The moment that Damien entered the temple he was greeted with not only just weird looks but also with a forced smile and a sense of unease amidst the false respect. It’s obvious that not everyone wanted him here; Naya however, was glancing back at him with her soft smile frequently to check if he was still following. Amidst the sense of unease, he was kept from completely buckling under the pressure in the room by Naya’s looks of reassurance. It was odd, though, after years of being alone, he wasn’t entirely sure what he did to deserve her kindness. A real unfamiliar situation.
Damien was led to the hall, where the Cultist Leader sat hunched on the throne in front of the open fireplace, awaiting Damien. His robes drenching his frail body completely, he emitted a sense of power despite his deathly appearance. He did not rise from his chair to greet Damien, instead holding out his hand to him as if to let him see something.
A raspy low voice emitted from his dark hood, “Your arm…” He signalled his hand again for Damien to show him his arm. Damien awkwardly obliged and lay his arm on the Cultist Leader’s hand. He thoroughly examined his arm then laid back in his throne watching the fire. “Yes… I guess you’ll do…”
“You are Damien Graeme, correct?” The voice from the hood came louder, sounding interested, as if just recognizing who Damien was. “I suppose if I wish you to stay, I will have to give some compelling evidence that will enable you to fight for our cause… to reunite the demons like yourself within society…”
Filled with intrigue, Damien turns his attention towards the leader as the leader continues to speak, noticing his fascination with what he is saying.
“Your parents were murdered by the Golden Knights.” He stopped, looking at Damien.
The Golden Knights, the anti-demon faction, that went out of their way to battle against the cultists and had the illegitimate policy of slaughtering any afflicted from their faction and not letting any join, let alone live.
“Your parents were just as afflicted by the curse as you were, Damien…” He continued, “They spotted them while they were on a hunting party looking for rabid demons that patrol the forest. They found your parents walking back towards the village with a cart full to the brim with goods for the whole village, they’d just been to the mainland. Acting upon both fear and cruel disposition, they attacked your parents and stole the supplies for themselves, leaving your village poor and hungry, and leaving you an orphan. And not only that, but the Captain himself was the very man who commanded the attack…”
This was enough to convince Damien to join, if not for avenging his parents’ death but for equality between the cursed and humanity. He began his training with Naya, and grew quite affectionate towards her and discovered she was also one of the cursed herself. The training uniform was a tad more revealing than that of a cultist robe, and revealed where a shard had it her, just missing her heart. That was where the demonic skin tone was emanating from, just like Damien’s arm, but in case you wanted something more obvious, she still had a considerable sized shard sticking out from her chest. Demonic masses of red and black tinted flesh attempting to grow up and over it, making it just as much a part of her body as the rest of her. Damien’s shard was either too small to see, fallen out, or had ingrained itself within him, so the sight of Naya’s shard was somewhat unworldly in comparison.
His training involved various accounts of withstanding torture to test his cursed limits and succumbing to his rage to test his strength. The use of his arm wore away at the humanity within him that he held dear, but this was revenge and was only a minor consequence in the face of justice.
Realms of Tanerila is a Choose Your Own Adventure story written 5 years ago by myself for my HNC Games Development course. I started well… then I wrote the rest in a couple of hours at 4am because the deadline was too long, and I forgot about it.
jinxlgamez
Doubtful Player 