Chapter 1- Prologue, The Demon's Mark
Sharline let out a sigh, she really should get on the road again. It was not that she did not like the family that she happened to be staying with, on the contrary, she loved them which is why she had to leave. She should not be imposing on them for any longer, besides they had enough to deal with.
It was at this point Sharline cast her gaze to the family's son Darius, who seemed to be fighting some pretend beast. To most adults the scene would have been normal, a five year-old, or was he older Sharline wasn't sure, pretend fighting but one look at his right hand and all that would change. Darius had been unlucky enough to be born with a Crest, a brand marking the person as one who would bring nothing but misfortune to themselves and others, a curse. It was by chance alone that Darius' parents hadn't thrown the boy out. When Sharline came looking for work they quickly thrust the child on her trying to distance themselves from him. It was all too oblivious, even Darius himself knew, yet Sharline took the work anyway, slowing falling in love with the odd family.
A sudden noise interrupted her thoughts and Sharline looked around for the source, only to find Darius at her feet. "Miss Sharline I'm bored!" The child proclaimed, with a look of child-like exasperation.
"And how do think I could fix that?" Sharline replied while squatting down to his line of eyesight.
He stopped to think for a few seconds, considering his options. "Tell me that story again, the one about the fairy kingdom!"
Sharline stopped to think about what story Darius was referring to, he was rather vague. "Do you mean the one I told about last week? The story of the lost empire of Rieubane?"
Darius looked excited, "Yeah, that one, that one!" Sharline merely smiled, "Let's see a long time ago the four villages of Edinbury…" She was reading at slow pace on purpose watching Darius eye her carefully waiting for her to continue. She paused, she wasn't sure when she had begun to see him more like a baby-brother, but she had. And taunting each other was simply something siblings did. "Oh look at the time, it's a good time to stop, no?"
Darius glared at her before pouting slightly, "No its not, besides you just started!" Sharline stuck out her tongue "No complaining or I'll stop for real this time. Okay like I said, Once the four great cities of Edinbury were united and ruled not by the Fontraile empire, which we have now, but by the great Rieubane empire…"
A few days later
Sharline had just barely made it out of the house. She glanced back scanning for any signs of the family still trapped inside. 'Come on, be safe' was all she could think while looking back. The attack had been so sudden, assassins in the middle of the night had come and set fire to the house, Sharline was lucky to still be alive.
Suddenly a tug on her sleeve, Sharline almost jump out of her skin. "Darius?"
"M-Miss Sh-Sharline… They killed them, killed them!" Gone was the child-like excitement from the boy's voice, he was badly shaken up, although Sharline figured anyone who had just seen their parents murdered would be.
A noise caught Sharline's attention, this time it was more of a sharp snap. They probably did not have much time before they were the ones killed. "Darius, I need you to do me a favor." A nod, "Okay, when I say go, run as fast as you can, got it?" Another nod. "Good… GO!" Sharline yelled, shortly afterwards hearing the light footsteps of someone running. 'At least one of them would make it out safely".
Sharline turned around just in time to see one of the assassins come at her. 'This is the end, I'm not going to live this' was all she could think. Suddenly a voice yelled back, one belonging to Darius, "Sharline!" A flash of light shone and Sharline's world went white.
A/N- Whee Prologue, for those who haven't had the… uh pleasure to play the original (A game by the name of Evergrace if you're curious), you're not missing anything. For those who have, hope you enjoyed the back-story, now that you know actually has one. Also explaining how this fic will work is that it will be split into three acts, Darius' story, Sharline's, and the last level which is both together. So next chapter, there's a time-skip, more back-story, copious amounts of complaining, and actual character descriptions, which knowing the nature of the game (think video game based Polly Pocket) will change often. Also un-beta-ed, why? Because I'm lazy.