Chapter Text
Darkness, it was from the darkness we were all born and it was from darkness I created my people. They might be called monsters today but I couldn’t help it. I wanted my own people and so I took from the other species. I took the power from tacet discords, which were beginning to emerge and I took the stability of humanity. These were my people and my people could not be conquered…not by any but themselves.
They were lambs in the dark and I, their shepherd. A powerful and ambitious race under my guidance but their ambitions were cruel. Elders would separate the young, herd them and create their own small communities. Through bloodshed their power could increase and quickly, very quickly I found wolves among my flock. Humans in their pure forms had integrated into my flock, unaware of the danger they placed themselves in but very aware of the changing and unstable nature of my people. As a sentinel of the land, it was my responsibility to protect those who entered my flock, whether they were human or not.
I lived separate from my people, I did not want to rule them through fear and I didn’t want to be worshipped in a toxic light but I descended my throne, changing my shape to the familiar human skin, radiating the same dangerous aura of the discords.
“So you have another form? Can I see it?”Scars curious voice interrupted me, wide eyes engrossed in my story.
“Not now little lamb, I’m far too weak to even think about it. Now hush and listen close” I stroked his soft hair and settled back into the nostalgic mindset
I descended my throne and infiltrated into the throng of my people, my flock. But I was woefully unaware of the complex the elders had developed, I had turned a blind eye to the simmering toxicity they practised in my worship and soon I found myself among a flock of the young, herded by these wolves in disguise. The youngest were at my knee, clutching my skirts as they eyed the Elders, preaching my name and crying out for blood, for the sacrifice of our own. As I was born from the darkness, the wish for true life, I was born unable to lie and I was born a martyr. The youngling at my skirt screamed and cried as hands snatched at him, dragging him far from safety. Women were childbearers and had the duty of protecting the children, I hadn’t known then, not in that moment, I hadn’t known why it was my skirts he clutched; nor did I know why no other women were present in the crowd.
Fear shattered my disillusioned ideal of the perfect race, balanced and keepers of peace. Flames were alight above the deep well of water, the echoes embedded into their beings granted them power, far too much power, the calling of flames and ease of sustaining them no matter the circumstances. I witnessed with my own eyes as the child screamed and screamed, thrashing as his body was plunged beneath the flames and into the water. For a moment I had hope that he could survive but the silence of the crowd gave room to hear the bubbling and broiling of the water; he was being cooked alive. Without considering my own safety I threw myself forward and hauled the child out and safely into my arms, I had also failed to consider the damage done and as blood dripped from every orifice onto my silken skirts and predatory eyes turned to me. Terror flashed in the wide eyes of humans, unused to witnessed the gruesome carcasses but it was not the terror of humans that scared me. It was the ravenous hunger present in the eyes of my people, their sharp eyes scoured my body, in the moment I didn’t know, I couldn’t have known but even if I had known, it could not have changed my fate. I was the black sheep of their flock, blatantly different and the first to blame when fate came calling.
“Your fate? Your people were elite weren’t they? You were their sentinel” I felt Scar’s hand clutching my skirt, like the little one in my story and a maternal smile gentled my reminiscing face.
Cupping his face, I kissed his brow “Little one, let me finish. Of course my people were the elite race, they forever will be but I was to blame for turning a blind eye at the start of their sins. If I could do it all again, I would, I would revive my people and lead them down a far better path” .
He touched our foreheads together, our faces a hair's breadth apart “My divine lady, let me be the first of your people. Y/N…let me revive your dreams” I pressed a finger to his lips, hushing him before I continued.
In a flash of thunder and flames my people had surrounded me, a few had shifting forms, resembling the Tacet Discord running in their blood; the Elders. My body was seized and an Elder approached “You don’t look like you’ve born children for us” My muscles seized as I was faced with such an unfamiliar situation and a very real threat of danger. I clung the dying child tight to my body, whispering blessings to save him. “If that is your child, he’s as good as dead. First you interrupt our sacrifice to our divine lord, now you must bear another child, for this sacrifice will no longer do” The future dawned on me then, I knew what was about to happen to my body and I realised why no women dared be present during their sacrifices. My limbs were held by 4 different men and my clothes shredded from my body by another. Clothes were not commonly worn by my people but I wished they were, for the sight before me was a terrifying revelation that spared me no details on what I was about to suffer. The Elder before me towered over me and I was lifted, now parallel to the ground and every part of my body under his scrutinising gaze “Your hips are narrow, very narrow but you must bear a child, whether it kills you or not” his words were the last thing I heard before white hot pain shot through my body, from my nethers upwards and travelling through every nerve. Over and over again, I changed hands and the pain was thrust upon me by every man present, my blood soaked the soil and the skies were dark, thundering violently for the violations of their child. The sentinel they birthed for a race now fallen too far for redemption. New life was seeded into my body and I knew immediately when it happened but resistance was beyond my limp body. The crimson soil rumbled and icy tears fell from the sky, soft and cottony snow as the ground opened up, swallowing me along with the child that still clung to me. Before sacrifice he had held me, I had saved him from being a sacrifice and then during my own torment and karma for allowing my flock to become wolves, he had not once let go of me. We fell deep in the earth and let the cold tears of winter consume us.
“You said you…well, you knew you would become pregnant before the ground swallowed you…but what happened to the child?” Scars gentle hands touched my face, comforting me instead, cupping my face and warming my icy skin.
“The child went on to save Jinzhou. Their bloodline still flows but I cannot sense them” I leaned into Scar’s comforting touch. Relieved for the warmth he provided and soothed by the gentleness in his eyes. “Become the first of my people, if you want to revive them, so be it” I whispered into his hand, answering his plea earlier.
“For you…I would do anything” he withdrew his hands from my face “Will you teach me how to embed echoes into humans? Trying to merge discords and humans will no longer work with the evolution of both species”
The wind whispered secrets, spilling the ancient magics from my lips and reviving a secret that had been buried with me and lost with the extinction of my people. “We are the black lambs of the flock Scar, the sacrifices people were willing to make for their own deluded causes, you wanted to see my first form? Then make me, force me to transform. Bring my flock back around me and allow me to ascend once more”
“Anything for you, my love” I could see hearts in his eyes as he withdrew from my room, the warm glow of light shut away as the door closed behind him