A World Apart: The Chronicles of Delilah Faylinn

The Dark Empress Rises

    Delilah took off her ring and threw it at the disfigured body of her late husband. She was so caught up in what she had just accomplished that she had almost forgotten where she was until one of the elders of the Faylinn family spoke. 

(Faylinn Elder) Surely child, you cannot blame us for the death of your family! We did not know who they were, they were trespassers. You would have done the same if someone threatened your home! 

    Delilah turned to look at them with the most hateful and dreadful look, her eyes even darker than they ever were before. She was almost unrecognizable, and she spoke in the most disturbing and hollow of voices. 

(Delilah) Have you not realized that this is your entire fault in the first place? If you had not disowned my mother and I, all of this would not be happening right now! Are you that stupid and insensitive?! 

(Faylinns) Take what you want and leave this place; surely you have no more reason to be here. You have proved your point, you are indeed powerful, good for you! 

(Delilah) Wow, the arrogance that are you Faylinn! What I want from you Faylinn you are not prepared yet to give me! 

(Faylinn) And what pray tell is that? 

(Delilah) For you to “will” me all of your powers and your families as you kneel before your new queen! 

(Faylinn) What?! We will do no such thing! We don’t care how much power you think you have. You could not possibly think you can take us all on! 

(Delilah) You will “will” me your powers, but first I would like to the coward of a man that is my father and then I would like to take the time to fulfill my mother’s wishes. 

    The Faylinn began to fidget. Delilah’s father was in the room but the family did not want to turn him over. They thought for sure if and when she found out who he was he would be the first to die. 

(Delilah) Well, which one of you is it? I do not have all day! 

    Finally he stepped out and surprisingly enough began to beg for his life. He begged her for forgiveness and told her that his family had made him abandon her and her mother. So she asked him the one question that plagued her for years. 

(Delilah) Did you even love my mother? 

(Father) That’s not a fair question, our marriage was arranged! How could I have loved her, I did not know her! 

(Delilah) Wrong answer, even when death is at your door you are still so arrogant! 

    Delilah lifted him from the floor in her frustration, closed his air passages and watched him suffocate to death. As he dropped to the floor she then walked into the middle of the Faylinn family and carried out her mother’s wish to have the entire Faylinn family kneel before her. Delilah stood as if she had a crown on her head and a robe covering her body, and then she said one simple word… “Kneel!” The entire Faylinn family had no control over their bodies. They all involuntarily knelt before Delilah as they could not understand what was happening to them. They did not understand how she could have this much power and how they could not fight her. 

(Faylinns) How are you doing this? Why can we not fight you? 

(Delilah) What you have failed to realize is even though you disregarded me for not carrying the Faylinn mark, I still however possess Faylinn magic! I am immune to you and my other powers make me stronger than you all! 

    The Faylinn family looked at each other in distress and realized that they have been beaten. Surely if she was capable of bringing them to their knees she would be more than capable of forcing them to say whatever she wanted them to say. It was not like they could fight her off. The least they could do is have control over the last few moments of life they had left. With a look of defeat they then said what Delilah asked of them without further delay…. 

(Faylinn) We all will you our powers. 

    Delilah stood still and absorbed all of the powers of every Faylinn in the Faylinn line and in so doing the Faylinn all died. Delilah turned around and observed all of her surroundings and decided that she did rather like the Faylinn compound and in all honesty it was now hers. Here she was the most powerful being that ever existed and still all alone. Her thrown was established at the cost of hundreds or possibly thousands of dead bodies. As she looked around she thought to herself this will not do, she waved her hand again and all the bodies that were in her presence were turned to dust and carried out of the house by a simple gust of wind. At that moment something within her then switched off. Her appearance went to normal and she blacked out. 

    When Delilah awoke, days had passed but she felt like herself again, she called off all of the killings and riots having called Claude's followers back to her. She simply employed them all as her staff, and protective guards. The original staff of the Faylinn house were allowed to remain since they were not Faylinn as well as non-magical and therefore no threat to her. She also destroyed the barrier between the two worlds and allowed them to co-exist as they pleased in the days that followed. With all that was left of the destruction, the only thing anyone could do was rebuild. Delilah was elected the ruler of both worlds by default as no one stood against her nor did they want to. An official ceremony short lived ceremony had taken place in her honor as she then decreed peace in the lands. Delilah herself had decided to stay secluded and hidden from everyone feeling somehow responsible for everything that took place, let alone her new position. She was distraught at what she had done and could not believe the amount of power she had amassed. When she took those powers from the Faylinn she felt different and stronger. She kept trying to understand how she was able to kill all those people after Claude told her about bringing the Faylinn to her. The very idea of what she had done began to haunt her and she needed answers. 

    After weeks of trying to come to terms with herself and in an attempt to make some sense of what was going on with her, Delilah went to look at herself in a mirror again, but the mirror she had found sitting in the room she had taken up residence in seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. It was not in her room any time before and to the best of her knowledge she knew no one had placed it there. It was a weird looking mirror for it had not matched the décor of the room at all. It had an irregular shape and disfigured wooden faces as the frame of it. It appeared to be extremely old, and the glass had a translucent look about it. It was when she looked into it that she saw something that nearly scared her to death. Looking back at Delilah was something different. It looked exactly like Delilah but darker. The eyes were darker, almost ghostly even. The clothes she had on were not the clothes that appeared in the mirror, these clothes were discolored. They were tattered and torn as if the mirror image was hollow. Delilah could pretty much see through the image looking back at her. Then the image spoke. 

(Image) Hello, Delilah. 

    Delilah covered her mouth and shrieked. She dropped the mirror thinking that it would have smashed into pieces, but the  mirror did not break and the voice inside of it continued to speak to her. 

(Delilah) Who are you? 

(Image) I am you, or a part of you to be politically correct. 

(Delilah) You, are a part of me? 

(Image) Oh yes, I am the part of you that you do not yet understand. I am the part of you that killed all those people and then you tucked away for safe keeping.

(Delilah) So, I did not kill all those people? 

(Image) Yes, you did dearie, did I not just say that I am a part of you? Let me explain something to you… You see, I have always been here. I probably would not have ever been able to come out, if it had not been for your recent use of me lately. 

(Delilah) You have always been here?

(Image) Stop repeating after me, it is annoying. However, I am the “Elemental” Delilah. You are just the host of which I chose to be reborn into. Your mother did her research and realized what you were but she did not know to what extent. I have been present in your family every couple of generations or so it is very hard for anyone to have kept an accurate record of my existence. 

(Delilah) So what does it all mean? 

(Elemental) It means that whenever you were threatened or angry, I began to surface. I kept you alive. I gave you that body you strut around in and gave you the ability to kill all those people as well as your Faylinn counterparts. 

(Delilah) That was you I saw every time I looked in the mirror was it not? 

(Elemental) Yes, child that was I. I was just not yet ready to reveal myself to you. 

(Delilah) So what happens now, the war is over you don’t need to be here anymore! 

(Elemental) That may be true, but don’t you want to learn more about yourself and I?

(Delilah) Not really, I think I have seen enough! 

(Elemental) Well, you do not have much of a choice child. Let us have a chat you and I! 

    A strange force caught Delilah by surprise and began to pull her towards the mirror. She tried to fight it with everything she had. She tossed and she turned but to no avail. She even tried to break and destroy the mirror. Nothing within her powers worked. The image in the mirror just smiled and assured her it was pointless to fight. Within minutes Delilah was now inside of the mirror standing next to the image she was once looking at. 

(Delilah) What is this? What do you want with me? 

(Elemental) Oh dear! You think this is still all about you?! I do not want you, I want what I helped you to achieve! 

(Delilah) Which is what? 

(Elemental) The only thing powerful beings want is to rule and be more powerful! 

(Delilah) I cannot let you do that! 

(Elemental) Why don’t you stay here for a while and watch me!

    The Elemental simply turned away from Delilah and walked right out of the mirror. 

(Elemental) I let you be queen for a day, now it is my turn to play! Do not wait up! 

    Delilah banged as hard as she could to get out of the mirror, as the “Elemental” just watched her and laughed. She then took the mirror and locked it in a nearby closet as Delilah began to scream for help. 

(Elemental) It is useless my dear, you cannot come out unless I let you and I do not see that happening anytime soon. I will let you however be an audience to see all that is to come! They have no idea what is about to become of them! 

(Delilah) What will you do to them? They are innocent! 

(Elemental) Silence girl, you are beginning to annoy me! 

(Delilah) They will realize that you are not me, someone will know something is wrong!

(Elemental) Does it look like I care; I will kill anyone in my way! I have to go my darling; you are beginning to bore me!  

(Delilah) Being that you are not me, what do I call you? 

(Elemental) I go by many names… but you my dear and everyone else on this filthy plane may call me The Dark Empress! How does that sound?! It has a ring to it, does it not? Ta ta, for now!

    Delilah fell to the floor silent of her new prison, realizing that this part of her had indeed always been very present. Every time something had died around her beyond her control it was the Dark Empress. The flower that wilted in her hand was the Dark Empress. The people that she had killed and destroyed without thinking twice about it was the will of the Dark Empress. Everything that did not feel right inside of her was the Dark Empress, and even more disheartening is the realization that everything that had recently taken place had only made her stronger. 

(Dark Empress) Guards I want this group of workers in the fields, and I want the others building my monuments! I will get my new domain in shape if it is the last thing I do! 

    The Dark Empress had now assimilated herself into Amaris as Delilah and was making her way into Edom. She casted an eclipse over the bright sun of Amaris, covering it in total darkness. The darkness yielded a burnt red sky as if the sky had been on fire. She had denounced everyone in her presence into slaves and workers forced to build her empire as she saw fit. As far as she was concerned no one noticed that she was not the same Delilah, if they had noticed they were far too terrified to say anything about it. She had instilled so much fear into everyone around her, that no one dear to even look her in the face without her permission… which was just the way she wanted it. 

    The Dark Empress was soulless and committed to bringing pain and suffering amongst the people of the new world that had not even had a chance to be renamed. One might ask why does she not simply lay waste to everyone in her sight?! The answer is easy! A ruler must have subjects, workers and even slaves right?! Who else is going to do all the hard work! All the Dark Empress wanted was more power and territory. She wanted her power to stretch far beyond what the eye could see. In bringing down the barrier, it made it easier for her to do just that. What she needed to do now was to officially begin her campaign for world domination. Although she could not exactly do that until she was completely free of Delilah, she knew she was still tied to her until she drained all of her magic. After all her physical features were Delilah’s. Her complete appearance as distorted as it was, it still came from Delilah. The power that she currently possessed gave her the ability to control others as she saw fit but it would not last for long because she was not yet whole, the power of fear is the only thing that kept her subjects loyal to her. If they knew the real magnitude of her powers all they would have to do is band together and rise against her. Delilah must die! On one of her frequent visits to drain Delilah she decided to tell her a story. 

(Dark Empress) Hello again, Delilah! 

(Delilah) Dark Empress, it’s not a pleasure to see you. 

(Dark Empress) I do not understand why you continue to hold on this long, you will die you know. 

(Delilah) Because I will get out of this mirror, I just have to figure out a way to do it. 

(Dark Empress) These visits are becoming so tedious and so boring! Just give it up! 

(Delilah) Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with, if you are so powerful… what are you waiting on? 

(Dark Empress) I enjoy watching you suffer, and you cannot get out of this mirror unless I say so! 

(Delilah) I think there is something else going on here, what is it? 

(Dark Empress) Well don’t you sound concerned, how about I tell you a story? 

(Delilah) What kind of story?

(Dark Empress) How about I let you be the judge?

(Delilah) Do I have a choice?

(Dark Empress) Mind your tongue and listen! I used to be a queen. In every sense of the word, I was powerful. I had servants and complete dominion over my people, much as I do now. I was hated by all who came to know me and feared by everyone who knew me. I had no sympathy for the weak and executed anyone who stood against me. Eventually my advisors and council chose to dispose of me after they found out that I had my husband murdered, because I always intended to rule my kingdom alone. They absolutely hated that a woman had that much power over the lives of men. Much to my demise, I was slain in my slumber and next thing I knew I was in a dark and empty room being asked by a voice what it was that I wanted. I answered, that I wanted revenge for my death and to continue my reign as queen. After meeting with the voice, I was given my assignment and inserted on this dreadful planet. At first I was unsure what is was exactly that they wanted me to do until it became very clear that I was being given a second chance at the life I once lived. So I did what came naturally to me. I conspired and I plotted. I had a plethora of years to learn my gifts and how to use them and as I have already told you before, that I unlike you useless creatures have always been here in one form or another. For every war that has ever came to be, I have been there since its inception. I have been working on this world for ages. I am the thought and the whisper in the ears and minds of many men that have caused them to think that they are more powerful than another and the force that induces them to rebel and generate chaos. It takes however a very long time to find a viable person who can develop enough power to follow my plans completely. Not every person that I chose was willing to do the complete work, and some were killed off before they could ever aspire to anything. 

(Delilah) So you were behind Mr. Radagast? 

(Dark Empress) Not only was I behind it but I led him to you! 

(Delilah) What? 

(Dark Empress) I can see the look of astonishment on your face! Are you beginning to realize how long I have been here? 

(Delilah) My mother told me that Elementals exist only in our line. Were you here for the first war, the one that split our world apart? 

(Dark Empress) You fool, I choose my hosts. Your family might have been the only ones who were sensitive enough to external forces to notice I existed and documented it. I was here long before that war! It took generations just to make that one happen! All that planning I did, what a waste!

(Delilah) You caused that war?! 

(Dark Empress) Please try to keep up child and let me finish my story, than maybe you will understand how powerful I truly am! The mind is a powerful thing to waste. I am what you people know as a dark spirit and I cannot take form without a host, and this world is my territory! 

(Delilah) Why do you keep saying that?! Wait a minute are there more of you? 

(Dark Empress) Not only are there more of me, there are different kinds and different worlds that exist other than this one! Did you honestly think “this” was the only one? How pathetic! Every world has an assigned "Elemental" and every assignment is different. My assignment is to bring nothing but chaos, misery and death. The energy of which is what we feed off of, and with which we all gain our strength! This world is merely my assignment and if I do not complete it, I cannot ascend to… 

(Delilah) Ascend to what?

(Dark Empress) Forget it! I have told you all that you need to know just know that you cannot defeat me!

    Delilah had a look of worry on her face as she sat down to take in all that she had learned. She thought to herself about the influences beyond her world and the powers that controlled the Dark Empress. The Dark Empress had taken all she could for that night and left Delilah to sit in her silence and misery. In her head she felt like she accomplished what she set out to do, which was to make Delilah feel defeated and make her feel like her fate was inevitable. You see, what the Dark Empress does not want Delilah to realize is that she needed her to give up willingly just like any magical being. She could not just simply kill her. Killing Delilah would literally be killing herself since they were technically two parts to the same whole. Being that she had finally gotten this far in her mission, this was literally her last chance. She had never made it to becoming a physical being apart from her host prior to now. The "Elemental" had to be careful not to fail this time or there would be dire consequences. She knew she would never get this chance again, especially now that she has come so close. To have to start over now would be insanity! The Dark Empress went back to her work of spreading as much devastation as possible. With each person killed or enslaved it made her stronger and she was still attempting to establish her empire. As much as she would like to, she could not have everyone killed off. After all once she became a whole being everything would already be in place so that she could rule without delay and eventually exact her revenge on the world that she lost. 

    The Dark Empress had plans that spanned far beyond the world that she currently existed on. What she omitted from the story that she told Delilah is that she had a chance to ascend back to her former being if she successfully completed her assignment. It was to be her reward for the chaos and death she wrought. Day after day, more people were enslaved as even more died and chaos continued to spread throughout. Those who the Dark Empress deemed useful and important to her cause became members of her royal court. Those who refused her were forced to give up their powers and burned on the ground on which they fell. The Dark Empress was quite pleased with herself, there was no way that she could be stopped now! She believed herself to be too powerful for anyone to be able to stand against her. She struck fear in the hearts of her foes, even her royal court were terrified of her. They just wanted to be kept alive. 

    One day while the Dark Empress was making her rounds something happened to her that she had not experienced in thousands of years. She had mysteriously ended up back in the dark room where she had first heard that mysterious voice. She looked around in bewilderment and could not help to think that she had possibly done something wrong or had been murdered again. Much to her surprise the voice began to speak. 

(Voices) We are very pleased with you and your efforts, you should be very proud of yourself. 

(Dark Empress) Thank you, I have been working very hard as you can probably tell. 

(Voices) Oh yes, we can see that but why have you not be able to separate from your host? Surely, you are strong enough now! 

(Dark Empress) Delilah is merely holding on to the hope that she will survive this, it will not be too much longer! 

(Voices) It had better not be or you will not ascend! We will return you to the grave where you belong. We have watched you try and fail too many times. We have only allowed you to continue because even with your failures we still get what we need. This has been your finest attempt and we believe it to be your last. You will never get this far again, and we have run out of patience!

(Dark Empress) I understand, but when you say we, who exactly are you? 

(Voices) We are called the "Elders" and we are beyond your reach or understanding. We watch over and govern many realms as we see fit. 

(Dark Empress) The energy from these realms though, is what you need to survive though is it not? Is that why you dispatch Elementals to do your bidding? 

(Voices) Do not ask questions to which you could not possibly fathom its meaning or understanding! Remember, this is your last chance…. 

    With that being their final words, the Dark Empress was immediately returned to her present reality but was left feeling a little dazed, terrified and confused. She had just received confirmation of what she had already begun to realize. This was indeed her last chance, and she was losing her patience with Delilah.