Servitude is all you have ever known. You have no memory of your parents and you have been separated from everyone who has tried to care for you. Any information on the world outside of your cage has been severely limited and even then it’s mostly Order talk of demons that devour young men and corrupt women who leave the town. You might’ve believed that The Order was a force for good if you hadn’t been born with a chain around your ankle on behalf of them.

They had tried again and again to break you down completely, it started with saying that you were sold to The Order to pay off debts, you didn’t believe them, you were sold away and ripped from the only person you could’ve called family, it fueled your resistance, you were beaten and given the hardest jobs, you wouldn’t let them see you falter. Eventually you grew a callused shell in place of your emotions. One day you decided that enough was enough.

You listened in on a conversation your slaver had with a guard, talk of a powerful demon approaching the city. The next day every slave was made to work hard, making weapons, transporting metals, and keeping the forges burning. If anyone were to so much as stop for a second one of the supervisors would write something down and later that night you would hear them being beaten. They would return the next morning, bruised and bloodied. You were starting to get weaker, constant strain with little food to keep you going, there was no use for slaves who couldn’t work. If you wanted to survive you had to escape while you were still physically able to.

One night you waited for the right opportunity, the guard was turned away from you cage, asleep. You reach out and snagged a key from his belt and silently opened the door. The guard awoke and you ran, you knew what would happen if you were caught, if you weren’t killed outright the remaining days of your life would be hell, you had to get away. You ran into the city, you didn’t know where to go you had been kept in claustrophobic isolation for your entire life, you didn’t know anything could be so massive.

You duck down an alleyway and you hear as a bell began to ring and the town started to come to life with various guards and officers. You spotted a gate in the massive wall that surrounded the city, if you could make it out of there you would be free, but dozens of guards were blocking it, all armed to the teeth with the weapons that you helped make. You were trapped, you would be caught and used as an example.

You hear footsteps and turn ready to fight. From the darkness of the alley, you see a beautiful woman with white hair and red eyes that seemed to glow. She wore a cloak, but her hood was down as if she wanted you to see her. You look for anywhere to run but you’re cornered. You beg her not to alert the guards, but the woman just smiles and puts a finger to her lips. You stop talking. She takes you by the arm and leads you back to where you entered the alley, but before bringing you out to the city streets she turns and leads you into a door. This was weird, there hadn’t been a door here before, in fact none of the buildings had doors on the side of them and this one didn’t look like it belonged.

The woman opened the door and ushered you inside, as you enter the environment begins to change and you find yourself in the center of a large camp. When you turn around you see that there was no door but instead a gateway made of light. The woman walks through the gateway, but she isn’t the same. Her white hair and red eyes remain, but her ears are pointed, and her cloak had become black armor that clung to her skin tightly showing off her features which seemed far too perfect for a normal person. On this armor on her head were red jewels that looked like eyes. But the most shocking change by far was her skin which was now pale with a pinkish hue and the sclera of her eyes had become black which made her red eyes seem even brighter than before, you were sure that they were glowing now.

You take a step back and trip, from the corner of your eyes you see various monsters, some looking like animals, other demons. These were the invaders that you heard about, the demons that consumed humans. You felt comfortable calling the order wrong in your spite, but that was while you were being worked to death. You realized that if they were right you had traded one fate for another.

The woman kneeled down in front of you and frowned. You then noticed a pain in your ankle, you wanted to scream but you didn’t want this woman to see you as weak. Maybe she would see that you were useful and spare you life if you remained stoic in the face of such an injury. Suddenly, the woman’s hands started to glow a faint yellow. It reminded you of the earliest memory you had, a sudden burning pain in your back after you watched a man disappear with a stick holding a glowing piece of metal behind you.

You shake you head as she places her hands on your ankle. Instead of pain a warm sensation fills your body and the pain in your ankle is replaced by a pleasant numbness as it starts to heal. When your ankle looks normal again the woman pulls her hands from it and sets her sights on the rest of you. You hear movement to your side and the woman turns and raises her hand causing you to flinch impulsively. The woman notices this and quickly lowers her hand. When you look up towards her face you see a somber expression as if the very sight of you makes her sad. She moves her hand once more, slowly this time, your heart starts to beat faster but you don’t flinch. The woman touches your face, and you feel warmth that you’ve never felt before. Finally, the woman speaks, her voice full of comfort but also a sternness that gives off a sense of strength, like shield whereas the voice of your slavers could be described like a sword or a whip.

“My name is Druella, and those bastards will never hurt you again.”