This betrayal rivaled the horror of the kinslaying. Below her the dark shapes writhed in a tumultuous struggle. Revulsion at the scene caused her to feel ill. Smoke and flames were filling the sky, obscuring her view of the moon and stars.

She grasped at her son resolutely with one hand, and holding her sword loosely in the other moved quickly forward. Her husband was joining in the desperate melee in an effort to rescue her people from the treachery of her cousin. Her father remained immovable in his white tower, refusing even the forgiveness of his beloved people. Her son was the last member of her family that she could protect.

The stench of orc filth and burning flesh filled her nostrils as the hurried. The clash of arms and the cries of battle rose to threaten her courage. Shadowed figures fled to the hidden entrance of the tunnel that she had caused to be created. Their terror-stricken silence was ominous beneath the sounds of war.

A familiar shape sprang suddenly before her and she halted sharply, dread at last consuming her. His powerful bearing was slouched under the evil he had taken on, and his eyes gleamed with a darklit desire.

She had given herself to another man in marriage, and this night he had taken his revenge.

Yet even in his moment of triumph he hesitated, and his attention flickered to the fire encircling the city below. In his lust, he had entrapped himself within a ring of fire.