The Shades

Prologue:

It was a cold winter night, silence blanketed the town of Silas, and the only people that marched the streets were guards, probably searching for any intruders into the town. A young woman in her twenties wore a cream Victorian dress with black embroideries. She had her face covered with a white cloak, one that matched her beautiful dress. Her name was Madame Mina, she was a woman who strived for nothing but power, she was a disappointment to her family and she was kicked out of her home when she was seventeen years of age.

All she had was her seventeen year old brother, Ash who was always there for her and did whatever she asked him to do. He was following behind her; he wore a dark coat and plain, light-colored waistcoats, and pantaloons. He wore a white frilled shirt and a linen neck cloth. He wore leather shoes that shone in the light of street lamps. His black hair was in his face as he ran to keep up with Mina.

Her steps were precise and quick making Ash have to run after her. They reached the exit of the city, Mina looked back towards the town she had lived in most of her life, and she clutched her handbag and kissed her hand and blew the kiss towards the town.

“Ash lets go” She said slipping out of the town and into the “free” country…she had a plan and she had to complete it before anyone else.

Light was just lifting the gloomy mood of the night. The woman paid no mind to the other rotting bodies under the earth but only on what she was searching for. Her ice blue eyes were glued to where her brother, Ash was digging into the hard cold snow.

“I’m exhausted…can’t we do this later?” Ash watches his older sister.

“Ash, dig!” Madame Mina moved her arm and extended her finger to where he was digging. “Okay” Ash’s muscles flexed as he crunched the metal shovel back into the snow. His black hair had flecks of snow within it and his soul sucking gray eyes moved from his sister to the ground.

“I hit something!” Madame Mina yanked Ash out of the hole and stepped in. Mina glared down at the smooth wooden coffin and ran her fingers along the crest on the center of the coffin. It was the symbol of great power, power that she would obtain.

Mina stopped at the end of the crest and then grabbed the edges of the coffin, she opened the coffin and she glared down at the skeleton in the coffin. The skeleton’s bony fingers were holding onto a brown leather book with the same crest on the front.  Her straight face twisted into a smile. “Perfect…” She said as she tried to lift the book but it was held tightly into place by spider webs and the fingers of the skeleton.

“Ash! Hand me the blade” Mina moved quickly, she grabbed the knife and cut off the bony fingers that held the book. “Close it!” Mina leaped out of the hole and opened the book as Ash closed the coffin and began to re-cover the coffin with snow.

Mina opened the book and pushed a lock of dark brown hair behind her right ear and read the warning.

If thy who shall possess this book shall not obey the rules given about the power of Neila. You and everything you love will be destroyed…

Mina laughed a bit and pulled her white cloak off of her head, her ice blue eyes met her brothers and her dark brown hair fell around her shoulders. Ash was scared and she could tell from the look in his eyes.

“Do not be afraid of anything” She told him, her voice as smooth as silk, she told him those words constantly but that advice only seemed to work for her.

She opened the book and read:                                                                                                           

Welcome to the world of the power of Neila….Silas. Neila is the ability to have control of one elemental ability, but thy who possesses thy book may obtain all elemental abilities.

“This is only the beginning” Those were her only words she could express as her face twisted into a crooked smile, “Let’s go…don’t leave a trace behind.” Mina pulled her cloak back over her head, covering her face.