4 Chapter 3

Many summers ago, Narana had numerous kingdoms. But during the war between Magnus and the Celestial Souls, they narrowed down to just two. Vudreigh - his kingdom; and Eryos - the kingdom of the Souls. The only thing separating them was the Hollow Forest, which covered miles of barren land. It was filled with so many twists and turns and dangers that not even his horde would enter it. Even ghosts became lost in its endless maze.

She designed it that way, that dark-haired whore who called it home. Meredith was a genius, just like her twin sister. They were two opposites - Life and Death. No horde had been able to make it past her defences. She shape-shifted through the trees like a ghost and they were unable to touch her before she turned into a dark mist of death that swallowed them whole. Sometimes the mist separated and then every kind of death imaginable befell the hordes. Poison here, fire there, being drowned, being crushed, falling ill with the most dreadful of diseases, Meredith was skilled in serving them all in a single sitting. Luckily, he only had one sister to deal with now, he thought, smiling at the crystal ball.

Oh, how beautiful Great Mother was when he first laid eyes upon her. He was spellbound by her otherworldly beauty. If ever he could love another being again, it would be her. But she would have nothing to do with him, just like all the others. She was disgusted by him. Her heart belonged to the Elder. They co-created existence together and have been besotted with each other for billions of years.

The Hollow Forest her sister designed may be a stroke of pure genius in Magnus' eyes, but it posed a significant problem for getting his army to the other side, so that they could reach Eryos and therefore, the Elder. The Elder knew what he had planned, so he stayed away from Vudreigh despite his love being Magnus' prisoner. Only small parts of his demon army could make it to the other side by flying over the forest instead of going through it. They were too few and too weak to truly stand against the Elder. Magnus had a connection to his horde.

While they were there, battling the Elder, they were able to drink some of his energy and relay it back to Magnus while he relayed it into the Triphacyte Ball. But this process was taking far too long, and Thar'Gan was growing impatient. Worse still, it seemed that whenever he took a bit of power, the Elder was able to replenish it from some source unknown to him. Where could such a gigantic being possibly get its power?

In any case, Magnus needed to find a way to get to the other side of the forest himself, with the staff. While the crystal could only imprison nothing more than a piece of a Soul's mind, there was no limit to the amount of power it could drink from them. And it could drink significantly faster than the little bits of energy his horde has been bringing along. The Celestial Souls' power was their life force energy, without it they would die.

Once Magnus imprisoned the Celestial Soul of Life, the Elder created a shield around Eryos that stretched all the way up into the heavens. His rays were still able to penetrate the shield and preserve Life's work, for the time being. While the Elder is vital to life on Narana, he could not maintain the planet alone. The planet had stopped growing since Magnus imprisoned Life's mind. Soon, what the Elder was trying to preserve inside the shield, would also perish. Magnus could feel it every day, how her power drained away from the outside world, how she was withering away like a flower that had exhausted its lifespan. This was also the reason for her ever-increasing screams in his dreams.

If only he could kill the Elder, the shield would also dissipate, but while he was still alive it remained strong. And while the shield still stood, the demons would never truly be able to live on this plane and Magnus would never get what he has been promised.

Thar'Gan's final words echoed in his mind like a nagging sore: "Heed this warning mortal: You may have played tricks on her mind and captured her physical body, but her being is dispersed throughout the universe. Her memory can never truly be erased. Even though she is the only one who can shatter the crystal and set herself free, until you truly kill her, she will always be a threat waiting to engulf you."

What a dangerous, yet beautiful prize he has taken for himself as a trophy. He had better hope that she never wakes up from her sleep.

***

A woman in her sixties limped through the dark forest. She herself did not quite understand how she was able to escape Vudreigh, or what exactly had lured her into the Hollow Forest. It happened in a blur of confusion during one of the sacrificial rites and apparently nobody noticed her slipping away. The mental image of her daughter being slaughtered distracted her from her surroundings. She considered walking into the arena and giving herself up, since she had no more reason to live at that point. But a strange voice inside her prompted her to leave and guided her here.

She winced with every excruciating step she took. Disease had rotten the flesh on her legs nearly to the bone. She was past the point of being afraid of this old forest, witch or not. The last of her family had been slaughtered, and she was unwilling to continue watching people she knew turn to cannibalism. She thought about how the Witch might kill her. Considering all the fearsome stories she had heard about her, it didn't seem like she was much less cruel than the demonic creatures of Vudreigh. She had no idea why she kept carrying on, going Maker knows where, regardless. She was tired and drained, yet the forest called to her. It felt like it was gently tugging her closer.

Movement amongst the branches to her left caught her attention. She jerked her head towards it, but saw nothing. She stood unmoving, listening. Then, movement to the other side pulled her gaze. After turning her head, she caught a quick sight of a fearsome figure. Cloaked in a heavy black robe, her eyes got lost in the hollow eye sockets of the skull's face. An enormous scythe stood a few inches taller than the frame, held tightly by a bony, skeletal hand. Two heavy, raven-black wings dragged behind the skeletal figure. It seemed to levitate in the air. The ghostly reaper came forward a few inches before disappearing before her very eyes. She became aware that she was unconsciously holding her breath…

"Hello, Emelina." Emelina's head flicked backwards and her eyes were rewarded with the sight of a young woman with a supernatural beauty. Her hair was black as coal, skin white as a dove, and lips red as old blood. Her eyes were completely black, with not a smidge of white in them. While that was particularly unnerving, the rest of her appearance gave Emelina the feeling that she was with an angel.

"Are you…the Witch?"

A smile revealed brilliantly white teeth that contrasted heavily with her red lips.

"Dear Emelina, do I look like a witch to you?"

"No, I suppose you don't. What are you doing here then, deary?"

"You know why I'm here. You just won't admit it to yourself."

Emelina appeared in thought for a moment, and then a faint smile adorned her face. "You are a lot more beautiful than I imagined…"

"Is that what you thought earlier of me?"

"I can't say I did…"

She placed her hand around Emelina's shoulders and walked her slowly in the direction of her cottage, which had appeared out of thin air just a few feet away.

"I certainly was not going to allow you to take matters into your own hands in Vudreigh. Those monsters would butcher you. I had more, graceful, plans for you."