How It All Started

Being in charge was not how Talia had wanted to live her life. She would have been much happier being left to her own devices. But her promotion to Queen came all too quickly for her. She knew it right then and there, staring in horror at her mother.

Or rather, what used to be her mother. The husk that was once the former queen of Nightshade stared up at her from empty eye sockets, as a sick facsimile stood over her. Her—no, its—eyes were also empty, in a way. The illusion of eyes was there, but they lacked any sort of a soul, even for a vampire.

It held out a hand to Talia, its fingers fluctuating in number, looking a bit too sharp at the points, then far more rounded...they even fused together a few times.

“Come with me,” it told her, soft voice bastardized by a blatantly artificial quality.

The two of them had been standing in a pocket of the forest, just outside of the boundaries of Nightshade proper. The gnarled trees were entirely dead, the deep green grass around their roots a sickly yellow. She could smell the air, and it was...not rancid, really, but not pleasant, either. It had more of a disconcertingly sterile quality. Like the supply of cleaning products had exploded.

She tried to back away, but her “mother” stepped forward, reaching for her wrist. Backing away turned into a full-blown scramble, as she refused to take her eyes off of her attacker. She circled around it, pouncing toward the body on the ground and yanking the dagger from the sheath on her thigh.

With Shade’s Fang in hand, she let out a shriek and stabbed the creature in the chest before it could actually touch her.

That was her first encounter with one of the beasts. It resulted with her being placed in charge of all of Nightshade, with all the pressure that entailed. And as more of these creatures encroached upon the land, she found herself making her first truly responsible decision: she had to get to the bottom of this. Keep the population safe.

But she couldn’t do that alone, and nobody quite knew how to fight them in the first place. Some degree of thought later, and she realized that the best chance may have been witches. Legend, after all, had told of humans being brought to the ancient land she called home, gaining magic upon arrival…

The portal creation spell wasn’t difficult to find. It took a blood sacrifice of her own to trigger it, so she didn’t want to overdo it. But she began to transport humans to her world to set them on this quest.

The first brought there was a young painter by the name of Niles. He showed a lot of promise upon his arrival. When Talia had told him of the threat, he was horrified to hear about it, willing to help, fashioned himself as a magic-wielding knight. She saw him off, looking forward to his return.

He never came back.

And so, she tried again, this time with a fledgeling investment banker named Kevin. He wasn’t quite so enthused as Niles had been, in retrospect. But he promised to do all he could to bring down the threat that was terrifying her land.

Funny how that worked out, wasn’t it?

Then came Larissa, Vincent, Bella…All three willing to help, and all three disappeared without a trace.

Anton was one of the more gung-ho about helping, and Talia was happy for the fact that even if he didn’t succeed in the mission, at least he’d found some amount of happiness for himself.

And then there was her newest summon: Millie. She was a bit older than most of those Talia brought in, most of the others being barely out of college, at most. Most of them also showed up alone, so for there to be a dog-turned-werewolf in the equation made this new one stand out to her.

Talia breathed a sigh after telling Shay all about the origins of this mission. Shay took another drag from her cigarette, glancing at the vampire.

“And what happens if your group succeeds?” she asked.

Talia shrugged. “I haven’t figured that part out yet,” she admitted. “But either way, my newest summon is more than welcome to live in Nightshade if she’d like.”

“Does she know this?”

“Pretty sure she does. I don’t think I’ve done anything to make her feel unwelcome, at any rate. I’ve done everything I can to help her out. Do I know everything about how human witch magic works? Probably not. But if I’ve ever given her a reason to distrust me, I’ll be very surprised.”

The gargoyle flexed her wings a bit, blowing a well-formed smoke ring. “Good to know. And she picked that look for herself?”

“Just went right for it, I guess. So many of the others had favored shining fantasy armor, so to see someone outright embrace the darkness was kind of refreshing.”

Shay chuckled. “Yeah...humans can be weird. I’ve met a few of them, and most freaked out when they saw my stony skin, huge wings, large talons...but Anton and Lia took the time to get to know me, even if we did end up fighting at first.”

The vampire watched the woods ahead for a moment, watching a couple of birds in the nearest tree. One of them was a raven, the other one had five sets of eyes. She squinted at it, before her eyes went wide.

“...That one’s not from around here…” she breathed, focused on the ten-eyed bird.

It flew away from the scene just then, as Talia watched with suspicion.

“You saw that one too, right?” she asked Shay.

“Sure did,” the gargoyle replied. “What do you think it means?”

“I’m not sure, but we’d better be on our guard…”

Shay put out her cigarette, going inside to give the others a heads-up. Talia joined her, intent on waking the others to let them know. She couldn’t think of anyone specific that might be spying on them. But what other reason would there be for a bird to have that many eyes, other than to watch something?

She approached Amaia first, tapping their shoulder, The dullahan cracked an eye open, muttering a bit.

“It may be nothing, and if it is, I apologize,” Talia said. “But Shay and I saw something outside that looked a little odd…”

Nibbles stirred and looked over, Millie waking soon after. Sara was still very much asleep, muttering something in her sleep about the homicidal cupcakes. Amaia tossed their head at her to wake her up, the drider sitting up with a start.

Talia then told her group about the suspicious bird. Millie scratched the back of her head.

“You mean that’s not part of the local wildlife?” she asked.

“No.”

“Hm...maybe it’s a mutation? Or, like, a shapeshifter?” she offered.

It was a possibility, of course. But Talia wasn’t sure. She crossed her arms.

“I’m still a bit leery of it. I’ve lived in Nightshade for centuries. I may have only been in charge for a couple of years, but I know enough about the area itself to realize when something is horribly wrong.”

“Fair,” Millie said. “So, what do we wanna do about this?”

“We should probably press on,” Talia replied. “I’m not sure if it was following us or not, but if it was, I don’t think Anton would appreciate his family being watched as well.”

A fair point, again, as the group prepared to take their leave. They thanked Anton and his wives for their hospitality, before stepping outside of the cottage.

But as they got out there, the air took on a strange quality. Rather than a pleasantly musty aroma, it was that awful overly-sterile one that haunted Talia’s memory. Nibbles growled as she picked up on it, causing Millie and Amaia to hold their weapons close.

A gigantic foot slammed down on one of the trees before them, killing it instantly. There were three toes, then four, then two toes with four claws, and it had that yellowish sheen. The group looked upward, seeing what had arrived on Anton’s doorstep. Millie’s eyes shot wide open.

“...They make them that big?!” she squeaked.

It was confirmed that some of these monsters came in the form of buildings, but this? A giant monster? This might take more than a well-placed slash or a good werewolf bite to get rid of.

“Get back inside!” Amaia yelled, figuring they’d need a good place to strategize.

Or at least try to strategize, as much as one could under these circumstances. Sara and Talia both made their way back inside, Amaia going to follow. Millie was going to head in with them, but Nibbles was facing the monster, growling and preparing to pounce.