I was born in Thakria.
That might surprise some of you who just see my statue, now, in Apollo's temple in Mercinae, and wonder who I was, and why a Knight grieves for me.
I was born in Thakria, ignorant of my parents, a child raised on the streets determined to rise above them. And always, but always, I wanted to wield Magic. Foolishly, too, I thought I wanted Power. And so, I joined the sorcerors, and I learned. Eventually, I learned all too well - that the things my guild demanded of me were things I could not do - not and face myself when I brushed my hair in the mirror of a morning.
I left the sorcerors. Left the town of my birth, too, and came to Mercinae. There I found a home among the Mages, and friends. And, in time, I became favoured of Apollo, and his Priestess. I learned the true meaning of Power, and the responsibility that comes with it, and Mercinae named me Baroness, Lady. We stood against the Darkness, and restored the Sun, I and my friends. And did many other things my old home, my old guild, would have despised me for. And it felt *good*.
Too, in time, I found, or so I thought, love. In a mixture of pride and haste I married. I will not cast blame, but he went away, and I waited. In the end he returned, and I found him changed. Or perhaps I looked, and I saw what I had been too caught up in my pride to see, and we both knew it for a mistake.
Perhaps the bigger mistake was my blindness - not to see the love of a Knight who fought by me, never complaining, never saying a word, through all that time. At last, though, my eyes were opened.
In that time, when all was at last in order in my life, a demon came to Avalon. One who demanded a soul every day, and took it, will or no. My friends and I stood against it, and we prevailed. Once, and for a short time only.
In my heart I knew it would return, and return it did, if anything stronger than before, and strengthened by each soul it took. Alone and unknown to those I loved I went to it, and I bargained. My soul, freely given, in return for it leaving those I loved, the land I loved, alone.
Betimes it lets me walk, in the darkened woods of Bedillam. Taunts me with glimpses of the world I knew, friends I once knew. But at night, it always comes for me.
