The Hate from Within

Prologue

That music...That soft, gentle music...

The blackness went from dark to a barely visible, fuzzy blur. I was beginning to see my surroundings now...

I began to sit up, quickly regretting the idea as I stumbled back down to the ground.

"...Cold?" I thought to myself, my head spinning, and a sharp pain stinging from the base of my skull to the backs of my eyes.

How was the ground cold? The last I had remembered, the air was humid; heavy and practically hanging still in front of our faces. We had been surrounded by thick forest, and the smell of smoke from a nearby inn.

"We..." I thought.

I forced my eyes completely open, the spinning, blurry room finally coming to a staggering halt. I slowly looked about, taking in the new surroundings.

The room I was in was strange to me...somewhere I had never been before. There were candles of various shapes and sizes in decorative, filigreed trays. They all burned with a cerulean colored flames; something I had never seen in all my life.
I quickly turned to find myself completely alone, my traveling companions nowhere to be found. Had they been taken to separate rooms? Had something happened to them while I was unconscious?

I began twisting this way and that, looking around frantically. And then, my eyes set upon the true beauty of the room. It was lavish in decoration, with Elven furnishings. The bed was far too large for one person to sleep in, and was a fantastical wooden thing with a sheer, cream-colored canopy draping over each side. I ran my fingers over the fabric, the softness taking me by surprise.

And that's when I heard it again. That music... That soft, gentle music...

I gently swung my legs over the side of the bed, carefully getting to my feet. I wobbled slightly, having to catch myself on the intricately carved wooden posts. I gathered my bearings, and made my way to the large oak double doors of the room. I pressed my ear against it, and sure enough, I could hear that music again.

I gathered myself, took a deep breath, and slightly cracked open the door...