Who you are, and why you must be careful...

Shadow finds out who she really is, and that not everyone is ready to accept that.

We continued along the empty halls in silence until we reached a series of corridors with several doors along them. They had names written on them in the runite language of the dimension, and I excitedly tried to find out what the names were, but I couldn’t read most of them. Armen stopped outside one door and opened it.
“These are your mother’s quarters. You will stay here for now.”
“Yes sir.”
“I have to return to the Senate Hall. Will you be ok here?”
“I think so sir.” He smiled slightly at me and left, leaving me alone.

I wandered around the room, exploring it, taking in my surroundings. There were books, lots of books along with several piles of scrolls, all covered more or less in dust. Bit by bit, I made my way around the room, looking in every single nook and cranny. The wardrobe held several sets of white senate robes, cloaks and the Synari formal wear. Every available space was taken up by books or scrolls, and the walls had a few runes painted on them in shimmering colours. I picked out one book and attempted to read it, but to no avail. My grasp of the written language wasn’t good enough to read it. I gave up, putting the book carefully back on the shelf before curling up under the great bed in the room, falling asleep, tired out by the day’s events.

I awoke to see my mother looking at me from under the bed. I smiled, still half-asleep.
“Welcome back to the world of the living little one.” She said gently.
“Hello.” I mumbled, still half asleep as I crawled out again. Arella gave me a hug before she stood up, taking my hand.
“Come on, you have your own quarters now Allyssianne.” She led me out of the room and though more corridors until she stopped outside another door.

It was a fairly small room, with one wall lined with shelves of books, a desk against another and finally a small bed. I turned round to look at Arella, confusion written on my face.
“I don’t understand, why do I have to stay here? Why do you have to leave me?”
“It is a story for another time little one. For now, you need not worry.
“I kept hearing the word ‘demon’ in that room. What does it mean?”I watched my mother carefully. She had been looking at the books on the bookshelf, and her shoulders slumped slightly. Sighing, she took out on heavy looking, leather bound book. She sat on the small bed and patted the blanket next to her. I clambered up, leaning gently against her. Arella opened the book, looking through the pages until she found a certain one. She showed me the picture that had been painted there. It was a being of nightmares! A gigantic wolf of flaming red and the darkest black fur, four blood red eyes adorning its head along with fangs to make a dragon green with envy. I stared at it, wide eyed.
“What is that?” I squeaked eventually.
“That is your father, Kar.” Arella said quietly to me. I shook my head in disbelief.
“It can’t be, I look human! I don’t look like that, do I?” My voice shook with worry and fear.
“You are young yet, you might change.” Arella said softly. I bit my lip, nodding. She smiled sadly at me before standing up. “You must stay here. I will visit you.” I grabbed hold of her hand.
“Please don’t leave me.” I whispered. Arella looked close to crying for a split second before she adopted an emotionless mask. She gently prised my hand off hers.
“I cannot.” She said softly before she turned, striding out of the room. I watched her go with tears I my eyes before I curled up into a tight ball in a corner, afraid of what was going on, and what was going to happen to me. I eventually fell into a fitful, light sleep.

Days turned into weeks, and I spent most of my time studying the books that had been left in my room. On my second birthday, I was to begin lessons with certain members of the Senate. Most of the teachers were kind to me, treating me like a normal child. Meran, however, couldn’t have hated me more. He punished me for every little thing that I did wrong by a cut more or less deep with a blade of his midnight blue magic. I didn’t tell anyone about it, because I feared that it would worsen. Instead, I did what I could to clean out the wounds, and hid them from other people beneath my cloak.

During one lesson, when I was three years old, Meran was furious with me for forgetting an ingredient in a potion he was teaching me. He summoned his magic, lashing out with a tendril of it which I knew was sharper than the sharpest knife. It hit my back as I tried to run away, and I felt my anger boil up into a frenzy of rage.

I don’t remember what happened there, I only remember opening my eyes to see a wall in front of me. I blinked a few times before I realised that I was on my bed. I turned over, my mind still fogged. I hissed in pain as my wound touched the bed, tears springing to my eyes. I blinked them back and looked up to see Arias sitting there, looking at me. I shrank back slightly, knowing that the ruler of the entire dimension was sitting opposite me.
“Peace Allyssianne.” She said softly.
“What happened?” I asked her carefully.
“You turned Demonic.” She said simply. I felt like I had been slapped in the face. A vision of the creature in the book filled my mind and I bit my lip. Arias seemed to see into my mind, for she smiled gently.
“Worry not, you are far from that stage.” I nodded, but the worry was still etched in my mind.
“What does it mean, to turn demonic?”
“It means that you lose control of an emotion, most commonly your anger. You have a demon living in your mind, but your human side keeps a barrier around that part of your mind to keep it under control. When you use emotion, you use magic as well, but you don’t always want to, so you bottle it up. When you go demonic, the energy that keeps the demon away rushes to stop you releasing the magic and therefore the demon takes control.” I nodded solemnly.
“So I can’t feel emotion.”
“You can feel emotion, but the level you will be able to feel is extremely limited, and therefore, it would be easier for you to feel no emotion at all.” I swallowed hard and nodded again. “Can you tell me what happened between you and Meran for the last year. »
“Nothing happened.” I said quickly. Arias sighed.
“Allyssianne, that wound on your back is no incident.” I fidgeted, biting my lip.
“He’ll punish me if I say.”
“It’s ok, he won’t be harming you anymore.” I still squirmed, until the pain in my back seared. “Allyssianne, please.”
“He cut me every time I did something wrong.”
“Is it usually to this extent?” I nodded silently, and hear a crash outside and a shout.
“I don’t care if Arias is talking to her!” Arella burst into the room, her face like thunder. Her gaze softened as she saw me,
“Allyssianne.” She said softly.
“Arella please leave us.
“It’s my own daughter who was injured!”
“Arella!” The last order was spoken with such force that both Arella and I jumped.
“High Priestess, you have been restricting the time I can spend with my child, and this is one time that I feel I need to be here for her.”
“We have already discussed this Arella, and my decision remains unchanged.” Arella looked like she was going to fight back, but then she bowed and left. I watched her go, wanting to tell her to stay, but Arias didn’t look like she was going to change her decision any time soon. A Careen bustled into the room, with a bowl of water and strips of cloth.
“Ah, the young demoness is awake.” She said cheerily. “I’m Fiona, a healer.” I nodded silently, and she asked me to turn onto my side so that she could tend to the wound. I obeyed, and she set to work, having ripped the already torn leotard I was wearing to be able to get to it. She noticed the other scars and pointed them out to Arias, who nodded grimly. I tried to stay as still as possible, even though I felt like pulling away when Fiona put a few stitches in to help the wound to seal. She had given me a piece of thick material to bite down on, and I was doing so, trying not to think of the needle going in and out of my skin.