It was an unremarkable autumn evening. From the second floor of Caleb Eyre's country estate came the cries and groans of his wife, Malia, who was about to be relieved of her burden. She had not seen her husband for more than two months, which is not surprising, since he had recently received the position of adviser to the head of the Western Lands.
Their hasty marriage could not be called a happy one, if the dark ones have such at all. Malia was barely sixteen at the time of the marriage ritual, and in essence she was still a child. However, her father and fiancé did not care much, because this marriage was beneficial to both families.
Until today, only three kinds of founders have survived, and the Malia family belonged to one of them. Her husband Caleb, although he did not belong to the great houses, was nevertheless generously endowed with the magic of darkness, and besides, from childhood he had been friends with the current viceroy. Thus, at a fairly young age, he received an honorary position, and a little later acquired a great surname, borrowed from his young wife. But this ambitious Caleb was not enough. Immediately after the wedding, he set himself a new goal - to acquire offspring.
Only men possessed the magic of darkness, it almost did not manifest itself in women, affecting only their appearance. The distinguishing features of all the dark ones were black hair and black eyes. Cases when dormant magic nevertheless manifested itself in a woman were considered rare and always ended in the madness of the bearer and her sudden death. The Primordial Darkness, which was revered by all the dark ones, obviously did not love her daughters, making their bodies and minds weak and unable to contain the power. Dark women rarely lived past the age of thirty or thirty-five, unless they died earlier in childbirth.
Almost every third dark pregnancy ended in either a miscarriage or the death of a child in infancy. But if boys still continued to be born, then girls with dark blood became almost a miracle. However, nothing wonderful awaited these poor things. From childhood, they were closely watched by relatives, nannies and doctors, as if expecting that darkness could appear in her at any moment, and then the sealing awaited the girl. If the dark one managed to survive during the ritual, she was sent away from high society, to live out her short life.
The birth of such a girl entailed a lot of problems, and if, on the one hand, it was possible to profitably marry her, then, on the other hand, this was weakness and shame. Surely society would prefer to immediately get rid of such a burden, but the main feature of the dark ones was that they did not have children from ordinary people.
Caleb worked every night on the task, and when Malia, after three months of trying, nevertheless became pregnant, she breathed a sigh of relief and now every night she began to pray to the Firstborn to give them a boy. Alive and healthy.
The pregnancy was very difficult, and the doctors advised the exhausted Malia to leave the capital of the Western Lands in order to spend the rest of her term away from the bustle of the city. She followed the recommendations and temporarily moved to her husband's country estate, where her sister Eliza soon joined her.
When the pregnancy exhausting the soul and body came to an end, Malia was cowardly frightened, but at the same time she was happy. Soon, very soon, she will take her son in her arms, he will be strong, and Caleb will finally stop considering her a useless thing.
“Lady, you must try a little more, the child is already on the way,” said the midwife, specially summoned from the capital.
Malia felt unbearable pain, she understood that something was going wrong, but Nan assured her every moment of the opposite. Eliza stood at the head of the bed and wringed her hands, unable to help her beloved sister.
“Everyone goes through this,” Nan said, her eyes showing no sympathy.
Cursing her husband, Malia mustered the last of her strength and pushed the child out. Silence fell in the chambers, the newly-made mother lost consciousness for a moment.
"It's a boy, lady, you're incredibly lucky," the midwife said enthusiastically, as if it was her merit. Eliza stepped towards the shriveled, bluish child and did not find the courage to touch the defenseless creature. The baby stirred and squeaked as the midwife wiped him down with rags.
“I have to show it to my father, but since the adviser is not here, his grandfather will take the baby,” the midwife informed the equally pale sisters.
“Wait, can’t you see that my sister is sick? Help her! Eliza demanded.
“I'll be right back and help her,” Nan spat, as if she was doing a great favor and not doing her job. “Now the main thing is to introduce him to the family and show him to the priest.
When the door slammed shut behind the midwife, the confused Eliza took her sister by the hand and began to pray to the Firstborn. She was two years older than Malia, she herself had recently married and even dreamed of children until that day. But not now.
Malia suddenly groaned softly and arched her back.
"Eliza, help me," she whispered, barely audible.
- What should I do? How can I help you? the older sister darted around the room.
“Baby…another one.
- Oh, Primordial! I'll call Nan, - Eliza rushed to the door.
"No, she's of no use, please stay with me," Malia pleaded, clutching the sheets in pain.
Before Eliza had time to realize what was happening, her younger sister gave birth to another baby. It was unbelievable, the twins had not been born to the dark ones for a hundred years. Overcoming fear and disgust, Eliza took the baby in her arms, and her smile immediately faded, the child did not breathe.
“It’s a girl,” she said, bringing her to her mother’s chest.
Malia was silent for a whole minute, looking at her lifeless daughter, tears flowed from her eyes, she suddenly became very cold, as if all her vitality had left her at once. She tightly squeezed the child, as if she wanted to merge with him into one whole and closed her eyes with all her might. Eliza sat next to her and silently sobbed. It's for the best, she thought faintly to herself.
When Malia exhausted herself, she saw that her chambers were filled with darkness, her heart sank in a bad premonition, the child sighed hoarsely and squeaked. Eliza recoiled against the wall and froze there like a stone statue. The darkness thickened and rushed into the body of the girl.
“This is bad, very bad,” Eliza wailed. - What should we do?
“You have to save her,” Malia said poignantly. Please save my daughter!
- What are you talking about? How can I save her?
- Hide her! - Malia frantically searched for options, she already loved this girl and did not wish her the fate that awaits her, if she stays with her.
- How to hide? Where? For concealing the dark, you can lose your head, and if it still turns out to be gifted, then we are all finished! Eliza almost screamed at her sister.
- Hide it where no one will look for the dark one. Maybe everything will work out, and she will not become gifted? Sobbing, Malia clutched her daughter to her chest.
There was almost no time left for talking, Nan was due to return any minute, and then there would be no chance that they would be able to hide the child. Eliza exhaled sharply, finally venturing into the utter madness her sister had begged for.
Nan returned to the room and ran into Eliza rushing out the door. Why was she wearing a cloak? Nan thought thoughtfully. But she quickly brushed aside this thought and took up childbirth.
Eliza spent several days with the child, hiding him from everyone. This turned out to be a very difficult task, and it even seemed to her that from the constant fear of being discovered, she herself would soon develop the madness of the dark ones. Not finding a better option, she placed the child in a poor family, promising a lot of money for silence.
For a whole year, Eliza managed to transfer to the poor the payment for raising her niece. But one day the messenger returned with terrible news: the village where the girl grew up burned down. The dark one mourned her niece like her own daughter, but Malia decided not to say anything. Soon her sister gave birth to another boy and, never recovering from childbirth, lost her mind.
Portly Clarissa for the third time passed along the wards lined up in a row. The pupils of the orphanage froze and tried not to raise their eyes from the half-rotten floorboards. I tried to remember all my sins over the past few days, because they didn’t bother to explain to us what they would reprimand for this time. To be fair, there were a huge number of these very sins for me. I could not be humble, courteous, diligent, like my best friend Ines. Dope, as Clarissa liked to say, did not stay in my head and climbed out to poison the lives of those around me. Unfortunately, it wasn't bullshit, but something worse.A few years ago, I began to have very strange dreams, and a little later, terrible things began to happen to my body. For some time I thought that I was terminally ill or even poisoned by a curse. The fact that this is a fiction, and in fact, curses do not exist, I learned much later. It was the fear that had firmly settled in my head that awakened in me a thirst to get to t
A month has passed since the moment that divided my life into before and after. The day was inexorably approaching when the inspector would cross the threshold of our shelter, this event every day spoiled the already terrible character of Clarissa. The head was a very stingy woman, I suspect that most of the money allocated for the needs of the shelter settled precisely in her immense pockets. It must be said that in addition to state funds, Clarissa did not disdain the money of the gentlemen, who periodically appeared in our house. On such days, we were lined up like sheep at a fair, giving us the opportunity to evaluate the product by face. It terribly angered me, a couple of times I almost released the darkness from overwhelmed rage, I restrained myself only by a miracle. However, some of the girls did not share my feelings and purposely shot their eyes at the rich,Why should a rich man marry a girl of ignoble birth? Ines asked one day, rubbing the kettles with sand, when the four
I ran like crazy as if I was being chased by the henchmen of the underworld, and almost flew over the fence when I realized that I had missed the grand event, namely the arrival of the inspectors. In the yard of the shelter there were several carriages, and some people were scurrying back and forth. Among the strangers, one man with blue-black hair stood out in particular; a cloak of the same color was thrown over his shoulders, on which a raven was embroidered with silver threads. Such cloaks are worn by members of the Order of Darkness.At the sight of this raven, my heart began to beat faster. Here he is, a man who can answer all my questions, a man who will understand me like no other. Only retribution for the answers I can not afford. My gaze caught on a familiar silhouette, and I decided it was best to scout the area first before appearing like this in front of Clarissa's eyes.“Craig,” I called quietly to our watchman.“There you are, you stupid head,” Craig scolded, he was cle
Early in the morning the inspectors left us, I don’t know what conclusion they came to, but Clarissa’s nasty mood in the morning did not promise me anything good. As soon as the gate behind the departing crew slammed shut, I was immediately summoned to the head's office. I was not afraid, lately I have experienced so much that, it seems, I have forgotten how to be afraid. I knocked on the door and after permission went in. The office itself was not very sophisticated, but it was much better furnished than the other rooms in the orphanage. When I entered, Clarissa stood with her back to the door and paid no attention to me as she entered, she walked from shelf to shelf and sorted through the papers on the table. Most likely, she was trying to make me nervous, but I did not care at all, I was seized by complete indifference.Does life teach you nothing? the head asked rhetorically, giving me a contemptuous glance. “It’s like you were made to cause problems for others. Did you do all thi
A century and a half ago, a series of events took place that forever changed the fate of many residents of Littai. King Sieverd the Fourth died, leaving no legitimate heir behind. But there were more than enough illegal ones, the king was famous for his love of love and had about two dozen bastards from different women. One of these women was the daughter of an influential person from the Eastern Islands, whose inhabitants led a fairly secluded life and almost never left their homeland. To this day, there are rumors that gifted people who are subject to various elements live there. Zeina was a rare beauty with slanted eyes and a very feminine figure, she managed to stay at court and in the bed of the king for a long time, gossip whispered that Sieverd had decided to marry and was even going to recognize their common son. The son, like his father, was incredibly popular with the ladies of the court. By his coming of age, which came at the age of sixteen, Marner became the absolute favo
- Was it really all? she drawled in bewilderment. Venira and I were in a huge, by my standards, library of the estate, in which I spent almost non-stop all week.“You've said that phrase twenty times in the last six days. You have in your hands the records of eyewitnesses of the Lithuanian-Maskinian war. Is that not enough for you? You don't believe in the diary of the aristocrat who managed to escape from Marner, either? In the end, the Maskin scrolls should have convinced you that this is all a real story, ”Venira said displeasedly.“That's not the point, I just can't believe Marner managed to pull all of this up and hide it from everyone. But what about ordinary soldiers and ordinary people? After all, a bunch of eyewitnesses knew for sure that Augusta was not crazy.“And what do you think these eyewitnesses should have done?” People talked and forgot, believe me, they were more worried about whether they would die of hunger today or hold out for a couple more days. And the militar
Three years laterToday is a significant day for me, for the first time in the last three years I was able to materialize the Klindar. This is the personal weapon of every dark one, consisting only of inner darkness. They say that before every second dark one knew how to call him. It was with this weapon that the Daughters of Darkness slew their enemies in the last war, for there is no defense against the Klindar, and no spell or armor can stop him. All I got was a small, crooked dagger that didn't last even a minute, but for all of us it was like a miracle. So far, no one has succeeded except me and Helen. The only time I saw Helen was when she and Lady Holm picked me up from the orphanage. I didn't like her right away, maybe because of her contemptuous look, or maybe because of the abundance of hateful embroidery on her expensive clothes.Kane went wild with joy when I almost stabbed him with my summoned blade. I didn’t expect this from myself, all previous attempts failed miserably
For the next week, Kane raged. In training with darkness, he squeezed all the strength out of us, and then finished off in hand-to-hand combat. Those who could still even stand on their feet after all this bullying were subjected to further torture by jogging. Never in my life have I consumed so much darkness at once and reached such inner exhaustion. Jokes about the possibility of restoring the reserve through intimacy with a man have ceased to be jokes for me. At night, I felt a vague yearning, and sometimes I experienced a very clear desire.Except me, no one suspected the relationship and the subsequent break between Kane and Venira, so everyone was completely at a loss and built various incredible guesses about such a drastic change in the mentor's behavior. Venira never showed up for training, first she left the estate for three days, and after returning she began training with Ilya. It's hard to say what pissed Kane off more, the breakup or her leaving for another mentor, but t