Disclaimer: My last name is not Roberts, nor has it ever been. Therefore, unless I am an imposter, I do not own the rights to Avalon Web of Magic. I own a copy. Or do I? Can anyone ever really own anything? Does all property belong to all of humanity? Does my act of reading it count as putting work and effort into it, making it my property according to John Locke? Or, was there ever really private property to begin with, as Marx suggests? Leaving you with that heavily debated question, here's the story.
Present Day (roughly)
Audrey was fighting for her life. Of the three, she had been the first to rediscover her powers. When she was eleven, she'd accidentally lit a tree on fire with her mind alone. She had been terrified at first, fearing that the magic was evil and it would consume her, but gradually, she had warmed up to it. She still had no memory of sharing magic with Mckenna or Thalia, but she was learning quickly on her own. Her instincts, talents, abilities she had picked up from her early years came back to her slowly. By the time she was twelve, the monsters and creatures had begun coming to her; some to be saved, others to destroy. Today, she was fighting a Daarkbyrd.
A Daarkbyrd was, at first glance, an abnormally large crow, or perhaps a raven. The Daarktouch was a terrible sickness of the mind that arose from contact with the claws of the beast. At first, the victim would feel fine. After a month, however, the victim would delve into evil, seek out violence, and develop a loathing for his fellow creatures. Finally, the victim would seek power – at all costs. The bird had been going after an innocent child when Audrey had spotted it. The child had, by now, run away screaming, but Audrey fought on, sending blazes of red-gold light towards the evil bird.
Every time she was about to hit the Daarkbyrd, it would teleport to the other side of her, in a cloud of shadow with a sharp sucking sound. She closed her eyes and held perfectly still, feeling for the Dark Magic with her aura. She suddenly sensed it reappear. She could tell it was growing tired, and planned to close in on her soon.
Eyes still closed, she whirled around and shot a jet of flame – colored magic towards the bird. She felt it get hit, and could feel its anger swirling around it. Too late, she felt it reappear right in front of her and scratch her cheek. In an instant, she banished it to whatever realm it had come from, but the damage had already been done.
She had been infected with the evil venom of the Daarkbyrd, whose curse could only be broken with True Love! Not True Love's Kiss, mind you – TLK is only effective in Soulcurses or Deathstop Healing. The cure was True Love itself – an item difficult to find in the Romantic Era, let alone our modern world. To make matters worse – Audrey did not believe in True Love.
When I speak of True Love, I do not necessarily refer to romantic attraction. In fact, True Love is least often of that sort. By True Love, I mean an unconditional, selfless, all – forgiving love of one creature for another. That sort is really rare, and unlikely to be encountered in a lifetime. So here Audrey was, with an incurable curse that would cause her to lose her humanity. What was she to do?