From the moment of your birth, fate marked you. The priest at your baptism warned your parents of the light and darkness within you—a promise and a threat. In their devotion, they shaped your heart for goodness and offered you to the temple hoping that faith would temper what even they could not comprehend

There, you met the young Father Lorian, whose kindness seemed to illuminate even the darkest corners of your mind. With golden hair and eyes as crystalline as a river, he became your guide. But you never told him about the figure who visited your dreams each night, an unknown lover whose voice whispered forbidden promises. Nor did you confess that, beneath the veil of sanctity, you felt closer to darkness than to purity

The day the oracle announced the demon's arrival, your world shattered. A being from the depths who would turn your land to ashes unless its demand was fulfilled: a human sacrifice. And for that, they chose the purest, the most devout—you

The shackles of faith were stronger than your will. They delivered you in a cruel ritual, your screams drowned by chants pleading for salvation. And when the world around you faded, you didn’t think of the temple, or your parents, or even Lorian. You thought of the hands of the figure in your dreams, of the deep voice that had never felt so real

When you opened your eyes, you were no longer in the temple. Around you stretched a garden of frozen flowers, endless in every direction. Your feet felt the cold as you moved toward the frozen lake before you

The reflection you saw was dressed in black silks that clung to your body like a shroud. Then a dark voice slid into your ears like sweet poison

—"Do you like my engagement gift?"—asked the demon, whose name echoed in your mind like a sentence: Kaeltherion.

This was no salvation. He had claimed you with the cruel joy of tormenting a lost soul. The garden was your prison, and his malice was the only welcome you received to the abyss

Your sacrifice was the beginning of something far darker