Several Years Later...

I thought that relocating to the Estherian Steppes, a stone's throw away from the Enclave, would be safer than trying to rebuild back at Torchlight. For a time, it was a bit more peaceful, though there was the occasional wild animal that decided that tall fences weren't meant to keep them out. For a time, it was nothing that we couldn't handle in our sleep.

Malia was the first to notice that things were changing. She is so much more connected to the Ember than I am, and picks up on the subtlest changes. When she informed me that corruption was drifting towards the Steppes, I didn't understand what she meant, and she really couldn't find the words to explain it better.

When Torchlight went up in flames, the smoke was visible from nearly everywhere, and Malia told me the corruption had arrived. She advised taking what was necessary, and leaving our home before the corruption engulfed the area, so we packed up and headed to the Estherian Enclave.

Neither of us are the kind of folk that can stand being in the Enclave long. Malia has to wear hooded robes and bind her tail up, as many would not take kind to a Dark Acolyte, given they were part of the forces that lay beneath Torchlight. It was not long before we made our way into Echo Pass and down to an obscure little tavern and inn.

Little did we know that trouble was already waiting there for us.

The Destroyer was there, though I almost didn't recognise him. He was warning people that the Alchemist, the man who had betrayed all of Estheria, was coming back, that he was at fault for the destruction of Torchlight. He was preparing an defence force, but needed people to warn the Enclave; while we would have rather stayed to fight, Malia advised delivering the message for him.

And so we made our way back to the Enclave, fighting the whole way there; it seemed that this corruption was drawing the attention of all kinds of unsightly creatures, as it had the first time Estheria was in danger. Even the undead were returning in force.

Malia

It was dark when I awoke, staring up at the starlight skies. It took several minutes for me to remember what had happened, and I bolted up into a sitting position, frantically looking around. The tree line was to my left, and I turned to look to my right, towards where the homestead was.

My view was blocked by the woman with blue skin, her glowing eyes casting strange shadows upon her face. She was sitting beside me, watching and waiting, and her presence meant that it was not a nightmare. I did not fall asleep while on patrol. I was not waking up from some horrible dream.

I pushed myself to my feet, and began running towards where my home had stood. Instead of the familiar walls of my house, or the familiar rows of crops stretching out behind it, there was nothing but ash and smouldering timbers. Frantically, I began digging through the rubble, trying to find my family while clinging to the false hope that they were still alive.

Strong, clawed hands pulled me away. I struggled for a moment, turning to attack whoever owned those hands, and found myself face to face with those glowing eyes again. For a moment or two, I pushed against her shoulders, struck at her arms and hands, then finally collapsed against her, crying.

"You do not want to see them," she stated.

It took several minutes to regain the ability to speak. All the while, this strange woman held me in much the same way I held her while she convulsed and suffered.

"This is my fault. If I hadn't gone so far off the patrol path," I started to say.

The woman interrupted me, finishing the sentence for me with a truth I didn't want to hear. "Then you would be dead as well."

I wanted to argue with her, to claim I was a more powerful Embermage than I actually was, but I knew that it would be obvious that I was lying. I couldn't even douse the flames while using every last ounce of power I had, something I was sure she had witnessed.

"You're right," I finally said.

She let go of me, and took a step back, tail swaying gently. She brushed her clawed hands through her hair, pushing it all over her shoulders as she watched me. I was slowly getting used to the way her glowing eyes looked.

"Who are you?" I finally asked.

She paused, and lowered her hands as she spoke. "You may call me Malia. What should I call you?"

There was an odd tone to that question, as if she had left out a word or something. I shrugged it off as some sort of difference in dialects, as I assumed Estherian wasn't her native language.

"Anezka," I replied.

"We are both alone now," she said, cryptically, "and so we shall be alone together."

I paused before saying, "That would mean we weren't alone."

"Precisely."

The End of the Beginning

Torchlight was overrun with foul monsters, most of them hiding below the town in the mines, however...not all of them stayed there. Alric needed eyes upon the surface, and those eyes often needed overlords to keep watch on them. While some were raiding parties, others were there to gather information, learn all they could, assuring that Ordrak would be resurrected.

At the time, I was unaware of the truth behind the situation in Torchlight. I knew that there were people more powerful than myself that had come to investigate the mines, but I was far to inexperienced to even attempt to assist them; instead, I kept my family's homestead as safe as I possibly could.

You see, we lived on the outskirts of Torchlight at the time. Most of my family had little to no talent with magic, though they were skilled with martial techniques. I was the first in generations to have ember in my veins, the first Embermage in the family for nearly a century. While many of the wild animals and bandits could be defeated through martial prowess, things like the undead did not fall when they were stabbed through the heart. They did, however, burn quite well and it was quite effective in keeping them from rising again later.

We had devised patrol routes along the perimeter of our holdings, and more through the farmlands within them. My father and I would patrol the area while my two brothers tended the farm and my mother did housework; sometimes, I would patrol alone while my father made repairs to machinery or the house itself. It was during one of these lone patrols that I met Malia.

Some strange skeletons had appeared just beyond the border of our stead, sickly green all over, as if they were covered in some sort of moss or decay. They were spread out, searching for something, or so I thought, and I began picking them off one at a time. Each one lead me deeper into the woods, until I came upon a bloody sight that I will not soon forget.

There was a strange woman crumpled at the base of the tree, surrounded by a strange ichor that I slowly realised was her own blood. Her skin was a deep blue, and seemed to be engraved with golden runes of some sort, some of which were violently separated by deep gashes. Long black hair hid most of her face, though I could see a faint glow from beneath its dark strands while long ears cut through the dark mass. She wore little, most of it metallic and more like jewellery than clothing, though it was not spared damage despite being so solid. And...she had a tail, which I found to be the strangest thing about her.

Given her state, and how close the strange undead had been, I assumed she had been attacked and left for dead by the fiends I had just cut down. I rushed to her side, and carefully repositioned her so that the tree provided support for her, leaning her back against it before checking her arms and legs for any breaks. Her injuries seemed to primarily be deep gash wounds, each bleeding steadily. I always carried basic healing potions with me whenever I went out to patrol, and I quickly began trying to poor them down her throat.

After a few vials, she began to cough and sputter, her wounds slowly beginning to mend. She opened her eyes, and I was caught by surprise when they just...glowed. There was no definition to them in the way humans or even Zeraphi had beyond having eyelids and lashes. She stared at me in as much surprise as I stared at her.

I had no idea what I was dealing with. Perhaps if I had, things would be different today.

Before I could say anything, I felt a surge of energy from the direction of the mines, and she began convulsing. I quickly embraced her, trying to steady her twitching body while pouring more healing potion down her throat. She started speaking, but I couldn't understand the language she was using, however, it was clear that something terrible was happening to her. Her wounds were nearly healed, and yet she still convulsed and twitched, so I just held her tightly until it all passed.

After what seemed like an eternity, she slumped against me and sighed deeply, her eyes closing.

"He is gone," she murmured. "The cause is lost."

I didn't know what she meant exactly, though I would later find out that she was speaking of the destruction of Ordrak. While I had felt it, she must have felt it even more keenly than I, since she was from the Black Palace and a part of Ordrak's following.

There were many minutes of silence before she seemed to focus on her surroundings, looking up at me with an odd expression. She seemed both surprised and intrigued by me, sizing me up while evaluating her situation.

"You saved me," she said, as though it were some sort of strange happening.

"Of course I did," I replied. "I also took care of those skeletons that attacked you."

She blinked several times, and laughed lightly. Somehow, that was very amusing to her, though I wouldn't find out why for some time. She gave me a coy smile, and began to try and stand up. I let her go, and stood up as well.

"I owe you a life debt," she suddenly said. "I will remain by your side until that debt is repaid."

This threw me off-guard, and should have been the first indication that this woman was not natural. People don't generally take things to such an extremely - the last person I'd saved merely thanked me, gave me a bit of coin, and returned to their daily life.

"That's entirely unnecessary," I replied. "Don't worry about it."

We proceeded to argue about it for several minutes before I heard screaming in the distance, back in the direction of the homestead. Without finishing the argument, I turned and ran as fast as my legs would carry me back toward home, channelling fire through my hands in preparation for combat. We had been deep in the forest, and it seemed as though I would never break free of the tangled flora.

Finally, I reached the tree line. I was vaguely aware that the woman was following me, her movements feral yet extremely precise. Terror rushed through me as the homestead came into view.

Our land was largely engulfed in flames. The screaming I had heard was the sound of my family being burned alive; they were still making sounds, but it couldn't be counted as screams.

The fires at my fingertips died, and I began conjuring as much of an ice storm as I could possibly manage, centring it over our house. Snow and shards of ice formed above, melting rapidly as they fell towards the burning roof, but I wasn't powerful enough. I couldn't summon enough ice to stop the flames, despite throwing all of my magical power behind it.

Everything blurred and bled together before suddenly fading into black, the crackling sounds of the flames becoming distant, until their was only silence.