My future was planned for me from birth. I was raised to rule; to curtsey with poise and grace, to converse from a mother I have no real memories of. She was not spoken of often although I learned of her trade. Learning the tongues of the dead, I was versed in languages lost to the sands of time. My father took me for his own after she passed when I was no more than a girl. The voyage began at all saints and ended at the solstice and I was placed as his ward. He was a Bishop by then, his brother a king and esteemed, respected and revered. His thirst for rule rivalled my own; it was to be my inheritance. He placed me in wait for the Queen where I was welcomed in trust and soon rose in rank and power. Addressing my inferiors and superiors in fashions long since forgotten I could command the attention of a room, few were immune to my influence. I learned the ways of the world and my place at its head.
At the age of eight and ten I was poised to rule, taking the hand of a cousin and securing my place as a ruler. My husband was not favoured by fortune, nor wit as it turns. I dispatched of him quickly in the night. By blood we are crowned and by blood we rule, the throne was mine and mine alone. I led warlords to battle, consigning swathes to their fate. I massed subjects and ruled with a firm and merciful hand. I commanded loyalty and expected nothing less, allowing few to the privy and sanctum of my trust and thoughts. I had the world in my hands, my birthright. Until my father returned for what was now mine.
Four winters had passed since his departure; all were thought lost to his conquest. He had left one midsummer speaking of blasphemy till none would receive him, his lunacy increasing with him promising to return with a gift so valuable it would change the fate of all it touched. On his return he brought an army who destroyed many of my ranks not by the sword, but by the neck, my father as their lord and leader. They passed through my land and transformed it into a tide of blood. Waves of men fell and our retreat was diminished. Surrender was never in my blood, I would not release what was mine. My last breath was fought for until it was taken from me. He took my life to feed his own and I became what I had fought.
At first I took my place at his side as we took the world as our own. But true power could never be shared, dissention set in like a rot that spread like wildfire in our minds. My father had become too greedy and the inevitable fight back had begun, we were hunted by those we fed from. Our prey had learned of our greatest weakness and we were extinguished to a near massacre. With my last reserves and a few trusted allies I fled for my life, but not before I could destroy my only rival. Encased in stone and wrapped in silver I cast him into the ground as the earth opened up to embrace him where he was left forgotten to the world, to me. The world became a colder and hostile place to our kind. We dispersed to the far corners where we remained for centuries. Outcast and alone I called for those who were once loyal to return before the last of us fell. I created this town as a sanctuary and now it has been compromised. I was young and naive then to believe that such a being would ever cease. As he comes for me now I remain as shrewd as I was in life. I will not suffer to repeat my youth. This town is mine and it shall perish before I see it despoiled.