10. The Legend of 'Black' Anis

*See chapter 00. Intro and chapter descriptions*

I stood upon the hill my eyes upon the woodline watching Cyllian leave, but more lost in thought. For a moment out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a flash of bright gold; when I turned to look it was gone, as was Cyllian. My mind wandered back to what he had said, the Cleansing Ritual... so Melee's fear is confirmed. The Elf king would subject me to the same Fate as Anis, the only one to ever survive it, if you can call what happened to her survival.

I looked up to the sky and thru the solid covering of thick clouds above that have lingered since the storm. There was a break and I saw the stars, their stars- Anis and Draag. Most curse her name and what she wrought after, but I mourn her, and pity fills me when I think on her and her story.

A true blood elf princess, set to inherit the kingdom when she married an elf lord, the same I am from, but neither I nor my father are of her family's lineage, no, my father came to power when her family was deposed after everything.

Anis loved an orc chief, one of little importance, at the height of the elf/orc wars. How they met is lost to anyone's knowledge, but meet they did. They were discovered together in a small wooded glen, a no-man's land that none controlled, discovered by a military patrol, although some say she was followed, that her secret had been discovered. Draag they butchered on the spot, his band nowhere near, and Anis had to watch and they dragged her back in chains to the palace in shame and disgrace. A true blood Elf Princess had been caught being willingly seeded by an Orc, the enemy. There was only one sentence for an elf woman of noble or royal blood, the Cleansing Ritual. A punishment rarely inflicted in all the millennia of our races' existence, and she would be the last.

Left bound, much as myself and Melee were in the arena, tied and in a stock, under guard in a courtyard, exposed to the elements, and stripped. There she would remain for one moon cycle, all pure blood elves of royal and noble blood under obligation to seed her as they would, as often as they would. No other species being able to cum like an orc, the purpose to 'wash' out the orc seed from within her body and to punish her for mating with another race.

The only sustenance she would receive is what she was 'fed' by those who used her body. The wind and rain, the abuse she was subjected to, would turn her pale blue skin to a dark purplish black.

The legend says she remained stoic to the end, only weeping for the memory of her beloved, Draag. She did not speak, but only his name.

Released, she was shunned by all; no elf would take her in, nor was she allowed to remain in the palace, and why would she? Anis became something else, an other, her appearance so changed. Dark skin, her long flowing brown hair blackened with dirt and grime; her voice even changed, a high pitched screech, a howl almost in her pain.

It was not only elfin kind who shunned her, feared her for what she had become. Humans shunned out of fear of the elves they lived so near to; orcs shunned her for she was an elf and now cursed. Slowly she wandered picking up scraps where she could. The legends say she went back to that spot, where she last saw her love; in orc legend it is where the arena now stands. They say she mourned there for a time, weeping and screeching, howling into the night, raging at her Fate.

How long she remained there is not remembered. All that is known is she left and wandered the border lands alone never finding peace, cursing all who crossed her path, curses that inevitably came to pass. Those who tell the tale say her pain and rage gave her great and terrible power.

The last she was seen Anis made her way to the mountains, finding a path down deep into an abandoned mine the dwarves had dug, but not before she cursed all, every race that denied her.

From her own loins would be birthed a species never seen, one who's seed would only bring forth it's own kind; a race, a true blood race to be a plague upon all. Race and bloodline would matter not for any woman seeded, her offspring would only bring forth one of it's own, a pure blood race indeed. Only when the gods returned avenging her, and offering her release would her curse be lifted.

This the curse, the curse of 'Black' Anis. A curse and a plague indeed did she release. She disappeared into the mountains never seen again, but for years her cries and shouts echoed deep within the caverns, and eventually the dwarves walled themselves off from her cries. None know if Anis yet lives.

Years passed and a new race was found within the darkness, in time driving out the dwarfs from their homeland; no one of the other races believed them until the first villages were attacked and the women dragged away.

Mostly easily fought off at first, but then the swarms came, the goblin swarms. Thousands at a time, over powering, sacrificing themselves so others could carry off, if they did not simply leave the ravished women there to birth the horrific beings. Small with skin like obsidian, no more than three feet tall, but phalluses that were long. Once penetrated, they could not be withdrawn until it's seed was released. So potent, conception is immediate and always 'successful' and always a male would be birthed and always ready to breed; there are no goblin women.

Eradication was attempted, soldiers and warriors following the goblins back to the caves, but all they found were the breeding caves, the caves the captive women were taken to. The nest, the colony, never found and no matter how many were butchered and slaughtered there were always more. No one would say what the breeding caves were like, none who saw were ever the same again.

And now it seems the demon orc has found a way to communicate and ally with these foul beings, using them to terrorize villages and settlements, empty out the lands and claim it for themselves. And the elf king a willing partner, befriending the enemies of all, the demon orc and the goblins. Did Anis yet live? Is she a part of this? Is this her will, her bidding? Is her pain and hate so great she would destroy all? Or is this simply a king gone mad, using magic and charms to control others? To what end? Was there even an end to it?

All I know is he betrayed me, his own daughter and declared the Cleansing Ritual for me; he betrayed Zyre and his father, and it seems his closest ally, the northern elf kingdom and the one he thinks is yet his true born son. Unless... unless he knows Cyillian's secret.

"Mistress? We are ready, do we go?"

"Yes Melee, we go at once."