Prologue

Waotakni was losing his patience. For so long, he waited in the forever darkness, trapped by Chevuma, son of that annoying She-Devil Shimanna. Stripped of his power and left to rot in his cold prison, all he could do was bide his time. Slowly, his power returned to him, but it wasn't fast enough. He lusted for the day he would break free and avenge himself.

It took many years, but cracks finally formed in the walls of his prison. He could reach out and touch the minds of weak mortals. He whispered in their dreams, promising them riches and power. He molded them into his perfect minions. From the shadows, he watched his minions as they worked so hard to make him a god once more.

Somewhere outside his cold prison, a war raged. His latest group of followers had done their duty. The terror they sowed strengthened him. Each death committed in his name fed him. The blood spilled to honor him forced the cracks to widen.

It was glorious!

Waotakni eagerly moved to peer out into the real world, needing to see the carnage for himself. He could see the real world through mirrors, and he longed to see the blood and death that his followers would bring. To his disappointment, he found himself looking through a full-length mirror into an empty meeting room.

The room was on a space ship. The opposite wall had a large window from which he could see the stars and a planet. Waotakni smiled, recognizing the burning red world of Firouzi. His influence had far surpassed Shimanna's greedy grip and invaded the territory of the fire god, Nabotau. There was no way that the weak flaming fool could ever stop Waotakni when he re-entered the world. This was more promising then he had hoped.

Just then, the door slid open and two people ran in. The first was an older man, dressed in ceremonious robes and wearing the large golden symbol of Nabotau around his neck. After he entered the room, he sheathed his energy blade and started searching for something.

However, Waotakni's attention was drawn to the second person. If the Lord of Shadows and Nightmares had a heart, his would have stopped. This was not what he had been expecting.

The mortal girl was lovely for a human. Dressed in a bright red wedding gown with her black hair piled up on her head and decorated with diamonds. Her face veil was hanging off one ear and Waotakni found his gaze transfixed on the blood that stained her lips red. When she moved, it was with the subtle grace of a warrior. Things must have changed greatly since he was imprisoned.

It wasn't her beauty that attracted Waotakni. She was beautiful, he had to admit that, but there was more. He had no use for a mortal woman anyway. No, it was what he saw on her soul that so captivated him.

Nabotau had marked her. His trespass on the fire god's territory was not as stealthy as he had thought. This girl had been marked as a champion, one who would feel the call should Waotakni ever escape.

“My, my, Nabotau. Seems like you've grown up,” he muttered, watching the girl grab a heavy statue from a table and smash the panel by the door. He would never have thought that the male chauvinist fire god would ever pick a woman champion. This certainly made things interesting. It also made Waotakni wonder if the other deities had selected champions in case of his return.

He knew that he should kill her. She was a possible threat, someone who might stand in his way of resurrection. And yet, he found himself more curious by her. Why would the fire god pick a female to be his champion? What power did this mortal woman possess? How important was she to Nabotau?

Waotakni smiled as a plan formed in his dark mind. He would have a use for her, one that amused him greatly. Oh, yes, she would do nicely.
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Amunet Kangwenga snatched the heavy statue of the great Nabotau from the side table and used it to smash in the control panel. Sparks shot out, singeing her dress and arms. Breathing heavily, she let the statue fall from her fingers and vaguely heard it thud on the metal floor. Never in her life had she felt so drained.

It was her wedding day. The daughter of a lesser baron, and she had been picked among hundreds to be the wife of Senator Eamonn Phadden and create a merger between the planet of Firouzi and the United Empire. She had not been pleased with her husband-to-be, but she was ready to do her duty. Whatever her father had promised their king had been enough to push her name ahead of the Archduchess. She did not plan on letting him down.

Everything was ruined. Black-clothed pirates invaded the ship and were killing everyone. A few escape pods had been deployed, but it was not enough. There were more people then pods. By now, the decks were red with blood.

“I think this will hold,” she said, leaning against the broken door. “Without the panel on this side, it should be locked.”

“Wonderful,” her father said as he ran his hands around the wall. “That should buy us some time.”

“Time for what? We're trapped. If we leave this room, they'll kill us. If they get in, they'll kill us. If we stay here, we'll die. Father! What are we to do?”

“This is the Captian's private board room, right,” her father said as he tapped on one of the wall panels. “There should be a secret passage to his personal escape pod. If we can find it, you can escape.”

“You mean 'we', Father. 'We' can escape.”

He shook his head. “No, Amunet. I won't be going with you.”

“The Hell you won't! I've already lost my brother today, Father. I won't lose you! You're coming even if I have to shoot you!”

“Nekbe is safe. I shoved him in an escape pod the second I realized we were under attack. If I had known you would have taken his absence as death, I would have told you sooner.”

Amunet slowly pushed herself from the door. “What makes you think the escape tunnel is here? Most ships have them in the control room or the captain's bedroom.”

“Because Captain Jav has always been paranoid. He would not fly a ship that didn't have at least three ways to the escape pod. That was a man who didn't believe in going down with your ship.”

“What if he already took it?”

“He can't. He's dead.”

Amunet helped her father search, tapping on the walls and removing the books from the bookshelf. As her father crawled under the large board table, she noticed the mirror.

“What about this? It's unusual to have a full-length mirror in a board room,” she said. She ran her fingers over the cold polished surface, leaning close to inspect the glass. She frowned, seeing her reflection and took a moment to straighten her dress and wipe off the dried blood from her face. She put her veil back on and started tapping the frame and the wall around the mirror. She turned when she heard her father's excited yelp and the sound of compressed air escaping into the room.

“Let's go,” he said. “We don't have much time.”

Amunet started forward, but something cold and hard gripped her wrist and stopped her. Looking down, she was horrified to notice that the mirror had stretched out, forming a hand that wrapped around her wrist.

“Father!” She shrieked as the strong force started to pull her into the mirror. Slowly, her arm was swallowed up in the reflective surface. “Father, help me!”

“Amunet!” Her father ran forward and grabbed her other arm, pulling hard. She cried out in pain, fearing that her arms would be wrenched from her sockets. The mirror did not relent. Instead, it wrapped around one leg and pulled even more. As her body fell into the mirror, she felt a numbing cold on her skin.

“I'm going to break the glass,” her father said. He pulled out his energy blade and activated the sword. Before he could use it, a man stepped out of the escape tunnel. Dressed in black with the red symbol of the invaders, the man smiled cruelly as he activated his own energy blade. Amunet's father had no choice but to abandon her to fight.

Amunet struggled, but the second she touched the mirror, it sucked her in faster. Her screams were swallowed by the glass and she found herself in a bitter cold darkness. Hugging her arms around her freezing body, she turned to witness her father's fight. He was losing, the enemy was stronger. Amunet's heart sank as she watched the dark-clad man toy with her father, allowing him to gain an advantage before destroying him.

“Father!” Amunet pounded on the glass as the man sank his blade into her father's chest. “No! Father!”

Her father struggled on the ground. As the pirate watched, he reached out towards the mirror, to Amunet. She sank to the floor as her father's questing hand fell.

“No, Father,” she sobbed, her tears freezing painfully to her cheeks.

The pirate nonchalantly stepped over her father's corpse and stood in front of the mirror. She looked up at him and was surprised that he was looking down at her. He smiled and took out a blast gun, aiming it down at her head.

“For the glory of Waotakni,” he said and fired.

Amunet's scream was lost in the sound of shattering glass.