Once upon a time, there was a young maiden who lived amongst the winding trees of Gloriana, the Southern Forest. It was here for the maiden that she everywhere she went the light of the sun danced, and summer blazed effortlessly into the verdant gleam of many a spring. The rivers rose and fell with lush clean waters, where all naiads would race through rivulets of swaying tides as they played with the passing fae working through their tahravi to the forest on each new day. It was a joyous place, a place where the enchantments of Nature held such wild sway that even the dwellers of stone earth and trees feared to walk. The harmony of it was vast, and beloved of the Northern Forests, where even the fae of the Great Spirits conversed of their secrets, combining their powers to fill the air with the thrums of power. Even the maiden knew of the secrets, for it was her that delighted and created such beauty, but she had always doted upon the Gloriana and the wise spirit of Brother Raven. So many of these things were precious to her, and how sweet was this love deep within her heart, knowing that she could not for one moment part with it.

Even her brother, like a shadow, came to entreat in this creation and magnificence that she had wrought alongside swift, wise Raven. With his swords, and his great beasts that gnash, and creep upon their prey, he had often found alongside her that the hunting was good, and each animal that was laid to waste had an amusing, and slow death. The maiden whose beauty unmatched loved her brother, despite the cruelty of his actions, it was a bond that was not easily broken between them.

One day in particular as they had been scouring the edges of the forest, the maiden had stopped following her brother’s endless seeking for prey and decided to find an activity more interesting to do.  But, she stopped, and with found a gasp upon her throat as her eyes turned to see the very edge of the forest. The maiden brushed her hair back over her small ears as a sigh seeped from her lips - She had forgotten that the forest indeed had an end, the foul roads intercepting what could be an endless preserve of beauty, light and fortitude.

And in this thought, all things fell away, as something upon the mantle of civilization shimmered within the foliage on the wayside. Ah, what could this be? This silver gilded thing through leaves and bracken – It shone cold, not like the sun. Its briefest vision tempered with the sapphire of cool, spring waters. The maiden became tempted to investigate, as was her modus to do so. But even as her bare feet met the lifeless dust of the road, where nothing grew, she could hear the protest of the Spirits, urging her to relent and return to the mere edge where life met nothingness. Even the Raven held onto a scrap of warbling song, that whispered upon the trees like a babbling brook of fluttering feathers against her skin:

Hear us now, sweet Viravain
Cast thy gaze to the summer rain
Where all things flourish, with thorn and briar
That blossom and thrive in nature’s spire
Do not travel the dusty earth
Return to us, and not walk its berth

The trees groaned in mass accord, their luscious branches striving to pull the maiden backwards into the clutch of the forest. But she protested, and said most firmly as her nose wrinkled with stubbornness:

"Come, Raven, friend of mine, wouldst thou not wish the forest to expand and grow?"

With this, the Spirit fell silent, his song now spent as the maiden turned once more to the speckles of lifeless earth before her slender toes. But it was her eyes that were fixed so perfectly upon the hidden trinket, there just by the crossroads, how pretty in shined, the glistening little thing. The maiden was sure that it could be of some use to the forest, and that perhaps justified this forbidden outing. Her smile tentative, and back straight, she placed her first step upon the road. To her surprise, the sun had warmed this cobbled, worn stone, and she found the dust welcoming the touch, the strangeness of it different from the forest’s guardianship over her. Digging her feet into the ground, she marched alongside the road cautiously, glancing this way and that as she quickly retrieved the long, oblong object from the bush with great care. Wrapping it in the layers of her dress, and not taking much time to glance at the glitter and gleam of it as it warped her reflection as she took the time to conceal it.

Fleeing from the spot where it lay, she turned to gaze at the edge of the forest and felt within the warmth of its embrace a welcome to return, where she returned to the Great Tree, who was the centre of the Southern Forest’s power, beauty and might. Many fae welcomed her upon her entrance, with bows, gentle smiles, and ringing words of the blessings of their kind. But she was too incensed as she wandered to her own place beside the river of Gloriana. Companion Raven floated to her side, his talons brushing against her shoulder, for was his regular perch and respite as she sat upon the bank of sparkling waters. Unfolding her dress quickly, she clasped the silver-thing in her delicate hands, lifting it up to the light of the radiant Father Sun.

And there, she saw her own eyes staring back at her, squinting through sunshine, her lips curled back in puzzlement. How surprising this was for her, she had known that she was beautiful, for the fae had often spoken so…But truly, was this her own image? Turning it this way and that, she found herself dazzled by its faint sapphire glow, the handle of the mirror casting prismatic whorls upon her skin through the etched pentagram above the dusty glass. Her smile grew as she assessed the lines of her cheeks, the smudge of mossy on her nose, the long ropes of braided flowers amongst her tresses of gold. What a dewy little fae she looked, betwixt the dirt and wild array of flora. She found herself bewitched at the sight, as in the corner of her vision through her reflection an outline passed across the forest, downing her glowing magnificence in darkness.

Spires of obsidian plumes burst from the heavens in a violent twisting around the burst of cerulean flame, making the maiden whirl around in fright. The thick stink of the fumes rose high above the great height of the mighty trees, surprising their thrashing to aid the one locked within the blackened crevice of smoke. Slinking to wreathe across the wide trunks, all was silenced, even the calling of the birds as a great stillness hushed the earth. Viravain, at first, did not feel the fear, but she felt the great forest shrinking within her vision – The air and life beneath her feet shriveling into oily decay that stained the bottoms of her bare feet. Disgust writhing in her heart, she threw up her arms to shield herself from the last stink as it blew across her with a strangely cloying odor, reminiscent of brimstone and oils of anointing.

    As such began to clear just enough for her vision to pass a few feet, her gaze lifted toward each layer slowly dissipating, and with dread, the light of something beyond made her tremble at the shoulders. Within an arm’s length, there materialized within the host of licking flames was the one known as the Forbidden, shrouded by pentacle etchings within the motes of heat and smoke rising from his form. Alone within the cavern of smoke, the maiden’s own beauty seemed to shine from inside her own form, as golden light kept most at bay.  Most of his features were obscured, and unawaken’d within such illumination that Viravain found it difficult to understand if the form he had taken actually held mortal likeness. And thus, a conversation took place, and it sounded similar to this transcription:

 “Thou art more radiant each day thy forest flourishes,” he began, his intonation dark and laden with amusement as the greeting was enough to irritate most sensibilities.

“To an end, cousin – I thank thee, regardless” she remarks, her voice sharp amongst the tainted air, “But I am more curious to thy presence here within my realm. Thou wilt explain, I entreat.”

A faint twist of lips can be seen in a flicker of flame as a great flash of laurels circle the silhouette of the tall, masculine figure.

“Dear child, dear child, I come passively to assist thee,” he fawns, the tenderness in his voice nearly mocking. The flames contort in a thrum of endless twisting motion, seemingly dancing amongst the faint, masculine outline.

“Surely, not for –my- gain, I have all that I could want,” she utters with twist of her hunter’s bow lips, remaining cautiously within her aura of unbridled light not stepping without it as she feels the flames prowl higher around her limited frame. In that moment, she is hesitant to believe, that such a figure would come in peace for He was often using his cousins as playthings.

“Thou hast all one could desire in this world? How boring a notion, my child, that thee should contemplate that this world is enough for any of Us,” he responds, the voice at once containing a subtle twinge of amusement as his bearings inched closer and closer to the maiden’s ever-shrinking protections.

But standing fast, she nodded bravely, and glancing through the smoke with her beliefs within her own heart she could see the trees as they were, without Raezon’s blackened vision.  Her anger grew, but her voice did not, its timbre remaining dangerously soft enough like the wings of the fae.

“Aye,” she announced, her chin jutting forward, “Nothing, I require, for all is within my home, my Realm, and thou art no longer welcome, if thou must intrude with such pretentiousness!”

All at once the searing heat of the flames struck the aura surrounding Viravain, parting it with a shudder of meshing powers contesting for dominance. Through brief struggling, and a waging of arcana, it was the light of the maiden that unfortunately, did not prevail. In shock, for never having been challenged in such a manner before, she stood in stillness, her eyes wide as the faintest sounds of cloying machinery resounded in her ears. The world whirled and tilted upwards around her, and she found herself shutting her eyes as the softest of crackling laughter cast shivers down her spine, and her marrow to freeze as a fluttering touch caressed her cheek.

“Little woodling, beauty of the beasts here, thou shalt know the reason for my presence soon enough. Why, clasped in thy hands, is my own token gift to thee," the tendrils of flame proclaimed, the wearing of patience thinning in the already dark voice. The maiden stood astounded, her eyes widening slightly at this announcement of new information that she did not know what to make of. Given that she is caught within a web of flames, she managed to retort,  "Only a mirror?" She quipped, as the grip upon her chin lessened.

"Why yes, it is infused with an arcane I have been striving to re-discover over these years. I would have thee assist, considering that it may come to be of great importance to thy Realm and all that thee possesses in the material and immaterial.”

The quake of flames heat warmed against her maiden’s cheek, as the sizzle within of the harsh voice tenders once more with immense patience, “Again, it is a gift, shall we gaze in it together? Surely, you must wish to see how it functions, how it attracts to thy beauteous lines as well as natural knowledge.”

Withdrawing, as if with disgust, she states, “Go now, I must speak with my Brother, He shall be wondering where I am.”

But she knew even before her words, that he had gone, taking the sickness of societies burdens with him to reveal the clean air of the trees. Staring emptily as her heart pounded to slow with the rhythm of the river, she saw Brother Raven fly overhead. Her ears filled with his warning cry warbling through the shrieking leaves as the wind grated through to mark the approach of a dark storm.