"Mama, sing the song again." cried the little girl with bright golden eyes and red hair.
"I'm tired, Alyn." said the girl's mother with a gentle smile on her lips. "I just came back from the meeting at Lynton, remember?"
"But your voice is so beautiful, Mama!" pouted the little girl. "You always go away for weeks and only come back for a few days. I miss miss you a lot Mama."
The girl then wrapped her arms around her mother tightly, not wanting to let go.
"I'm sure even your father misses me as much as you do, but he doesn't cry like you." her mother answered as she stroked her daughter's head. She couldn't help but think of how unhappy her husband would be with her coming a whole week late. He would not cry but would instead ignore her for some time.
"Alyn?" she called her little bundle of joy.
"Yes, Mama?" the girl answered as she looked into her eyes with those beautiful golden eyes that mirrored her own.
"I have to tell you something very important."
"About what, mama?" the little redhead asked, her eyes shining with curiosity. Her mother pulled her baby onto her lap and hugged her tightly.
"About your Blessing, my little cutie pie." she said. "You see, Life is a balance-"
"Of good and bad." the little girl interjected excitedly. "The priest taught us about the 'Holy Balance' during our classes!"
"That's all well and good, Alyn," Evane affectionately rubbed the girl's head and continued, "But will you let mama finish speaking first?"
The girl bobbed her head in response and began trying to pay as much attention to what her mother was saying as she could without being distracted.
"So, Alynthi herself has blessed you with her fire and that's really nice, isn't it? She has blessed you with a very strong gift. But that means that something bad must come with our too, or else the world would not have balance." Alyn nodded her head and began wondering if her mother was going to stop her from playing with her friends, but kept quiet. Her mother didn't like being interrupted.
"So, for balance," Evane took a deep breath. "the ones greatly favoured by the Divine are cursed too, in direct proportion to the amount of favour they are shown by the Divine."
"What kind of curse? Will I not be able to play with Jamica and Crypin anymore?" the girl asked fearfully.
"No." Evane said, yet, there were tears in her eyes. "We, the ones blessed by the Divine, will have a demon within us. The more blessed we are, the stronger the demon."
"But what does the demon do, mama?" Alyn asked, feeling rather impatient.
"The demon wants blood. It makes you crave to drink blood, and if you try to avoid drinking it, it drives you crazy and makes you hurt others." Evane plainly stated.
"Do you also want to drink blood?" the girl asked with widened eyes.
"Yes." Evane said. "And you will start wanting the same too, once you come of age. So I want you to be ready for the pain that comes with it. You do want to be strong, don't you?"
"Yes mama."
Evane hesitated. She didn't want to hurt her daughter, no more than she wanted to hurt her husband. But the Divine were cruel. Cruel to force her to look at her innocent daughter and make her realise that she wouldn't remain so. That one day she would become just like her mother - someone who delighted in others' pain.
But if she hesitated now, Evane thought to herself, Alyn would die of pain when she came of age. She didn't want that to happen, even if she became the villain to her daughter. Even if she hurt her more than anyone else.
"Give me your hand, Alyn." she said quietly with an outstretched hsnd.
When Alyn placed her palm on her hand, Evane almost cried for how much her daughter trusted her, and how she was sure the trust would disappear soon.
Evane reached for the knife in her pocket and showed it to her daughter, who looked at it quizzically, not realising what her mother was going to do.
Evane couldn't stop herself as the demon within her suddenly took control and, the next thing she knew, her daughter was crying with blood dripping from her palms.
She watched through her eyes as a prisoner of her own body as her hands continued to slice her daughter's hands. The demon was more excited than she had believed, she realised. New blood. After having she same kind of blood for years, it was finally having something new, powerful and young. She couldn't stop it, not when it was so excited. And she was sure it would demand the same blood again. And again. And again.
And there was nothing she could do as she watched her daughter begging her to stop, as she would continue to do for the years to come.