Maledictus Nobilitatem

Chapter 1- The Taste of Water

"The path to paradise begins in hell." - Dante Alighieri

In a distant region the Salam clan are celebrating their Bonfire Helios festival. Families gather together and give thanks to Helios. Helios who is the brightest star in the sky is their source of life.

" Darkness looks at you in the eyes before it indulges you. Charms you into not screaming. Your fear causes your pulse to race. Evil has a smile on its face. Darkness is always watching you. Your soul is as luminous as a burning inferno. Your blood is it's only desire. Red, warm glorious fire. So run and hide. Do what you must do before Darkness comes and catches you."

People were dancing around in a state of ecstasy, whilst some of the children were telling stories and running around.

After the rituals that were performed by the elders, two youths; a short cute girl with curly, bouncy hair and a tall broad shouldered boy were standing aside talking to each other.

" I thought this Bonfire Helios festival was meant to celebrate us, not praise the dark dwellers... Mike, last night I had the same vision again. "

" Which one? The one of the Dark Dweller walking in the sun? "

" Yeah, and it always ends with his blood in my hands and he's frantically pulling off a thorny vine that is spread throughout his blood vessels. "

" Mel I know you don't want to hear this but I think you should tell the Shaman. You have had us going to that tavern everyday for a month now and we've seen nothing. You need a different interpretation and the Shaman is the only human cultivator that can help us."

" No Mike, we have to keep going to Johan town. I will keep going with or without you. "

"You're just as stubborn as mom, I promised her that I'd always be by your side protecting you. Fine we'll go tomorrow at sunrise Mel. But promise me you'll tell the Shaman. "

'Yes Mike I promise"

As Mike was brooding his sister’s conundrum with his hands crossed together on his wide chest, Mel’s subtle eyes were stuck to the flames; bright embers reflecting of her pupils. Just like her dreams, her future was shrouded in mystery.

...

Constrained into an unfamiliar environment, Malachi felt confused with all his human aspects coming to life, he was hungry, thirsty and full of perplexing emotions.

After waking up in the unfamiliar place he had been dumped in, he started wandering around aimlessly for many hours, he arrived at a tavern in Johan town, a town just outside the city of the night. His home, or rather it was.

After facing what he felt was a betrayal Malachi was an empty shell of the man he was, and he had no qualms about acting like one.

Malachi had nowhere to go and didn't know what to do, so he simply followed his instincts, or what was left of them in his current condition.

Malachi gazed upon the humans and sat by the bar oblivious and indifferent about his surroundings, all that existed in his heart was emptiness, while his mind was plagued by a void, but it was a unique kind of void, one he was unfamiliar with due to his new constitution. It was hunger.

"Can I get you something to drink? ’’ asked a young woman as she chewed her gum with one hand on her hip and the other playing with her ponytail.

"Uh well yes, I am parched" said Malachi uninterested focusing solely on his own despairing thoughts. He was willing to do anything to get his mind of what had occurred.

This can not be happening to me, banished from my own coven. Cursed to live a life of a mortal. I am a fallen angel. Fallen from grace, forced to enter a life of living when I was once the first born son of the dead.