Chapter 1 - The Marriage
Fuck everything.
Lina thanked the Light that angels couldn't read minds. If they could, she would already be enduring a very long lecture on how such foul language was unbecoming of a princess.
But really anyone would curse their entire bloodline if they were being forced into marriage against their will. And to a bloodthirsty demon, no less. The mere thought of red - skinned horrendous demon kissing her at altar made her gag.
Lina sat in the dressing room, gazing at her reflection in the mirror.
She wore a stunning white gown, embellished with shimmering stones. A fitted corset hugged her chest perfectly, the deep neckline revealing just enough skin to remain tasteful. A delicate necklace rested in the hollow of her collarbone. Her silver hair was tied into a high bun, two loose strands framing her face.
She looked like a vision.
Yet her face was devoid of expression.
Too many emotions churned within her at once anger, sadness, anxiety, and the one she would never admit aloud: fear. In less than five minutes, she was going to be married. To a damn demon. The thought settled like lead in her chest.
How had it come to this? How had she ended up in a situation like this?
To understand that, one had to look back to the moment the borders of Elyndor were redrawn. Not by land, but by blood.
Celestara claimed the skies in the name of divine order. Infernum ruled the flames beneath with iron law. And Noctyra lingered in the shadows between realms, watching more than it ever revealed. Beneath the dominance of these three great powers, smaller dominions struggled to endure Aquaryn beneath the endless seas, Sylvara within its living forests, Grimhold carved from stone and mountain, Kragmoor thriving in chaos and scrap, and Terravia clinging to survival through sheer numbers alone.
In Elyndor, power did not belong to the righteous or the cruel, but to those who chose their alliances wisely or vanished from history altogether.
Infernum had not always been strong.
There was a time when the demon realm stood on the brink of extinction.
United by a rare common ground,their shared hatred for demons the other realms seized the opportunity and turned against Infernum.
The war lasted a year and came to be known in history as the Ashfall War.
Infernum was devastated. Its cities fell, its population decreased, and its lands were reduced to ruin. The victorious realms found little use for Infernum's scorched environment, so they turned to another solution: enslavement.
Surviving demons were taken by different realms, with Celestara and Noctyra claiming the largest numbers.
Armies were sent into Infernum to harvest its remaining resources, but survival proved nearly impossible. The air was so polluted that even the vegetation failed to grow.
Eventually, the forces withdrew, abandoning Infernum to rot in its own ashes.
It vanished from the maps.
Or so the world believed.
But Years later, they somehow returned.
No one knew how, only what they knew was it became Stronger, More advanced. Armed with a form of technology or rather, demonology never seen before.
The funniest part?
Demons, long considered nothing more than brute and mindless beasts, had learned to combine power with knowledge. And that made them unstoppable.
No realm was strong enough to combat Infernum. Not even together. So they chose survival over pride. One by one, realms began forming alliances with the very enemy they once sought to erase.
Celestara and Noctyra, however, refused. Pride ran deep in both realms. They would never bow to demons.
Noctyra's pride was the first to shatter.
When King Lucifer of Infernum stood with his blade pressed against Noctyra's ruler neck, half the shadow realm lay in ruins. No realm came to their aid except Celestara. And even then, it wasn't enough.
Noctyra joined the alliance soon after. Forcefully. But in the end, it hardly mattered.
Celestara was the last realm standing.
Lucifer was prepared to wage war and claim it by force until he discovered a far better solution.
**************
Snapping back to the present, Lina gave herself one last look before standing.
"Princess, it is time. Your father is waiting outside," one of the maids said softly as she placed the veil over Lina's head, lowering it to her chest.
Another maid handed her a bouquet of Emberbloom, their pale petals mirroring the molten amber of her eyes.
Lina nodded. Her gaze flickered toward the window. For a fleeting second, she considered jumping, running disappearing into anything but this fate.
But she straightened her spine, composed herself, and walked out of the room.
The doors to the hall opened and so did the fate she had never chosen.
