The mists drift across the plain, obscuring Morgana's sight. From out of the mists, winged humanoids, Seraphs, rise, flying at each other with swords in their hands. Their cries sound like strange creatures shrieking from where Morgana stands on the cliff, overlooking the battle.
She glances over the edge of the cliff, as if gauging the distance, her expression unreadable. Then, her gaze returns to the battlefield.
A circlet made of silver glows purple on her forehead, sometimes being obscured by her lustrous amethyst hair, billowing in the wind. The tips of her unnaturally pointed ears poke out of her hair. Her mauve gown leaves her arms and shoulders bare, and falls down to her feet, striking against her pale skin. Her dark purple wings, with feathers about the same size as a griffin's, are folded neatly against her back. Her hands are shapely and elegant, but her fingers have been elongated, her nails resembling bird-like claws. Her eyes are completely violet, with no whites, or pupils.
"Morgana!" Kayle lands in front of Morgana, blocking Morgana's view of the battle. She's clad in her signature gold armor, a sword in her right hand. Her golden helmet with the red plume is gone, and her blonde hair is in loose curls around her face. Crimson blood trickles down slowly from the single gash on her cheek. Her white wings are limp at her sides; the feathers stained the same crimson as the blood trickling down her cheek. But her startlingly blue eyes are narrowed into slits, and she raises her sword in an aggressive stance.
"Kayle." Morgana sneers, her wings fanning out just the slightest bit.
"This ends now, sister." Kayle hisses.
"Sister? Why call me sister?" Morgana cackles. "I thought you were the one who disowned me."
Kayle wavers, unsure of what to say. But just as she opens her mouth, a powerful force attacks her mind. The force seems to press in on Kayle's consciousness, as though it were a hand trying to squeeze a ball of putty.
She drops on one knee, her sword clattering to the ground. She presses both hands to the sides of her head, closing her eyes in pain. Through the haze of agony, she can hear the rustling of cloth as Morgana moves towards her.
"Face it, Kayle. You never could beat me when it came to magic."
The pressure on Kayle's mind increases until she can hold out no longer. She gasps, and the force breaks through her mental shield.
"Our side, the side of order, has become strong. I have just risen to the rank of General, and we have the might to win this war!" Kayle proclaims from the podium to deafening cheers from the other Seraphim.
Morgana watches her sister without emotion.
"Morgana." Kayle's voice pierces the air, addressing her. Morgana raises her head to stare at Kayle.
"Morgana, will you join me?" Kayle smiles. "Your mastery of magic would be invaluable to our side."
"No. I refuse to choose a side in this conflict. All I want is peace."
The courtyard becomes deathly still.
"Then you are no longer my sister." Kayle replies.
Morgana's eyes fill with tears as Kayle continues her speech to rally the crowd of Seraphim.
Kayle gasps as Morgana's memory fades from her mind.
"It is your fault." Morgana's voice seems to come from far away. "Yours, and yours alone, that I joined this side."
"Sister…" Kayle begins.
"Don't call me sister!" Morgana lashes out with her right hand, slapping Kayle across the face.
It surprises Kayle how much that slap hurts. After all she had endured, that little slap hurt the most.
Morgana had never hit Kayle before.
"Morgana, I know you're upset. But why?"
"Why?" Morgana's voice fills with rage. "My own sister abandoned me! You wouldn't allow me my own opinion! You wanted me on your side, yes. But you went as far as to forsake me, just because I did not join you! You went too far, Kayle!"
"We needed a powerful spellcaster." Kayle says in desperation.
"So I'm nothing but a tool to you." Morgana's eyes flash with anger. "You never even cared for me."
"Kayle." Morgana approaches her sister.
"Yes?" Kayle asks, dipping a quill into an inkbottle to write something on a piece of parchment.
"Kayle, did you mean it?" Morgana says, her voice sounding faint.
"Mean what?" Kayle doesn't make eye contact.
"Did you really mean to disown me?"
Kayle looks up and stares her sister straight in the face. "Yes."
"Morgana, I'm… sorry." Kayle chokes out.
"Sorry? It's a little too late for that, Kayle." Morgana smiles scornfully. "You could have said that you were sorry the day you abandoned me. You could have said sorry the days when you ignored my tormentors. You could have said sorry many times before. But you choose the day that you are at my mercy. Your apology means nothing!"
"Look, it's that freak Morgana again." A boy whispers to his friend.
Morgana keeps her head up high and walks past them, but the whispers follow her.
"She's so weird."
"Someone told me that she was the one who killed her mother."
"I can't believe that's Kayle's sister."
"Crazy."
"If I were her parents, I would have disowned her."
"Why haven't they disowned her?"
Morgana pays them no heed, but she glances at Kayle, within the ranks of her prosecutors, with sorrowful eyes.
A ball of violet fire appears in Morgana's left hand. She tosses it from hand to hand, glaring down at Kayle. "Remember when Mother died, Kayle? Remember when Father left to go to war?"
"Yes." Kayle whispers.
"And what did they say?"
"Take care of your sister, child." Mother murmurs to a younger Kayle. Mother's face is ashen. The disease is sapping her strength. In a few minutes, she will be gone.
"I will, Mother."
The memory morphs into a different one.
"Father! You don't have to leave, do you?" Kayle asks, staring up at a tall male Seraph with gold hair, and blue eyes, like hers.
"I'm afraid I do, Kayle. To fight in the war is every adult's duty."
"No, Father." Kayle buries her face in his chest.
He smiles, but gently disentangles her from him. "Kayle, I have something I need you to do while I'm away."
"What is it?" Kayle lifts her tear-stained face to look into her father's.
"Take care of your sister."
"Both our parents, Kayle. Both of them asked you to take care of me, to protect me. You failed them."
"I didn't fail them!" Kayle cries out in a shaky voice.
Morgana ignores her. "That night, I left our house. I was determined to join the enemy forces. You knew I hated being forced to do things. I still do. Yet you still tried to." She tosses the ball of fire onto the ground, and watches it dissipate.
"Morgana, I'm sorry!" Kayle pleads.
Morgana still pays her no heed. "So I joined them, and rose in their ranks like you. But my magic wasn't strong enough to defeat you. So I sought out a cure for my weakness. Dark magic."
"You… what?" Kayle whispers.
"Dark magic." Morgana smirks. "Surprised, sister?"
The black crystal lies on a red silken cushion. It does not glitter, even though it is illuminated by the blue fire coming from the torches set in strategic locations around the crystal.
Morgana approaches the black crystal, her eyes sparkling.
"I could take this crystal." Morgana murmurs to herself, her hand reaching out to touch the crystal. "Take it and use its power to learn the dark magicks."
Then she draws her hand back. "But to break the laws of the Seraphim…"
Her delicate features harden. "It does not matter. Killing Kayle is my goal. And to kill her, I need power."
Without another hesitation, she grabs the crystal from its resting place on the cushion.
Agony courses through her, and she screams, her knees buckling.
"Morgana… what have you done?" Kayle's eyes are wide.
Morgana cackles, her voice ringing through the air, high and cold. "Oh, Kayle, I could kill you now. But I won't."
"Why?" Kayle asks, quietly, trying to keep the terror from her voice.
"First of all, your army seems to be winning out over mine." Morgana's gaze shifts to look at the battlefield. Then it returns to Kayle, and Morgana's eyes narrow into catlike slits.
"And also… I want you to know when you are about to die." Morgana approaches her sister, her voice soft and menacing. "I want you to lie bleeding on the ground, watching me approach, knowing your time is up. I want you to die in the slowest and most agonizing way possible. I want to watch you writhe on the ground, and I want you to realize that this would not have happened, if you hadn't made the choice to disown me!"
Morgana's fury finally surfaces completely. Her clawed hand fills with crackling amethyst magic, and she blasts Kayle over the side of the cliff.
The last thing Kayle sees is Morgana, flying high above her, and the tendrils of violet magic encircling Morgana's enemies.