Hesta

## Background

If there were a moon out that night, it would have been at its peak when the first guard's throat was punctured by the arrow. He fell silently, making a soft thump as he landed on the grassy earth.From a wide front, a group of armed men crept towards the lavish manor, eyes trained fixedly on their next kill.

"Mommy?" Sonia whined, rubbing the sleep worriedly from her eyes as she was scooped from her bed. With her nightgown flowing like silk curtains behind her, the princess was rushed from her dark chambers by her maid with panicked silence. Understanding dawned upon her, and she hurried behind her caretaker through the mute halls of the estate. She heard clangs of swords faintly in the distance, punctuated once or twice by screams muffled by the oppressive night.

They rushed urgently down the hall. Turning the corner and descending the rear staircase, a shiver went down Sonia's spine as they barrelled past the slumped form of a butler leaning against the wall. A sharp yelp escaped the maid's throat as shards of glass crunched under her bare feet. She's bleeding, Sonia, thought. She does her best to help the woman along, acting as a support for her injured side as they hobble out towards the stables.

There, a loose circle of guards in various states of dress stood at arms. Behind their protective screen stood a fine ebony chariot, wood so dark it almost reflected the night. Her maid hobbled off blindly towards a nearby guard, and Sonia hurried inside, thanking the guard who assisted her with the step as she closed the door behind her. On the other end of the long wooden bench sat a tall woman, head raised proudly as it looked out the opposite window.

She embraced the motherly figure with tears in her eyes. With a signal from her hand, the chariot began a brisk gallop away from the doom they fled. She pressed against her body and sobbed, the woman's steady heartbeat soothing her and steeling her resolve. She felt an affectionate hand smooth her hair as Sonia sunk slowly into her bosom, feeling the cold metal of a starburst necklace press between her skin and her guardian's.

The dark chariot raced past the front gates of the estate as the woman within stared worriedly out the window. She lightened as the walls of her villa faded from view, easing a little more comfortably into the seats of her cabin. She leaned in, smiled warmly at the shivering form pressed against her, and embraced her daughter as they sped away from the carnage.

The woman relaxed, letting her facade weaken. Her heart pounded loudly and warm tears fell down her cheeks as she thanked her god for deliverance. She almost didn't notice the abrupt entry of a third pair of clopping hooves into the edge of her perception.

Head darting up and eyes desperately trying to adapt to the inky blackness, she looked out the windows and saw only night. The hooves pounded louder and louder as she sat, immobilized and trapped. She heard the thrum of bowstrings from the rear of the carriage, no doubt guards firing vainly into the night. One of them fell. She felt him hit against the side of the chariot as he tumbled to the ground. The noise of the riders came distinctly from the side of the carriage now, possibly within eyesight on a better night. Another guard screamed, this time from the front. He pounded himself back against the carriage, scrunching his body as far behind cover as he could manage. The queen began to worry. A hand wandered down to her necklace, freeing it from beneath her daughter's forehead and holding it defensively in her right hand.

She steeled herself, breathing in and out in controlled, slow breaths. She waited. The hooves moved horizontally towards the chariot, still behind the window but still soon within reach. She heard the rider speak to his mount, urging it on in a language she didn't understand. Closing her blind eyes and letting her other senses take over, she pointed the intricate starburst out the window. She breathed in, uttered a single word, and in a flash of light, the incessant, violent galloping of the pursuer gave way to silence.

She waited a few seconds, scanning her senses for danger. Opening her eyes, she discarded the painfully hot piece of metal remaining in her hand out the window. She exhaled the remainder of her breath in a long sigh, ended only by the dagger that found its way under her ribcage to her calmly-beating heart. The girl's eyes flared as she gave the woman one last kiss, sucking the life out of her with a twist of a dagger and the sinking of tiny fangs into her jugular.