"W… up!"
Aya groaned. Her head was pounding. She remembered a dark figure entering their home before it all went black.
"Wa…ke up!"
She groaned again, trying to move, but something was restricting her. It was hard to breathe, and the air smelled smoky and burnt.
"Wake up!"
Gasping, her eyes shot open and an unconscious shriek accompanied it.
In the far distance, atop the hill, the village church, devoted to the Northern God, stood with a statue crowning it. One hand clutched a mighty axe while the other was an open, golden palm. His stone-carved features were battle-hardened. Yet amidst the torchlight and moonlight, it hardly felt divine in that moment, looming down from afar.
Beside her tied to a tree was Erik, unconscious with blood matting his hair. And before her lay a motionless, bloodied body amid a crowd of grim-faced old men.
"What's going on?!" Aya shrieked. "Why are you doing this?!"
Boris raised his spear into the air, its tip glinting under the moonlight, before driving it down into the person's heart.
The person gasped and thrashed for a split second, long enough for Aya to realize who it was.
"Mom!"
Aya thrashed and cried against her restraints as Boris unemotionally looked up at her.
"I'm sorry, Aya," Boris said solemnly, though his eyes did not reflect it. "I wish it didn't have to come to this."
As Aya continued to thrash and scream unintelligibly, Erik began to groan back to consciousness. His blurry vision swayed before everything snapped into focus.
"Wha—what the fuck?!"
When Erik fully woke, Boris's eyes finally showed emotion and he winced.
"What's going on?!" Erik shouted, his gaze bouncing between Hillaria's body and Boris's spear. "What—why?!"
Boris slowly stepped toward Erik. Fear swelled in Erik's heart, his body tensing as Aya screamed, "No, not him too! Stay away!"
"Why isn't anyone helping?! Stop him! Someone, please!" Aya's frantic gaze darted between the council's dark expressions before she began to realize the ugly truth.
As she shook and screamed, Boris stopped and stood silently before Erik until her cries began to die down. Only then did he speak.
"A decade ago when we went to subdue the goblins," Boris whispered, "it wasn't the goblins that killed Fin."
"We knew it! We fucking knew it!" Aya screamed as Erik trembled. Boris's hand brushed the bloodied spearhead, his eyes haunted as they lifted to meet Erik's.
"We didn't have a choice," Boris whispered. "It was him or us. We would've died if it weren't for her. She said she would keep us safe for a decade so long as we…"
"W-who…" Erik whispered, his voice shaking. "Who would keep you safe?"
"Seraphina."
With that, Boris grabbed Erik by the hair and pressed the spear's tip to his chest. Erik's breath came out in short, panicked gasps, echoing through the clearing.
"Wait—wait—wait—wait!"
"It has been over a decade!" Boris shouted. "She demanded tribute! In return, she protects us! One of our own in return for the many, Erik!"
"Wait—WAIT!"
"ONE LIFE!"
A sickening sound filled the air and Aya squeezed her eyes shut, a broken whimper escaping her. She could hear it. All of it.
Silence stretched until his footsteps approached her. They stopped in front of her and her body began to tremble again.
"I'm sorry," Boris whispered. His voice cracked, and he was crying now, but to her it only made it worse.
She openly sobbed when she felt a hand rest atop her hair when suddenly a sharp, agonized gurgle escaped from Boris's throat. He coughed and she felt a warm spray. She smelled iron.
Still, she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes as cries and pleas erupted.
"Wait, PLEASE!"
"We did as you asked—GAH!"
"MERCY!"
The screams of the damned and the stench of fresh death filled the air for less than a minute.
"I don't recall asking them to kill my tributes," a feminine voice hummed. "It's a shame, this one."
Aya finally found the courage to open her eyes.
Before her lay a field of mutilated corpses.
Horror clawed up her spine as her gaze turned to a shorter, black-haired woman with ruby eyes, clad in a crimson dress.
"W-what are you—"
Without warning or hesitation, she bit Erik's neck. His body convulsed, his eyes widened, and his mouth opened as if to scream but no sound came. When she released him, his head lifted. His eyes were lifeless and teeth sharpened.
Seraphina glanced at Aya with a sly smile, tilting Erik's head to admire the emptiness in his stare.
"I think he'll make a good servant for you," she mused. With one gentle brush of her hand, she swept back Erik's hair and it turned green. "Don't you?"
"What did you do to Erik?" Aya asked shakily. Despite the terror, bitter anger burned in her chest.
"Well," Seraphina said, touching her lips, "he was dead. I gave him… temporary life. Or rather, I gave his husk a purpose. The soul is gone."
Aya bit her lower lip, her head slumping. She knew she was going to die and there was nothing she could do.
Seraphina, however, waltzed over and smiled. "Giving up so soon?"
"My family's dead. My love is dead. I'm tied up and you're going to kill me. Instead of him, it's you."
Seraphina snorted. "Don't be such a miserable northern girl. Look on the bright side." She gestured toward the full moon. "Your deceased boyfriend will still be around, at least physically."
Then, grinning, she leaned closer. "And who said I'm going to kill you?"
"What?"
"Mmm… no," Seraphina sighed, glaring at Boris's corpse. "I can't kill you. The child from a decade ago is dead. I need a new servant."
Aya let out a bitter laugh. "You're insane. Why would I ever serve you? You're the reason all of this happened!"
"If it weren't for me, this village would've been wiped out and your family with it," Seraphina replied calmly. "Such a pathetic settlement had no right to exist in a world like this."
She sighed again. "It is because of me that you and your mother were involved. But their idiocy was never mine to control. I only intended to take one servant in exchange for the village's safety."
"They knew this was coming," Seraphina whispered venomously. "And not one person in the entire village warned you."
She lifted Aya's chin, crimson eyes locking with Aya's tear-filled blue ones that were slowly contorting with rage.
"Don't you want revenge?"