Lady Of Starlight

Chapter 1

The chain around her ankle jingled.
Silent, practiced steps towards the miniscule barred window where the only source of light seeped through. She placed her hand on the damp cell wall boarding the window, sighing at its cold slickness. The moon illuminated the night sky like a firefly in a jar. The nights breeze was cold as it swept through the room, ruffling her champagne coloured hair, a shiver running down her spine.This was the hour Alina loved the most,when the moon was positioned right over her cell for her to wish, hope,beg for someone to come get her out, take her far, far away where she would forget all the misery and torture she had endured here.
Torture she didn't deserve.
Torture none of the prisoners deserved. An innocent soul broken to vengeance, and that's exactly what she would get.
What they would all get.
This was the hour that all the prisoners prayed and wished upon the moon and the stars, some prayed for their families, some for their freedom, and some for their evil deeds to be done.
The town's people called this the 'witches hour' where all the prisoners would sing into the night, serenading the moon. Their melodic voices seeping into the town below, lulling the children to sleep or keeping them up all night in fear of their fierce words masked by beautiful voices.
Alina smiled as a creature to her right let out a long, low note. Another voice joined in, a different tone but they went together like hopes and dreams. Another voice joined in until they had a beautiful, slow melody. And that was when Alina closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began to sing. Tonights serenade was sorrowful, a song of loss and the hope for freedom. Alina's voice was coated in sweetness, her words carried into the night sky. She opened her eyes and sang to the moon and the stars. She swore the night sky began to dance.
As Alina's song came to an end she heard a chorus of awed sighs from the other cells. Alina was told she had one of the most beautiful voices in all of Cartalia. She didn't believe that was entirely true, it wouldn't have been half as mesmerising without the other prisoners there to harmonise with her.
Alina gripped the iron bar of the window, the white veil between her imprisonment and her freedom.
She stared at the moon and noticed it almost shudder, as if from the many eyes laid upon it. She blinked and squinted her eyes back at the illuminating orb only to see the moons light begin to fade. Complete darkness took over and one by one the stars disappeared with it, as if they were being erased. She heard the murmer of the other prisoners throughout the building, their stargazing also brought to a halt.
Then,quick as a flash, like a match being lit, the Sun appeared. Alina shielded her eyes at the dramatic change. No sunrise or anything, the sun just appeared out of nowhere.
This was wrong, very wrong. It was 3am, it was still the middle of the night.
Silent screams echoed from the city below. Guards swarmed the area around the prison cells, shock etched into their young and old faces. An older man, maybe in his late thirties with a grease slicked pony tail and ragged beard halted outside the cell door and held Alina's gaze for a short moment as a click echoed throughout the room.
One by one the cell doors opened and the building paused in silence. The lock and chain around her ankle snapped and hit the floor with a clang. Alina looked up from the ground ever so slowly.
"Looks like today's your unlucky day," Alina growled as she flashed the guard a wicked smile before she pounced.
The other inmates had the same idea, guards and prisoners clashed in a dance to the death. Screams and shouts filled the room. Alina hit the ground with the guard from before. He used his weight to his advantage and pinned her, a wide hand around her throat. Alina gave him a cheeky wink before spitting in his eye. The guards hands shot to his face as he yelled in protest. A swift knee to the groin had him doubling over on the ground.
She grabbed the sword from his belt and positioned it over his head ready for the kill. Alina had only ever thought of killing, she didn't know if she actually had the guts to do it now that her fantasies were now a reality. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Was she a killer or a savior? A sinner or a saint?
She thought of all those days locked in that cell for hours on end, only being let out when she was on her way for a beating or a twice a day trip to the toilets.The burn marks on her body tingled at the memory.
Scars marred her back and her wrists from the ropes she was hung with and struck with. She thought of those hands, the unwanted hands of strangers and monsters caressing her, corrupting her innocence when it was hers to have and her choice to give. They stole that from her, they stole everything from her.
Alina's eyes shot open followed by a battle cry as she brought the sword down on the mans neck. His large head rolled a few feet away, a scarlet trail behind it. The smell of blood tickled Alina's nostrils as she breathed heavily at the rush of adrenaline she was now submerged in. She turned to the havoc before her. Witches and fae tore into guards but she had to admit, the guards were doing a good job as well. Limbs flew across the room, blood soaked the walls, the floor now a large puddle of red. A fae woman- distinguishable by her pointy ears and otherworldly beauty-in the corner of the room smiled at the guard seductively and drew him in for a kiss and the hormonal sucker fell for it.
In a flash of silver the girls teeth snapped for his neck, tearing out the mans throat. She laughed as she spat the hunk of flesh on the ground where the mans lifeless body now lay.
The hilt of a sword striked Alinas shoulder blade from behind and she hit the ground so hard her teeth chattered. She didn't even have enough time to recollect herself before the fae woman lunged over Alina and took the guard down in a second, sliting his throat with his own knife. Alina rose again cradling her injured shoulder and went for the head of the guard she had just killed. She picked it up by the pony tail and swung it in a circle before launching it over to the other side of the room where two guards approached a young girl in the corner, trying to escape the distressful scene. The detached head hit the nearest guard on the side of the face, catching him off balance and causing him to knock into the other guard, both of them falling like dominos. The two of them were covered in the blood of the rag doll head she used as a weapon, tendons and small chunks of tissue splattered against the wall. The young girl screamed and ran down one of the many hallways.
The two men stood up and turned to her. Alina took a few steps back as she tried to create some distance. The taller one pulled out his sword first and headed in her direction. He took slow cocky steps towards her, thinking he had the upper hand. Alina backed up against the wall and looked around for an escape route, a weapon, anything. The tall guard now stood in front of her. He rested a thick muscular arm next to her head and then took her chin between his grubby fingers, forcing her to look at him.
"Well, aren't you pretty," he drawled as he tightened his grip. Alina's face smooshed together.
"Don't get many hot messes like you around here," he said as he leaned in and pulled her face closer.
"Oh I'm a hot mess?" She asked in a nazly voice from the position her lips were currently squished into. Alina's hand scaled the wall until it rested on the base of the flaming torch perched on an iron peg above her and rammed it into the mans face. The smell of burnt flesh exploded,she could taste it too, the smell of it caught in her throat, hot from the flames. She scraped the torch back and fourth over his features -like a piece of dirt stuck to a shoe-until they were unrecognizable. She pressed a foot against his abdomen and pushed him backwards. There was no protest as his body hit the ground and he didn't move. His face was a shitshow, melted into a gooey sludge.
"Who's the hot mess now?" She asked as she stepped over his lifeless form. His friend looked into Alina's ruthless grey eyes and shivered. Alina's eyes went to the mans groin, a wet patch now present and trailing down his leg to the expanding puddle on the floor. Her eyes snapped back up at him in disgust but the man had already taken off down the hall.Alina chuckled to herself but her fifteen seconds of fame was cut short as another headless guard was pushed into her.She hit the floor again and glanced at the puddle of blood inching towards her.
A witch grabbed Alina by the arm and hauled her to her feet. It was clear she was a witch by the hot iron scar etched into her color bone. Just a standalone 'W' used to identified her species, branding her as a burdon. She had caramel skin, now flecked with crimson, and spiraled cinnamon coloured hair, the softest looking afro Alina had ever seen. The older woman was strikingly beautiful in the dimly lit room.
"Follow me," she said in a heavy accent. Alina stumbled after her over the dead bodies, soldiers and creatures alike, scattered on the floor. The woman dragged Alina into an empty cell and led her over to the bed that lay in the far corner of the room. The sheets hung over the side of it,spilling onto the floor. The woman lifted it up swiftly and looked at Alina expectantly.
"Come on, it's not a walk in the park you know," the woman snapped at her as she pointed under the bed. Alina looked at the woman and then at the floor. She slowly slid down to her knees to looked underneath.
There was a man sized tunnel in the wall.
Alina gasped but before she could say anything the woman's hand pushed her forward under the bed. Alina scuffed her elbow with the impact and hissed through her teeth.
"Go!" The woman shouted and booted Alina on the behind. Alina started to crawl as fast as she could, then stopped once she was fully inside. The ground was dusty and with every movement came a cloud of it in her face and up her nose making her nostrils tickle, a sneeze arising. Alina stopped dead in her tracks as a thin bony spider sat in the corner on its web, watching her.There was no space to turn around but she shouted over her shoulder, "Are you coming?"
The woman chuckled. "Very considerate but I don't leave people behind," she informed.
"Jeez what could you have possibly gotten jailed for?" Alina asked.
"Murder," she said matter of factly. Alina went still as the woman's reply echoed throughout the small space.
"Let me guess, you let everyone leave the scene before you?" Alina asked as she began to crawl a bit more, either to get away from the guards or the woman, she hadn't decided. She tried her best to avoid the spider but the thought of it made her itch so she would be oblivious to its presence either way.
The womans sinister laugh bounced off every wall in the tunnel.
"You owe me."
So much for being a nice considerate person, now she owed her?
Alina huffed, "yeah maybe, if we both live."
There was a long pause."What's your name?" She shouted this time as Alina continiued to crawl away.
"Alina," she shouted back. More spiders. The tunnel went silent."Hello?"
There was no reply, just the rustle of the bed sheet and the footsteps of the woman leaving the room far behind her , followed by the deadly screams of those now lost.

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