Touch The Skies

Prologue ~ What Ends Must Always Begin

Whispers swirled around them, light and shadows dancing upon the ground. Speculation ran rampant among the races, eyes narrowing and hands covering mouths in shock.

Light and Dark marrying? It was insanity! How could the gods let this happen?

She, with her midnight black hair and sharp, crimson eyes, sliced the crowd with her fiery gaze. Her skin, pale as bone and dark as night, in scattered patches along her body. A gown of black silk and silver thread spilled onto the ground behind her.

He, with his soft blonde hair and warm eyes the color of the sky, soft smile directed only at his love, the woman he had chosen to be with. He glanced at her slightly swollen abdomen and smiled, his heart pounding with joy.

Eyes followed them, slowly, carefully, as they walked. Voices whispered and scolded and cried out in disbelief. But, they walked to the altar anyway, hands intertwined and heads held high. Nothing could prevent them from carrying out the one action that would keep them from ever being separated again.

The priest, with his warm brown eyes and smoky gray hair, the epitome of balance, looked at the couple with a smile in his eyes. He waved his hands for the crowd's silence and looked at the two.

"Do you, Darlene Hemlock, take this man as your husband now and forever, to be bound by blood, by magic, and by promise before the gods?"

"I do."

"And do you, Alan Crescent, take this woman to be your wife, bound by the same principles she is to you?"

"Yes, I do."

The priest smiled, "Then in the name of the gods I connect your lives and hearts together as one, in a bond unbroken by any plague upon your love except death. I now pronounce you, husband and wife."

The two shared a gentle kiss, but there was no jubilant cheering, no screams of approval, no reaction from the crowd. Instead, they all had their eyes trained on a tall, looming skeleton who sat upon a leering throne of shadows and blood. All cowered in fear, for the Nameless One stood before them, an expression of evident anger scrawled across its bony face.

Slowly, it raised its decayed, crumbling hand, and screamed in the voice of a million souls damned to eternity in Hell, "You! You dare defy the laws of our church and our system! You dare betray me, the one that allowed you to be brought into this world! You dare to be with an empty headed fool who speaks nothing of Darkness and knows only the privileges of Light! You dare have a child, a halfling that will bring nothing but chaos and the end of all we have worked for! You, Darlene Hemlock of the Dark, you will pay! YOU WILL PAY!" The thing's eyes glowed blood red and it pointed directly at Darlene, "KILL THEM! KILL THE ONES WHO HAVE BETRAYED US!"

A thousand soldiers of the undead rose from the ground, rotting, dirty, grasping hands bursting from the soil. Those of Light in the crowd screamed, some trying to banished the soldiers back to Hell, but they were only caught and mutilated, some stabbed in the skull, some strangled, some even torn open with blood splashing onto the smooth stone of the path beneath them.

Alan grasped Darlene's hand, "We have to run, they're after us, come on, run!" His sky blue eyes were frantic, filled with fear and void of any understanding of what was happening. Hands reached for him, but he kicked them away, his own free hand releasing flames upon them, "Darlene!"

Darlene looked at the carnage in front of her, frozen in horror and complete understanding. This was her fault, wasn't it? She had let her emotions get the better of her, and now look what had happened.

"Darlene!" Alan shook his wife, eyes flashing with fear, "Please we need to leave!"

Darlene took a step back, crimson eyes filled with tears, "I did this.... I killed them."

Alan shook his head, "No, no you did what you thought was right! Darlene, please!"

Then Darlene was frozen again, her eyes full of terror as she looked up at the grinning, terrifying figure of the Nameless One looming over them both. She couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't do anything. She tried to open her mouth to scream but nothing came out.

Alan only had a second to look behind him before a knife slashed a wide, clean cut across his throat like a bloody smile. He collapsed onto the ground, his blood slowly trickling across the stones as he lay there, eyes clouded and empty.

Darlene could move again, a scream rising in the back of her throat and ripping itself out of her. She screamed as loudly as she could, her voice choked with mourning and laced with agony as she reached a feeble hand towards her husband, sprinting away as the Nameless One laughed in sick glee.

"Run! Run you insolent fool! You will never see happiness again, I swear to thee!"

Darlene turned on her heel, tears streaming down her cheeks, and shrieked with a voice echoing with the sounds of rain and thunder, "Then I swear to thee, this child of mine will never be yours to claim! I will raise her as the person you would want her to never be! I forsake you, you demon!" She backed away, sobs wracking her body again, "I forsake you, you the one who birthed my name! I hate you! I hate you and all you stand for!" With that, Darlene ran, screaming with all the energy left in her body and all the voice remaining in her tired throat.

The Nameless One scowled, eyes flashing as the promise flashed before its eyes. It turned away, sinking into the shadows as the sun crested behind the horizon, day sinking into night.

Years later, in a small cot hidden in the Ether Woods...

A small cry echoed through the air, Darlene smiling lovingly as she held the small child in her arms. Tears ran down her face and slid past her cheeks to drip off her chin.

"You are the future, little one. You hold more power than you could possibly know in this life and in the next."

"And I know you will tip the balance and make things right again."