When I was a bold, young knight, I lived on wages from righting wrongs and upholding the peace. From what I understood at my young age, there was a clear distinction between dark and light, but when I met Kayleigh, she revealed my understanding of morality to be shallow and limited. In our first meeting, she brought the rainbow to my colorblind vision of the world. If only it lasted…

I arrived in a small village, deployed by the great king Toccatta himself to investigate a recent kidnapping. The townsfolk spoke in horror of how a young woman wandered too close to the dark hallows at night and never came back. They spoke of a hairy behemoth with six red eyes that prowled the forest, leaving sticky white webs where it nested. Soon, I knew it was a classic case of maiden-napping and it was up to a brave knight like me to save the day.

As night fell, I entered the forest clad in chain mail with a sharpened blade in my hand and a neatly trimmed beard. (Hey, I was young and us knights can be opportunists with the whole ‘maiden rescuing’ gig.)

I sliced through sticky webs until I reached the center of the hollow. There in a circle of trees, hanging in the biggest web was the most miraculous beauty my eyes had ever seen. Her long white-blond hair was strewn across the web with crimson roses tucked into it and the blushing cheeks on her pale face matched the shade of the roses perfectly. I couldn’t help but marvel at her. I knew I had to prevent her sordid fate.

When the ugly arachnid dropped down from the trees with fur as thick as a yeti, I was ready to take it on. It glared at me with its blood red eyes, clicked its tongue and charged like a herd of pachyderms. I quickly lopped off a pincer, causing it to bleed green ooze and let out a terrible howl. I was about to impale its head with my blade but suddenly, I heard a fair but stern voice call out from beside the spider.

“Whoever you are, do NOT hurt that spider!”

I looked to see my sweet maiden cross her arms beside the wimpering beast of a bug. She gave me a glare even scarier than the spider. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m uh saving you…fair maiden, from this hungry, vicious, foul…”

“Vegetarian spider…”

“Uh what?” I quickly asked with my mouth hanging open. “I didn’t know spiders could be vegetarian.”

”Most have never tried. Spiders are notoriously picky eaters. But after I befriended this Hairy Long Legs, she decided to give it a try. And I’d say, it’s working great on her figure.”

The spider momentarily forgot it’s pain to flex itself in a stylish pose, causing my eyes to widen.

“But the townsfolk said you were kidnapped,” I said, in disbelief over her story and the spider’s sensuous pose.

An angry look appeared on this caring woman’s face. “My parents despise the fact that I spend all my time befriending animals…”

“Why?” I said quickly. “I think it’s very princessy of you…”

“Thanks,” she responded drolly, before continuing, “They say I give the town a bad name. That I look crazy coming out here to talk to spiders. But is that really so wrong to make friends with creatures other than humans?”

“Uh no…” I said, still flabbergasted and holding my sword over the beast.

“Besides,” my maiden said with starlit eyes. “She always makes a wonderful hammock so I can watch the stars and sleep out in the cool air.”

She moved closer and started begging me. “Please don’t kill this spider. She’s my only friend in this whole town.

I continued to hold my sword over the spider, but already my mind was changed. I put my sword away and turned to walk away, leaving the strange but beautiful girl and her spider. But suddenly I heard a call.

“Would you care to watch the stars with me, Mr. Knight?”

I turned around to see her winsome face with a small smile. She held her hands behind her bright green dress and her white blond hair and porcelain face shined like the stars themselves.

“Are you sure you want me to…?” I started.

She said in her sweet but firm voice, “If a giant arachnid could change her carnivorous ways, so could you killing beasts like that.”

I knew from that point she wasn’t just strange and beautiful, she was wise too. I quickly fell for that beautiful combination. Perhaps even the roses she always tucked behind her curls attracted me to her like no other. They gave her a bewitching quality like she was some kind of nature goddess given a human form. She seemed to like this rugged, brash fool for some inexplicable reason too. We ran away from that town with her pet spider and built a cabin in the woods.

I wish I could say we lived happily ever after, but I continued my knighting duties to provide for us. One fateful day, I received a letter stamped with the approval of his majesty and when I opened it, my jaw dropped. His majesty required me to lead a pre-emptive strike on the dreaded Devil’s Hue tribe in the Crimson islands. Though the tribe had long since vanished into legends in this day and age, 35 years ago, they were a prosperous tribe of heathens who worshiped the God of Death himself. Word had reached the king they were planning a wicked ritual and King Toccatta himself knew we would have to end it before they tore a void into our fair dimension and unleashed a wicked cataclysm.

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Kayleigh, now my wife, begged me not to go, but when the king promised me riches like I had never seen before, I told her, “We can finally provide for a family. You and I never have to work again if I do this.”

To that she said, “I like our family now. Me, you and our Hairy Long Legs. Please don’t go.”

But fame and glory tempted my young mind as well and I embarked the next day.

When I reached the capital, I expected to be in charge of a few small companies for a short operation in the islands, but the king bestowed on me the command of thousands. Though I remained cautiously optimistic, I had a feeling we weren’t just fighting to stop a small ritual.

We marched proudly across the land on foot and everyone cheered us. I saw many young woman with pride and love in their eyes as they watched their husbands triumphantly follow me. It reminded me of Kayleigh and I started to feel pangs of sadness. I smiled in spite of it. We were going to end this terror threatening our fair lands once and for all.

As our warships disembarked towards the jungle islands, I saw dark shadows billowing over them. The dark ritual had begun.

As soon as we reached the land, we were greeted hostilely by a tribe of tan skinned, curly haired warriors who fought proudly with crudely made wooden spears. They were no match for our steely weapons crafted by the finest blacksmiths in the land. As they fell, however, they seemed to sink into the shadows and fade away, leaving no bodies.

My men were baffled by this, but I chalked it up to the influence of the dark world. We formed our encampment on a hill in the jungle and from there we quickly pushed back the forces of evil day after day. As the weeks went by, I received many letters from Kayleigh via carrier birds. She always had a way with nature and they were my ray of light in an overwhelming flood of darkness and bloodshed. Her words reassured me that even if she didn’t approve of my choice, she loved me and wished for my safe return.

One dark night as we prepared for the final onslaught on the native’s capital city, a living nightmare gripped our camp. Men complained about feeling faint and were taken to the infirmary. There they experienced weird black markings crawling across their body like shadows. As the darkness crept across their bodies, they slowly merged with the dark of night, leaving nothing tangible behind. This shadow plague, as the doctors called it, claimed hundreds, and it became apparent that we had all been cursed.

Scouts informed me the next morning that there was a great witch doctor inside the central temple who was causing all this. I quickly gathered my men and we prepared a final onslaught. Our final goal was to breach this temple and eliminate the fiend causing this plague.

Fueled by fear and the loss of our friend, my comrades and I burned and pillaged the huts that lined the central stone temple. We left no one behind because we now knew they all fueled this shadowy plague. My men tore down the defenses of the temple marked symbols of voodoo carved in tribute of the dark world. I dashed inside, sword and shield brandished in my hand. Through sheer fury, I cut down the two guards and dashed towards a central bonfire where a handsome, curly haired young man watched over a decrepit old woman with wrinkles as deep as trenches and hair as stringy and dry as straw. She knelt over the fire and chanted in her creaky voice. Without thinking I impaled her in the back. She groaned and fell aside as the young man, through grief stricken tears cried in his savage tongue. “Grandmother…!”

His eyes became darker than the eye of a hurricane and he chanted in his powerful voice. His eyes glowed blood red and darkness swirled around him. In a brief moment I realized, it was not the old woman but this young man who had cursed us all. I quickly ran my sword through him, causing him to throw his head back. It then fell forward with a demonic smirk.

”A curse on you, Lance Celine,” he chuckled. “For as long as you live, I will have my vengeance on you and the foul tyrant who spurred you on. I will not die as long as you, him and your kingdom purge this planet like a tumor. That is my promise and even a fool can keep his promise.”

With his high pitched laugh, his body fell into the shadows and quickly scattered into small black spots that traveled out of the temple and into the world. My captain quickly informed me that we had taken the city by storm and that the ritual was in fact, a celebration of those who had passed rather than a bid for the underworld’s powers.

The young man’s words lingered on me for days but I didn’t know their meaning until I finally returned home. Inside my cabin, I saw my love lying in bed. Her white blond hair had been tainted jet black with several silver specks in it. It looked like the night sky. Dark blotches crept up her neck too. I ran to her and she weakly smiled. “I’m happy to see you again, my love.”

I broke down crying. I finally knew the meaning of the witch doctors’ condemning words. I reached for Kayleigh’s hand on the bed, but mine slipped right through hers. I watched as the darkness covered her beautiful face, tainting it with splotches of stars. It curled around her mouth and eyes leaving her to speak these last words.

“Please…don’t worry about me…” she said as she reached her shadowy hand through mine. “I’ve finally realized my dream. It seems I’m becoming one with the cosmos.”

I quickly explained to her this wasn’t the case. She was inflicted with the shadow plague and it was my fault. I expected her to be furious with me, to disown me with her last words, but instead, she looked at me with earnest, yet hazy emerald eyes.

“I…hope…you’ve learned something from my lesson…sweetheart,” she said.

”Learn what…?” I asked, sobbing.

“Just…like…those spiders…not…everyone…is…carnivorous…”

I put my head in my hands and began to sob as she faded away. “I love you. I don’t want you to go,” I cried.

“Just remember…my love,” she said as darkness surrounded her faraway eyes. “The light is still there, even when a shadow is blocking it...”

Her voice whispered as it seeped into the ether, leaving me to cry in dead silence.

Van looked into her mentor’s eyes from telling their sad tale. They were stained with tears as he gazed at Kayleigh.

All of a sudden, his dark eyes gave off a red glow.

“The illusion!” Van screamed. “I’ve found the flaw in it! My master didn’t have red eyes.”

“Ho ho ho!” The masked Everblood laughed as the illusion faded and Van found herself back in the castle. “No, I didn’t have red eyes at that point in my life…”

“Wait, what do you mean you didn’t…?” Van asked. “Who are you?”

Her brain was already aching from experiencing the toughest part of her life again, but now she had a new question, just who was this masked man? She did not like what her intuition was telling her.

The Everblood laughed again, and removed his mask. The same kindly man who took her under his wing stared back at her. His face was a pale white, now devoid of its humanly color. It was highlighted by his blood red eyes.

A vampiric smirk crept under his nose. “Vanessa,” he said. “I am your master.”