Shadow Seer [18+]

BEFORE

THEN

The yard was ablaze and filled with the haunting echoes of tortured screams.

Cries of loss coupled with endless death rattles, told tales of torment, echoing off the enclosing towering walls. Fire ravaged nearby buildings, shattering windows and scorching entrances. A thick veil of smoke billowed into the night sky, obscuring any glimpse of the starlit heavens above from a young girl's terrified eyes.

Crouching low, her eyes flickered between the shelter of the crumbling refuge she inhabited and the comparably safer refuge offered by the yard beyond. Flames danced out of control; the heat pressing dangerously against her brown skin. Sweat speckled on her brow as the flames' menacing presence accompanied the deafening song of clashing steel and the frantic shouts of soldiers and fleeing citizens.

As fear gripped her, the girl lamented the loss of her family. A collapsing beam that had left her paralysed with fear had separated her from her mother and brothers and now she had no way of finding them. A shower of embers and dust had erupted around her and she'd been too terrified to act and follow her mother's instructions and follow. When the city had been ravaged, her mother had been desperate to get all her children to safety, especially the one within her, but the girl had frozen. When she'd finally found the strength to look up, her family was gone, vanished into the abyss of chaos around them.

A violent jerk into the open shattered the girl's wayward thoughts. Pain shot through her body, her neck pulled backward by her hair that now served as a merciless tool of control. Instinctively she fought back with the fervour of a cornered animal, unleashing screams, hisses and kicks that echoed all around her. Her voice was ravaged by screams and the invasive smoke that filled her lungs, threatening to suffocate her if her captor didn't break her neck first.

They dragged the girl over hot rust coloured dirt before the ground came up to meet her jaw, smacking her teeth up into her mouth, biting her tongue. She cried out, the pain and savagery of the moment like nothing she'd ever experienced. A foot kicked her over onto her back, limbs spread ungainly. Mouth bleeding, head spinning, the girl summoned what strength remained in her and scrambled onto trembling hands and knees. Desperate to identify her captor, through her tears, she strained to make out the figure looming before her.

The soldier wore a black and gold uniform, marking him as not just a soldier but a soldier in the Dark Emperor's Army. Tales of the conquering warlord of Cotai had reached the shores of Agmantia but he'd never been any concern of hers.

A fabric hood concealed the soldier's face, leaving only his eyes visible; the depths devoid of empathy, betraying no hint of emotion as they met her tear-filled gaze.

"Show me your stomach, girl!" he commanded in Agmantian, a language foreign to his own Cotaini origins, before he pulled her to her feet.

He knows! They've found me!.

The brute's knowledge of another language would have impressed her if he weren't here to capture her. The realisation left her stunned with disbelief. The weight of disappointment that they'd finally found her crashed down, crushing her heart as her mother's painstaking efforts to keep her hidden proved to be in vain. She'd only been asked to do one thing: hide. The girl felt a paralysing stillness overcome her once more.

"Please," she begged, her small voice trembling. The soldier leaned in, his rough hands grabbing at her clothes, seeking to expose the skin beneath. "Please...no!"

Panic gripped her, her pleas escalating into anguished cries, fuelled by the knowledge of the unspeakable atrocities committed by men – these men – who captured and abused when they ravaged the lands they found. Her mother had always emphasised her value, not just for the power that dwelled within her, but the fragile vessel she was, vulnerable to these ruthless predators. The soldier persisted in pawing at her garments, the finely crafted tunic and knee-length pants now soiled with crimson dust, remnants of her smouldering city. The city continued to burn around her, the flames accompanying the sounds of people she knew and loved fading away. Whether through escape, death or capture, she couldn't know.