The wind ruffled the girl's hair, blowing with a ferocity that seemed impossible. "Katereah," a Toran demon hissed. The girl turned, swinging her dark curls back. Her features twisted, she glared down at the Toran demon, which shuddered violently. He responded appropriatively. The demon bowed his head and fell onto his knee, acknowledging the girl once more. "Mistress Katereah," he amended.
The girl nodded slowly in satisfaction. In one uplifted hand, she held a deep purple ball of psychic power. Her face softened, just slightly, enough for her eyes to stop flashing. "What is it?"
"The Dark One wishes to see you." The Toran demon dared to lift his eyes to the hem of her robes. A sweet, innocent smile stole across her lips, and she swept past the demon, not bothering to reply or to say another word. As she reached the curtains that yielded her privacy from the depths of the castle beyond, she tossed an offhand glance over her right shoulder, her startling green eyes piercing the dull darkness of her room. She was pleased to find the Toran demon still on his knee, facing the place where she had been standing. "Rise," Katereah commanded, her voice barely above a whisper. Without a parting word, stepped through the slight gap in the dark purple curtains.
As she hurried trough the murky fog that obscured every corridor of the Dark One's castle, she smiled again within her robes, hood drawn back to reveal a demure, girlish face. Katereah. It meant 'dark singer' in their ancient language. How she loved that name.
How it befitted her.
Katereah was one of the Dark One's top sorcerers - or sorceresses. Once she had been under his service, the Dark One had forbade her name to be spoken as long as she was in his lair. She had been, what, 10 when she started to serve the Dark One? Katereah nearly snorted at the memory of her younger self. So naive. So innocent. And when she had found out the secret of the Card Captor ... the Dark One came to her.
She had risen swiftly and surely through the ranks. With her un-imposing size, the demons that were under the Dark Lord's service had often forgotten about her power. The Card Captor and her friends had never suspected her. They had not a reason to.
She would stand by the Dark One when he killed the Card Captor.
She would stand by him forever.
Katereah's magical abilities were natural. She had been born to a legacy of power and magic. She had three areas in which she excelled in, which made her outstanding, for most of those who served the Dark One had only one. Her psychic prowess was great, her control over the weather even more so. Her singing abilities topped the scale.
Katereah found herself in front of the Dark Lord's chamber. She felt no fear, neither was she flustered - like so many before her. The two guards stationed at either side of the two doors peered down at her. Both resembled a rock wall. They most probably had intelligence equivalent to a wall's as well.
The guard on the left was clearly smarter than his colleague. He recognized Katereah almost at once, and he bowed slightly, armour creaking. "Mistress," he croaked, straightening. Nodding in a resemblance of respect, he lifted his mace in a gesture that said something like 'go through'. The other guard, however, glared down at her, lifting his visor slightly to get a better view. With a sigh and deliberate slowness, the guard leant his mace against the wall, the sharpened point of it gleaming in whatever light that fought through the tiny windows situated near the top of the castle. The guard shifted his bulk in front of the doors. "No one is allowed to see the Dark Lord whenever he is resting," he recited, informing her. He was about to say more, but Katereah never gave him a chance.
Her eyes flashing, Katereah mind-summoned a bolt of lightning to come to her. Within a split second, the lightning responded to her magic. The unmistakable forked lightning crashed through a window and sped through the guard. The guard could do nothing but scream and hold up his arms in a useless form of defense. The electricity snapped and crackled in the air as the guard's body quivered with the impact of the strike.
Mercilessly, Katereah gazed at the twitching body. There was nothing in her young face except a vague boredom - not even a bit of remorse showed. As the lightning died, Katereah shifted within her robes and stepped directly above the guard. The guard looked at her, eyes wide with raw fear. "You're not dead yet." Katereah sighed impatiently. She waved her hand, and the guard was lifted into the air. His skull was slammed against the cold stone wall behind him. The guard's eyes rolled back, and his eyes shut, but his chest still rose and fell in the faintest resemblance of breathing and life.
Katereah would never allow him to live. Not after the audacity he had shown against her. Katereah's eyes flashed again as his abandoned mace lifted into the air and impaled its owner's neck, severing the guard's head cleanly and fully. The head bounced once on the filthy floor and rolled some distance before coming to a stop. The blood gushed from the guard's neck, even seeping through the grit of the floor. Katereah watched the blood in sick fascination. She had just taken a life, and she didn't feel a thing.
She calmly stepped over the guard's body, nodding a civil greeting to the smarter one who had stayed out of this business and lived. She heard the chittering of Ytelde birds behind her, and before entering the chamber, chanced a glance back. The Ytelde disposed of the guard's body fast. The wicked black birds swarmed around his body, and pieces of flesh and blood flew into the air as the Ytelde attacked the guard's body with savage relent. She shrugged her slender shoulders. It was time to feed the Ytelde anyway. She remained cool and indifferent on the outside, but on the inside, she felt a jolt of familiarity at the Ytelde's behavior. That was her. Ruthless. Killing all that came within her path.
Katereah allowed a small smile to touch her lips, drawing her hood up. The Dark Lord would like it better that way, as proof of his enormous power.