1 Prologue

Andriet's lungs burn, the smoke in the air slowly scorches away the inside of them as the menacing beast continues to devour the room at a frightening pace.

Koh Koh

Another set of dry and painful coughs leave her throat but her eyes never leave the crouched over body in the centre of the other room. Her vision was impaired by the blood dripping down her face, but she could still make out the person ahead of her. He could have been mistaken as a statue if not for the blood dripping from his tightly clenched fists.

'I'm alright you dummy. It hurts terribly but I'm okay'

She wishes so badly she could express these words to him, but just like him she was immobile, though hers was involuntary and against her will. Her amber eyes could only anxiously look at the man hunched over in the room, holding a golden tiara between clenched fingers.

Creak

The door opened, and her eyes had a seething glare in them upon seeing the person who entered. Those amber irises become akin to the burning flames around her.

Almost as if they could sense her feelings, the corner of the person's lips slightly went up, but they made no excessive movement as to not alert the man crouched on the ground. Not that he would have noticed in his desolate state.

"So, have you been well? It was terrible manners on my part to leave a guest, though one who was uninvited, for so long" the person who just enters asks the man on the ground, their tone really sounding like someone who was remorseful for their unacceptable behavior.

"..."

"Oh, no answer. Mmm, well will you look at that, it's the first time I've broken someone without even doing anything to them"

"..."

"Come now, this isn't like you at all. Where is that famous smile of yours, why must you greet me in such a dreary manner?" a hurt expression covers their face as they speak these words while approaching the man and stopping just before his hunch over body.

"..."

"Ugh, now you're just being boring and here I thought I could mess with you a bit more before I end this, this whole depressed thing really does not suit you." The person tsks expressing that the man at their feet was such a big disappointment to them.

Andriet could only stare on, as she was unable to move; her lower body was paralysed and that lunatic for 'good measure' hurt her legs. Her eyes sting from the rising smoke in the room and her eyes are red, but she still doesn't close them and just stares on ahead. Her mind goes a mile a minute, trying to think of anything that could save them from this hopeless situation.

"Well, whatever, let's end this" the entrant heaves a sigh and out of their jacket they pull out an intricate dagger. It reflected a feeble light, but to Andriet that small beam seemed to stab directly into her gut. The sight of that cruel individual holding a knife before her precious person has her gasping as if all oxygen has left the room. Which, in fact, was slowly happening with the growing of the fire.

'That bastard!' she thrashed against her restraints, pulling and tugging, her mind in no state to notice as blood drips down from where the handcuffs dig into her skin.

'No, no, you bloody psychopath, what do you think you are doing?'

Burning hot tears run down her madden face. The fire in the room has gotten stronger and draws closer and closer to her. Her beautiful face twists into the most wretched of appearances, extreme sorrow and anxiousness displayed on it. She knows he will die because that person is a true lunatic who will not hesitate to cut him down.

'If only I could use my skill, just a little to inform him I am well' but her captor made sure that was not possible.

'Why? why, how did things come to this?'

"Cy, please, please get up. I am fine, I am here, so please, please get up. Stand Cy."

"Defend yourself, resist"

"FIGHT Cylan!"

Her cracked lips move desperately, hoping her words reach the wounded person in the other room. Salty tears run past her teeth, reaching her tongue, the smoke in the air chokes all her senses. She had long lost her voice, and truly the only sounds that come out of her mouth resembled that of a wounded, deranged beast.

But despite her desperate cries the man remained unmoved on the floor, his eyes were dull and his body frozen stiff as if his soul disappeared from him and he was but a hollow husk. His empty eyes directed at the golden jewelry that was in his grips.

The recipient of Andriet's burning hatred sneered at him and raised the knife into the air before mercilessly swinging down with it.

"No!" Andriet makes a powerful tug on the handcuffs, creating a large a slice on her wrists, a stream of blood flows heavily from her wound.

'Move'

'Move'

'Move'

'Cylan move, dodge it, fight, please, please. Just a miniscule movement, get out of the way'

'Cylan, Cylan, Cy, please dear Cy. Please, please, my light.'

Her desperate cries go unheard and the knife swings down heavily and plunges into the man.