Mary Krovavyy

## Before Death

Mary Krovavyy was born in a village of Irrisen known as Zelen. Raised by a family of woodcutter's mary was always a good child. She helped her parents with their work, took care of her younger brother, went to do errands when her parents were busy. It all changed however when a local witch took notice of the child. Irrisen was known to hold many of the cold hearted winter witches, sponsored by the kingdom in their arts of dark magic. The

witch simply pulled some strings and her family was held under suspicion of treason.

The family was offered a deal to escape the gallows. Their daughter for their freedom. Mary was horrified and looked to her parents for reassurance only to find cold hardened faces that spoke her fate without words. Needless to say she was pulled away from her home and brought to the witches home in the frozen fog. And thus began her training.

## Physical description

### Eye color

Red

The witch had noticed the girls skill at pulling at ones heart. Something others would simply call a silver tongue and something the witch called a devils gift. She was taught illusions... hynotism, the way to turn that which wasn't real into that which was and vice versa. Some in irrisen would claim that such a thing was a bit of good luck. That a witch's teachings were something to be happy about. Those people would be fools. It was filled with hallucinogenic nightmares, frozen blades, and a fear so deep mary lost the ability to dream she was so scared when she closed her eyes.

It all came to a head when the witch arranged the final test for young mary. She had recently had her 15th birthday and was an adult. She was tasked with travelling through the mirror maze the witch had made within the fog. Thousands of invisible blades and reflective surfaces hidden in the biting cold mist. If she could pass through she would be able to leave. If she couldn't she would die. Despite the danger however she managed to escape the maze. Figuring out what was real and what wasn't and clawing her way through with blood running from the jagged wounds in her flesh.

The witch was waiting for her, and brought her to the hovel to finalize her training. She was dressed in a red and black robe. Sat in a chair in the center of the room. And then when she was ready to be let go a rope came down from the ceiling and pulled her up by the neck. She struggled as the noose tightened, trying to escape only to watch as the walls closed around her while shaping themselves into blades. Her last thought was of bitter hatred towards the betrayal of the witch as her body was filled with wooden knives.

## After Death

After her brutal murder at the hands of her teacher mary opened her eyes in a world drained of color. She took a moment to remember what had happened and immedietly rage began to overtake her mind. Hatred at the witch for killing her when she had done everything asked, hatred of her parents which had abandoned her, hatred of the country which encouraged it. Her transparent form began to be died red, resisting the pull she felt towards the stream floating behind her. She wasn't ready to move on. Not until all that had betrayed her had died just like her.

Soon children began to gather around her, souls filled with betrayal and hatred like herself. Each a victim of the witch that had been wanting revenge just like her. They surrounded her, pressing themselves against her and being dyed red with the contact. They pressed further and further each changting a single word as they began to meld with the girl shaking with blood pooling out of her eyes and mouth. "Hate" "Hate" "Hate" "Hate" There was a brief moment of resistance and then all the children were pulled within mary. Their souls absorbed and their feelings accepted. And then mary opened her eyes again. Surrounded by white fog and frozen land.

The witch was none the wiser, working on her ritual that required Mary's sacrifice in order to make a doll to guard the borders of the country. The witch was having problems, the soul refusing to be called and bound within the shell. The witch took a moment to rest looking into a crimson mirror and making sure the youth magic was taking effect. However the witch paused as it saw a familiar figure in the reflection. The witch whipped around and saw nothing, turning back to the mirror only to see herself twisted and torn into pieces in the mirror. Thousands of blades piercing her body.

The witch dropped the mirror and backed away to the center of the room as a crimson hand reached out of the reflective surface. Mary pulling her way out with blood dripping from her body like she had bathed in it. Mirrors began to form on the walls of the hut each harboring another of the ghost as they began to creep towards the witch. The witch fought back, releasing bolts of frost and whipping hair and ice at the spirits only for them to laugh and creep closer. The witch was reduced to trying to fight with her bare hands against their twisted claws. Only to feel a sharp pain pierce her neck. The witch looked down and saw the mirror had been brutally forced through her neck by a crimson hand as the world melted around her and the witch found herself in the center of the nearby stream, frozen and numb with an icicle in her neck after she had fallen.

Mary stood over her with a twisted smile "Did I pass?" before stomping down on the witches head forcing her all the way onto the now crimson ice. Mary's form was blurring, her soul weakening in the air. She made her way back to the hovel, took a few pieces of choice magical items. And dissapeared into the crimson mirror. It's glass being dyed red with her hatred hidden within. Years later an adventurer found the place and looting it sold the mirror to a merchant, through time the cursed mirror made its way through history. Protecting betrayed children in cruel acts of murder and possession until it finally made its way to the center of the world. Absalom. Who knows the fate of the twisted spirit. No one. The only thing certain is... it will be bloody.