Prologue
Seeds of Regret
By: MidnightChaser
A pain-filled scream was heard throughout the night, echoing against the high walls of an abandoned temple. The building was once a image of beauty and grandeur, the best of the best. It had floors made out of the finest marble and ceilings covered with the most excellent artwork of its time. The curtains were sewn by the greatest tailors of their era and behind them are majestic windows where the sun would freely shine and bring light to the whole room.
An altar once stood at the back of the infrastructure. This was where the ancient mages performed rituals for their most important goddess, Cellist. They believed that worshipping her would bring them good fortune and keep away their enemies.
But that was thousands of years ago, before the downfall of the mages. They stopped using the temple after that and now, the building is just a ruin, not even worthy of being called a stable, much less a place of worship. The floors were cracked and some are covered with a stinky brown splotch, the curtains had been robbed, windows are broken, and the roof has been blown away by a powerful storm centuries ago. And the only thing that remains from the altar was the dais where it stood.
Placed upon the dais was a table full of chemicals. The ones that can destroy you in a very, very painful way. A hand appeared and grabbed one of the chemicals, a steaming green concoction.
"Now this one will be painful." A woman's voice said. She sounded tired and clearly annoyed. She walked towards the front of the dais where a man is chained on an uncomfortable-looking steel chair. He was covered with his own blood. His body has obviously undergone a lot of torture and the only indication that he was still living was the mild movement of his chest. He raised his head when he heard the woman and revealed a pair of striking lightning-blue eyes. Instead of fear, his eyes were clouded by pity for the woman in front of him.
"Really?" He laughed a joyful and crazy sound. "I thought that last one was supposed to hurt, or the one before that!" The woman gripped her hands, trying to maintain her composure, but it was useless .She grabbed the man's neck and stared at him face to face, with their nose almost touching.
"Listen to me you no good bastard! I've got you chained and there's no way that you can escape, so if I were you, I'd shut the hell up!" She looked extremely furious and stared hard at the man, challenging him to speak anything at all.
The man stared back at her. He didn't anticipate her to react like that but he felt that she deserved it considering how she's been torturing him. He looked at her more closely and was glad to see that she hadn't let go of herself. Her was still as fiery as ever, beautiful emerald-green eyes, and her figure was still drop-dead sexy. He noticed her lips, those soft red pouting lips that use to make him crazy.. Without even realizing what he was doing, he struggled against the chains and pushed himself forward and tried to kiss her, but he missed.
"I knew you'd try something like that." She said. She's standing about two meters away from him now.
"It's amazing that you were able to distance yourself so quickly without making me realize that you have, you've really improve, Amber." He said.
"I've changed a lot from the last time we met. The Amber you knew no longer exists, you killed her years ago."
He looked at her face for any sign of emotion, but there was none. She looked thoughtful for a second before dropping the green mixture and made a beautiful sword appear out of nowhere. It was an estoc sword, the butt of the sword had a stunning emerald and the blade was covered by some sort of words.
"Do you know what this is?" She said while raising the sword. Even though she didn't look strong, Amber lifted the long and probably heavy sword like it was paper.
"A sword?"
"No," she smiled, "this will be the end of your life."
He gulped. He never expected to be killed by her of all people. That was reserved for another person who also hated him vastly. Amber was a sweet girl who wouldn't hurt a fly, but now she's a cold-hearted mage assassin who wouldn't hesitate taking the life of another.
She started advancing towards him in a slow walk, savoring the moment before she ends his life. He wished that it was a sign that she couldn't kill him, but it was not.
"You destroyed my life." She said.
She raised the sword and it glowed bright blue with power, her power.
"You killed my whole clan."
She smiled as if she found the whole thing amusing.
"You broke my heart."
Tears poured from her eyes, dancing on her face before falling to the ground. But even then, her face remained emotionless.
"And…"
Her face betrayed her this time as she let loose all the sadness that she's been keeping inside her all along.
"You killed my son."
She positioned the tip of the sword on his chest and posed for the attack, ready to stab his heart.
"Any last words?" She asked.
He decided to choose his words very carefully. He can't afford to joke around anymore. Usually he'll try and negotiate with her and tray to make her forgive him but he knows that Amber will kill her no matter what. The best he could do now was to make sure he doesn't leave this world full of regrets. He took a deep breath and exclaimed his thoughts.
"Before you kill me, I just want to tell you that I regret what happened between us. I never wa-… I never wanted to kill your family. As for our son," He winced as the blade's tip penetrated the outer layer of his skin, but he still continued. "I know he would have wanted to meet the two of us before I-." Whatever he was going to say was prevented when the blade pushed deeper and he screamed out in pain. She rotated the blade inside his body and felt joy as she saw him feeling the pain, the same pain he made her felt years ago.
This was it; she's finally been able to take her revenge. There was no doubt inside her heart whether to kill him or not, she already decided on that many years ago. He was her friend, then her lover, and finally he became the father of her son. But all that meant nothing for him as he easily destroyed all of those, including their son.
"Goodbye Damien Santelli."
With a sudden motion, she stabbed his heart, ending his life. It was fast and practically painless, because even though she hated him with every ounce of her being, she will never be able to wipe away the memories and the happiness she once felt with him.
She removed her sword from his corpse and held it close to her heart. Amber never wanted it to end like this; she never wanted to end Damien's life. But what's done is done; she can't control time and go back to where it all started. All she can do now is hide the evidence of what happened here.
She waved her hand and the sword disappeared into thin air, returning to where she summoned it from.
It was a good thing that this temple had been abandoned long ago, because what she was about to do could make her the target of both assassins and the mage council.
Amber shivered at the thought of being captured by the council. They are the kind of mages that you should never, ever mess with. But then again, Damien was once a member of the council yet she was able to capture and kill him. Amber knew that the council will find out about what happened here sooner or later, and when that happens….she decided not to think about it. The important thing is that she get as far away from this place as possible.
She concentrated on her power, deeply thinking on what she wanted and the chemicals disappeared along with the table. She stared at the corpse of her former lover, doubting whether he truly is dead. It just seemed so unreal for him to be killed so easily. He was, after all, one of the most powerful mage there is, a former member of the council.
She went outside the temple and prepared for what she's about to do. She has already removed all of the evidence that might link his death to her and the only thing left is to get rid of the corpse.
Concentrating on her powers, she envisioned the whole temple engulfed with white flames.
"Usaretama!" She shouted, and her vision became true. She stayed only to watch the temple burn until the white flames have turned everything to dust, and then started consuming themselves.
She successfully got rid of all the evidence and she could finally breathe clearly. Walking away from the burned building, she didn't realize that there was a single evidence that she didn't erase.
Amber Stone never wiped the evidence of her tears.