1 Prologue (1/2)

Hostile voices drew closer.

Athleticism had never been one of Sofia's stronger traits. Her frequent stumbling wasn't helping either.

The thorn-tipped grass tempted her to slow down. She could feel scrapes and cuts accumulating over her ankles. She could envision the crimson beads of what she assumed was blood flowing down her feet. She wanted to stop, to tend to the growing amount of pain in her legs, but she couldn't.

Not when she had gotten this far, and not when there was still much more ground to cover.

”Sofia!” She heard someone call her name from behind. Turning, her cinnamon-colored hair, black in the nighttime, flipped back, and she saw a young lady who had just signed on, not too long ago, to be one of her servants.

Her dire expression, eyebrows raised, mouth wide open and glassy eyes, were pleading to her, as a sword descended on her head.

Sofia simply turned back and grimaced as she spurred forwards. She didn't turn quickly enough to avoid seeing the spurt of blood, though.

I'm sorry. She thought. It wasn't long before another set of screams erupted from around where the woman had been. The sound of blade slashing through flesh hit Sofia's ears, and she held back the urge to look again, and check on her other servants, who were probably also dead or dying. Instead, she focused on the inspiring image of her sister, Elizabeth, pacing in front of her.

In all her time in Nova, not once had she gone through this sort of physical effort, but for Elizabeth this was a hobby. Running, hopping over obstacles, her sister was a natural outdoors-woman.

For the first time, Sofia wished she hadn't spent so much time in the palace. She shook her head and tried to drive those thoughts away as the sound of heavy iron boots crashing against fallen leaves drew closer. She had to focus. She was not safe here. Not yet.

Somehow, the sound seemed to be catching up to her. She knew she couldn't outrun them like her sister could, but she had to try. Thankfully, she did have a contingency.

She paused, and as quickly as she could, she reached back and drew her bow. When she turned to face her would-be captors, she saw four men clad in rusted iron armor, holding their blades out in her direction. Of course, as mercenaries often were, these men were armored only in their torsos and their legs.

For once, Sofia was grateful that conditions had become so poor for the commoners of Nova. Between the war with the Griffins, the rising amount of cultist attacks and the discoveries of strange beasts all around Azeria, here was one time someone else's hardships worked in her favor.

She couldn't afford to get cocky though, she was good with a bow, maybe even great, but was she good enough to plant an arrow in four small, moving targets? In the darkness, no less? She'd find out soon.

She nocked an arrow, pulled it back, and let it go. With a ”whoosh”, the arrow flew through the cold, night air, and went through a mercenary's eye.

She became aware of the fact that this was the first time she'd ever killed someone. So far, this bow had only been used for target practice, for sport, and now she was using it to end lives.

Briefly, her hands shook with grief, but she dissuaded herself from thinking about it. They were drawing closer, almost within ten meters.

The second arrow sailed through the air and caught a man's shoulder. For all her previous reluctance, she found herself wishing he had died.

It impressed her how quickly panic could do away with someone's morality.

She aimed for the front runner's head. The arrow caught his breastplate instead, and her wooden arrow bounced right off.

Fuck! Oh, cursing. Another thing she rarely did. She backed away a step. Her fear was sinking in, and frantically, she nocked another arrow. She launched it, and the man in front ducked, however, the arrow struck one of the followers' head.

She tried to back away again, but her bare feet caught a large rock and she fell back. Her landing felt like she'd taken a punch to the gut. The wind was cleared out of her lungs, and her eyes widened when she saw both men within ten feet.

This was it, she was about to die. She closed her eyes, and her hand reflexively fell to her stomach, where her son would have soon manifested.

Suddenly, she heard something move over her, and and several screams soon followed. She opened her eyes, and lost control over her mouth for a split second as a woman with the same cinnamon-colored hair, albeit much longer, stood over her.

”Elizabeth?” She asked with a dry, raspy voice.

”Thought I was just gonna leave ya, luv?” Her sister replied after sheathing her bloodstained blade. Sofia looked behind her, and saw four men's corpses laying not too far away. ”Gonna hav' to try harder than that to get rid of me.”

Truthfully, she did think Elizabeth would leave her. They had never been particularly close, but here she was. When Sofia had received the news that her suitor had placed a bounty on her, she went to everyone she knew for help, and found none.

No one wanted anything to do with the doomed girl, not the nobles in Nova's palace, not the peasants in the slums, not the boys and girls she had grown up with. No one cared. Finally, today, when she was out of options, she decided to try her luck with her estranged, cabin-in-the-woods inhabiting sister. She never expected an answer, but she got more than that.

Elizabeth showed up just a few hours ago at her home, when she was praying with her servants to the God of Order, Liasova. She arrived wearing several swords on her person, and a bow that she handed to Sofia, and simply said ”let's leave”. For a moment then, Sofia had thought she and her servants would be safe, but the mercenaries came attacking as soon as they saw her leaving the city.

She stood and breathed for a moment.

”Thank you.” She said.

”Don' mention it. We're still pretty far away, let's get movin'.” Elizabeth took off instantly, and out of the corner of her eyes, Sofia could see more men running towards them. It didn't take much more convincing to get her to start moving again. She couldn't even feel the scrapes on her legs now.

A part of her wanted to find a way out of this, to return to Nova, and meet with her would-be husband. Convince him to leave his cult, and return to the comfortable, lazy life she once led. She understood though, that life was gone. She allowed sadness to pour out of her, until she remembered her husband's parting gift.

Once again, her hand returned to her stomach, and as she ran, she could feel herself smiling. Elizabeth looked back, and saw the strange expression on Sofia's face.

”Ever the optimist.” Elizabeth muttered, not even breathing heavy as she ran forwards.

Somehow, they managed to get away. But they never stopped. Elizabeth was guiding Sofia to her cabin. As they made their way, Sofia couldn't help but notice how different the forest was to what she was accustomed to back in Nova. She tried to make their details out as well as she could, as dawn slowly began, and an orange tint was covering the land now.

Plants of all shapes, sizes and colors. Some are blue, most are green, a couple are black, she thought. It's almost like an entirely different world. However, as amazing as it all seemed, she still cast her face down when she realized that it was a world that was entirely foreign to her.

Finally, the fatigue she'd been putting away struck her with its full accumulated force in an instant. She tried to step forwards, but her foot slipped, and she landed on the cool, bright blue grass. At some point, the thorns had been replaced by white flowers. Her long, brown hair fall back with her, and her eyes gazed up at the stars.

”Don't take a breather yet, ya damn pansy, we're still far.” Elizabeth said as she walked over to her. Sofia stared up and saw that the younger girl still wasn't even breathing heavy. Her shoulders were just barely rising up and down, but outside of that, no sign of stress showed on her image.