She stood on the old bridge with her arms wrapped tight around herself, darkness pressing down on her from all sides. The silver water lapped the shore with the slightest whisper of a sound. It seemed to warn her away; telling her to run. Her thoughts kept returning to the past - to him. The hairs on the back of her head stood up as fear returned with them. She forced her mind back to emptiness.
With a sudden surge of emotion, the memory surfaced; from a time when this beautiful renaissance city was her home and not a place where she feared to walk the streets. The memory was full of the flare of magic, the smell of blood and the sound of many screams and her master at the centre of it all.
Calling him a monster didn't even begin to cover it. He had taken her in as an orphan, abandoned because of her strange powers. He had cared for her, taught her to control the immense well of power contained within her body. Until the day she had discovered who he really was.
She knew why he was returning now; the one thing that was forbidden for her to do as his pupil, she had done; she had told their secret and he had discovered her crime through the bond of master and pupil. It was a reckless and dangerous thing to do. But she had no choice.
Before she had left the safety of her home, she had written a letter to another of her craft, telling her tale. No matter what happened to her this night, the truth about her master must be known. She had never intended to commit her story to paper, or to tell another of the crimes committed while she stood passively by, believing in the shelter her master had raised her in.
But the monster must be destroyed.
A globe of light appeared a few steps away, floating above an outstretched palm. The figure was covered from head to foot by a dark cloak and hood. Only the lower part of his face was visible in the light thrown by the globe of pure magic.
Sweat, cold slick ice covered her hands - too nervous to even quiver. Master and pupil stared fearfully at each other, knowing they could be overheard in the quiet night. She fought back the plea bubbling to escape; she would grovel at the feet of the monster no longer.
When she was younger, during her brief tearaway spell, she would follow her master to see where he would go. That was when the flash of suspicion had begun and not long after she had discovered the truth.
He had made her watch from then on as he conducted his grotesque necromancy, while she was powerless to stop him. Her power was no match for his.
The globe above his hand flared brighter, revealing the gaunt, hollow face and short silver hair she remembered so well.
'Sunshine,' he said, his voice rasping like dead leaves under foot.
'Master,' she bowed her head.
She could feel the angry, red aura of his power lapping against her own. Hers was repelled by his immense power.
'You know why I have returned, my Sunshine?'
'Yes.' She was using all her strength to keep her eyes steady on his and not to turn and run - not that she would get far.
'Why now? Why, after all these years did you decide to tell our secret? I let you go. I let you live your life free of me on one condition; you keep the secret.' His voice was cold.
She simply said, 'the truth must be known to our brothers and sisters.'
'It would have been better for everyone if they had remained in the dark, but especially you.'
The memories were threatening to overwhelm her again, but she fought against them.
'No. Your experiments have haunted me all these years since you disappeared. My life will never be normal.'
'It has to be done. I am the only one willing to do it.'
'Killing hundreds of innocents was not the way!' Her voice snapped like a whip in the silent night. 'There are reasons why our brothers and sisters fear necromancy.'
He stood silently, unidentifiable emotions crossing his face; she could not read even one of them before his face turned back into a mask.
'I brought you up as a daughter, Sunshine.' He paused as his thoughts seemed to shift. 'Do you know why I gave you that name?'
She shook her head.
'One of the reasons I took you in is because your aura of power is pure like the rays of the sun. It shines with a warm, innocent glow. Now your glow has faded. I took you in hoping that one day you would understand why I conducted the research. Now I see that you were too pure.'
He stepped closer to her and the light in his palm winked out of existence. She did not flinch away.
'You know what I must do.' It was a statement not a question; she knew what he would now do.
'I accept my fate,' she said, 'knowing that soon all of our brothers and sisters will know the truth and you will soon follow the same fate as me.'
In a loving, fatherly gesture he placed his hands on either side of her face and kissed her forehead tenderly.
'You remind me why life can be good,' he said.
Pure power engulfed her and her physical body was taken hungrily, leaving her pure spirit to ascend to the heavens.
As the energies faded the master stood on the bridge alone. He spoke to the empty night, a single tear rolling down his face in acquiescence to Sunshine's truth. Yes, he knew now that his fate would be the same as hers and that his research would never be completed. All had been for naught.
He allowed the globe in his hand to fade to nothing and shrank back into the darkness.
'Goodbye my Sunshine,' he whispered to the silent renaissance city that was witness to the final crime he had committed.
