“If you’re different you always know it, and you can’t fix it even if you want to. What do you do when you find out your heart is the wrong kind? You take what you’re given, and be the hero you can be. Hero to your own cold, inverted heart.”

― Austin Grossman, Soon I Will Be Invincible

Waking up.

Sunlight filters through the curtains.

She blinks her eyes and there is a slight blurring.

She opens them fully and watches the rays creep along the walls.

On the right, there is life and light.

On the left, there is a grey patina staining everything with a tinge of dust and decay. The curtains show flaws, little rents, a thread that has been washed one time too many. The stones show cracks, and there is the beginning of rust on the flat head of an ornamental nail. Entropy is the light by which this eye sees and there is no darkness, for there is decay everywhere.

She lifts her hands and the left one feels free of anything resembling effort or pain. There is power there thrumming beneath the cold white flesh. There are runes to guide it, and a simple sentience lurks in the small crystal reflecting sunlight- like the pupil of an eye. Meticulously made.

Void gushes from her fingers and it is effortless, there is no pain. A torch that devours instead of giving.

Pain is an illusion, when it’s gone you have no evidence that it was ever there.

But there is a memory of agony beyond measure. She feels a frailty, a lack, inside of her, as if the power had hollowed her out to make room for more. And she is unsure if it is something she would have wanted or something to be feared.

Light creeps over the quilts covering her form.

And she closes her left eye which hurts from the brightness.

A spectral hand brushed aside her hair and Asandria smiled at her, eyes and upper head transparent before the window, ‘All will be well, you will see.’

Cyrus roused from where he had been sleeping shook his head unwillingly before pouncing on his mistress butting her nose painfully with his horned head.

“Ouch!”

“You are awake!?” Mireille came into view, sleep-deprived and with deep rings under her eyes, she looked worse than the last time they had parted. “How are you? Do you feel any pain?”

“Mh.” An unwilling moan was her answer, then Alyssa whispered hoarsely, she had hurt her throat while screaming, even as she no longer remembered that part too clearly, “Water!” she coughed. “Please.”

A glass of lukewarm water was placed on her lips and she sipped before coughing again.

“Thank you. My throat…” she gestured helplessly at her neck.

“I understand. Please take it easy. I will ask the kitchen to send some soup?”

Alyssa nodded.

“You look more an undead than Vanessa.” Mireille looked at her critically.

Her friend furrowed her brow and looked at the red-headed troublemaker. “Why?” She croaked.

“You did know what would happen, at least approximately?”

For a moment Alyssa wanted to deny it but then nodded shallowly. “Mostly.”

“So you deserve to be punished. Do you know how much you worried Alea and me? Even Vanessa was very taciturn. I hope it was at least worth it.” Putting the glass back on the side table Mireille stretches sitting on her chair. “We have delayed the return to the academy. Today is Tuesday already. You slept for more than two days.”

Alyssa winced.

A maid came in after knocking and put a serving tray with some covered dishes on the bed. Mireille nodded and began to carefully feed some soup to a very embarrassed Alyssa. The left eye was onyx-like in appearance and the incongruence of feeding this ethereal-looking girl let a half-grin appear on the red-heads face.

“So rest some more, tomorrow we will go back.” Mireille gave a complicated look and added more softly, “I can -finally -go and rest. You can ring for someone to help you when you need it. I pray to Nirileth that Vanessa comes through with her promised thingy.” Noticing Alyssa’s questioning gaze she smiled, “an artifact containing an illusion of your prior appearance. Trust me. You don’t want to run around looking as you do now.”

And with that, she smoothed the quilts and turned to go. As she reached the door she hesitated and looked back, “Was it truly necessary?”

Alyssa looked in her direction and shadowed runes rippled beneath her skin, one eye a brilliant purple the other pitch black.

“Yes.”

Somewhere in the northern dockyards during nighttime

Vanessa clicked her tongue in irritation while Iseret looked on with faint amusement. They stood together in an old cobbled alley. On the left side there were warehouses and some shops, on the right rose shabby apartment buildings.

They had searched the neighborhood for signs of infestation by the strange bone and blood creatures and found...nothing much. There had been a violent altercation between a dockworker and the close ‘friend’ of his wife. That nearly cost the latter his life but such was a normal occurrence in the docks.

“Do you think the other forces and we two have managed to contain the problem?” Iseret mused while she adjusted the cloak of her compatriot.

Vanessa shifted her posture so that Iseret could more easily help her then irritated by her own complacent action shook herself like a wet cat and answered, “No, I think we simply got the simple ones. Those more inclined to feed than hunt and those least able to conceal themselves.”

The slit yellow eyes of her companion looked at her without blinking, “That is sadly the most probable cause. So what do we do now?”

“What does Kadira say?”

“She is pleased with the direction you have taken. She was a bit worried that you could have developed an appetite for ruling a territory after seeing Orpen in action.”

“How did she arrive at that conclusion? I never had an interest in trying to herd sheep or in this case rats.”

Iseret looked at the few passersby that still frequented the alley at this time of night and saw dirty clothing, threadbare coats, thin and malnourished faces. Some of the more prosperous persons looked at them with naked avarice or lust until they realized that the snake-woman was armed and armored and Vanessa’s eyes dispelled any other untoward thoughts. “Stray cats?” She smiled, “Some of them at least.”

“You know what?”

“Mh.”

“I will use Shadelings. It has been some time since Orpen used them to hunt me but they were quite effective other than me having the means to evade them. They are not a big danger to society as other summoned beings and they excel in hiding and searching- perfect.”

“That does sound quite useful. Do you need anything? I can probably requisition it as necessary expenses to secure the city.”

“I will let you know.” Vanessa smiled at her companion and Iseret smiled back.

The next day in the morning at the Ivy Terraces.

Alyssa staggered as she stood up from the bed. All the muscles in her legs were sore and her throat still hurt, her voice was a bit hoarse. She stood before the large mirror set on the wall beside the bathroom. She had not used this guestroom she had been assigned in the beginning and everything was a bit unfamiliar.

Disheveled white hair spilled towards her hips, her face was more sharply cut than she remembered, flesh had burned away as readily as everything else. For a moment she saw the fine network of runes covering the left half of her face, her left shoulder and arm. Her eye was an orb of inky black. Even the color of her skin was that of a wax statue perhaps, pale whitish gray.

She lifted her hands and stretched yawning. At least it did no longer hurt even as there was still the feeling of emptiness in her breast, a hollow feeling. The gate never completely closed, she had tried. But it did not seem to harm her any so she let it be. She traced the outline of her eye in the mirror with her left hand and saw wisps of darkness follow her fingertips. When she closed her left eye those motes of magic vanished.

A knock sounded on the door.

“Wait a second! I will quickly put on some clothes. “ She grabbed some robes and cinched the cloth belt around her hips before calling out. “You can come in!”

The door opened and the dark-haired maid that had guided Vanessa before entered. “Good morning.” The girl stopped for a moment still a bit shocked at her appearance even though she should have seen her while caring for her. “Mylady Vanessa left some things for you, there is also a note.”

She set down a package wrapped in simple cloth.

“I was asked to relay that it would be best if you could come down soon, breakfast is ready and the young mistress is anxious to return to the academy.”

“Thank you.” And as she saw the maid still waiting she added, “I will be fine.”

The door closes with a ‘snick’ and Alyssa unwrapped Vanessa’s gift.

A note fluttered onto the table.

'Don't remove the amulet after wearing it or it will have to be attuned anew. The gloves block a bit of your void magic, so I recommend using them. They will probably last for about a month or so. I will look into a more permanent solution.

Be safe.

V.'

Two gloves long enough to cover her lower arms to the elbow and a simple necklace made of an alloy of orichalcum and silver were inside. She grabbed the amulet and pulled it over her head. She felt something like a tiny prick as the runes began to gather magic from her body and as she turned her head her outline shifted slightly and her dark eye became purple once more, her flesh returned to its formerly pale but somewhat healthy color.

Breathing a sigh of relief she did her morning ablutions and put on the academy uniform and the gloves before going downstairs to eat.

They gathered in the courtyard after the meal and Adam looked them up and down. “Ladies.” He nodded, “Everything ready?” After receiving nods in return he grinned and gestured, “Then come in we will leave at once.”

Alyssa smiled. A bit of normality was highly welcome.

Somewhere else.

The face was unnaturally beautiful and perfectly symmetrical, the eyes were like pools of summer sky, the hair was like the finest silk blowing in the wind. The woman leaned against a balcony of pale white stone her lithe but curvy form only barely covered by a gossamer gown. The sky was a great vortex of clouds leading up into a vast darkness. She raised her delicate white hand and…

the bones of her hand clacked against each other, tendrils of magic guiding were flesh and sinew once did, blindingly white…

the head turned and supple skin stretched in a yawn her hand held coquettishly before the dainty mouth, full cheeks showed slight dimples…

spots of light in empty eye sockets shone like dying stars, glared with pale blue light- everywhere her gaze touched, the legions of undead paused and lifted their heads, skeletons, wights, spirits, monstrosities of fused iron and soul…

lips lifted in a quiet smile and…

the mask shifted and there was a skeleton with the remnants of flesh clothed in the garments of lost life. Inside the ribs, a crystal heart was beating with the lifeblood of the world reducing her rich robes to transparency. The seeming of days gone by flickered and she was revealed in all her eldritch glory.

She was like a beacon flaring with power drawing everything in, nothing could escape the pull of her being. There was nothing here that was true, nothing that was real – beside her.

The city was like the ribcage of a gigantic beast all white spires and broken roofs and it had slumbered for hundreds of years drowned in snow and ice as its mistress had despaired.

She had become more active of late and then, just now, there was a hint of power to the east a familiar power she had not tasted since her imprisonment.

Her thoughts quickened and she opened her mouth to laugh. Even miles away the feeble creatures of this ruined land crouched low and hid in their burrows as mortal fear burned through their tiny minds. The clouds shifted and a bitter wind blew. As if the city were breathing.

Skeletal fingers pierced the thin skin of space and a long rod of blackened stone scored with runes and topped with a blade of smoky glass appeared and was firmly grasped.

Groups of undead gathered and silently left towards the south, she would have what she wanted, she would have the key and she would have her freedom.

The heart of Ulsolm slowly began to beat again.