said as he nodded.
“ I don’t think internal body temperature is based on a limb size, but rather blood circulation.”
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“ Really? Well if you say so it must be right. Anyway, your little group is up ahead… should I get a new sacrificial lamb?”
“ Nope, he’s perfect. An asshole with no friends but hasn’t been here long enough to make enemies so no one will notice his untimely disappearance.”
“ But, doesn’t he have to be alive for the ritual?”
“ No, but his blood needs to be warm but their magic for that so don’t worry. Anyway… did you make any friends?”
“ No… but I tried. Well… kinda although there was this one kid that asks me for some pointers with the sword and has been following me around a bit so maybe? I’m not really good with the people so I can’t tell if he just wants something from me yet.”
“ Oh, good job. It must be hard with you to know your job and all.”
“ No actually after my last promotion I'm my own boss so like no one tells me what to do and I have subordinates that do all the paperwork and stuff but running this place isn’t hard.”
“ Hahaha, I guess they never expected I was friends with the warden.”
“ Well. I think they know we’re related and all but we did do a lot to build up my reputation and all plus I was a witch hunter myself.”
“ Yes… I am glad. Since we have come this far they obviously didn’t know that your work as a witch hunter was actually just a ploy I made so you could steal the techniques of other witches for me but anyway that led to this.”
“ Yep, I still wonder if this was all worth it? I mean… are the saints really so scary you must hide from them like this? “
“ Brother doesn’t underestimate the wrath of the heavens, if the full extent of my research was to become public it would be a lot more than a simple witch hunter that would come after me. I lack the power to face the church and the kingdom and that’s if I wanted to fight them… there aren’t many places where a human can go nowadays. What should I go live among the Dwarfs? No, even if humans are on the verge of extinction a witch like me is a universally hated person. Even those blood necromancers and Liches up north have a stick up their ass about my more. Besides, you should understand the peace of mind a little safety can bring especially with my brother standing guard. Besides there is much greater terrors then even our so-called divine emperor realises. ”
“ About that sister, I don’t really spend any time in one place… but I will come when called and while I stand no harm will come to you here. So… are you really happy living like this? No freedom? No agency and almost complete dependence on me? ”
“ Of course were family… only we matter after all.”
“ Family is key”
‘ What about you Dawn? Think I am asking too much? Apparently, the divine can smell lairs like us.”
“ I don’t know but the divine fled remember and the gods haven’t left heaven since… ahhh history isn’t really my strong point sis sorry.”
“It doesn't matter, does it? Well, either way, a witch's greatest enemy is oftentimes herself or more importantly her ignorance. There are many threats that want to take a step into our minds can call it home that's how hags are born… this should help with that. Well, we should get going we keep them waiting for too long.”
“ Ok boss,” Dawn said before pulling the chain over his shoulder and continuing on with his walk.
After a fifty minute walk and another three levels down Dawn looked up to see a light at the end of the tunnel. He stepped past the hallway into a dimly lit room. A red circle was scrawled on the floor with many faceless individuals standing around it. The individuals were not covering their faces but were actually just faceless. The skin had grown over there nose blocking the holes and they had repeatedly bitten their lips until the blood congealed into a scab overall but the edge of there mouths leaving only the tiniest hole for breathing. Their eyes had been removed and their eyelashes were strengthened with the magic only to be used as stitches to pull the overgrown skin over the hole. Although they were only wearing thin and light hoods there scalp seemed to be dragged down by the weight removing the last bastions of humanity from their appearance.
“ Hey, sis why do you make them look like this?”
“ No… I made them do it themselves.”
“ Why?”
“They’re more likely to die for me if they just want to die in general.”
“ Wouldn’t that make them, rebellious?”
“ Oh humans break too easily, honestly, I had a lot of fun and wasn’t thinking very much. Well, they’re powerful enough that they could have lived promising lives and made great strides in the magic community but were rejected from the mage guild for problematic research. It wasn’t hard to acquire them with the promise of forbidden knowledge besides it’s not that bad they can just use illusion magic if they need to go out or be seen by others.”
“ You have strange tastes.”
“ You have no taste. I love people, you only like the most boring parts.”
“ Then would the strong taste be a better fit?” Dawn’s voice was hollow as he clearly didn’t care about what was being said picking up on this Stara didn’t reply.
A figure wearing a slightly different robe stepped forward and bowed to Dawn. Stara snapped her fingers and the chains simply fell away and like a ghost she floated to her feet before placing her hands behind her back and standing on the tip of her toes. A small smirk and she began floating only a few millimetres off the ground. Her smile grew increasingly vast when she saw that Dawn was staring her feet with a small frown. She doesn’t get to see many emotions from him so it’s because a hobby of hers to twist his heart because she enjoys the faces he makes this float spell was made entirely to make him even slightly jealous of her.
With a wave of her hand, the chains spread out towards the older guard. Her smile grew stale it wasn’t that her emotions change just that she was focused and didn’t think to fake her expressions anymore.
The room was made of stone, blood painted the roof and walls but the floor has been properly cleaned out by the faceless. Other then the red circle there was not even a single grain of sand on the floor despite the hallway being a greater reflection of the outside. The room was cold but dry and the air shared these conditions. The ground around the red circle had been sanded smooth and the circle itself was perfectly drawn. Dawn couldn’t tell what was used to draw the circle. Originally he believed it to be blood-based on the nature of the casters but it lacked the smell or any smell that his superhuman senses could detect.
“ Hey, sis?”
“ Yeeeeessss,” She said with a very monotone and robotic voice that broke into her normal voice when she remembered the importance of expression and nuance of language.
The chains shot into the guards flash and he was dragged before her.
“ No I was just curious but what forbidden knowledge did you give to make these ahhh faceless do what you want?”
“ Well, I told them about the secret of life the meaningless of it all, explanation about what mana is and where it comes from, something else about the nature of divinity, Hmm how small and insignificant they actually are, how the universe is expanding.”
“ The universe is expanding?”
“ Well actually it’s running away but small details, small details anyway, are we ready to play gods and build my personal heaven?”
Taking that as a cue to shut up Dawn didn’t ask anymore and seeing how quickly Stara’s face became cold after she finished speaking he believed it was probably for the best she never like being interrupted in fact it was one of the only things that could get her actually angry that Dawn was willing to do but it’s rare for her to ever let her feelings out so he treasures the times she does.
She twisted her left arm until a snapping sound could be heard and then a loud crunch of bone snapping could be heard. With her other arm, she ripped off the sleeve to reveal the dangling now slightly purple arm. She seemed to hop around a bit as she weighed for the internal bleeding in her arm to worsen and then with a wave of her hand her left arm was ripped off in a spectacular display of strength that lead to Dawn bobbing his head in approval but he also started to rub his left shoulder as he looked at the now one-armed Stara.
She then pushed the corpse of the old guard into the centre of the circle. She did it with her toes but she also seemed to reel back at the task. She was clearly disgusted at touching it.
Then she floated over and raised her severed arm up high before she slammed it down onto his chest shoulder first. The arm pierced the man’s chest but stayed stand. The fingers on the severed arm began to wiggle then waved at Dawn who waved back. The bones in the arm once again started to crack and the mages began to chant. The chant was muffled under scalped and sealed lips but as time passes the chant became more and more clear in the ears of Dawn. Soon red veins began to grow on the arm that looked like roots.
Then the old guard’s corpses began to spasm and the words of the chant became crystal clear. Almost as if he was compelled to Dawn’s began to mouth the words of the chant that no longer felt like the words of others but instead seemed to ring in his own head like they were his own thoughts.
“Per spiritum enim mori”
As the words burned into his head so did there meaning, By death, we breathe.
“Per Spiritum Enim Mori Solus” A new word was added to the chant but this time its meaning was lost on Dawn. The word had meanings beyond Dawn’s comprehension.
A broken cry rang out from the mouth of the old guard, it truly did sound like the corpse was choaking. Its arms flew up to its throat and his legs began to twist, bend and finally break. The roots of blood broke past him the arms skin slinking down to the corpse, they swayed side to side as they did so in a memorising rhythm that didn’t match the chant at all but still never felt out of place. Dawn watches silently as the corpse was drained dry. The roots rip at the dead man’s skin but the blood ran up towards the arm where it would pool for a time before a new set of roots would form and wrap themselves around the arm. Eventually, there was no corpse left only a bloody mush of flesh and plies of bone dust, the arm had turned completely red. It too had begun to morph its shape and form. The fingers seemed to grow as roots continued to wrap and wrap themselves around the base. The fingers shifted around and soon the arm looked like a small tree slowly growing with five equal-sized branches. Dawn’s line of through broke down and all he could see was how beautiful it was the branches twisted up like a spiral and the base of the tree slowly grew.
Tearing the flesh covering their mouths the faceless spoke “ By death, we breathe” and small ribbon-like streams of blood flowed through the air towards to ‘red tree’. There blood the food needed to free the newest member present. Dawn wasn’t sure how but he knew it was alive but the tree before him was definitely alive. He turned his head to face Stara who had appeared beside him at some unknown point. His eyes fell on her hands both of them and when they fell back on the tree he saw that it had stopped growing but it also appears the room was just slightly too small for it. It looked to be about 15 meters tall. The faceless all collapsed dead as soon as te ritual was done. They looked like they had been dead for hundreds of years with how dry their corpses were.
“ This is my new home, Dawn… I will kill you if you forget to visit me regularly.”
“... Are we making a treehouse?” Dawn asked he really didn’t know what the purpose of the speel was.
“ hahaha, it’s not a tree, its a gap in reality. A living breathing gap so you have to water it every now and then. Actually, I will do that so don’t worry” Stara said as she shook her head at Dawn’s lack of knowledge.
“ Well shall we go?” after a brief moment Dawn said, “Where?”
“ Just follow me. Ok?”
And with a slow pace, she began to walk towards the tree but the closer she got the further away the tree seemed to be Dawn watch for five minutes as she walks towards and reaches he tree without a change in pace before she vanished. Curious Dawn tried to follow and found that as to be got closer and closer to the tree the brighter it seemed to be and after around the same amount of time as it took Stara the tree flashed a red light and he was gone.
In a different place, Dawn opened his eyes and his jaw nearly fell to the ground at the beautiful sight he saw before him.
“ So this is home now sister?” He asked.
“That’s right, from here I will plot and scheme until I win. Together, my brother, you and I will stand above even the gods themselves and there will be no one to keep me from the vast skies… no one to take our freedom. And Dawn don’t forget-”
“ Family is key”
“ That’s right.”