CHAPTER ONE: The Nightmare Summoner

Sharena moved cautiously through the halls of the castle that, less then a day before, had been her home. A place where she had felt comfortable and safe. A place where she had been surrounded by her friends and family. Now, everything was different.

Her friends were gone. Her family was gone. In the hallways of what had once been her safe and comfortable home, she now jumped fearfully at every movement she thought she saw from the corner of her eye.

After all, she knew she was not alone. Her friends and family were missing and even the castle guards were nowhere to be seen, but he was here somewhere. He had once been one of her friends, but something had changed. Now he terrified her. Now she feared him. Now, he was a very real threat to her.

"Don't make this harder then it needs to be, Princess Sharena," his voice caused her to press against the stone wall of the hallway, placing her hand over her own mouth to muffle any scream that tried to slip out, while tightly gripping her spear with her other hand. The torches of the hallway had all been extinguished and she could just barely see through the darkness, but she hoped that that would be to her advantage.

She could hear something shuffling down the hallway in her direction, frightening her even more. She pressed herself tightly against the wall, wishing she could turn invisible.

Finally, mercifully, the shuffling stopped. Sharena breathed for the first time in minutes, hoping she was safe.

"You can't escape," a voice whispered in her ear, so close she could feel the exhaled breath from his words. Her spear jerked out of her hand, throwing her off balance and causing her to stumble slightly. Fortunately, she was able to sturdy herself quickly. Not even looking to see the figure that had assaulted her, she bolted down the hallway, thinking only of escape!

She finally reached a doorway that led into the palace's large throne room. With no other options, she pulled open the door, dashed into the throne room, and closed the door. She turned to flee for another exit, and was unable to suppress the scream when she saw what awaited her. A large, human sized slab of stone. At least it appeared to be stone. What terrified Sharena was that a woman seemed to have been partially sculpted from the front of the stone, like someone had begun sculpting her out of a larger stone then stopped, creating the impression that the stone woman was trying to pull herself out of the rest of the slab.

She was exquisitely carved with superb attention to detail. One of her hands reached desperately towards Sharena as if begging to be pulled from the slab which her remaining arm disappeared into near the elbow. Both of her legs disappeared into the slab as well, just below her knees and her hair, dress, figure , and the horrified expression on her face were so well crafted as to be almost lifelike! A lifelike depiction of her mother, Queen Henriette!

"Beautiful, isn't she," the voice of her pursuer echoed through the throne room. She tried to open the door she'd just come through, only to discover it had somehow locked itself behind her! She turned back towards the sculpture of her mother and her eyes widened with horror. A man in a white cloak, his hood covering his head, stood beside the carving of her mother, his hand brushing affectionately against her stone cheek. "Your mother's beauty, preserved forever. I outdid myself with her."

Sharena was terrified, but she desperately didn't want to show it. "So killing my brother wasn't enough!?" she cried, her voice trembling, "you had to take my mother too!?"

"Do you think your mother is dead? Oh my dear, Sharena, what would I want with dead, lifeless stone?" the man in white taunted, smiling a wicked smile at Sharena, "no no. Dear Henriette is still very much alive. She is merely preserved. Her beauty frozen in time so it will never fade. One of the many impressive new powers I've tapped into that your brother could not accept."

"This? How could you…" Sharena began to ask, but was silenced when the man in white vanished from sight for only a moment before reappearing directly in front of her, her chin cupped in his hand and forcing her to up at his face. The fact that his eyes were completely hidden in shadow only terrified her more as she froze, unable to pull away.

"The problem with this spell, is that it just isn't the same. Her beauty is preserved to the eye, and her smooth features are still preserved to the touch, but so much is lost in the preservation project. Softness for a start," his thumb pressed to her lips when he spoke of softness, "and her warmth."

"What're you going to do to me?" Sharena stammered, terrified.

"What am I going to do with you?" the man in white repeated thoughtfully, "something I've dreamed of doing for years now. I'm going to make you my queen, and have you rule by my side." Sharena froze as she felt her heart skip a beat. The day before yesterday, if this man had said that to her, she would have leapt for joy. She'd dreamed of it, but he'd always refused. She was the Princess of Askr, and in his mind, Askr's summoner was unworthy of her. So much had changed in just two days, but why couldn't they have changed for the better?

"I won't!" she managed to force her defiance through her fear, though her voice still trembled, "I won't be your queen! I won't be anything for you! You're a monster! You may as well turn me to stone and get it over with."

"You will," the man in white promised, "once I've opened your mind to the same truth's I've discovered." He moved the hand that wasn't holding her chin to the side of her head, near her ear. Sharena's eyes widened with horror as she felt something slip into her ear. It didn't stop there, however, as some sort of wriggling entity slithered through her ear and into her brain. The sensation was not painful, but she could still feel it. She couldn't think of anything other then the sensation that overwhelmed her mind. Then, it stopped, and Sharena felt her ability to think slowly return, but something had changed. Her fear was gone.

She pressed herself against the body of the man in white as he embraced her. Looking up into his face, a loving smile crept over her lips. "You were right," she said, her old love for this man returning to her, "all I needed was a bit of perspective. What happens now?"

"We take everything we deserve," the man in white declared firmly, "after all, who's going to stop us?"

FIRE EMBLEM

HEROES

The Summoner of Shadows