Chapter 31: That evening, Andromeda became Blood Moon
The carriage advanced slowly through the silence of the tundra. Inside the cabin, the atmosphere was saturated with a growing chill. Daemon was seated against the wall, his gaze lost behind the window. Beside him, there was only Luna, because the stewardess Mallory had already gone ahead to make sure the domain was cleaned and ready to receive them, leaving the two young people alone with their thoughts.
As they progressed northward, the temperature dropped and soon the first snowflakes began to fall. They were now approaching the Winter Domain of the Dagon family.
"It has been almost ten years... since I last came here... But nothing has really changed much." he murmured while observing a group of commoners walking along the road, carrying pieces of wood. They were probably looking for something to warm themselves to face the freezing nights.
The social classes had remained almost unchanged since the medieval era to the Renaissance. Indeed, even if the Imperial family had lost part of its centralizing power, the nobility retained a grip on the territories. Duke, count, viscount... all ruled lands of the Eastern Empire.
However, this balance also rested on the clans. More or less powerful depending on their antiquity and their mastery of the Senses, they ruled domains similar to autonomous kingdoms divided into dozens of districts. If the clans maintained a diplomatic and friendly relationship with the imperial crown, a tension always remained palpable in the background. The two parties, the imperial court and the clans, strove to maintain a fragile status quo to avoid plunging the world into a tragedy similar to the Armageddon.
"No matter the era... The life of people with humble births is always hard..." murmured Daemon to himself.
"Tss... they should consider themselves lucky to at least have freedom..." retorted Luna.
Daemon turned his head toward her, surprised by the bitterness in her voice.
"Hm? What do you mean?" He asked, intrigued.
"Even on the ground, you will find someone lower than the ground. Even if they are commoners, it is much better than being slaves..."
"From the way you speak, one would think there still were some... Slavery was abolished centuries ago."
Luna shook her head.
"You who were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you should shut up when you do not know something."
"No need to be odious, Master..." replied Daemon, stung by her insolence. "Anyway, all those who practiced this ignoble act deserve to die in the worst possible way."
"I am not even surprised... You really have the appearance of your ideas," she replied with disdain.
"Anyway, it does not matter," he said, casting her a glance.
Luna still seemed annoyed. They remained like that without speaking for a few minutes, finally she broke the silence.
"So, for you, there is no redemption for a people who have done bad actions?" she asked.
"Not all misdeeds are equal... There is stealing a few coins and reducing other humans to movable goods."
"The Yak tribe..." she began.
"What about the Yak tribe?"
Luna took a long breath before continuing.
"The Yak tribe fled the No Man’s Land, they had been hunted for generations by bloodthirsty predators. They eventually found refuge in an arid desert of Hundun. But the soil yielded nothing, and water was cruelly lacking. They were destined to see their lineage disappear."
She marked a short pause.
"Unless they accepted the proposal of the nobility of the Eastern Empire."
Daemon listened without interrupting her.
"So," she continued, clenching her fists on her knees, "the Yak tribe reduced its weakest members to slavery and sold them to nobles."
She finally raised her eyes toward him.
"And you... You were part of this..."
...
*Six years earlier*
*Yak Tribe Territory*
POV: Luna
The heat of the desert was not a burden for my people, because we were born to survive where others perished in a few days. It was not the aridity of the climate that weighed on my conscience, but the darkness of my father’s activities.
As the future chief of the Yak tribe, he kept repeating to me that one day I would have to take his place. His vision of the future consisted of buying back the debts of people too poor to pay their obligations, then reselling them like simple merchandise.
Slaves, servants or even prostitutes... it did not matter the use, as long as it allowed us to have something to eat in this merciless desert. I found it a cruelty without name, but I was still very naive at the time. To escape this reality, I preferred to slip away to the surroundings... Just a rebellious teenager. And that is what happened that day...
The day of the largest clan delegation that was coming to our tribe.
I had settled on a small mound of earth, enjoying the last rays of the setting sun. I was quietly nibbling on cookies I had brought with me.
’I should have been there to greet these clan people... My father is really going to be angry...’
I let out a long sigh. With a supple movement, I jumped from my mound to head back. I walked for several minutes as night fell over the desert. The silence that reigned was strange. In the distance, I began to see the lights of my tribe’s base when suddenly...
*BOOM*
A deafening explosion tore through the sky. The shock wave was of such power that it violently threw me, making me lose consciousness.
When I finally opened my eyes... Black smoke rose toward the heavens and the acrid smell of burnt flesh assaulted my nostrils. I stood up staggering, my legs trembling. Before me, the city was totally destroyed, devoured by voracious flames.
"But... What the!"
But the most terrible thing was the ground. It was strewn with multiple lifeless bodies, torn apart by the power of the blast. I walked with a dazed air in the middle of an indescribable carnage. Severed limbs lay here and there.
"What is happening?"
Blood soaked the sand. I saw a man whose emptied intestines were spreading on the ground. Tears flowed down my cheeks as I realized the extent of the massacre.
"Was it the clans who did this?" I murmured, my voice broken by horror.
I continued my progression, avoiding the debris and human remains, when I spotted a familiar silhouette in the middle of the flames. It was my mother. She lay on the ground, in a pool of scarlet blood. The explosion had been merciless: she no longer had her lower limbs.
"MOTHER!!!"
I rushed to her side, collapsing in the bloody dust to take her head between my hands.
"Ah... My daughter..." She coughed violently, spitting out a mixture of saliva and blood. "In the end... you were right."
"Mother, I... I am sorry... Mother, do not leave me!"
Her ruby eyes clouded with tears as she struggled to breathe.
"Your parents were vile people... we deserved the wrath of the heavens for our acts... But you... you who always fled the actions of the tribe... I hope you will have the chance to..."
"Mother! Who did this to you! It was the clans, wasn’t it!!?" I cried.
"It does not matter... we deserve what is happening to us..."
She slowly closed her eyes.
"Mother!!!"
I screamed my pain, crying all the tears of my body for what seemed like hours over her mutilated corpse. Silence had returned, disturbed only by the crackling of the flames, when I suddenly heard footsteps behind me.
I turned around abruptly, my face streaked with dust and blood.
"Who... Who are you?"
A figure was entirely hidden under a long flared hooded cloak that concealed its identity.
"What a poor little thing... Pathetic..." The androgynous voice was devoid of any emotion.
"Who are you!?" I picked up a piece of wood from the ground, trying to defend myself.
"You are weak... Your entire family was massacred without you being able to do anything."
I clenched my teeth, anger gradually replacing sadness. "What do you want from me?"
The silhouette turned on its heels.
"Wait!" I cried, taking a step toward it.
It did not turn around.
"You are someone powerful, aren’t you?"
I ran to face it, placing myself in its path. I knew this was my only chance not to die alone in these ruins.
"Can you help me stop being weak! I... I want to be strong enough... can you help me!"
The silhouette stopped.
"And what would you bring me in exchange?"
"Anything! I am ready for anything if you help me get revenge!"
Without a word, it extended a hand. It wore a long immaculate white glove. It placed its palm directly on my sternum. I suddenly felt an intense heat infiltrate my own energy center.
"I can help you stop being weak," it finally said. "But in exchange... I need you to promise to kill someone."
"I will do anything you want..."
"You will have to kill the Midnight Star."
"Who?"
"You will know when you are powerful enough... Follow me."
That evening, Andromeda became Blood Moon.
...