Chapter 0: A bad omen.

Chapter 0: A bad omen.

A woman’s screams rang out through the manor one fateful night. The first snow of the winter, freshly laid, as the hearth glowed with the light of flames. Within the master’s chambers, stood several physicians and maids. The duke, clutching his laboring wife’s hands with worry as she continued to scream out in pain. With each minute passing, the room grew more and more scared for the duchess’s life. The son, peeking into the doorway, his eyes filled with worry and curiosity.

“You’re doing good, lady Delmonte, just hang in there a little more. Your daughter will be born soon enough.” The family physician reassured her with a half hearted smile.

“He’s right, my dear Julia. Little Yuki will soon be in your arms, so please hang on just a little longer.” The duke, Logan Delmonte spoke. His voice filled with nothing but love for his wife and soon to be born daughter.

Soon enough, as the duchess let out another pained and labored scream, a new voice was added. The sound, not of a baby crying, but of an infant screaming in pain. The room filled with a heavy whirling darkness that made all who witnessed it pail and frightened. Their hearts sank with deep fear at the thing before them.

An infant. A little girl, screaming out in pain as darkness violently whipped and whirled around her, covering her eyes the most. But what scared them the most, was that the dark power was coming from the infant herself. With black hair at that, a sign of one born with the most atrocious of all magics.

The duchess stared in horror at her own newborn daughter, and let out a blood curdling scream. “KILL THAT THING!” she screeched in terror, pointing in hysteria at her own daughter.

“Julia, my love. That is our own daughter, you would have me kill her?” The duke asked, his face pale with fear at that which he called his own daughter.

“IT IS BUT A CURSE ON OUR FAMILY THAT WISHES TO SEE US DESTROYED!” The duchess pleaded, reaching out, and clinging to the duke’s coat.

As if by chance, the darkness whirling around the room soon dissipated, but the infant’s pained screams could still be heard. Their eyes shut, tiny fists clutching at them desperately, her feet kicking in the cloth of the physician’s arms, who just looks on in horror, unable to utter a single word out of shock.

The duke, with a resigned expression, and swallowing the lump in his throat, begins to slowly step toward the infant in the physician’s arms. His arm drawn towards the hilt of his sword, as if preparing to defend himself against the baby. With his free hand, he removes the small hands from the girl’s face, and tries to look into her eyes. But what he sees makes him begin to waver.

“She’s…. Her eyes….” The duke stammers, his hands trembling. “My love, I am sorry, as much as I agree with you, I cannot do it. It would be too cruel to this child.”

The room hangs heavy with his words, the only sound being the sounds of both mother and daughter screaming out. One in pain, the other in pure horror.

“If she truly becomes an accursed child by her eighteenth birthday, I will strike her down myself, then offer my own life for my failure to see the signs laid before me today.” The duke continues, his words cold and with no sense of love or care for the child who is his own blood. Only pity in his words.

“ Have the youngest maids, the twins Emma and Erica look after her, but I do not want her to ever come near my beloved Julia for as long as she lives.” The duke commands, his voice loud enough to be heard even outside the bed chambers.

The duke takes his daughter into his arms for the first time, as the physician falls to the floor, shaking in fear, The duke’s gaze at his child, one of someone holding a deadly creature that could kill you in mere moments.

As the child opens her eyes, she desperately looks around the room, as though they are lost, and unable to find anything. As all she can see is an ever encompassing black void devoid of any light. As the duke stares into her searching eyes, he begins to pity her existence, before resuming a stern resolve.

“To awaken one’s magic as an infant, is a sign that one’s magic is powerful beyond the limits of one’s own body. Normally, it would be a joyous occasion, if only it wasn’t such an accursed magic.” one of the maids whispers with a look of pure disgust at the infant as the duke carries her out of the bed chambers.

“To think, a child of the great Delmonte dukedom would be born with such an unholy attribute. That child must be a monster in human clothing, nothing good will come from that thing.” another whispers back.

“And did you see those eyes? Her irises and pupils looked so… unnatural. Both were white. When she awakened her magic! I swear they were green before!” another chimed in.

On that day, when winter had just begun, and the snow had just started to fall, rumor spread about an accursed child being born within the Delmonte dukedom. Who’s dark magic was the same as the very demons and monsters they fought with for centuries. This girl, Yuki Delmonte was deemed “the cursed child of the Delmonte’s.” and as days went by, the more rumors spread about the girl. Including a very particular rumor, that the child was blind. As her first words were “It’s so dark.”