Chapter One: A Thousand Years Or More Ago
Dear reader, before I begin this story I offer you a prelude, a little history lesson from the days of Merlin the Wild. Merlin lived a thousand years ago, add or take a few decades. There are many legends concerning the renowned wizard but in this story it is not Merlin with who we are concerned but his father, the infamous incubus Lilu, and the mother he failed to seduce; Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians.
This segment tells the story of Aesthelflaed's downfall. A historic event that took place between the dirty sheets of aristocrats and have plagued commoners since. A domestic tragedy of sibling rivalry, the love of a mother and unspeakable power. One of the greatest plays Shakespeare ever wrote was King Lear. The tale of three daughters and the father's descent into madness. This is a tale of one son and his descent into madness. Having slain his sisters, captured his Queen and played out his very own revolution he was poisoned by a lover and his revolution never came to be how he had planned it to be. Not to say there wasn't a revolution.
A revolution is a fundamental change in power that occurs in a short space of time, marked by blood and violence. They call the French Revolution the mother of all revolutions in the modern world. When Lilu came to the throne he called his the White Revolution with his delusions of a world where wizards could forge their own fate. Where they would not be held back by the inferior races. They would be free to stretch their wings and reach the peaks of greatness. They would return to the days of the Greek Gods and the Roman Empire. While the White Revolution did not succeed in its aims, it was a revolution all the same. If the French Revolution was the Mother of the Modern World, the White Revolution was the Son of the Ancient World. That is to say the decadent, devious and destructive son. For a thousand years we have lived in consequence of his actions.
You may ask what do we know which age was superior to which. We are familiar with our lot in life and perhaps this beginning does reek of nostalgia but does it matter whether we know a better world was once out there, in another time or place or dimension? That we are able to dream of our utopia, is that not hope enough to be sustained that if our imaginations are capable of such a life we can will it so? Gienah Elladora Black grows up in a relative peaceful age. Post-Grindelwald and post-Voldemort the wizarding world celebrated and believed their little sanctuary was safe. The muggles may wish to kill each other with their mass weapons but what business is it of ours? They have their laws, we have ours.
Her own life was much darker than the ordinary wizard though she had much happiness in it too. Sister to a boy destined to confront the darkest wizard of recent memory once more, she was trained from a young age to defeat a man who would go by any means, however despicable, to reach his goal, his own ideal society. While they fought the external enemy they could pretend to be pro-muggle, pro-integration and pro-society. They put it so prettily don't they? Even great wizards like Dumbledore. The muggles must never know of the wizarding world because they would depend on our magic too much, they would feel threatened, they would exterminate our kind. This story asks for the good of whose society?
But I digress.
Merlin was the illegitimate son of a monastic Royal Princess of Dyfed. Merlin's father, Lilu, was an angel who had visited the royal nun and left her with child. Merlin's enemies claimed his father was really an incubus, an evil spirit that has intercourse with sleeping women. The evil child was supposed to provide a counterweight to the good influence of Jesus Christ on earth. Merlin, fortunately, was baptized early on in his life, an event which is said to have negated the evil in his nature, but left his powers intact. Or so the muggles say.
Of course, there is no such thing as incubi and succubi, though there is something satisfying in accusing someone of being such a creature. Lilu however may as well be an incubus given his history. Lilu was the one son of the Queen Aethelflaed, along with twelve sisters all very beautiful and noble. Before Lilu tricked his mother into a fortress designed to kill the most powerful creature on earth, the world was very different than the one our heroine, Gienah Elladora Black, is born into where magic is shrouded in secrecy, growing incestuous and segregated from the muggle world.
Muggle is a strange word, created by wizarding folk. It means to say non-magical folk but of course all creatures are magical by degree. Muggle folk have an incredible ability to harness the elements around them a create magic of their own. You may call it science if you prefer, but there is no denying them of their own powers.
The Nagual have a natural authority on earth. You may dislike the idea of a natural hierarchy but with such creatures as these there is no denying such beauty, power and wisdom is deserving of the crowns they wear and the harmony and peace that they promote. Lilu grew to loathe his Queen, longing himself to become the natural ruler on earth and to command every kind of creature to walk upon the planet, that takes to the skies and swims in its seas. You may call this the beginning of the patriarchy if you will. Patriarchy that come with all its connotations of power and domination and a complete disregard for the natural way of things.
The story thus begins when Lady of the Marciens, Queen of all things, commander of the land, the sky and the seas, was trapped in a fortress that blinded her of sight in a darkness some would call hell without fire. Her daughters were slaughtered and Lilu claimed his place as ruler. Lilu the tyrant lived many a year ruling with an iron fist. And then he gave birth to one of the greatest wizards in history and fell to his death in the most unspectacular way. Quietly he was poisoned by one of his many lovers and soon he was forgotten as was the old world and the old order. A thousand years or more later however, hope came in the form of a little girl.
Aethelflaed could not see. She had either been blinded or the world where she roamed was a world without light. She was naked and cold. Her arms were free, and feet unshackled and she walked upon a hard stone floor. She closed her eyes and felt wings sprout from her shoulders. Aethelflaed swooped up and sought for a light. Somewhere. Anywhere. But the darkness was ongoing. She had no recollection of how she had got here. Images of women ran through her mind. Beautiful women with dark hair and light eyes, tall and slender and formidable. Then a boy. A man with curly yellow hair and blue eyes. A miraculous occurrence with intelligent, cruel eyes. A mouth too sweet. Too pretty.
"Lilu!" Aethelflaed called.
She heard a boy laugh. A child's laugh. A laugh that chilled her very bones. In her fortress she was trapped. The end of her line. The women had their cut throats. That she recalled. The sickening feeling in her stomach. She had borne children of great beauty. She had borne one of great evil. Evil outlived goodness. Lilu had murdered his sisters in cold blood. In envy. Seduced them with his wanton eyes. Lilu had wanted Aethelflaed. The Queen. He failed. He lashed out in fury.
"Can I not be king?" Lilu had demanded, his voice no longer sweet and filled with lust, but greed and desire.
"What you speak of is a world I cannot accept. It will be the end of magical harmony Lilu."
"The end of hierarchy!" Lilu roared. His blue eyes turned to ice.
"You have your riches, your beauty, a loving family… what more Lilu?"
"I want your throne, your crown, a path I can carve of my own…" Lilu stretched his neck. It felt so good to be honest for once.
"Your world order will fail to thrive my darling son." Aethelflaed whispered. "Condemned to secrecy and creatures in arms. Wand against sword. Hoof against fin. What is so desirable of destruction?"
"You see destruction I say revolution. You see harmony, I see decay." Lilu spoke like a true aristocratic.
"If I cannot be King, you shall die and I will take my humble position before their people as the Prince." Lilu smiled in all his finery. "How would you like to die?"
But this is worse than death. She was withering away. The last of the Nagual.