Aria’s consciousness faded in and out, and in the brief period she was conscious, she saw stars in her dim vision and a heard a ringing in her ears. She was barely able to register the fact that she was being dragged along the floor by her foot.

  “Damn knife ears!” Aria heard a voice hiss, “so beautiful… so graceful… and for so very long… They don’t see a single gray hair or wrinkle until they see their seventh CENTURY of life! It’s not fair! We humans are the blessed ones! We are the superior and chosen race. So WHY are these creatures the ones who possess such beauty for so long?! It’s not right, but I will MAKE it right! Bathing in their blood will prolong my beauty! Yes, yes it will!”

  Everything faded to black again.

  When her consciousness returned, she saw that it was Adele who was dragging her, and that they were nearing the double doors leading to her bedroom.

  Two elf slaves were waiting by the doors. They saw their mistress approaching with Aria in tow and visibly paled. They looked like they were going to be sick. No doubt because they figured this would be the last time they’d see Aria. That and seeing the maddened grin and wide eyes of their owner.

  Aria blacked out again, but she regained her consciousness within a few seconds as a familiar, metallic scent hit her nose.

  Blood.

  Her eyes snapped open and quickly darted around. She saw that she was now in Adele’s large bedroom. The room appeared impeccably clean. Before she knew it, the double doors closed behind her, leaving her alone with the vile hume.

  “At last,” Adele cackled with insanity, “oh how I’ve longed for this. And now, with what you’ve done, no one can blame me this time. No one can accuse me of taking things too far. For indulging in disgusting fantasies.”

  The woman let go of Aria’s foot, leaving her on the ground as she walked, not towards her bed, but the wall.

  “Where was it again?” Aria heard Adele mumble, “ah! Right here.”

  She put her hand to the wall, and it sank in a bit. A loud click was heard before the wall next to Adele began to move, sliding to the side to reveal a pitch black room.

  The scent of blood suddenly thickened to a sickening degree, causing Aria to wretch.

  Fear gripped her heart, and terror seized her as her vision finally stopped dimming, her ears stopped ringing, and she no longer saw stars.

  She began to crawl away in desperation from Adele and that horrible, pitch black room that reeked of death.

  “I don’t think so!” Adele shrieked as she grabbed her by the foot and pulled her towards the dark room.

  Aria screamed as she clawed at the floor, fingernails breaking and the skin at the tips of her finger ripping, leaving bloody smears as she was dragged. Even so, she fought as hard as she could, kicking and trying to get to her feet to run away. However, with Adele still using Ether, it was for naught.

  “HELP! SOMEONE! ANYONE!” Aria screamed, tears falling down her face, “SANA! ONAS!! MOM!!!”

  “Stop struggling, tree hugger!” Adele hissed, “you’re only making me more infuria- AAAHHH!”

  Adele screeched and let go of Aria’s foot. She surged forward in desperation, looking back just enough to see that one of her desperate kicks had apparently connected with the black hearted hume’s eye.

  Adele hadn’t expected that one.

  Aria barely managed to burst through the door before Adele caught her by her extremely long, tangled blonde hair and threw her back hard enough to make her hit the wall. The impact once more made the air leave her lungs as she slid down in agony.

  Adele stood menacingly in the doorway, looking like a demon, her back to the open doors that cruelly offered an escape that Aria knew she’d never reach.

  The hume was once more red in the face as she snarled, “Never, in all my years have I ever been THIS enraged. Oh… I cannot wait to vent all this frustration on you! I’ll start by peeling that pretty face open and ripping it off before I start to bleed you dry!!!”

  She began to stalk forward. Aria shut her eyes, sending a last prayer born out of sheer desperation, Maker..! Save me, please!!!

  When Adele’s approaching footsteps suddenly stopped, and no harm came to her, Aria slowly opened her eyes, and was shocked by what she saw.

  Adele stood, frozen, looking down at her chest where a blade was sticking out, coated in her blood.

  She coughed as she reached down and tried in vain to remove the blade with her hands, only succeeding in cutting herself. Someone was standing behind the hume, though Aria couldn’t see who it was.

  “Just what,” a familiar voice said, “are you doing to my daughter, you Maker forsaken wretch?!”

  Aria’s eyes widened, and tears began to flow like waterfalls down her face. Not out of terror, but out of relief.

  The blade piercing Adele pushed forward deeper before twisting and being roughly pulled out. As the hume fell to the floor, Aria saw that it was her mother, Anila Tufani herself, who had saved her.

  “Mom?” Aria called out before jumping to her feet and rushing to her, enveloping her in a tight embrace, “Mom!!!”

  Anila returned the embrace with equal intensity, “Yes, Aria. I’m here now. Everything will be okay!”

  Anila’s voice cracked with emotion, as she whispered to her, “Oh how I’ve missed you, Aria…”

  Aria could barely form any coherent words as she sobbed and bawled into her mother’s chest, her breathing erratic.

  “Calm yourself, Aria. Deep breaths, deep breaths,” Anila instructed as she rubbed Aria’s back in the same soothing manner she always did whenever she was upset.

  It took Aria a few moments to calm down enough to speak coherently, “I thought I’d never see you again, Mom. I thought I was going to die, or worse…”

  Aria then remembered, “Wait! Adele! She’s an-”

  “Etherean? Yes, I know. I can sense it,” Anila answered calmly.

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  Aria turned and saw her mother’s eyes were glowing green. It was then that she finally noticed something else. Something that rocked her to her core.

  “Mom, your collar… it’s gone!”

  Anila gave her a brief smile before it melted. A cold, murderous look replaced it as she turned to face Adele, who lay on the ground in a pool of her blood. Aria could have sworn her eyes flashed a different color briefly… but surely not.

  “I know you’re still alive,” Anila called out, causing Adele, who had been playing dead, to flinch, “go ahead. Heal yourself. In fact…”

  Aria gasped as her mother did something she never expected.

  Anila placed a hand on Adele’s back and healed her, the wound closing and mending with startling speed.

  “Mom, what are you-”

  Adele immediately sprung into action, screeching as she threw a punch towards Anila. The Ether enhanced blow landed on her cheek. Aria’s jaw dropped as her mother remained standing, not having been moved a single centimeter. Rather, it was Adele who screamed as she pulled back and held the hand she’d used to punch Anila tenderly. It was as though she’d struck at a statue without Ether.

  Anila smiled menacingly at Adele, “Is that really all you’ve got? Is that really all the nobility, even one as disgraced and fallen as you, have to offer? Well, looks like your life won’t be lasting much longer, then.”

  Adele hissed as she nursed her hand, and Aria realized for the first time that the hume’s fingers were bent inwards unnaturally, and the skin on them was turning purple and swelling. The woman had broken her hand trying to strike Anila.

  “You… what are you?! No knife ears is supposed to have their collar off! And none are supposed to be so powerful!” Adele began to tremble as she realized her life was nearing its end.

  “I could explain all that to you, but frankly, I won’t waste my breath. Normally, I’d just kill you now and be done with it, especially considering I have plans that need doing. However…” Anila pointed towards the dark, hidden room that Adele had been trying to drag Aria into. The one that stank of blood and death. It was too dark for even Aria to see what was inside, and she got the feeling she should be grateful for that.

  “With Ether I can see inside that room,” Anila continued, fury beginning to leak into her voice, “and what I see in there… changes things.”

  Aria’s mother took a threatening step forward, and Adele yelped pathetically as she took a step back. “How many?” Anila asked as she took another step forward, “how many elves did you take into that room?”

  The air seemed to get chillier as Anila uttered those words, and a breeze swept through the room.

  Adele’s teeth began to chatter. Her fear reached a point where something seemed to snap, “How in the void would I know?! I didn’t keep count! And what does it matter?! All you tree huggers aren’t even people! I can do to the lot of you I buy and own as I damn well please! You’re MY property! Yet despite that, despite not even being people, despite being PROPERTY, you elves possess beauty that you get to keep for centuries!! Whereas my own fades within mere decades! That’s not fair! WE are the chosen race! Not you vile knife ears!!! I’m merely righting an injustice! Why in Athanasius’s great name would they remove me from the First Circle for that-”

  Adele’s head suddenly snapped to the side with such force, her entire body spun in circles. She hit the wall and slid down, and Aria was surprised to see her jaw hanging limply, clearly broken and profusely spewing blood.

  Aria turned to see her mother wiping the back of her hand on her clothes with a look of absolute disgust and fury.

  Anila’s blow had been so fast Aria hadn’t even registered any motion.

  “And you show absolutely no remorse,” Anila spat, “I will inflict upon you every torment imaginable, heal you as you reach the brink of death, only to do it all over again until every single elf you tortured and murdered is avenged.”

  Adele began to crawl away in a feeble manner, blood dripping onto the floor from her hanging and broken jaw. Anila swept her hand to the side, and a burst of wind flung the evil hume into the dark room. Aria watched as her mother began walking towards the cursed room. She stopped just before going in, turning to look at Aria and saying, “Wait outside, far from this room, Aria. I’ll be along shortly. Do NOT linger in here.”

  With that Anila went inside the pitch black room and, with a flick of her wrist and a burst of wind, shut the door.

  Despite her mother’s wishes, Aria remained. She’d wanted to make Adele suffer before, but now? Now that feeling was magnitudes greater.

  As Adele’s screams of agony began to be heard through the walls, Aria leaned against the door frame, closed her eyes, and listened with a sense of twisted satisfaction.

  One ashborn down… the rest to come in the future…

  ***

  Aria hadn’t stayed the entire time her mother dealt with that wretched hume. After a while, Adele’s screams stopped feeling satisfying and had just left her feeling… numb. Empty.

  She now waited down the hall, where she could no longer hear the hume’s screams.

  Aria didn’t know how much time had passed before her mother walked down that hall to meet up with her. For the first time, she noted her mother’s outfit. She no longer wore the tattered, hole riddled rags they had worn outside of Ignis. Rather, her mother, for some Maker forsaken reason, was wearing a militaristic outfit that was typical for one of the many guards of Ignis. A white surcoat that bore the blasphemous Eye of Athanasius on the chest with chainmail underneath. Her arms were covered in steel vambraces, legs in segmented steel greaves, and sturdy looking steel boots.

  Anila had a look of pain and dissatisfaction on her face as she walked, but when she neared Aria, her expression shifted to a disapproving frown.

  “You didn’t listen to me, did you? You stayed in that room when I told you to leave.”

  “How did you know?”

  “I could sense you. And besides, you’re my daughter. A mother has her way of knowing things.”

  A moment of awkward silence passed between them, and was only broken when Anila sighed, “Why did you stay?”

  “I didn’t stay the entire time,” Aria responded defensively.

  “So you did stay.”

  “Why does it matter?”

  “It matters a lot. Aria…” Anila hesitated before continuing, “I’m afraid to ask if you enjoyed hearing that hume’s screams.”

  “So what if I did?! Mother, you know what she was going to do to me had you not come to save me!”

  “I do know, Aria. And I’ve paid her back for not only what she nearly did to you, but also for what she did do to our people.”

  Aria sighed, “I don’t know why you’re worried about me enjoying her suffering when you did.”

  “Is that what you think?” Anila scowled, “Aria, look at me. Do I look like I enjoyed it?”

  Aria looked closely at her mother, and saw that there was no joy, no satisfaction. Rather, Anila’s eyes looked tired and… hollow.

  Now Aria was just confused, “Why… don’t you feel happy having avenged our people?”

  Anila closed her eyes, “No.”

  “Why?!”

  “Because avenging them won’t bring them back!” Anila snapped, “that is a lesson you need to learn Aria. Justice must be delivered upon those who do evil, but take care to never let justice become vengeance. There is no peace to be found when one walks down the dark road of revenge. Only sorrow and pain.”

  Aria took in her mother’s words before she nodded, “Alright. I’ll… I’ll try to remember that.”

  “Good. Now, we have other matters to discuss. But first,” Anila grabbed Aria and brought her into another tight hug, “I worried I’d never see you again, but the Maker has seen that we have been reunited at the opportune moment.”

  “What do you mean ‘opportune moment?’” Aria asked.

  Rather than answer she gestured for Aria to turn around.

  When she did, Anila grabbed her collar, seemed to press something onto it. The collar suddenly snapped open and came off.

  The collar snapped open and came off!

  Aria gasped as she suddenly felt as though a weight, one she’d borne from the moment she was born, was suddenly lifted from her.

  She sharply turned, facing her mother with the brightest smile to ever grace her lips.

  Anila grinned as she stomped on the now lifeless collar, shattering it to pieces.

  “What else would I mean, my daughter?” Anila said as her smile widened, “it’s time to make our escape.”

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