NoraNali

Well it’s time, the year will end soon and I wish you all a very nice New Year’s Eve and start into the new year. And I also want to thank all of you.

When I first started to write this story I would have never expected to actually come anywhere close to what I am at now and I want to truly thank you for everything. Your support and your patience with me especially, as I am a very slow writer, at least compared to most others and yet you all still stay and continue to support the story, something none of you are obligated to do so I really just want to thank you for it all.

I have a ton of fun writing this story and will continue to do so, even if it takes two weeks I will update eventually and if I ever do decide to take a break I will notify it beforehand.

Thank you, I truly mean it.

Signed

NoraNali

Julia knew that she was in deep trouble, even more trouble then that one time she snuk into one of her mothers hunting trips when she was 6 years old. Because now the one who had the punishment hammer in hand, wasn’t her sympathetic mother, rather it was a bloodthirsty monster. In short: she needed to get out of these chains!

Her captors started discussing among themselves, at least Julia believed they did, she wasn’t really paying attention to them, instead she tried anything to get her chains to loosen their grip on her, she wiggled, squirmed and tried anything, yet nothing worked and yet she didn’t let up, she knew she needed to get out of here and tell her mother and her companions, as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, the young knight, Lars Strand, looked with a blank stare into a void only he could see, when he first heard the news that his parents were dead he was devastated and learning a few days later that his younger sister had gone missing and was presumed dead, he was even more devastated. To honour his parents he doubled his training efforts and swore to both avenge her parents by killing the Dark Margenko responsible and find his little sister.

In his mind he had played out this very scenario, of him finding the dark Margenko, before finally killing the tormentor of his family, after which he would search the entire kingdom to find his little sister, no matter the cost. He imagined they would hug and cry once he found her, remembering her as a soft and kindhearted girl who wanted to spend her time with her family as much as possible.

He wanted their reunion to be a happy one, one of family, as they had no family left but themselves, but now he had found her and none of his made up scenarios played out, instead his sister barley gave him a glance, what’s more she was apparently associated with the very monster who he swore to kill, the one who tore their happy family apart, the dark Margenko, looking at the beast the same way she used to look at her family, it broke his spirit.

He could not accept this, would not accept this, something must have happened! She might be under hypnosis or maybe it was something this blasted shadowmancer did! He knew criminals where often so obsessed with their own personal gain that they don’t care who they have to hurt to get what they want, but to not only learn forbidden magic, but also allying yourself with a monster? That was truly the lowest of lows!!

And yet despite all of these thoughts he had, he couldn’t get angry, or mad nor disgusted, all he felt was an emptiness and sadness as he desperately tried to get his sister to finally recognise him, or to finally wake up from this hellish nightmare, but of course neither occurred.

"Why don’t you… recognise me… sister… Adeline… please…" He whispered to no one, but two cat like ears heard regardless. And a smirk began to form on Hanna’s face, as it did. every time she got an fun idea.

Meanwhile, inside the village of Querum, Feralt, Captain of the Cloud Order, First Lady Kathrin and Querum‘s elder Markus, were conversing inside the elders house, in the dead center of the village. The two nobles started by giving a short explanation as to why an entire Knight Order was camping outside the village and then began asking questions, if there were any strange occurrences recently of any kind.

"I‘m sorry to disappoint my lady, there was nothing noteworthy happening around these parts, the only thing out of the ordinary was the arrival of three new inhabitants to the village some time ago." The elder spoke while scratching his bushy white beard in thought.

"And I can promise you, that those three girls couldn’t be the monster you are looking for, they are quite the hard working kind and although they aren’t really that social, they still are polite young Ladys, I doubt that they could keep up that charade for such a long time if they were in fact, monsters in disguise."

"Oh well, I thank you for your help regardless and I‘m sorry we had to bother you." Lady Kathrin said giving a look at Feralt, who kept quite for the most part and even  ow only gave a small nod towards the elder.

The elder in turn laughed.

"No, please my lady. It was an honour to be of service to the legendary First Lady Kathrin, I never thought that me, in my old years, would be able to even see a First Lady, much less be of use to her."

After saying their well wishes and a handshake, much to the surprise of the town elder, the two nobles left for their camp, outside of the village northern gate. And as they walked they talked about their future plans.

"Once we have all the necessary supplies we‘ll travel down to the Southlands and once we have confirmed the target is not hiding in the local woods. If we don’t find it by then, only the northern territories remain to be searched."

Feralt nodded, before speaking.

"It’s fortunate that the possibility of it fleeing east is completely out of the picture, the elves would spot it faster then we could ever hope too. Although it stands to reason… Are they capable of…" Lady Kathrin interrupted him before he could end his sentence giving him a reassuring smile.

"Don’t worry your pretty little head captain, I know what they are capable of and they know of what’s going on. I doubt the monster would get very far even if it tried."

They talked till they finally reached their camp, where they were greeted with an surprising message.

"They still haven’t returned? It has been almost 2 hours now. I thought the local hunters claimed the forrest to be small and full of non dangerous monsters? My own daughter shouldn’t need more then 45 minutes for far more dangerous places alone."

Lady Kathrin gave a stern glance towards the messenger, who flinched for a short moment before continuing.

"Your not mistaken My Lady, the local hunters leader did claim these things, and we even reaffirmed his statement, but even now there were no sighting of your daughter or her escort."

"I don’t like this… Fetch me this hunter, we will go and look for them. Captain, you stay here and keep going as planed, if we don’t return by sunset, come looking for us, if you don’t find us by then, just proceed as planned."

Feralt didn’t like this, not least for the danger the First Lady was putting herself into, but he knew better then to speak against her, during their time together he learned to not involve himself into what Lady Kathrin considered 'personal', her family was one such thing.

He simply asked the First Lady to be careful, before leaving to proceed as planned.

Lars didn’t remember falling asleep and yet here he was waking up, under the shade of a large oak tree. As the confusion started to set in he tried to remember just what happened for him to end up like this. And like a boulder landing in a lake, all the recent memory’s fell into place.

The mission, his and Lady Julia‘s capture and… his… sister…

His mind slowly fell into despair once again, as he remembered his sister, the way she looked at him with cold, dead eyes, while looking at the very beast that killed their parents with the love she used to look at him and her family instead. Despair grew, and soon turned to anger and rage. He cursed the beast in his head a thousand times over, as he grieved over the lose of his family once more.

He stayed like that for a good minute or two, simply ensnared by his overflowing emotions, but once he finally calmed down enough, he actually realised how strange his situation was right now. He remembers being held captive by the Dark Margenko, yet now he was simply… not, he just woke up like it all was a dream.

More strangely, he had all of his Order equipment, but for somehow his armour just… wasn’t.

He just couldn’t wrap his head around this situation, nothing seemed really but not unreal at the same time.

After observing his surroundings a bit more, he came to the conclusion that this was indeed the same forrest he and Lady Julia were tasked with scouting, meaning that the mission was indeed not a fragment of his overtop revenge fantasy, he came up with while sleeping, however, Lady Julia, nor the Dark Margenko or it’s helper was anywhere to be found, including his sister.

Had Lady Julia escaped and he was knocked out while they gave chase? Or was this actually the afterlife and he had been killed by the beast? It were just more questions the longer he lingered, so he decided tobendem proactive, by trying to find either Lady Julia, their camp or the beast and it’s group, then he would get answers, he was sure of it.

"And where do you think you‘re going?" The voice startled Lars and he quickly drew his sword and turned to the direction where the voice came from, only to let it fall right to the ground in shock and disbelief, before him stood his sister.

Adeline had hidden herself behind large tree and had now revealed herself to her brother, who broke down crying, overwhelmed by his emotions once more. She silently watched with an cold gaze, as her brother was lost in his over-swelling emotions.

Eventually his crying turned to soft sobs and with a smile on his lips he asked a question, a possibility he had thought about the entire time but couldn’t accept it, as his sister was still on the line, but now, he couldn’t deny t any longer and needed to know.

"Am I dead?“

Adeline stared at him, not moving or speaking and neither did her cold gaze change, eventually she started to take long and slow steps towards him, her expression did not change and once she was directly in front of him she answered.

"No, you are not…"

Relieved he closed his eyes and his tears started to flow once more, he raised his arms to finally, finally hug his sister after all this time. At that moment he felt a great pain in his stomach and he looked down to find a dagger rammed into his stomach. Looking up he looked into the cold eyes of his sister, her expression had yet to change.

"Not yet at least."

Shock, disbelief and betrayal all welled up in him at the same time, why would she do this? He fell to the ground as Adeline ripped the knife back out of his stomach and he held his wound as to not bleed out, when he suddenly felt cold, hard steel against his neck, glancing towards his neck, the cool blade of a longsword rested against his neck, and Adeline continued to look at him with her cold hard stare.

"If it weren’t for Hanna‘s direct instructions I would have killed you long ago, you have dared to draw your blade against her and for that alone you should have been killed on the spot." Her voice was drenched in venom and hatred, while Lars simply looked upon the ground, not moving or speaking.

With a sneer she stabbed him in the shoulder with her blade, twisting it once before pulling it out. He grunted in pain, but remained motionless.

"Hanna granted you a last wish before your execution, so go and make that before I lose my patience with you."

At the words he looked up once more, a shine inside his eyes. The shine of hope as he made his request.

"May we share a drink together? In my pocket there should be two vials of water."

While Adeline sneered in disgust, she obliges, as she would never go against anything Hanna would say, she would never abandon her after all, she knew Hanna would always protect her. And so she fished two vials of clear liquid out of his pocket and gave one of them to Lars.

"You drink first." She simply stated and Lars happily obliges.

After a couple of seconds of nothing happening, Adeline decided it was probably save to drink and chugged the liquid in one gulp, before throwing the vials to the nearby grass.

With that taken care of, Adeline grabbed her sword once more and prepared to take the head of the man in front of her, much to the shock of Lars, who’s eyes bulged and he stammered backwards in disbelief.

"W-what? How is this possible? These vials were filled with antidote for any and all Mind manipulation spells, you should be free of the beasts control!"

With a growl and more hatred then before Adeline kicked Lars in the face, sending him tumbling into the ground, before grabbing him by his neck and pulling towards her face.

"Don’t you dare insult the love of my life ever again, you disgusting insect. Hanna was the first one to show me true love, she protected me and still does. No one and nothing in the world stands above her, you should know your damn place! You are nothing but a toy for her to play with and she had deemed you no longer enjoyable, so you get disposed of, simple as that!"

She dropped him to the ground before raising her sword and bringing it down, it went straight through his chest and into the ground, he screamed in pain, but she wasn’t done, as she continued the to stab his body over and over and even after he stopped making sound, after he long stopped moving and after her blade was covered in his blood up to the hilt she didn’t stop. Only after the grass around her was completely red with blood did she stop.

And without looking back she stood up, cleaned her sword on another patch of grass and left the part of the forrest and left her last piece of her humanity and family dead on the forrest floor.

As Lady Kathrin And the Hunter Orwell made their way through the forrest a feeling of unease slowly crept over them, as the trees seemed taller then before and the shadows longer, Orwell kept telling him self there was nothing wrong, he had been inside this forrest more often then his own four walls probably and yet he just couldn’t shack off the feeling that something was wrong.

Suddenly there was movement one of the bushes and they both stood still and readied their weapons, they were both seasoned hunters and the most dangerous creature in the forrest was only a Warg at best, yet despite this knowledge they both still felt nervousness creep up their spines. Until out of the bushes a girl came stumbling through.

Lady Kathrin recognised her child at a mere glance and was overfilled with joy as she dropped her sword onto the forrest floor to rush towards her child and bury her in a deep hug.

Orwell, who didn’t recognise the girl immediately kept up his defensive position and analysed the girl in front of them and as such he saw what Kathrin in her emotional state could not, five thick string of complete darkness were attached to the girls limbs and back, and her movements seemed unnatural and forced, like she was a puppet.

Realisation shot through him like an arrow and he stopped the First Lady from blindly running into certain death, as Lady Julia suddenly drew her sword and swung towards the pair.

Shock and confusion adorned Lady Kathrins face, as her own daughter slashed at her with a sword, the full intent of killing her, that’s when she also finally took a longer look at her daughter and came to the same realisation as Orwell had.

She looked into her daughters eyes, dead and lifeless, yet despite that, tears welled up and fell towards the ground and she slowly opened her mouth to whisper something, before once again charging forward to attack. It was barley a whisper yet both Kathrin and Orwell heard her loud and clear.

"Help me."