Shainoah had been riding his skateboard down the street from school. He didn’t have a car, so it was back and forth, pushing on a board 5 days out of the week. Senior year was off to a great start. He was glad he lived in Nexus, in the North, at least since it wasn’t dreadfully hot. Still, it was a long way to go with only Northern forestry as the view.

He stopped and made his usual shortcut in the woods. It was faster to get to his house that way then following the road. Shainoah’s always taken that way, but that day it felt off. He stopped and looked left and right. Why did he feel like he was being watched? He looked left again, and heard a rustling above him. Shainoah’s eyes darted up, and the Akuma came crashing down.

Akuma were demonic shadow-like creatures, formed in darkness. They came in all shapes and sizes, but those looked like panthers. Shainoah was confused, as Akuma don’t normally appear in big cities or even the forests near there. He’d only ever seen one.

“Oh shit,” he muttered as he began to slowly back up. There were three. He wasn’t sure how he was going to outrun three Akuma, but he was going to try.

The first one pounced at him, and in that moment he swung his board at it, knocking it back to the ground. He then made a run for it and began sprinting through the forest. He could hear them behind him. Shainoah looked back just as one lunged at him, he tore off his backpack and used it as a flimsy shield as he and the Akuma fell to the ground.

It began tearing at it, trying to get through to Shainoah. The other two stalked around. Just when he thought it was over, the one on top of him flew into a tree. He looked over at it in shock. The other two Akuma seemed to be in shock as well. That’s when one was stabbed by… an umbrella? It disappeared in smoke, and the holder of the umbrella didn’t waste time as she killed the other one too. Finally, the one that had been knocked into the tree began lunging at her.

Shainoah began to stand up, but before he could do anything, that one was dead too.

The girl, who Shainoah hadn’t gotten a good look at until that moment, wore a black skirt, black turtleneck, black stockings, black boots, and a black overcoat with a dark pink fur lined on the hood. She had a short brown bob, and silver eyes that didn’t even land on Shainoah, but a pack of cigarettes she took out of her pocket. She put one in her mouth, lit it, and took a puff. That’s when she finally looked at Shainoah, but didn’t say anything. Why did Shainoah have this feeling like he’s met her before?

She blinked, and her eyes were green. What- wait. Was she like him?

“Your eyes…They were silver...” he began to say.

She looked surprised by what he said. “Deja Vu.” She turned fully toward him as she took another puff of her cigarette. She held it in between her fingers as she looked up to him. “I told you I’d come back for you, Shainoah.”

“Come back for me? Wait… Look, thanks for saving me from the Akuma, but who are you?” he asked. “How do you know my name?”

“My name is Aline Bellerose. We’ve met before, but Rynoah had someone wipe your memory. Delphine.”

Shainoah look dumbfounded. That was an absurd thing to say. She was talking about Smith, but he refused anyone to ever call him that name.

“You mean… Smith?”

She looked him over as he say in shock. “I’m glad you got rid of the ponytail. It looked ugly - what are those?” Aline asked with a flat expression. “Three piercings per ear? What are teenagers into these days?”

“Delphine-”

“There’s a lot to explain, but if you’d come with me, I could explain it on the way,” she said.

He shook his head. “I don’t know you.”

“You do, you just don’t believe me. I can’t show up at your house, because all Rynoah will do is shelter you. He’ll send me away, and then take you to erase these moments from your mind.” She sighed. “If I really had the intention of hurting you, I could’ve just left you to them,” Aline said as she motioned to the now evaporated and dead Akuma. “They’re a rare sight with the Grotto as the city watch dogs, but I guess they can even sneak into the outskirts nowadays. It might be my fault. For them, my kind is easily traceable.”

“What is your kind?” Shainoah asked.

“If you come with me, I’ll answer all your questions. No, I’ll take you somewhere that will answer all your questions.”

This girl appeared out of nowhere, and managed to kill all those Akuma. Even if Shainoah ran, she’d catch him.

“Where exactly would you be taking me?”

“Central,” she answered.

He went wide-eyed. “Central?! That place is full of shit that could kill me instantly.”

“Indeed, but there’s a specific place in Central that demons and monsters there can’t go near. It’s called the Vale. Like the name, it’s actually an underground cave that looks like a valley between two mountains.”

“Why can’t they go near that place?”

“No one knows why, just like how no one knows how Central became the way it is. So, are you coming?”

“I doubt you’re giving me much of a choice,” he replied.

“Not really.”

“How are we getting there?” Shainoah asked.

Aline showed Shainoah a piece of a mirror. He walked closer to it. There was an image in the mirror as she moved it. It was like a window to another place. Without warning she grabbed his hand and cut it. There was a sudden flash and he landed on his butt in a cave. Another flash and Aline appeared standing next to him.

Shainoah looked around as he stood up. She wasn’t lying. It did look like a small valley in a cave, as the two walls in the cave looked like mountain sides. Beneath each side were streams of water, and fire pits somehow lit. In the center of it all was a pedestal with a golden orb sitting in the center.

“What was that?” Shainoah asked.

“Mirror Portals. Favorite way of getting around for witches. They offer a two-time use with the sacrifice of blood, like most things, and then they break.”

“Witches? How did you find witches and get that sort of thing?”

“Your aunt. Her name is Delphine, the Sorceress. She holds a coven in the South, remarked as the Motherhood, for it’s one of the founding covens in the world.”

“I don’t have an aunt,” he said.

“You do and she’s put a curse on you, but that’ll break it,” she said as she motioned to the gold orb.

“What is that?”

“It’s called the Golden Apple. Have you ever heard of the ancient race of Alfar?”

“Alfar? They were the last ancient race of light elves that walked alongside humans and other nonhumans, right?”

“Yes. This is an ancient Alfar artifact. When I mentioned witches, I assume you’re not one of those ignorant morons that don’t believe in magic.”

“You sent me through a portal. I think all my doubts are out the window,” he said sarcastically.

She nodded. “They used magic to create this artifact. It shows the user the past to answer the user’s question. Most of the time, the answers are in events that doesn’t even involve the user, like what you’re about to see.”

“So if I asked it if my ex-girlfriend cheated on me, it’d show an image of her and some guy kissing or something?”

She gave him a flat look. “That’s an irrelevant and stupid example, but yes, basically. The one thing you must know is to never ask about your death. It drives the user insane.”

Shainoah and her began walking up to it. “How do I use this?”

“Alfar made it so only other elves are able to use artifacts like these. However, a Duisteren, a human and elf hybrid, is still able to use it.”

Shainoah looked confused. “I’m not… I’m not a Duisteren.”

“Just because you don’t look like one doesn’t mean you’re not one. Haven’t you been listening? You’re cursed and your memories have been erased. Grab it,” she commanded.

Shainoah was unsure, but reached out for the Apple. He took it and looked at her. “Nothing is happening.”

“It’s delayed,” Aline warned.

Immense pain. Terrible pain shot through his hand. He fell to the floor and cried out as he desperately tried to throw the Apple out of his hand, but it was almost like glued to his hand. It felt like a needle had shot through it, and a thousand more grew from that one needle. It began to shoot up his entire arm.

Aline kneeled beside. “Think about it. Think about what Rynoah has been hiding from you.”

What has he been hiding from me?

He let go of the orb as it rolled onto the ground and Shainoah collapsed. He felt like his whole body had been drained. Aline put the orb back on the pedestal, then pulled Shainoah up.

“My child, my son,” a woman’s voice called.

Aline and him walked over to the stream of water, and in the reflection of the water was a woman holding a child close to her. The woman was… different. She had purple markings on her face, long white hair, and wore all black. She looked like Shainoah. Like Sa-

“Hide upstairs,” she commanded, and the little boy ran.

“That’s you,” Aline said.

He was shocked. They heard doors crashing down, and in came Smith, two women who looked a lot like the first, and a man and a woman.

“The brown haired woman is my mother, Khrystyna Bellerose. The woman you see on the right of Rynoah is named Divina, she was my caretaker after that woman killed them. The woman next to her is Delphine, her sister, and nicknamed the Sorceress. The woman their fighting is also their sister.”

It went back to the first woman. “Try as you may, I won’t give in easy this time.”

It turned into a bloody fight, that Shainoah was forced to watch. The immense power that woman had was too much for Smith and the rest of them to handle.

“She is a Shri. Or was. A Shri is the last remaining elf lineage, and the oldest, as they are nearly extinct, except for the Sorceress. This woman was lead by Sai, a dark entity that you could call a demon, consumed her in darkness. We call her the first Dark Ozen. Dark Ozen being evil, vile supernaturals corrupted by Darkness. Corrupted by her.”

“I know what a Dark Ozen is, but I’ve never seen one.”

“That’s because you’ve been sheltered and look like a human. I’m sure they’ll make themselves known to you once this curse is broken. Have you ever heard of the Cult of Tenebris?”

“I thought it was a myth, but that’s where Dark Ozen are supposed to come from, right?”

“It’s very real, and she’s the leader.”

Shainoah began to breathe harder. “And she’s my… Mother.”

“Devika. The Queen of Darkness.”

“What does that make me?” he asked.

She didn’t answer.

The woman was forced back and she sighed. “I’m weaker than I used to be. I still have this side in me, but if I have to temporarily off myself to be rid of it, then so be it!”

She formed an ice wall, then there was an explosion of dark shadows stringing across the halls. The ice wall evaporated and there was nothing left of the woman.

“What happened to her?” Shainoah asked.

“As Divina explained it to me, Shri are able to split their very souls through a ritual, and that is how other Shri are created, that’s how those three were created, but Devika had two souls. Light and Dark, quite literally. Shri could destroy Darkness, so in a way she was killing herself if she remained with those two souls. She inherited the Dark from Sai, the dark entity. When she got rid of it, she temporarily killed herself, but she is very much alive, trust me.”

The image faded and Shainoah shook his head. “This is.. This is too much.”

She touched his shoulder. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but you need to know this, because she will come for you.”

He touched his head, and suddenly images began to appear in his head. Images of him with that woman. His mother. He groaned as they came. Shainoah remembered finding Saga, a baby, on the ground in the midst of the darkness. He was trying to find his mother, but found her instead. They were taken by Smith. He took her to some woman that looked like his mother, she touched his head and everything went back

“Everything he told me was lies,” Shainoah groaned. Then he remembered years later meeting Aline. “And you… Tried to tell me once. But he made that woman erase it again.”

“You remember?”

He sighed. “Everything… Was a lie.”

Aline remained looking down at him. “Your mother. She’ll come for you one day, either to make you join her or kill you. You have to be ready.”

He glared up at her. “How do you expect me to be ready when you’ve thrown all of this at me so quickly?! I don’t understand what the fuck is going on!

“Either way you have to face it!” Aline yelled back. “You are my last shot. I am not letting Devika kill anyone else!”