Kingdom of Aldovia
14th Day of the Frost Moon
Year 823, Month of Nareth
The scent of damp earth and iron filled the air. Beneath the pale light of the moon, a girl knelt on the cold forest ground, cradling the lifeless body of her father.
"Father… Father, wake up." Her voice trembled as she shook him gently, her gentle hands stained red with his blood. Thick, dark liquid seeped from the gaping wound in his chest, soaking into the soil beneath him.
His eyes—once warm, filled with laughter—were dull now, staring at nothing. His lips, always ready with a kind word or a story, were slightly parted, but no breath came from them.
A choked sob escaped her. She pressed her forehead against his still-warm face, as if the touch alone could bring him back. Her tears dripped onto his skin, tracing a path down his bloodied cheek.
Then suddenly she heard it—the distant sound of horses' hooves pounding against the palace grounds. The murmurs between the air. The rustling of leaves disturbed by approaching figures.
They were still here.
Panic flared in her chest, but beneath it burned something deeper, something colder.
Slowly, she lifted her head, her tear-streaked face turning toward the trees. Shadows moved beyond the treeline, their silhouettes cast against the silver glow of the moon.
It was them. The men who did this. The men who took everything from her.
Then she heard shouts. The crunch of boots. The snap of branches.
"This way!" a voice barked through the trees.
She froze.
"Over there!" another man shouted, and a beam of torchlight cut through the darkness, landing on her kneeling form.
"After her!" someone hissed. A soldier surged forward, his sword drawn.
She looked at her father's body, she didn't want to leave him.
But if she stayed, she would die.
"Stop! In the name of the crown." They yelled.
Panic exploded through her. With a strangled cry, she forced herself to move. Stumbling backward, she tore her gaze away from his still form and ran.
The trees closed in around her as she plunged into the forest, the darkness swallowing her whole.
She ran until her legs gave out. Until her lungs burned and her vision swam. Until there was nothing left but the sound of her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.
Then the whispers began.
Soft at first, rustling through the leaves, curling around her like smoke. They came from the forest itself, from the unseen depths where the light could not reach. She had heard of this place before. The cursed woods. A place where no sane soul would dare tread.
But she was not sane. Not anymore.
She staggered forward, her mind hazy, her thoughts unraveling. She had nothing left. No home. No family. No future.
And then came a voice. One she recognised all too well.
"What do you seek my dear?"
A woman cloaked in shadow, standing beneath the twisted limbs of an ancient tree emerged. Her eyes gleamed like embers in the dark, watching and waiting.
The girl swallowed the lump in her throat. "I seek….I seek justice."
"Tsk tsk tsk." A slow smile curled the woman's lips. "No," she said softly. "You seek vengeance."
She did not deny it.
The woman reached out, brushing cold fingers against the girl's cheek, tilting her chin upward. "Then you have come to the right place."
The wind howled through the trees, carrying the scent of something ancient, something forbidden. The girl closed her eyes tightly as a loud shriek echoed throughout the forest.
And then darkness swallowed her whole.