"We weren't meant to be good. We were meant to survive."
Zerlinda has had a sword hanging over her head ever since her father's disappearance.
With her cowardly mother good as dead, Zerlinda is forced to accept a bargain with Hades, the God of Deat...
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Father had told her, once, of the tunnels snaking underneath the some of the cities, connecting temple to temple. Nothing but genuine luck hadsupported the gamble she'd made that even Eldoris was connected tothe outside world with those same tunnels.
"Those tunnels are old." The temple maiden told her, torch in hand, as she guided Zerlinda through paths crumbled and worn out by time. Her every step kicked clouds of dust floating into the air. She fixed her gaze on the torch's light and away from the cobwebs clinging onto stone walls, the smell of death curling in the air like darkness.
The tunnel moved into infinite darkness like a new moon's night. Something whispered at the back of her mind. The footsteps of the hunters. Swords gleaming wickedly in the moonlight. The blood at her knuckles.
She quickened her pace to better run from it, as if it would do anything. No, rather it sent her running into the woman within moments.
"Watch it." The woman hissed beneath her breath as if whispering a secret the cave walls around them couldn't be allowed to hear. Zerlinda breathed in, regaining her composure best as she could.
Her eyes fell to the brand on the woman's arm. A red, snake-like thread curving around a long-sword. The sword that would have sliced her throat had the sacrifice been completed.
"I know you're staring." The woman said, not taking her eyes off the dark road ahead. Maybe it was the adrenaline still coursing through her veins, maybe it was plain recklessness, but Zerlinda didn't try holding back the words on her lips.
"How did you get away?"
The air around them seemed to still. Even the woman paused her step.
"I didn't." In the darkness, the flame seemed to flicker.
"Then how are you alive?" Zerlinda repeated herself.
The woman didn't answer. Zerlinda pressed her further.
"I know that symbol. You shouldn't be alive, yet here you are. Are you - are you one of those magic wielders?"
There was a knife at her throat before she had time to blink.
"One more word about those abominations and I won't hesitate." She hissed out lowly. Zerlinda raised her hands in the air and backed off; she'd come close enough to death for one evening. Slowly, the woman lowered her knife and turned back around.
"Accused thieves of the Gods..." she muttered, more to herself than anyone. Zerlinda shook her head slightly. Of course, a temple woman would uphold such false ideas about the sources of magic. Regardless of the words building up within, Zerlinda kept her mouth shut and walked on.
The tunnel eventually reached an end. She didn't know how long they'd walked, but when they, at last, emerged into the night, the rain had ceased, its smell still lingering in the air. The streets were as still and quiet as death. There was a pressure in the air, a reminder of the hunters, likely still searching the night for her. Casting her eyes downward, Zerlinda walked on.
