The prince laughed menacingly as he tugged roughly at Yolance’s collar. The old man winced and fixed horrified eyes on his granddaughter.

“Grandpa!” Leona screamed, she lunged forward, but Tavus caught her arm.

“Let him go, Demvross!” Leona roared, she turned and commanded the faery troops to flee the island.

“We’re coming with you ‘till the end, bright one!” one of the male officers called to her. Leona shook her head.

“This is a battle I have to fight myself.”

Demvross chuckled derisively as the faeries stood their grounds. Corpses piled in every corner and space there was. Tavus stayed behind Leona. Jarael, in his human form, came up to them.

“I know that it’s me that you want,” Leona said, “Free my grandfather and I’ll deal with you myself.”

Demvross tutted and pointed the sharp tip and the halberd to Yolance’s neck.

“It won’t be that easy, little Ryva…” Demvross said, “I need you to submit yourself to my father.” The torchlight glinted malevolently in his almost draconian eyes.

Leona tensed and gripped the Rubida Nurthia tighter.

“Don’t do it, Leona!” Yolance screamed from the hands of his captor.

Demvross snarled menacingly and plunged the evil blade into Yolance’s chest.

The following moments dragged by slowly as Leona stared in horror at the feat.

She vaguely saw Demvross drop her grandfather’s body on the floor of the dais. He enveloped himself in the purple smoke he had and transformed into the black dragon. Flames shot out of his nostrils as he prepared to fly away.

The black dragon nudged at Yolance’s limp body with a spiked tail.

Leona screamed as faery archers fired incessantly at the dragon, but to no avail. The arrows bounced off Demvross’ tough black scales. The dragon disappeared as he flew to the opening up above.

Leona felt herself running towards the dais. Tears blurring her eyesight. Tavus and Jarael were behind her. Selia had fainted in the arms of the faery healers as Abocer and the other officers shouted the commands for retreat. The trumpets blasted as the fey organized themselves.

Leona dropped to her knees beside her dying grandfather.

“Grandpa,” she sobbed, “Hang in there! We’ll heal you. Jarael, help me!”

She placed her hand on the gruesome wound on her grandfather’s chest and white tendrils of power blossomed on the old man’s chest.

Leona bit her lip back as nothing seemed to be happening. She sent another powerful surge of power in another desperate attempt to close the wound.

“Leona,” Jarael said gravely beside her, gripping her arms tight. “There’s nothing more you can do. The wound is too serious to be healed by magic at this rate…”

“Well, I don’t see you trying to help!” Leona shrieked at him, “Get the healers! What do you think they’re here for?”

Jarael fixed his deep blue eyes at Leona.

“Leona, you have to understand that no amount of magic can heal him. The blade of the prince’s weapon makes the wounds it has caused impossible to heal. It is a cursed blade he was holding. This is futile, Leona. You’ll wear yourself out…”

Leona’s stream of power faltered. She was shaking as she dropped sobbing heavily on her grandfather’s slowly heaving chest.

“Grandpa,” she sobbed, raising her tear-stained face to him, she gripped her grandfather’s hand. “Please don’t give up. You’re not going to die… I can make you live forever…”

Yolance wearily raised a wrinkled hand to stroke his granddaughter’s hair.

“Leona…” he chuckled softly, his breathing erratic, “Everyone wants to live forever.”

“What are you saying?” Leona said, “Grandpa, I know about myself now. I can do things which I thought seemed impossible for me before.”

“You’re right, my child,” Yolance said softly, “And I was foolish not to have told you about your past. But sometimes, the toll of immortality could only mean death… I cannot go on…”

“No!” Leona cried, “Grandma needs you, I need you! You can’t leave us like this!” she stroked her grandfather’s white hair.

Yolance’s eyes glinted as he tried to remember memories of old.

“Leona, your grandmother could tell you herself of this, but I feel that it is my responsibility to do so…”

“Go on, grandpa…” Leona whispered urgently. Tavus and Jarael listened intently beside her.

“We didn’t know your parents, Leona,” he breathed heavily, “We never had any children ourselves. So when I was out in the woods I found you by the River Gleiss. You would have plunged into the raging waters if it wasn’t for your tunic snagged into the juniper bush beside you.

“You were about eight years old then, and you were unconscious. I took you to our home and Selia and I agreed to raise you up as our granddaughter. You didn’t remember your past then, so your grandmother and I filled your young mind with different memories to fill the gaps…

“But we never really knew where you came from and how you have managed to arrive in Haikahn. But we didn’t care. There was you, and you were our dream come true. So we raised you as our own. But as you grew older, we feared to tell you of this because we were afraid that you’d leave us to look for your real parents.

“I’m sorry if we lied to you, my dear. But we never meant you any harm. We knew that eventually you needed to know the truth. It just so happened that that moment had to be this one.”

He coughed out blood as he tried to laugh and Leona held him tightly, tears continuing to stream from her eyes.

“The clothes you wore back then are with your grandmother. Hopefully you’d be able to remember your past once you see them…”

Yolance’s eyes fluttered and Leona’s heart pounded furiously on her chest, her guts writhing in the pain and panic she felt.

“Grandpa, don’t leave me!” she said to him, shaking him gently, her fingers felt cold against his.

“I can see the light now, Leona. You need not worry about me. I will be fine…”

“No!” Leona shrieked. “Grandpa, please! Please don’t go!” Beside her, a tear rolled down Tavus’ cheek. He dared not wipe it away.

“Remember, Leona, that I loved you and your grandmother above anything else in this mortal world…”

Leona screamed into the now-empty hall. Her screams echoed in the dark, unforgiving walls that loomed over them like a mourning shroud.

She felt her grandfather’s last breath escape his cold lips. He then froze in Leona’s arms, and he was still once more.

Leona wailed in agony and grief as Jarael and Tavus held her tightly. She let her emotions flow freely with her power.

Great flowing tendrils of light emanated around them in a circle, sending wisps of light across all of them.

She sobbed hard into Jarael’s chest, gripping his cape that draped around his shoulders.

Leona cried for a long time. But then, as the gravity of the situation sank deep within her, her grief was replaced by an overwhelming urge for revenge.

She felt the Arita Maija burning on her shoulder. Leona unsheathed her sword and placed it on her grandfather’s chest, then placed his cold hands over it. A sign of a promise. A sign of vengeance.

Leona staggered upright, still breathing heavily to stop the tears from falling.

Jarael took off his cape and wrapped it around Yolance.

“Come, Leona,” he said quietly, “We’ll give him a proper burial. Bonn Yolance was a great man…”

Leona didn’t pay him any attention. Her heart was bent on something else, like a burning passion inside her.

She took Jarael’s dagger and stormed towards the steps that led up from the dais into the mouth of the volcano itself.

The tremors have ceased, but it left an uneasy silence behind.

“Where are you going, Leona? Aren’t you going to come back with us?”

Leona wrenched her arm from him, chest heaving.

“I’ll be seeing Demvross and settle some personal score. I’ll make sure that this will be the last time he’ll be setting his eyes on this world.”