Damned (Book 2 of the Ashes Saga)

Prelude

The age before my ascension to power is hazy, like a story I had heard rather than experienced. I recall being an Evyan woman. I recall being close to the light... though I do not remember the sensation of it remotely. I may or may not have been partners with an Evyan man. Perhaps we had only been lovers. I remember his name – Illyswen.

My name was not always Lazarus Lyon. It was Nyzara Vakaya. I learned that from Illyswen himself many, many years after meeting my Masters. Do not let my familiar tone fool you; my first Master was the only true beloved in my life and death. However, before his entrance into my existence, I would say Illyswen was his temporary stand-in. I used to have tanned skin, a willowy frame, and mismatched blue and silver eyes. My fellow light-worshipping Evyans believed my silver eye to be the mark of the Divines, though it was the opposite.

A'roha was the name of the northern Evyan Kingdom I hailed from. Because of its proximity to the border of Duskwraith, we were the first target of their regime. My Master had formed a fragile alliance with the Evyans after he took Duskwraith for himself, as it was his birthright. His attack on A'roha was one to prove his dominance to the world. One I would have supported had I been blessed to have known him beforehand. Unbeknownst to me in that other life, he was coming to free me and take me to my destiny as the prophet.

The day he came was the last day of my servitude to the light. I do recall feeling trapped in a cage in A'roha. Society had indoctrinated me into their sacred worshipping grounds in Kaeda to better serve them. I do not remember my kin as they took me at infancy. Each day before his foretold coming was filled with a strict structure of meditation and communing with the sacred lux that guided their world. The only freedom I had was with my lover or consort, which ever he was. A secret no doubt, though I cannot be bothered to recall if it was or wasn't.

We had been bathing in the brook together seeking privacy from the city when fire filled the sky. It disrupted our view of the cosmos and replaced it with the inferno of Levia. The Evyans believed all of the dragons were extinct after my Master's genocide, as they were supposed to. She purified the city in the distance starting with the gates to let his army in.

Had Illyswen and I not fled, it was likely that we would have perished immediately at their hands and ruined all of our plans, but the Void does not give false prophecies. My lover at that time led us to his lodging which sat outside the city limits. We armed ourselves and we retreated into the further gate to assist in defending A'roha. I do believe everyone knew it was doomed from the start. No kingdom in existence was prepared to defend themselves from a dragon – the reason the world had sat silent when my Master purged them. None had known that he would make a pact with the fiercest of their species.

The northern walls fell before her might, making it easier to destroy our home built into the trees. I was separated from Illyswen when the army burst in, slaughtering everyone in sight without discretion. He forced me to leave and run toward the temple, a move I thought for a long time resulted in his death.

"I don't want to leave you," I clearly remember saying.

"But you must," he replied.

Fire tore apart my sacred homeland like it was made of parchment. I must have collapsed due to inhaling the smog, but it was ultimately a falling pillar that crushed me from the waist down. I pleaded for the light to help me. I pleaded for it to protect and save my home. It did not offer us aid that day, or any day. On the eve of death, it was the darkness that took me instead.

And when I awoke, amidst the smoke, decay and destruction, I found myself to be alive and seemingly the sole survivor of the onslaught. I was barely able to stay conscious; the pain of my shattered body was trying to take over. My eyes deceived me for I saw a figure in the flames. At first, I thought it to be an enemy, but my fear faded as no foe would look as that being did. He was Femoran in form, but I could not call him merely a man as he stood before me with the presence of a god.

"Help," I barely begged, reaching out into the smoke.

"Why should I help you?" a soft, emotionless voice asked from every direction.

"I'll do anything," I pleaded.

"Anything?"

"Anything," I reassured his shadowy form through my agony.

Andwith that affirmation, my Master rescued me from the flames, sealing our fatestogether, forevermore.