The sounds of distant screams filled the night air. Sitting up in bed and looking out the balcony window, Aria could see fire on the Magincia skyline. The fire appeared to be emanating from the Palace. The flames were huge, licking up the sides of the once great Palace, lighting up all the adjacent streets as if it were daytime. A fireball streaked across the black sky. More screams joined the chorus, this time much closer. Aria jumped out of bed as quickly as she was able considering she was 8 months pregnant. Grabbing only her robe, she rushed out onto the balcony to get a better idea of what was going on. She looked down over the marble railing at the street and saw a massive black daemon with horns coming out of its head. The daemon, known as Virtuebane, opened a large red gate from which hordes of imps, hell hounds and daemons poured out onto the streets. Suddenly he cast his eyes up and met her gaze, sending a shiver down her spine. The daemon thrust his hands forward and hurled a bright fireball towards Aria. Jumping back into the bedroom, she was barely inside when the fireball struck the balcony, shaking the walls. Fire spilled from the balcony into the bedroom, lighting the hue 1150 cotton curtains on fire. Aria scrambled backwards until her back was pressed to the door. She pulled herself up and ran out the door, going down the hallway and headed downstairs. At that very moment her husband Raul came bursting out of the door of his study, saw Aria and asked, “I heard screaming, are you alright? What is going on?” “I am fine but the city is being attacked by daemons. We have to get the hell out of here with haste,” Aria responded. Raul rushed over to the sword rack by the door and grabbed his longsword. He unlocked the front door and cracked it open, peering out to see if the path was clear. The instant the door was open a large fireball exploded on its exterior. The door smashed inward, knocking Raul violently against the wall and dazing him. Aria rushed to his aide and helped him steady himself. Through the now smoldering door frame bounded two imps. Raul, still dazed, was slow to react. Seeing his condition, Aria grabbed the longsword out of his hands. Grasping it tightly she spun around quickly, the longsword making a mighty arcing swoosh, ending deep in the nearest imps neck. The second imp began murmuring an incantation but was not able to finish it before Aria pulled the sword out of the dead imp’s neck and thrust it straight into the incanting imp’s open mouth and out the back of its head. The imp fell backward, and gurgled on his black blood, the longsword sticking straight up into the air as if it were stuck in a pedestal. Raul began to come out of his daze and pulled the sword out of the imp’s mouth. “Thanks Aria,” he said, “let’s try to escape out the back and try to make it over to the docks.” Aria nodded and they quickly ran through the back alleys of Magincia. When the pair approached the dock, they ducked behind a large oak tree and peeked around it to survey the scene. They were devastated by what they saw, nearly every boat was aflame. Busy setting the remaining handful of vessels alight was a fierce looking red daemon. Standing more than twice as tall as any man, this bat-winged horror from hell had his cruel talons wrapped around a barbed trident and was flinging fireballs at all the moored vessels. Pulling back behind the tree, Raul and Aria looked back at Magincia Proper and it was clear that these few remaining boats at the dock were their only hope. Maginica looked to be completely aflame. The once opulent city of vast colorful gardens and marble palaces was completely in ruins. Raul, clutching the longsword tightly, rushed at the turned daemons, who seemed to be too preoccupied with the destruction of the remaining boats to notice Raul’s advance. With all of his strength Raul slashed the sword downward across the neck and back of the turned daemon but his common blade was no match for the daemon’s mottled thick scaly skin. The blade shattered and the daemon turned around to face a trembling Raul. The daemon let loose a deep hellish laugh and raised its powerful arm, claws gleaming in the light of the burning city. It swept its massive claws down and rended Raul completely in two. Horrified, Aria ducked back behind the oak tree, hoping that the daemon hadn’t seen her. When seconds later a fireball exploded against the tree trunk, she knew it had. The explosion shook the entire tree and a bird’s nest was jostled off the high branches, scattering a handful of eggs around her. One fell directly into her lap and the deep folds of her robe left it completely intact. Suddenly Aria had an idea. Clutching the egg, she closed her eyes and began an ancient incantation. She could hear the large daemon from the docks approaching but she just continued to cast her spell. When the daemon came upon her, it swung its barbed trident and with a single stroke removed her head. The next morning, the sun rose on a smoldering Magincia. The once thriving merchant community had fallen victims to their own pride. So far off the path of virtue had the rich, haughty residents gotten that a horde of daemons had invaded and leveled the city overnight. A raven sat perched on the scorched ruins of the once marvelous palace. It watched apathetically as the daemon who led the assault, Virtuebane, reopened the red gate and bid all the imps and daemons back to their hellish home. Only one human had survived, the humble shepherdess Katrina, who sat weeping for all the dead. Growing bored, the raven flew to its nest which it had built in a tall oak tree near the docks. It knew immediately that something was amiss and cawed loudly as it circled the tree. Landing on the ground, the raven looked distressed, pacing over all of its broken eggs strewn about. Then it saw a single intact egg, held tightly in the hand of a dead headless pregnant woman. The raven hopped over to her, pried the egg out of her hand and flew off, far away from the smells of burning flesh. It had no way of knowing that inside the egg was the little unborn baby boy of Aria and Raul. One month later, atop a fairly tall tree just outside Trinsic, an excited raven watched as it heard it's egg begin to hatch. One can only imagine the raven's disappointment when a mottled baby boy emerged from the cracked shell. The raven, without a second thought, pushed the baby out of it's nest and let out a loud "CAW CAW CAW" to express its immense irritation at the situation. It was fortunate that the babies fall was broken by some overgrown brush and even more fortunate that some passing Trinsic residents heard the cries of the baby only a day later and took him to the city orphanage. It was here at the orphanage that the boy was given his name, Icas Rex.
Expensive curtains! Great story, and I have got to learn that ancient incantation Aria used, it could come in quite handle if a PK roles around!
