Prologue
The woman let loose a piercing scream as the sword was plunged into her heart, the purple orb glowing in the hilt. Her blood spilled onto the ground, dyeing the grassy hillside red. Silhouettes gazed down at the inanimate body, then turned and left, not looking back. The last of the four silhouettes grabbed the sword, pulling it from the unmoving woman.
Wind hissed and wailed, whipping up the torrential rain. A figure struggled up the hill, shouting. The face was obscured by a black hood attached to a long billowing cloak, the shouting becoming ever more urgent. A name, caught and swept away by the wind the moment it left the mouth. Suddenly, the figure halted and a cry of anguish escaped its lips. It collapsed beside the stiff body, the pain of betrayal and grief raging within.
The rain pounded down as the figure shrouded in black knelt before the woman. She was emaciated, the light gone from her eyes, encasing a heart that would never beat again. Her hair was spread out like a black halo, soaked in her own life blood.
The figure fumbled with cold fingers at her neck, releasing her neck from the chain of the heavy locket. It disappeared inside the cloak, a single memory of the deceased woman.
The blood soaked grass was bent almost flat in the shrieking wind. Thunder clouds darkened the night sky. The rain never stopped coming, biting the oblivious, frozen hands.
A glint in the shrouded figure's eyes - cold, blue, startling eyes. An icy fire kindled within. The earth itself began to shake, and there was an almighty crack. A fissure opened, lava pouring out around the corpse and the grieving figure. The lifeless woman tumbled away into the abyss, carried down by a river of glowing lava.
Just as quickly as it had formed, the fissure closed, the lava disappearing with no trace. The figure let out a guttural howl. A howl of revenge.
