GIFTED: CURSE OF THE DARK QUEEN

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN.

*delving into the dark parts now*

Abantika's head was throbbing, she groaned and winced in pain. As she slowly opened her eyes, the bright light blinded her...she blinked for a few minutes before looking again. Abantika looked around herself in awe, she was in a mansion..mansion is a understatement, she was in a damn palace! She was immediately enveloped by a sense of opulence and timeless beauty. The vast entrance hall, with its high, arched ceilings adorned with intricate frescoes, sets the tone for the splendor within. Chandeliers, dripping with crystals, cast a warm, golden glow across the polished marble floors, which are inlaid with elaborate patterns of semi-precious stones. Rich embroidered tapestries and silk draperies in deep hues of blue and black were hanging from the walls, they depicted a story..a love story but..but it doesn't end well as the woman in the drawing falls on someone's altar with a dead body of a man in her hand. Delicate jali screens, carved from marble with geometric and floral designs, separate the different sections of the palace, allowing for privacy while maintaining a sense of openness... The furniture is an exquisite blend of traditional craftsmanship and regal comfort. Low, plush divans are piled high with silk cushions embroidered with sapphire thread, and intricately carved wooden tables hold ornate black brass lamps that fill the air with a soft, ambient light. In the corners of the rooms, large brass urns hold vibrant arrangements of....black roses, their scents mingling with the subtle aroma of a unknown sweet scent. Abantika looked at in complete wonder, she got up from the ground and walked towards a wall when suddenly! she was pulled back by someone...she turned around, her hands were chained to the wall. Abantika was confused now, she pulled on the chain but it didn't break..."Guess we have to do this the hard way.." Abantika said to herself as she summoned her fire, Abantika's eyes glowed with a orange hue as a surge of fire appeared in her hands..she channeled the crackling flames towards the chains, the flames engulfed the chains creating a hissing sound, the metal grew hot from the heat...but it didn't melt! Abantika stopped using her magic and huffed "why won't you break!" She tugged on the chains once again but nothing happened "They're spelled darling, they won't break that easily." A unknown female voice caught Abantika's attention, she turned around only to come face to face with a old woman, she was wearing black robes and was carrying a stick with a glass ball on top. The old woman's face was so familiar but Abantika couldn't put her finger on it "Who-who are you?" She asked cautiously, The old woman gave her a small smile "Just a servant darling, I came to see how you were doing..given the fact that you are chained to the wall and all." Abantika looked at the chains and then at the old woman, she suddenly shivered when she realized how cold and frosty it was in the palace..The old woman noticed her shivering "Oh! sorry darling, that happens when you come here for the first time. The palace is underwater you know, my mistress would have kept the palace warm but she is not in her prime now.." "wait wait wait! What do you mean the palace is under the water?!" Abantika asked, her voice was now high pitched with excitement and fear. The old lady chuckled "This palace..it was built as a tomb for her. But she didn't let those wretched gifted kids keep her in a old, dusty tomb...she redecorated it..she was sentenced to a water tomb..to die from the cold." The old woman chuckled again "But they didn't know what she can do..they were weak." the realization of where she was struck Abantika like a lightning bolt! She grimly said "This is her..the dark queen's lair isn't it?" the old woman slowly nodded "You guessed right, darling now...look at those paintings." Abantika turned her eyes where the old Woman was pointing, the paintings...the paintings of the love story..it showed a man and woman getting married..then a fire engulfing the man..then the woman crying in front of someone with the man's body in her hands. It looked like she was crying in front of a sage, "Who is that?" Abantika asked, pointing to the sage "That is the First Gifted...Rudranath. He was said to be one of the strongest gifted, Shiva's representative on earth, destroyer of the evil...but do you know what he wasn't?" Abantika arched her eye brow at the Old woman, "He wasn't the great man he claimed to be. He closed the door on a woman's face who begged him to save her husband's life..." The old woman gave out a deep breath "Now you may ask, why did he did that?" She looked at Abantika, dead in the eyes...Abantika gulped "W-why?" "Because she tainted his 'gifted bloodline' by marrying a human..a person with no supernatural abilities and do you know the worst part darling?" Abantika gave her another confused look, the old Woman pointed to a painting..in the painting, the woman seems to be pregnant...she is wearing a white sari and below her abdomen the whole region is red...Abantika's mouth opened in shock! "She was pregnant when he died..she had a..miscarriage." "And all because she wanted to save the love of her life, Rudranath could have saved her...could have easily saved her husband and her child but he forced her to retort to dark magic.." The old woman said with a sigh, something didn't sit right with Abantika...something was wrong "Um..Who are you again and why are you telling me all this?" The old woman chuckled a bit and walked towards a divan, she said "I have been watching you eight closely, I have seen you gaining your powers...I have seen you fighting my army even when you didn't know your powers existed..and from my research, you are the most level headed in your whole group...and also...a fire gifted like you, once upon a time, burned down a station paralyzing my husband." Abantika's breathing stopped, sweat prickled on her neck as a chill went down her spine "You-You are.." The old woman gave Abantika a menacing stare "I am...The nightmare herself. The one who was entombed, the one wronged by you so called heroes..I am.." A swirl of dark smoke surrounded her, shrieking dark forces crawled out of the walls of the palace chanting a name "mohini, mohini, mohini.." The old woman's serene face ripped away, her black robes burning away...The dark smoke went inside the woman who standing here now, her shiny midnight hair falling on her shoulders, a silky black gown ran down her body...her skin glowing like the stars in a dark sky, her eyes..they once held kindness but now just malice and hatred, her face was beautiful...a gold crown sat atop her head and gold bangles decorated her hands...her fingertips were black, as she held a luminous glowing crystal ball in her hand "So darling, now you know who I am...my name is mohini, but you might know me as.." Abantika muttered in shock "THE DARK QUEEN."

Abantika stared at her in shock and fear, The Dark queen looking at her with a menacing smirk "Shocked Darling? I didn't expect that from you..after all, you were trained by that low life to kill me." Abantika gritted her teeth "Didn't expect you to call your killer at your own home." She let out a laugh "Ah hahahahah! ahhahah! oh..Oh god! that was funny." She wiped a fake tear from the corner of her eye "The fact that you think that you can accomplish what gifteds before you couldn't is adorable." The dark queen sat on the blue divan and stared at her "I was a gifted too you know, the daughter of the mistress of magic herself, Yogmaya. My parents disowned me when they found out that their daughter was..well, a witch! I thought..At least I have my godly mother right?" She chuckled again, skimming her nail on the glowing crystal ball "But she also abandoned me, my gifted family abandoned me..the only people who stuck with me faced the same fate. Death or entombment. And all of this for what? I lost my child for what?" A purple crackling energy formed in her hand "Because I fell in love with a person with no fucking magic, huh!" She channeled the purple energy towards a wall and a crack formed in it. Abantika shuddered at the cracking sound, she asked "Why-why would you bring me here then? And keep me alive? You could have just killed me when you had the chance.." The dark queen tapped her finger on her chin "Hmm..I could have done that. But I didn't for a reason..you see, when the day the fire started in the station..I knew that the fire wasn't normal, it came from someone supernatural...maybe Rudranath himself. He was so obsessed to keep his bloodline perfect that he committed a murder. So I thought why not kill all of Rudranath's favorite army at once? A fire in this palace..and I know you won't die fire starter, you..you are different so I give you the curse to mourn your friends forever while I go out there and conquer this broken world." Abantika didn't know what to say, she knew that this woman is perfectly capable of doing something like that..but she also knew, that the gifteds weren't a saint she thought they were Abantika tried to negotiate "Then what's the difference between you and the gifteds? They killed your husband because he didn't match their standards..he was a obstacle and now you are doing the same..you are killing us because we are an obstacle, do you think your husband would have wanted that for you?" The dark queen gave Abantika a death scare, with a rapid dark smoke She reached towards Abantika, grabbing her neck "DO NOT EVEN SPEAK ABOUT MY HUSBAND FROM YOUR FILTHY MOUTH." She pressed harder as Abantika choked, trying to free herself "He-He couldn't even see his own child because of you people! HE HAD TO DIE BECAUSE OF YOU PEOPLE..I had to let go of my child because of you." She threw Abantika against a wall, Abantika crashed on the wall and fell down, her whole body screamed in pain! The dark queen's hands crackled with purple energy "Now, it's time for vengeance fire starter and this time no fucking gifted is going to cage me." Abantika groaned "If you kill us you are just going to be like Rudranath, a murderer." The Dark queen gave her a sad smile "And what choice do I have? I have no one left to grieve, no one left to pull me out of this darkness..why Should I feel remorse?" She looked at Abantika "I waited long enough and lost everything, and now..There is no one who will stop me from what I want..and that is the end of you gifteds."

[another short chapter yeaa! oof finally the star of the show has arrived..now don't worry steamy chapters are coming next...and not one, BUT TWO.]