1 Elegance

Growing up, I never questioned whether my life was 'normal' or not. I never questioned if what I was doing was right or wrong, I was just doing what it took to survive. My family was wealthier than most and even held a title, I suppose I should be grateful for that. But everything else about that household was twisted, including myself.

I was the first child my parents had. They gave me the name Elegance, to serve as a hope to what I'd become. Three years later my sister was born, Eloquence. My parents deployed every means to ensure that we'd live up to our names. History lessons, dance, combat, etc. we had tutors in almost every subject imaginable. We were expected to be near perfect in everything we did. And then came my parents' favorite subject- religion. We were taught about the great Devil Glasya, an entity who had protected our bloodline for generations. According to my parents, she was the reason we had money, a title, and power and we were to treat her as such. We worshipped her like you would a god, brought her tithing, erected statues in her image, gave her praise for every good thing in our lives. We even opened up our land to house a couple dozen other people who also worshipped her. We had our own little community. Though, looking back I believe the word I'm looking for is cult.

Now, we were all aware of what those outside of our community thought of us. And we used that as an excuse to justify our evil deeds. "If we don't kill them then they'll kill us," "if we don't use them as an example, more will keep coming." "if we don't retaliate, they'll think they can keep assaulting us," and "if we don't interrogate them, then we won't find the source and more will keep coming after us." These were all phrases I heard often growing up. My parents were ruthless to outsiders and I was expected to be the same. And for many years I was, I even enjoyed the accomplishment of making someone spill all their secrets under torture, swindling potential enemies out of their fortunes, etc. In fact, I excelled at it. Conversation, business, social interactions, manipulation, deception were all things I loved doing. El on the other hand enjoyed the thrill of combat, she'd always be the first to slaughter any intruders that made their way onto our land and the first to hit anyone that spoke ill of Glasya. I wouldn't say my sister and I were close as we had different interests that took up our time. But we weren't on bad terms either, we recognized the importance of what the other was doing.

My father, Pestilence a Devil, took an extreme interest in El and her escapades while my mother, Dominance a Drow Matron, became enveloped in my development. She'd spend hours making sure I looked the part of the eldest daughter of a noble house. I would always be adorned in dresses made of rare silks, satins, and lace, intricately woven braids, and enough jewelry to blind a person if the sunlight caught it in the right way. I wore so many precious gems on a regular basis that my family started referring to me as Jade in less formal settings. Every time the aides finished dressing me for the day, my mother would cup my cheek and smile at me warmly. "You look lovely today, Elegance. As pretty as a gem." Those were the times when I felt happiest. She said it every day, but those words were always empowering, they made me proud to be her daughter. And this is the way I lived for the first 23 years of my life.

One day, we caught wind of a plot against my family. As my sister was famous for her prowess on the battlefield and my cruelties were less obvious, I was viewed as the weakest link of my family. The plan was to capture me and use me as a hostage against my family. But no matter how much digging my parents did, they couldn't discover who was orchestrating this plot. My father then had a brilliant idea. I would let myself be captured and play the part of the helpless victim until I came face-to-face with the person in charge of the operation. After that, I would bust myself out and not be used against my family. Only issue being, my combat experience was limited to sparring with my tutors. But my father was a smart man, he already had a quick fix for that. He kept his plan as secret as possible, only telling my mother when she threatened to kill the kidnappers herself and ruin the operation because she was worried I wouldn't be able to come back.

In the dead of night, he snuck me down into our temple dedicated to Glasya. He handed me a knife and had me cut my arm, drip my blood into a golden offering bowl, and give a pledge to dedicate my life to the service of Glasya. Something I'd done a thousand times before, but this time was different. I felt... powerful. Father informed me that I would now have the power to escape on my own. And for the next 4 nights, he'd sneak me down to the temple and started teaching me how to use my new gifts. Though, the only thing he had time to teach me was how to attack and kill. I only learned how to hit a target with a powerful blast of raw magic. Then the 5th night arrived, a group of three came and abducted me in my sleep. I let them bind and gag me, carry me down to their horses, and run away under the moonless sky.

We travelled in this fashion for several days, I was on the lookout for any and every landmark. But as each day went on, something strange began to happen. One of my capturers was a female human. I refused to speak to the trio, but that didn't stop the girl from speaking to me. She didn't treat me with disdain or fear, but instead it was pity. It was a reaction I'd never gotten before. At one point, she started telling me her stories of travelling the world, the different types of people she met. Through her, I began catching glimpses of a world outside of what I'd grown up in. For the first time in my life, I began to question my family and our way of life. And on the last day of our travel together, we passed through a village. It was pitiful, people so malnourished their ribs stuck out, I could count the number of able-bodied men on my fingers, and the buildings were on the brink of collapse. I didn't think much of it until the girl mentioned the name of the village. I'd heard the name before. A trading company used to operate out of it. The village had been decently prosperous up until my mother told me the head was plotting against us by refusing to do business with us. At which point, I came up with a plan to bleed their resources dry and my sister eventually finished off anyone who held any sort of power. I'd realized this village was a direct result of what I'd done. How many others looked like this? How many other lives were ruined because of us?

In the outskirts of the village there was an old manor, probably belonging to the man who once owned the company. The trio locked me into a room and the girl waited inside with me, making sure I wouldn't try to escape. That was the first time I spoke to her. She told me her name was Lista. There was something about her friendly demeanor that made me confess the confusion I was feeling. I sat in that room for a couple more days, the only other interaction I had was with Lista. She began helping me piece together my thoughts, what were my beliefs versus what were the ones my parents forced onto me. I spent weeks in that room and no matter how many times I demanded to speak to the person in charge, I was never taken there. And Lista never mentioned a thing about her employer. Though, she did mention a time or two that demands had been sent to my parents but no response ever came back.

About a month after my arrival, Lista came into the room, frantic. She told me her employer had started growing tired of my parents refusal to listen to their demands. They now saw me as a liability rather than an asset. She was sent to kill me, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She pressed a backpack into my arms and told me to run. She would stay behind and try to stall or throw them off my trail, give me a few hours to maybe a day head start. I didn't know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. The only thing I was certain of is that I didn't want to return home. So I picked a random direction and began walking.

I've spent the next two months traveling here and there. I slowly began shedding my fine silks and jewels in exchange for food and money. There were no perfumes, feasts, hot baths, aides, and feathered pillows on the road. I slowly began to realize that by walking away, I'd thrown away all of those commodities. And once I realized that, I threw away my name and all that came with it. This included my beauty and everything I'd been taught about the world. I filed down my horns, cut my hair, and traded my colored silks for bland rags. I changed so much, to the point where I could barely recognize myself in the mirror. This also meant the magic my father taught me how to use. From now on, I'd live without him and help people with my own powers, not theirs. The more of the world I saw, the more I realized how wrong I'd been about it. Sure it could be cruel, but engaging in bloodshed and sabotage only made it worse. And with that realization came the guilt. I vowed that I'd take the abilities given to me by my family and use those to do some sort of good in the world. Maybe that would be a start to making up for my past.