Prologue

The candle-light flickered, momentarily allowing the darkness to close in. Its whispering was heard: Time is running out. The tidal crashed with all its might against the cliff, roaring angrily. The howling wind tugged at her, disheveling her silky blonde hair and crumpling her long cotton dress.

“Your highness,” the servant eyed her with worries. ”Pleas �"”

The princess raised a halting hand. Her eyes remain fixed on the ocean; the color of despair with clouds looming above approaching at a rapid rate. The candle-light smoldered with a swish and darkness fell once again. It whispered promises �" barren of promises �" with its melodic voice.

“It’s here,” she muttered.

The clouds draped an eerie veil across the sky, spelling certain demise.

She licked her lips and tasted the nauseating taste of blood in her mouth. The air reeked of decomposing bodies that made her skin tingled with chills and she flinched.

A piercing laugher reverberated, overwhelming even the wind’s howl. Dark shadows stretched like tendrils down from the clouds, twirling and coiling around each other until it coerced into a woman.

She was gorgeous. So much that the servants' stare' could not leave her. Lust and admiration glinted in their eyes, though they’re of the same gender. Even the princess had to admit that; purplish blue skin; a depth of mystery in her eye; long curls of dark hair framed her face; clothes made of sturdy black-colored leather that seemed to be harder than armor wrapped around her curvaceous body, exposing her cleavage and shoulder.

“My, I wasn’t expecting an audience with the princess,” the woman voice echoed, similar to hissing but only more seductive. She sauntered towards the princess, her heels clicking every step, and curtsey. “I apologize for my rudeness.”

The princess attention drifted to the ocean behind the woman. It was no longer the raging blue; Dark shadows sprawled over the entire continent, a horde of red glowing eyes glared into her, claws and talons outstretched as if ready to pounce. They were malicious, hungry, and dangerous.

“I see you came prepared,” she said. “What is it that you want?”

A seductive smile crowned the woman’s lip and it gave chills. The howling of the wind stopped and the raging of the waves halt. For a moment, total silence befell, as if time itself has freeze.

Her lips parted.

“I desire ... to sink the land in darkness.”

The princess eyes narrowed into slits and she let out a sigh, unsure if she was disappointed or relieved, or both. “Your ambition drove you mad.”

It laughed, her voice reverberated again. “Human, you are contradicting yourselves. Isn’t your kind always waging war for your own desire, even at the cost of annihilating each other?”

“Yes we do,” her eyes collided with the demon and her pupil glow a diamond white. There was a brief pause.

“But we did it to protect our homeland.” A golden light emanated from her body. As fast and furious as lightning, it expanded and crashed, forcefully driving the demon out of the boundary back miles away. The light blasted a hole through the clouds above her and rays of light slipped in, basking mother earth in its warmth.

Beneath her breath, she whispered, “at least I did.”