My people are called the Alsy, descendants of the Great Betrayer. As such we have no rights, we are not even considered human. Every scrap of food or clothing had to be begged for or stolen. Most of us wandered the wilderness, trying to eke out a meager existence. Some of us, the truly unfortunate, were the property of landowners and did all the work considered unfit for people to perform. The average slave could expect to live to the ripe old age of twenty-five.
The Alsy were the lowest of the low, hated and shunned by all others. All others except Our Lady's SeeD. Of all the people of the world, only those devoted to following the Way of the Lady treated the Alsy with any kindness.
The SeeD. It was so ironic considering that they had born the brunt of the Great Betrayer's evil act. They often left bundles of food or clothing where itinerant Alsy could find them. And when the nobility protested, they only smiled and said that it was their way. I had grown up believing that they were my saviors.
Of all the Unclean, I was the most tainted of all. I was born with silvery hair, the mark of evil. Even as a child, I knew that I was different. How could one miss how the warrior priests of the SeeD always shook their heads when they saw me? Oh if only you could imagine how desperately I desired dark hair, normal hair. Ancient prophecy said that The Bringer of Chaos, the Ultemys, would one day come and she would be marked by her silvery hair. Most children born with hair that colour were killed in an attempt to prevent the prophecy from coming true.
Though I was born in 5430, my story only truly begins in 5445. My clan was one of the luckier ones, we were not slaves and were able to manage to survive in the wilderness. We always kept on the move, however, trying to avoid the slaver caravans. The high mortality rate of slaves meant that new slaves were in high demand. We lived in constant fear of capture, already I'd lost three of my brothers to the slavers. Little did I know that I would be next.
It was my fault, I realize that. I had not been paying as much attention as I should have been. Having lost two children to disease and three to slavery, my parents doted on my sister and I. Because they had only had two mouths to feed, the two of us were better fed and as a result, we were healthier. I was taller, prettier and smarter than most of the other girls my age. In the end, my active mind led to my capture.
I had been distracted by a butterfly, enjoying its fragile beauty, when suddenly a net appeared over my head. Slavers had snuck up on me and I had been too careless to pay attention. I never saw my family again but later I learned that they had also been captured. I can safely assume that they are dead by now.
I was taken to Balab, the center of the slave trade, guarded by women. My status as a virgin had made me valuable and I would fetch a high price for my captures so long as that status was maintained. The transport was filled with other Alsy girls like myself all destined for the worst kind of slavery.
Once in Balab, we were kept separate from the other Alsy and were bathed and groomed. In utter humiliation we were led to the auction block, naked and in chains, so that spoiled noblemen could see what it was they were going to purchase. One by one, sobbing girls were led off by their new owners to live a life I consider worse than death. Then it was my turn.
Of all the nobility there, one caught my attention. Terrified as I was, I couldn't help but notice the shrouded figure in the back. I thought it might be a woman, veiled in layers of the finest lace, but I couldn't be sure. Whoever it was, it was someone important. I do not know how, but we made eye contact through all that lace and in that moment, something passed between us.
The bidding had been getting higher and higher, apparently most of the noblemen thought me desirable. Two men in particular, were engaged in a bidding war. Even I was stunned, though, to hear the shrouded figure bid one million credits. Many years later, I would discover that I had earned the highest purchase price for any slave in all of history.
The entire room fell silent as the figure walked up to the platform. Lifting away the veils, we could see that my new owner was a woman. She had elaborately styled black hair and sky blue eyes. On her forehead was a mark, shaped like a pair of white angel's wings. I watched as every noble bowed deeply to the tiny woman that stood before them.
It was the Queen of Heaven herself, Sorceress Arista. I had been bought by the ruler of the world. Though at first I did not know why she was interested in me, I soon learned. The Queen of Heaven, regardless of birth, had to be a sorceress. Arista had no daughters. It seemed that she had been searching the globe for a worthy successor. We were both surprised to learn that the only one capable of inheriting her power was one of the despised Alsy: me.
My station in life took a turn for the better, a change that I quickly came to enjoy. I was taught everything a princess was to know and, I am proud to say, I learned well. I first learned how to read and speak in the High Tongue, the language of the nobility. Next I was schooled in etiquette, dance, even how to eat. I was transformed from Unclean into Princess Royale by the time I was twenty-two.
Not everyone was pleased with my ascension, however. The nobles certainly did not like it. I was common, worse, I was a filthy Alsy. They hated the idea of one of the slave race becoming their ruler and being forced to bow to someone who, by all rights, should have been cleaning their homes, harvesting their crops, or providing a night's entertainment. They were also afraid of what I would do once given power. They feared that I might ban slavery and ruin their livelihoods. The Queen of Heaven effectively silenced them by marrying off one of her sons to me, Prince Nerid. This act officially made me a member of the Royal Family and silenced all my critics. All except one.
The SeeD were outraged at my rise in social status. To them I had changed from being a poor, helpless Alsy girl to being a potential fulfillment of prophecy. They argued that I must not be allowed to inherit the power of a sorceress, that I must be killed. The SeeD, whom I had once considered friendly, had become a dangerous foe. They wanted me dead.
During my education, I learned a great deal about the SeeD, more than I think they would have liked. They had once been common mercenaries, soldiers for hire, not holy men as they were regarded now by the lower classes. I also learned that the blessed saint who had created SeeD was not an incarnation of Hyne as I had been taught, but only a woman who had run an orphanage thousands upon thousands of years ago. Her name had been Edea and she had been a sorceress. The focus of the prophecy, the warrior SeeD destined to destroy the Ultemys was one of her charges, a youth known to history only as Leonheart.
It was a name that was only slightly different than the ones I remember from childhood, when I'd sat around the fire listening to our shaman tell us about God and her saints. I fondly remember listening to tales of how Lion Heart the warrior fell in love with the archangel Rinoa. There had also been many stories about the other saints: Qis the wise, Seph the mistress of the dragons, Zell the strong and Vine the brave. I had spent my early years yearning to meet them.
It was all a lie. They had not been saints, angels or demigods, merely young mercenaries. Yet, prophecy was clear, they were destined to battle and destroy the Ultemys, the Chaos Angel. SeeD had spent thousands of years waiting for that evil to arrive. SeeD was convinced I was it.
I had become accustomed to luxury and was not about to give it up because SeeD clung to some ancient superstitions that they themselves had promoted. I had power within my grasp and I was not inclined to give it up. Let ignorant fools grovel before an imaginary Goddess and her false saints, I was no longer an illiterate Unclean animal. I believe in only myself and power.
My concern grew as the Queen of Heaven began to actually listen to SeeD. Everytime I saw her, some SeeD or another was whispering in her ear and they would look at me, at my silver hair. I began to fear for my life. The nobles, sensing that I was losing favour, began to openly speak out against me. If I did not act soon, I would be killed.
My consort gave me some sage advise. If I was in power, if I became the Queen of Heaven, neither SeeD nor nobleman could stand in my way. Over time, I had come to care for him deeply, even if I didn't truly love him. I knew that he cared for me. He feared that sooner or later I would suffer a tragic accident at the hands of some assassin. Forced to make a choice between me and the mother he hardly knew, Nerid chose me. It was a choice that pushed my feelings from friendship into love and a choice that would be his undoing.
He was right, of course, Arista had become an obstacle to be removed. Oddly enough, once I had made up my mind to kill my benefactor, it was easy to accomplish. A childhood spent trying to avoid capture and trying to stay alive had honed my instincts. No one ever saw the poison that I slipped into her cup after the tasters had tested the wine. I selected my poison with care. It did not act immediately and expertly mimicked the effect of a stroke. I quietly knelt beside her and watched as the need to release her power struggled with the desperate desire to live. It was only as she released her magic to me that she seemed to understand what I had done. That knowledge came too late and she died before she could utter a word.
The assembled nobles had expressions of grief intermingled with horror as the truth slowly dawned on them. I was Queen of Heaven. Their fate hung on my every whim and they had made an enemy of me. Things did not bode well for them and we both knew it.
I never heard the shot. One of the SeeD had smuggled a weapon into the castle and had fired at me. Nerid had seen the SeeD take aim and had pushed me out of the way. He died in my place, his chest shattered. My rage knew no bounds. They had taken away from me the only family I had left. Of all the people I had met only he had shown me loyalty and love. I would avenge my murdered husband.
Power the likes of which I had never known coursed through me. I called down Apocalypse on them, time and time again. I was deaf to the screams of agony and terror, untouched by any of SeeD's smuggled weapons. The expensive handmade rugs became saturated with blood and gore. I didn't care.
By the end of it, only one person had survived, a SeeD. I allowed him to live. I wanted him to hear and spread the word. I wanted them to know what they had done. The prophecy had been fulfilled by their own superstition. If it was Ultemys they wanted, Ultemys they would have and to hell with all of them.
"Now and forever shall I be Ultemicia, Angel of Chaos."
Fin
Author's Note: This is my attempt to understand what might have driven Ultemicia. It came about as a result of my trying to figure out how that time compression thing worked.