There are few truly good souls in the world. People who make the world better by just being in it. There was the Saint of Car-Tell, who gave up everything to save their city from a massive wave. The closest thing the City-State of Cain had, was Marleen.

Marleen was a sweet girl, she had a unquiet way about her, and no one saw the world the same way she did. She was the oldest daughter of a teacher and dreamed of following in her father's foot steps. At the age of seven, her father and her went on a surveying trip. Her father was a respected man in the collage, and was tasked to check on the claims of a new discovery outside the Western Woods. Some farmer claimed to have found a mechanical-man. Her Father, Victor Von Sky, was tasked at bringing the discovery back to the city. The trip to the woods and small turnip farmer went as well as anyone could home. Marleen loved looking at the flowers and passing country side. She saw a red-tail hawk swoop down and capture a mouse, she jumped in the shock of seeing the mouse getting eaten, but her father explained that all manor of creatures need to eat. She loved her father in that moment, as he explained the food web to her, and see beamed at how much passion he had for knowledge.

Once they arrived in the farm, she saw this massive hole, with all sorts of leavers, and pullies. The farmer found this metal being when digging out a new well. She never seen her father cover such a range of emotions. First she saw doubt on his face, followed by excitement, and ended in fear as the tarp covered monster was placed in the back of the wage. Her father didn't even acknowledge her, as he got the cart going. The only thing she remembers was the whisper on his lips over and over, "The Forge is real?"

The trip back, didn't go as planned. Marleen's father should have hired some guards, or some adventures to protect them on the journey by the royal roads have been safe in the past, but news of the discovery reach out pasted the local farmers. Greed, greed is a powerful motivator...

Marleen told herself that one day she would be teaching in the collage of healers. She had a special gift, she had the magic to control the flow of blood. Years later, Marleen reached the age of twenty-five.

Marleen used her magic to study and document the blood clotting process, also known as coagulation. She lost count of the hours, she studied blood vessels in her injured clients. She learned about the special type of blood called Platelets. Her magic could speed up the blood vessels, getting them to work together faster, stopping excessive bleeding.

A flashback of Marleen at the dinner table, telling one of her would be lovers about the importance of her work. "Did you know that blood clotting normally occurs when there is damage to a blood vessel. Think about that for a second! Your body does that on its' own. It naturally starts the healing process. Then! Then, these awesome special cells called Platelets, immediately begin to adhere to the cut edges of the vessel and release chemicals to attract even more platelets. Balm, a platelet plug is formed over the damage, and the external bleeding stops. Pretty wild stuff." Lost in her own world, she didn't notice that he date was smiling and making eyes at the girl over at the bar.

She was using that skill now, traveling the country side, healing people and doing lessons in village squares. She was trying to share her love of knowledge, such as reading, and books with young girls. She would go on a month long loop, travelling in a large circle before returning to her studies in the city.

She was a beautiful girl to boot. Marleen was a combination of qualities. She was blissfully ignorant of every day things such as gossip, power or lust. She just cared about studying and helping people in need. It didn't hurt the eyes that she was blessed with a perfect shape, her skin was picture perfect. She also moved her form with perfect grace, as if she was a cat in another life. She was the perfection of the aesthetic senses, especially if you had eyes.

Bandits in the woods. Marleen had heard about bandits, but she was never nervous. She travelled the main roads and such, and everyone came to know her from her outreach work. For example, she had just healed a blood infection of a farmer who had hurt himself chopping firewood. If she handed removed the infection with her magic, he would have died in a few more days. The farmer's wife joked that she could cook an egg on his forehead it was so hot.

She was traveling close to the western woods, and five men stepped out. It reminded her of when she was last here with her father. The same thing had happened. Her father had managed to dispatch the men in front of the wagon back then, and all she could remember was reaching out with her hand and closing it. Then the men fell to the ground. That was when she learned she was a mage. Father was so proud of her that day.

Marleen looked at the five men in front of her, she reached out with two hands, and pulled. She pulled with her hands as hard as she could. The two men fell dead to the ground. A red burst pulling from their chests, and two crushed hearts were in the mud. A small trail of blood running towards Marleen. Her blood magic wasn't just for healing, she knew how to protect herself.

The three other men, rushed at her, swords coming. She reached out again. She could feel the men's hearts in her hands, even if they were 5 meters away. She began to pull and crush.

That was when she lost sight. "Wait, no." She said to herself. It was a bag. Someone managed to make it behind her. She finished pulling and crushing the two hearts, but that was when she left the cudgel crack across the back of her head. She fell. The world went dark.

The Red Queen found her working on her studies outside the capital, a few months ago, before Jeremy and the others were to cross paths. The hags had begun their work on creating a creature that had limited range but unstoppable power.

The bandits employed by the Red Queen delivered the maiden to the hags. Greed was upon their faces as the bag of gold was a fortune they only dreamed about, their dreams came true at the cost of one innocent life. The hags beamed with greed, because with this magic user, they were about to try a spell that no one before then had dared to try. The Queen was happy, for if it worked, she would have an unstoppable guardian for the passageway to the undergrounds, one more step closer to the Forge.

The hags, dragged the hooded, bruised and beaten body of Marleen towards the barn. Her arms were bounded behind here back with thin leather strips, they were tied so tight that they cut into her wrists and blood dripped down the gashes.

The massive doors opened on their own with the wave of one of the hags gnarled fingers. One witch on either side lifted their captive onto a steel table that rested at a perfect 180 degree angle, and in the center of the table it was supported by a single metal shaft. The blade worked as a scalpel cutting her hands free as half a dozen straps appeared over her body. Marleen was strapped to the table centered in the middle of the barn, she couldn't see but there was a golden letters shaped into the straps. The largest strap crossed under her naked breasts, for the hags had stripped her bear with their knives. The runes across the central strapped spelled out, “For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life here after. The children shall eat the blood of the masters for no manner of being is above the blood. Life of all flesh is the blood of all: whosoever has sin in their hearts will melt before the blood.”

From the center point of the table, it rested in a bowl carved out of the stone. There was rune-work and symbols carved all around the bowl. The bag was pulled off of Marleen's head, she could see that a set of mirrors circle about her head. The mirrors were angled to give the hags more light to work with, but were also enchanted to reflex and contain the blood magic to the localized area. She tried to scream, but her mouth had been gagged from when the bandits had captured her, and tears wept down her face.

The eldest hag smiled down at the young women, her feet floating above the bowl, "You have nothing to scream or cry about yet child. We haven't even begun our work yet. I promise you that the pain you will feel will shatter and break your mind." As she said the last few words a centipede feel from the hags hair and landed on the breast of the captive women, and its hundred legs began to scramble over, trying to feel. The youngest hag, pitched the bug the insect into the air, bent her head back and eat the bug. Marleen's eyes went wide, she knew her fate was sealed.

She pictured herself as the little girl on the cart with her father, learning about the food wed. How happy she had been to be out in the world and seeing the beautiful flowers. The felt the blade enter her flesh. She was now the mouse, being eaten. The next cut chisel into her bone, she left as if something was cleaving into her very soul. She cried, tried to picture the flowers. To picture her white dress.

The runes pulsed with each scream. The runes matched with glow with the colour of Marleen's blood. The first cuts were to remove Marleen's skin. Her beautiful soft skin, snow white, was snipped, lacerated and bleached the colour red. Slowly, the edge of the blades cut away tissue and nerves. They pierced and shear away, as if they were bisecting a lab animal. The screams never ended. They rippled across the pools of blood forming under the table, but oddly the blood never drained away. Just dripped. Dripped into an ever growing pool under the poor helpless victim.

Once skin was pulled free from her still living body, the hags began their work carving hellish runes into her bones, and flesh. Once the rune was carved, it was rendered from the body, and dropped into the pool below. Slowly. Piece. By. Piece. Her flesh was pulled away, blood was drained into the bowl below.

Marleen held onto her mind as best as she could. She had no way of telling time. It could have been hours or days. There was just the burning and rendering of her body, soul and mind. She kept bring herself back to the moment with her father. The flowers, the mouse.

Once they were done... her body was gone. Her mind was gone. She was just the pool below. Sleep took her over.

"It worked sister. The girl is no more, but her power is ours!"

She hissed, "Yes!"

"Any who enter the blood will die, and the entrance to the undergrounds safe."

How long had she been asleep. Something had stepped inside her? That didn't seem right.

She felt a warmth she hadn't felt in some time. She could see light without eyes. She knew there was someone here.

She felt so cold. Who am I. All she could remember was the pain of the table. The pain of being stripped away.

Someone was stepping in her body...what was left of her body. She tried to speak, but had no tongue.

What are those words, "Jeremy, MOVE!"

She could use her magic. She could always use her magic without words. It came from within and around her. She cast her magic into the runes around the mirrors, sealing the bodies within her domain. She was going to eat. Feel this hunger before sleep found her again. In her dreams she was a young girl again, among the floors and sun. She wished to sleep, but first, she had to eat.