Prologue: Severand's Coldest Winter - Lilith

It seemed as though whole the world hushed and time itself took the time to pause, allowing this small room of friends and family another moment with each other. When they had woken up that morning none of them had even an inkling of the idea that their lives would change. To them, the land of Severand was now less kind, less loving, and much less beautiful from that moment on but to none more so than Zariah Azaleal. Usually an impenetrable fortress and a hulking mass of tiefling, Zariah was now reduced to a begging husk. Everyone held their breath and looked away, allowing his voice to fill the room with an ever-increasing volume.

"Lilian…? Lilian?! No... No! You can't do this to me. Please! I can't do this on my own! Bastards! Don't take her away from me!" He demanded, looking towards the ceiling. Perhaps the gods were listening to him for once. There was heavy moment, as the entire room seemed to wait for the gods to answer. Instead, he received a reply in the form of a small child's voice. His daughter's voice.

"Daddy?..." She called out to him from the doorway, her form now half visible in the lowly lit room. Zariah felt a hard lump well in his throat. He wanted to continue his skyward screams but someone else needed him more right now. More than the gods needed to be damned, his daughter needed a parent. Through blurred eyes, he turned to look over his shoulder at the small tiefling girl shyly against the doorframe. The girl's skin was a soft pink hue, so soft that one might believe she was a particularly sunburnt human, if not for the horns that peered through her snow-white hair and the cordiform tail trailing behind her. Zariah met his daughter's pale blue eyes. Though she shared his eyes he couldn't help but see his wife in every part of her.

Zariah reluctantly released his wife's now quickly chilling palm and stepped across the room to have his daughter close to him. He needed her as much as she needed him. He shifted his weight and allowed himself to crouch down before her. A weary smile crossed his face, the deep pain written all over him. It was no use trying to hide it from her anyhow, she was a smart girl.

"Lilith..." He began, choking on each word. "It's just... It's just gonna be me... and you now.... okay? And we'll be okay… we're strong… momma needs us to be strong… right now. Okay, baby? Can you do that for her...?" A new wave of tears welled up which he allowed to roll down his jaw.

Lilith bit the inside of her bottom lip to quell the tears she knew were coming. She quickly nodded to her father, unable to form the words with her mouth. She squeezed her eyelids closed in an attempt to fight away this new truth, but it only forced the first few tears from her sparkling eyes. As if not wanted to let her father see her sob, especially after he had asked her to be strong, she leaned forward into his sturdy chest and gripped his shirt with her tiny fingers. Zariah more than welcomed the embrace, wrapping his protective tree-trunk arms around his daughter just as she began wailing into his torso.

He wouldn't let Severand take her from him. He wouldn't let anyone take her from him.