I wasn’t always like this. There was a time that my brother Vance and I were just the average citizens in our hometown of Belcliff. We grew up here on the coast and were gifted with a tanned skin that let us blend in well with the sailors and merchants that travelled to out port time regularly. Even though we were a year apart, we still were mistaken as identical, the only difference was my long shock white hair. Our father used to say that I was kissed by an angel at birth and gifted with the hair color and a certain air of “destiny” about me.

Our father’s ideas of our future never mattered to us though. While he was working in the forge, my brother and I found our fun on the streets and in the alleys of the town, learning to survive by ourselves and picking up skills to stay alive on our own time. Our father did his best for us, we’d never argue that, but he spent more time at the forge than he did at home leaving us to raise ourselves as our mother had died when we were both very young.

But nevermind all that, I’m rambling again aren’t I? Sorry, I have a tendency to do that from time to time, I let myself get caught up in weaving some grandiose story. But then again, when you think of what I’m good at, it fits. Working with my brother, we both would run cons on the visitors of Belcliff, usually some wet behind the ears merchant who came to town with a cargo of fresh supplies that need to be… let’s say “redistributed”. My brother may have had the personality to draw them in, but nothing could stop my silver tongue. By the time I was through, the mark was usually giving us everything they had and more without even knowing it.

Unfortunately, my silver tongue is exactly what got me into the predicament I’m in now. A ship had come in from overseas and the crew was some group of men who by the looks of them were loaded to the gills with enough gold to feed my brother and I for months. Naturally we set to work and soon Vance had worked his magic and we had found our in with the group. They seemed normal enough, just seemed like a bunch of traveling nobles maybe? Regardless, things were not as they’d seemed.

The next night, my brother had gone out to set up a meeting and hadn’t returned. This was never a good sign in our line of work. It didn’t take long to find him, I knew every nook and cranny of this city and no one stayed hidden from me for long. By the time I made my way into the abandoned church I tracked Vance to, the men were already underway with some ritual of some kind. Vance was tied to some pole in the middle of a circle and one of the men was slowly approaching him with a dagger outstretched. I should have turned right then and there and left my brother for dead.

But…

That’s just not what I do.

I charged in and tackled the lead man to the ground and in the confusion I slashed my brother’s bonds and yelled at him to run. He didn’t need anymore time than that as he dashed back from where I came and towards the door. He turned back to look at me, the last time I ever saw those green eyes. “Come on!” he yelled. I slowly shook my head, feeling like I was underwater. I didn’t want him to know that the dagger had already pierced my back and I was beginning to bleed out. With what I thought were my last thoughts I willed him to run, willed him to get away and save himself. It’s funny, at that moment I actually felt at peace, like all the wrong I had done was about to be washed away with my final sacrifice.

That was until I heard his voice booming in my head. The world around me froze as I felt locked in place. From the darkness in front of me a tall figure appeared only, he didn’t appear from the darkness, he was the darkness. “You are an interesting one, do you know that?” he asked me as he strode towards me. He circled my frozen form like a wolf circling a wounded animal, “I could let you die,” he said offhandedly, “let you earn your place in the land of the honored dead.”

With supernatural speed, his arm lashed out and grabbed me by the throat, where his hand touched seemed to ignite in fire that burned hotter than any pain I’ve ever felt. “But,” he continued, “what’s the fun in that? There may be some uses for you yet.”

In a flash of bright light, the man disappeared and a bright burning flame erupted around me covering me in a dark red and yellow fire. To this day, the pain was so intense that I have never felt a burn like it in my travels. But, I didn’t die. Instead, when the fire exploded outwards like a giant fireball I found myself unscathed. Unscathed and changed that is.

When I looked at myself, I was no longer the same normal human woman I had been, I was some kind of abomination. My skin was turned to a dark crimson red and two massive horns had sprouted from my forehead wrapping back around the sides of my head. I had become something else. I had become something with the taint of evil. So I ran. I still am running to this day, always haunted by the voice. That voice that booms in my head in my dreams. The same shadowy figure, the same burning pain, the same voice calling to me.

“You are MINE!”