Arcane

The night of the hunt was fast approaching, and Aseera knew that the call would be coming to her door shortly to take to the streets. It was that or cower in fear behind closed doors, knowing that she would only have so much time before the bolts were broken, her safeties unmade, and her life taken from her. If she was going to die, she would much rather die hunting than cowering in fear.

But she also knew that she was not strong. She was quite weak, in fact, barely able to swing a weapon worth using, nor did she have any skill with which she might have learned to strike accurately to take out foes without having the strength to fight them with brute force. She was in no way a fighter. She wasn't even much of a thinker. For much of her life, she had gotten by on her looks. She had never been proud of that fact, but she was aware that many people whom had helped to push her forward in life had done so because of her looks. But being beautiful was not going to help her against the swarms of the lifeless and decrepit.

So she had chosen another path. A path of misunderstood, misused, and mistrusted power. A path of magic and wisdom that could only be gained through those who had come before, and left behind for the taking. She would have to embrace a darkness that had so long been told to her that she must never take. But with the hunt approaching, what other choice did she have? She would have to follow in the footsteps of the old and great ones who had come before her, regardless of what anyone around her thought.

And she knew exactly who to talk to about doing that. The local doctor knew of those who had come with magic before her, and how to find them. And when Aseera went to talk to this doctor, she was told of them, and what she would have to do to join in their ranks.

So she laid on the table, and allowed the clamp to be placed on her eye. She was injected first with pain killers - a dozen different kinds that filled her body with numbness and paralyzed her. But still she could see. And she watched as the knife was slashed across her eye, splitting it wide open, though she felt nothing. She watched as a strand of what she could only describe as light was pushed into her, and in her mind's eye, she saw the truth of the world before. She was filled with the insight of those who had come before - it overwhelmed her, and she passed out.

When she awoke, she was alone. And the night of the hunt had already begun.