He groaned as she slid him inside, “My lady-” he called out before gasping for breath, “Lady Priscilla, if your husband finds out-” Pricilla looked at the young man beneath her, he was a simple commoner, one she would never have looked at before, but one on which she now impaled herself. He was a young specimen, well built and sculpted from all the work he did around the castle, sandy blonde hair, blue eyes and a strong chin that was just starting to get some fur on it.

He was so young.

She smiled at him and went back to writing the runes on his chest, her own blood as the catalyst. “He won't mind.” she laughed, no, her dear husband didn't mind anything these days. She rose, almost pulling him out of her and slammed back down. The boy gasped as she did this, what was he? Seventeen, eighteen?

Inexperienced.

But also full of vitality, which is what had drawn her to him. His hands came up and rested on her hips and he leaned up to get a kiss from her, causing a slight shiver to run through her body, messing up the rune she was painting on his chest. She scowled, her hands coming to his shoulders shoving him back into the downy fluff of the bed. “Don't move,” she commanded, and she leaned down, using her tongue to clear away the ruined rune from his chest. He groaned as she did this, the tip of her tongue lapping softly at his chest. She began rocking her hips back and forth. To be honest, this entire endeavor was slightly painful for her, seeing as she was still sore after having little Tenebris, who even at this moment was laying in the crib by the bedside, watching everything with black eyes.

She got back to work drawing the last rune on his chest, the man beneath her much to into the feeling to even care enough to ask what the runes were for. Slowly she began lifting her hips, her hands back on his shoulders as she sped up the motion, her own juices lubricating for the both of them. She felt him tense and smiled as the runes she had placed on his chest started to glow with light. As he released into her she felt the warmth of more than the young man’s seed flow into her, as she watched he began aging before her very eyes, his own flashed open in a soundless scream, going from one extreme to the other, from pleasure to pain in an instant as his life drained out of him. In a very short time he withered away, leaving behind nothing more than a pile of dust, all the life drained from every piece of him.

Slowly she stood up, sighing in disgust as she felt part of his seed leak out of her and down her leg. Walking over to little Tenebris she cut her finger on her right hand and allowed all the life essence she had just absorbed become a golden droplet of liquid formed there, she smeared it on her nipple and picked up the small babe, allowing him to latch onto her. It was all too little, too much effort for too little vitality.

He would need to have more if he was to save to world from the Saint of light, she could not be allowed to ascend, a thousand years ago the last incarnation of the Saint of light had almost achieved that goal, and the world had been cast into a war that tore down nations that had stood for millenniums.

No, it could not be allowed, the world could not take a change like she would bring, every order would be reversed, every rule rewritten. And so she made herself and her child into the monster's the world would need, the monsters that would keep the world the way it should be.

The way it has always been and should always be...

***

“Well,” The headmistress sighed as she looked at the four people in front of her. “You are lucky Lira scored as well as she did,” he looked at Krya, who was staring at the floor her eyes wide like she was not even seeing the world. She shook slightly as she pulled in a breath. “The average score between the two make it so you will be able to still compete, which has only happened in history twice before, and this tournament has been held over the past four hundred years, so that is quite impressive,” she offered the joke with a small smile, but it was lost on them, each was in their own mood, some shocked, others murderous.

“There is no way to check the test?” Leon asked, his voice was quiet, not the brash loud that she was used to, and gone was the playful manner that she had come to know, and to her eternal shame, love.

“Each test is unique in not only the questions asked but the order they are asked in,” the headmistress laced her fingers into each other, “Which means there is no way to check them seeing as the only thing written down are the answers, which also means there was no way for someone to cheat on the test.” Leon opened his mouth but she held up a hand to stop him, “And before you ask, yes we did check her chip, and the board, no tampering was found there.”

“How is the score transmitted to the board?” Leon asked, and the headmistress raised an eyebrow.

“When the door is opened -” she paused, “The door!” she shot up out of her chair and looked at Leon.

“Don't bother checking,” he said, “That door is in a highly frequented public area, any evidence is likely gone,” he growled.

“But that still has problems, you cannot single out a student like that, it would have had to been that it was set up for the last student out,” she said, but even as she said it it was all starting to click into place. “And anyone who knows how Krya works would know that she is always the last one out of the room as she has to check and double check every answer.” Leon nodded his head, having come to the same conclusion. “The only issue is there is nothing that can be done about this,” the headmistress sighed, “After all, cheating is part of the tournament, and we cannot have her retake the test, that would require everyone to retake it.”

“You said we can still compete?” Lira asked, her eyes shone gold in the flickering light of the headmistress’s office, a predatory light, she was very unhappy that someone would attempt to hurt her family, a trait of Leon’s that as beginning to wear off on her.

“Yes, however you will be one of the bottom three, meaning you will have no choice in who you face, or on what field, and you will be given handicaps, making your lives harder the entire tournament.” she looked at Krya, who had still not said a thing or even looked up. “I must tell you, there has never been a team that has gotten to the top from the bottom three.”

Leon stood up and looked over at Krya, fluffy had wrapped her arms around her master, the two of their tails were intertwined in an intimate gesture. Slowly Krya’s hand came up and gripped fluffy by the shoulders and pulled her into a deep hug. “How long do we have until the first match?” Leon asked his eyes on the two girls clutching each other.

“They start tomorrow officially at 8 am.” she looked at Leon with sympathetic eyes.

“Then we are going to skip the festivities of the day and use that time to rest,” he said, and every eye was on Krya and Fluffy, who was doing her best to support her master, so much so that she lifted Krya off of the ground and hugged her to her chest, almost carrying her princess style. They all turned to leave when the headmistress called out to Leon.

“Leon, a word?” she asked, and Lira looked at him, as he nodded his head to the door, indicating for them to wait for him out there. She nodded and ushered Krya and fluffy out and into the hallway.

“Yes?” he asked, his anger was clearly visible, a slow-burning rage, that she felt was more from the pain of seeing Krya cut so low then the actual act against her.

“She,” The headmistress sighed and pushed up her spectacles on her nose, wondering how to word this. “She seems to be taking this much harder than I imagined she would.”

“What do you know about her history?” he asked raising his eyebrow at the headmistress.

“Not much, I am sure she has told you more, simply that she was supposed to be the head of the clan.” she shuffled around, “But she passed on that to come here and when she got engaged to Lira.”

“Her father was an egomaniac and wanted the perfect heir to his title, so he pushed her, and both of her brothers to extremes, she as any young child wanted to please her parent and therefore worked very hard to reach his goals of perfection, which unfortunately lead to him raising them to see how far she could go.” he looked out the window as he spoke. “Everything about her life was controlled, from where she went, to who she met, to what she was allowed to read and do any given day.”

“So her studies and scores were the only things in her control.” the headmistress said, understanding exactly where this was going.

“Yes, so for years that being the only thing she could really call her own, something she had complete control over she began to depend on them, to see them as a measure of her worth in this world.” he looked over at her, and she almost recoiled at the rage and hate burning there, so bright his red eyes glowed like they were backlit by the fires of hell. “She now knows she has more of worth than grades and scores, but old habits die hard, especially ones that deeply rooted.” as he spoke a spark floated out of his mouth, and he snatched it out of the air like a bug, his fist closing around it, a glow began to show between his fingers. “I know who did it,” he spoke softly, and she found this voice all the more terrifying for the calmness of it. “They were fools to not listen to my warnings,” he looked over at her, “is there anything else sis?” he asked.

“Only one thing,” the headmistress said, shocked at how natural it felt for him to call her sis. “Cheating does not involve dead bodies, do you understand me?” she stared at him hard.

“Don't worry,” he walked over the door and opened it before calling back over his shoulder, “I won't kill him.” he closed the door behind him, and the headmistress wondered if she should have also told him that maiming was also not an option...