ONE - DREADFUL BEGINNING
Opening Scene
The Dubsteps played softly in the background—an old melody that once echoed through the Vale before the Silence Laws.
“Vulpinus… call your sister.”
“Okay.”
A pair of faint, blurry eyes stared at the ceiling.
“Sister?” a light feminine voice called out.
No response.
“SISTER!” the voice came again, this time frantic—
Then came the bang.
The day Thermopolis fell was the day I stopped believing in safety.
The day everything I loved vanished before my eyes.
The day the world became quiet.
The eyes closed. Darkness.
---
Twelve years later…
Venenifer stood before the balcony of Emberfall Hall, staring at the dying sun as it bled into the horizon. The autumn air smelled of iron and smoke—harvest and remembrance.
Tonight was the royal feast, a celebration of the returning prince merged with the annual masquerade ball of Avarnath.
Venenifer didn’t care to know their names.
She hated all of them.
Especially the King.
He had destroyed her home.
He had taken her from her family.
He had made her learn obedience within gilded walls.
Curse the King.
Curse his empire.
Curse his bloodline.
Curse his life.
“Venenifer?”
A soft, familiar voice broke her trance.
Vulpinus stood at the doorway, sunlight in human form—orange hair catching the dying glow of dusk. She smiled, trying to ease the weight in her sister’s eyes.
“Heidemarie says it’s time to get ready. For the feast.”
“And if we don’t?”
“The King…” Vulpinus trailed off, voice shrinking.
Venenifer looked away, muttering under her breath, Let him rot in hell.
“Come on,” Vulpinus said, looping her arm through her sister’s. “Before Heidemarie sends the guards again.”
They disappeared into the chamber hall, footsteps fading behind heavy velvet curtains.
Down in the second courtyard, the torches flickered in the wind.
A cloaked figure in red moved along the shadows, avoiding the sentries.
Every step was silent, deliberate.
The guards didn’t see.
They weren’t meant to.
Not yet.
