desperately trying to lay eyes on her mother.
“I love you, darling. I will always-” began Niesha. Her words were cruelly interrupted, replaced by a sickening choking sound. The ringing of the blade echoed through the air. Heavy drops of steaming blood pooled near Kassina’s cage before her mother’s head fell hard to the ground in front of her. Kassina let out a primal scream as she watched the life fade from her mother’s eyes.
“I will kill every last one of you! You will all die!” she yelled hysterically as her pain turned to a furious anger and madness that engulfed her very being. She shook her cage so violently that the guards had to use all of their weight to hold it in place. Blood streamed down her face as she pounded her head against the bars.
“Guards, prepare to open the cage. This creature will be stoned to death!” ordered the king. The crowd erupted in cheers, excited by their unquenchable bloodlust.
Nobody who loves you remains in the realm of Marithia, but I will always love you, Kassina, and I will let you grow to womanhood before unleashing your immortality. Do you want to be saved?
Kassina's piercing voice echoed throughout the city, “Yes, Shindar. Save me, please!”
The crowd laughed at her pleas while the guards readied the stoning pit. A tall man wearing a heavy robe stepped back, staring at Kassina’s cage. He stumbled backwards over loose rocks and mumbled as he ran toward the castle’s closed gates, “No! It can’t be him… we killed him! I have to get out of here — now!”
Do you pledge your soul to the darkness, to fulfil the prophecy of the Blood Red Moon and serve me, Shindar, as your new god, and become my instrument of darkness for all eternity, to become my child?
“Yes, I will do anything. Save me!” sobbed Kassina.
“Nobody will save you, child,” replied the king. “It is time for you to die.”
Repeat these words carefully after me. Liberate me ex inferis…
“ Liberate me ex inferis,” chanted Kassina as she was roughly dragged along the ground, dust blowing up from the ground to blanket her cage from sight.
The skies darkened with thick black clouds that blotted out the sun, and the crowd erupted in panic. The guards dropped the cage in shock when they realised it was now completely empty. Kassina’s body hovered beside the cage, her eyes a fiery red, and her hair slithered unnaturally in the air as if a hundred snakes had grown from her skull. The tips formed snake heads and they hissed at the king in unison. A terrible voice exploded from her lips as Shindar spoke through her.
“Your world will never be the same again, and your brutality will have been for nothing. The prophecy will be fulfilled and all of you will serve me in the underworld!” thundered Shindar.
Kassina raised her arm and pointed at the scattering crowd, then turned and pointed at King Grueber. Shindar spoke through her again. “You will all die, and countless generations to follow will again live in fear until the time of the Blood Red Moon. Every last one of you will bow to me in a new world of darkness!”
The darkening clouds rumbled and red lightning crashed into the surrounding lands. Grueber fled in fear, escaping towards the perceived safety of his turret and locking the doors behind him as he ran. His people banged on the doors and desperately pleaded for their king’s help. One of the guards swung a sword at Kassina’s neck in an attempt to decapitate her. As he swung the blade, she disappeared before their eyes. The sword cut deep into the breastplate of another guard, who screamed out in pain, his hot steaming blood spurting into the air and running down his armour. The dark clouds again rumbled loudly as rain pelted the crowd. They screamed helplessly as the rain turned to acid that melted the flesh off their bones. King Grueber could only watch from his turret window as his people’s bodies disintegrated before him. Shindar's ghastly face illuminated in the clouds, his mouth gaping wide as he sucked the souls out of their melting bodies, their white glows flew upward like fireflies and disappeared. They were now under the demon's control.
“By the gods,” Grueber asked himself, “What have I done?”
Kassina squinted with the bright lights of Shindar's spell. She felt herself being pulled as if she were a caught fish on a lightning-fast line, unable to control her destiny. She watched as her hair glowed and returned to its former state, flickering wildly around her vision. She brought her broken hand to her face and watched as her body healed itself. She felt no pain as she felt her bones snap back into place and her skin closed itself as if it had been seamlessly sewn back together. The blur of colours ceased as she landed harshly on the icy-cold marble floor of Shindar's dark tower, bewildered and confused.
A familiar voice spoke nonchalantly. “Welcome to your new home in the underworld, Kassina. I am Shindar, and I apologise for how you must feel at this moment, but the magic will wear off shortly… along with the undesirable side effects.”
She lifted her head in pain and vomited violently onto the floor. Wiping her mouth clean and blinking hard to clear her vision, the back of a tall figure hidden within a heavy ornate robe decorated with images of skulls seemed to form in front of her.
They were in a throne room, surrounded by skeleton warriors who bowed in her direction. Shindar turned around and reached down to pick her up from the floor and gave her an affectionate embrace as she continued her sobbing. Her eyes widened and body trembled in fear as he carried her. Through quickened breaths, she asked, “What is it that you want from me?”
“There is nothing for you to fear here, Kassina, least of all from me. You are safe now, and I would never harm you. Far from it, actually; you have been a long awaited guest in the underworld. I will take you to your quarters for you to get some rest and warm up with some tea. We will have much to discuss, and you need your strength. All will be explained to you in time.”
Shindar gently lifted her in his arms, waiting for her body to relax before cradling her down the dark corridors. He held her close to his chest as if comforting his own daughter. Laying a gentle kiss on her head, he eased open the squeaky door to her new room, and sat her down on a warm bed. She yawned loudly between sobs and began to disrobe, but Shindar raised his hand for her to stop.
“There is no need for you to do that, especially in front of me. When you wake, I will have one of our servants take you for a bath and see to some new clothes.”
She heard his voice, but struggled to keep her eyes open as she began to drift away to sleep. Shindar sat beside her and brought her to his lap, laying her head on his chest and stroking her hair. 'I too was cast away from their world, as if everything I had done for them meant nothing. I know how you must feel, but you are home now. Sleep, my child.'
He hummed a lullaby to help her sleep. He would not be leaving her side that night. She was now his most important and cherished possession.
Marithia had long since recovered from the ancient war against Shindar and his Forces of Darkness. Its land was a large continent surrounded by uncharted wild seas in a predominantly tropical environment. The lush landscape gave the Marithian highlands an enchanting beauty that deceptively masked the darkness within. Survivors of the war had banded together and agreed to a new age of peace. The great dragons suffered immense losses of life in the war, and retreated back to Trahoterra, the Island of Dragons. Elves and humans founded their own new settlements, as their homes had been destroyed in the war and their ruins held only bitter memories. Humans took refuge in the deserted golden city built by the ancients long ago, Greenhaven, named to symbolise both the protection found within its walls and the lush surroundings lying without. A new king was crowned to rule the lands and order was swiftly restored. However, not all humans wanted to live inside the walls of Greenhaven, opting instead to build their own settlements which were scattered throughout Marithia.
The elves moved to the familiar territory of the woods, and used their enchantments and magic to found Veldrenn, the Elven City. Amid this segregation, vampires, who were no longer under Shindar’s control, wandered the lands aimlessly, feeding off anything they could find. The elves publicly declared that no vampire would be tolerated within the walls of Veldrenn after the Vampire King had allied with Shindar’s Forces of Darkness. Humans were more forgiving toward vampires, much to the dismay of the elves. Vampires were allowed to live among them and were treated as citizens of Greenhaven, providing they agreed to abide by the laws of Greenhaven. Breeding between human and vampire was strictly forbidden and vampires were allowed to feed off prisoners and animals only. Any vampire descendants of royal blood were excluded from the agreement, and would be killed on sight.
From time to time, rogue survivors of Shindar’s army attacked settlements. They were blind to the reality that the war had already ended and mindlessly carried out their lord's final commands. They were quickly defeated in battle. Tensions remained high, but the attacks lowered in frequency and intensity over time. Shindar’s defeat returned him to the underworld, where he waited patiently, anticipating the prophecy that would allow his return. The dark underworld existed in a parallel realm that could only be reached with the aid of powerful magic. Shindar,
