Vex was feeling a emotion that probably shouldn't exist. That would be the only accurate way of describing her current state of mind as she sat there on the ground at the edge of the forest, easily overseeing the vast grasslands and even still being able to spot the massive city she called home in the distance.

It was the first time she was outside of said city, the first time she tasted the air of freedom, it’s something she had wanted for so long something she had been willing to give up so much for and now, the thing that seemed to be nothing but a fantasy for such a long period of her life was an actual reality, it was something she was supposed to be happy about, and yet she wasn’t.

The reason was not clear to her, in her mind she tried to tell herself over and over again that she was free! She could do everything now she had dreamed about for years, but whenever she got close to being truly happy, close to convincing herself that everything was great, the reality of her situation came knocking and send her right back into her doubt, as she heard and saw that Hanna was still not done having her way with Adeline, they have been at it for three full hours at this point.

Vex was still trying to process the last few hours to be truthful, she had been idly chatting with Luisa after Hanna had stormed out the hut in a mad dash, anger and insanity in her eye and it was during this conversation Vex realised just how bad the situation was, which she sold herself into.

She had believed that Hanna and her crew where killers yes, but she had not expected they would burn down and murder an entire village and that they planned to destroy the estate of an actual First Lady as well.

After a bit more awkward talking the door burst open and Hanna stood there, covered from head to toe in blood and Vex could still see some flesh on her as well, behind her stood a young girl, Vex recognised her as Adeline, the girl convicted for multiple murders and was by all accounts insane, Vex now realised where she got her insane tendencies from, if Adeline was actually part of this group.

And so now here they were here, just inside the forest, away from prying eyes of farmers and merchants since the forest was home to an abundance of monsters and most merchants preferred the saver, albeit longer route to their destinations. And the moment they were sure no one had followed them or anyone spied on them, Hanna got to town on Adeline.

The image of a blood soaked kid, with the eyes of a troll in heat, jumping at another young girl, ripping the clothes away and descending into well of screams and moans was a picture she would probably never forget and some part of her deepest psyche tried to convince her it would be a good memory, while the rest was appalled.

The more she stayed around them, the more she regrets her decision, these 'people' were nothing more then murderous lunatics and she wanted nothing more then to get the hell away! But where would she run to?

As much as she wanted to not admit it to herself, this was her only option right now, there was no chance in hell she would be able to go on alone she had to leave the kingdom before she could do anything even resembling her plans of revenge and to do this she would have to travel with these lunatics. She would just, not partake in any of the crimes they would commit!

"That‘s your best excuse? Oh wow and here I thought we were out here trying to fight for justice and yet you cooperate with a bunch of murderers? What a hero you are."

Vex was startled by the sudden voice, she turned around but found the others didn’t seemed to have noticed anything, they still kept on doing what they were doing previously, except they weren’t moving and neither where the birds in the distance or the leaves on the trees, despite the fact that Vex was feeling a very strong wind.

"Oh come on now, don’t tell me you have completely forgotten about me." Behind her stood a creature, it was small, smaller then even Hanna and it was adorned by a long pointy nose and horns on its head, it’s red skin was the final nail in the coffin, an imp, creature of legends that supposedly once roamed the world, they were rumoured to be the ancestors of all demon kind, before they were supposedly banished into the caverns below the world by the gods and their Angels.

Their was a belief among some common folk that everyone had a imp and a angel on their shoulders, each trying to influence the actions of a person in different ways, it was just a myth but for Vex it was the truth, at least half of it.

"I‘m gonna be honest with you. What you are doing right now is the pragmatic approach, but there is a line to everything and if you decide to stay for to long with… it… you are not going to survive."

Vex quirks an eyebrow at the small demon of ancient times, The creature had appeared to her periodically over her life time, popping in unannounced telling her a few things and then disappearing again. Sometimes it dispensed wisdom, other times it appeared just to piss Vex off.

Vex had gotten used to the strange creature, it never stayed for long and she appreciated the help it sometimes gave her, although she still does not trust it one bit, it was still a demon after all, the architects of mischief and despair as the many story’s about them called them.

Noticing the look of suspicion she had, the imp let out a long sigh before resuming his talking.

"Look I don’t have that much time, so I will just tell you what you need to know, it will be up to you to use that knowledge in the end, but I can’t let my daughter die just yet so please believe me when I say, that all I‘m about to tell you is the truth and nothing but the truth."

Unfortunately for the imp, Vex did not believe him in this statement, after all he already contradicted himself by claiming, like he had done numerous times previously, that she was somehow his daughter, and Vex was rather sure her father had not been a small red skinned demon, but rather a normal human man with a nag for magic other people didn’t like.

"That… 'thing' you are travelling with is a mistake and should not have existed in the first place, ever. What you call monsters are nothing but regular animals, transformed and changed by Magic, humans, elves and the like are creations by the god of crafting and Demons are the offsprings of us Imps. She on the other hand is a amalgamation of all three, created by a madman who thought combining the body of a Human with the body of a Demon and infusing it with the soul of a monster was a good idea! Her very existence is against the order of the world!“

Vex perked her ears a bit, this was getting interesting.

"She is what is called a 'Dark Margenko' and amalgamation of a human, a Margenko and the Soul of a monster, these things are incapable of good will, they only care about causing as much suffering and despair to satisfy their own twisted needs. They take control of  as many Margenko’s as they can, using them to cause as much havoc and chaos as possible."

The Margenko’s. They were a weird breed of demon, small furballs with stubby arms and legs, their only purpose in life was to breed with anything they could breed with. Vex had read stories about certain woman who had allegedly been rescued from a pack of Margenko’s, these women had all claimed to have been forced to have sex with up to every single member of the pack 12 times a week. Vex shuddered and she could feel the cold sweat at the thought of these pests being organised by an individual such as Hanna.

"There was a unified effort by all sapient races to search, find and destroy every single one of them, they far to dangerous to ignore and five or more with a pack of Margenko’s on their side could easily destroy an entire small kingdom in less then 3 days.

If you want to survive you have to go to the lands of the demons they will know how to proceed and also, do not under any circumstances let the thing find out you aren’t on its side or else you will belief jumping from the highest tower in the land would be mercy."

And just like the that the imp disappeared into a grey wail of smoke and soon the world around Vex moved once again, she was overwhelmed for a moment by the sudden sounds and movements around her and she was also perplexed by the fact that the sun was already behind the horizon, but she adjusted quickly enough so it wouldn’t seem weird  and that she just was startled awake in a rude manner, because that’s exactly what Adeline had been trying to archive.

The human was looming over the Necromancer, her eyes staring right into Vex’s. There was a sparkle inside of Adeline‘s eyes that reminded Vex of Hanna, the spark of madness.

"So, your the new one huh? I hope it’s quite clear who belongs to Hanna truly right? You know your place around here right? If not I will make it perfectly clear. I belong to Hanna and no one else, I am her first pet and I completely belong to her alone. She is my master and no one else’s! You can tag along but that’s it! Are. We. Clear?"

Vex simply nodded her head as fast as she could once she noticed the sword in Adeline‘s hand, she was frankly to terrified to object or to question where she suddenly got that sword from.

"Good."

And just like that Adeline disappeared into the darkness of the night leaving a very terrified Vex behind, terrified of the girl who just threatened her life, terrified of the elf who doesn’t bat an eye at all the madness around her, terrified of Hanna who even frightened a father of demons.

The next morning, Vex had barley been able to sleep. She was too terrified of the group she was travelling with to keep her eyes shut for long, to afraid that one of them grew bored and killed her out of boredom. As a result she had barley an hour of sleep before she had been woken up by Hanna who stared directly into her eyes. Suffice to say, Vex was terrified.

Had she grown bored and wanted to kill her? Was she going to get tortured to fulfil the evil needs of a savage beast? Was she about to be raped once again? That last one, as one of her still intact parts of the mind pointed out, did not cause fear for some reason.

"Ah, finally decided to wake up? Well come on we don’t have all day and I would prefer to be back by nightfall."

Vex was confused, where are they supposed to go? There was nothing of importance around other then a few farms and those weren’t a whole days worth of travelling away from the forest so what on earth…

Wait, now she remembered, there was one important place around these parts, the estate of the First Lady Kathrin! They had mentioned about trying to destroy the home of the First Lady before after all. Something absolutely insane to say the least.

The estate of a high noble, a council member at that, was a very, very good defended location some even speculated that they were better defended then some parts of the royal palace, since the nobles were capable of hiring their own soldiers to guard their property at all times, while the royal family had to protect the entire kingdom. Furthermore they wanted to attack Lady Kathrin of all nobles, the noble known for her hunting prowess, meaning she also had skilled hunters around her property at all times!

Vex had no love for the kingdom, she actively sought to get her revenge against it, so seeing a council members estate being destroyed would greatly satisfy her need for revenge, but alas she wasn’t suicidal enough to consider that satisfaction worth the risk. As such she tried to convince Hanna, that her plan was way to dangerous for the minimal reward, but Hanna was having none of it.

"Listen here you little Necromancer, this is something very personal and I will not stop at anything to see her fall into endless despair. She tried to kill me once and she failed I will make sure she fails again. I want to break her spirit and body, take everything she holds dear and look her in the eye as it happens and I want to laugh at her all the while."

Vex gulped audibly, looking over her shoulder she saw Luisa with a glint in her eyes and a barleys audible laugh on her lips, revealing she too though this to be a personal matter and she looked forward to all of this, then suddenly she felt the cold touch of steel against her neck, as Adeline appeared behind her, blade drawn.

Vex dared not to move as Hanna slowly grabbed the blade between two fingers and ever so slowly slide it backwards, cutting open the skin on Vex‘s neck, the hot blood running down her cold neck, she hissed in pain.

Once The the tip of the blade past her last part of skin she let the blade go, as it clattered onto the grass beneath them staining the tip of the blades of grass red in blood.

"No one will take this from me. No one. Are we clear?“ She whispered against Vex‘s ear.

Vex, to afraid to move her head, simply mumbled a quite yes and Hanna retreated her head backwards, stopping briefly to lap up some of the remaining blood on Vex‘s neck, which caused the Necromancer to shudder in slight pain, as the round pressed against the still open wound of her neck.

"Good."