Legends of Marithia: Book 1 - Prophecies Awakening: Uncut and Extended Second Edition (2 page)

“No! Danton, my love! You fat bastard,
Grueber, may your soul burn for all eternity!” cried Niesha.

Kassina broke down at the sight of her father
burning in the sun. Her wailing was heard in lands far beyond the
confines of the thick, lifeless castle walls. Kassina's eyes
widened and she gasped when she suddenly felt invisible arms wrap
around her, holding her tightly.

A dark voice filled her mind.
Kassina, it
is finally time for the prophecy to be fulfilled. There is nothing
I can do for your mother or father, as this will come at a great
cost. But if you pledge your soul to me, I will give you power. I
will make you the most feared sorceress in all the lands. You will
be able to make them all pay dearly for what they have done. Not
just them, but all Marithians who have forsaken you.

“I don’t understand what you are saying. Who
are you? What is a prophecy? Kill them, kill them all,” she sobbed,
placing her head in her hands. She rocked back and forth, shaking
her head violently.

I am Shindar, the Demon of Darkness. It is
said that a girl born of both darkness and light will destroy all
living creatures and rule a new world under the Blood Red Moon. The
seers have predicted your arrival for thousands of years. If you
give yourself to me, I will show you how to embrace the darkness,
unleash the powers sleeping within you and make everyone answer for
their cruelty. But you need to decide now, as I can only save you
if you allow me. And you don’t have long to decide. The window of
life is closing.

The crowd pelted Niesha with rotten
vegetables and cheered. “Off with her head!”

“No! Mummy! Leave her
alone
!” cried
Kassina. She pressed her face up against the ice-cold bars of her
cage, 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, an ancient force of evil, never gave a reason for
starting the war, and his motives were enigmatic to Marithians.
However, over the long years of peace, many Marithians had
forgotten his name and foolishly allowed his memory to become a
distant one.

Vampires swiftly established a civilisation
within a civilisation, blending in with humans and steering clear
of Veldrenn. Over time, beauty returned to all of Marithia’s
war-ravaged lands. Sadly, this age of peace would be relatively
short-lived.