Book 1 of the Music in the Shadows series.
A mature romance fantasy.
In a world of old magic.. in the realm of Terran, Morana- a young talented performer thrives as she travels with her arena performer group that are like family to her.
With uniq...
Cliftolights- a dark creature that had been summoned by evil 12 years ago. Weaknesses discovered: death by fire blade wielder. These creatures can not be tamed, if it has been spotted. Run. If it has spotted you. May your everlasting soul be condemned to Riaan.
The following text has been transcribed in an oath of truth by Volda Keely Darkblood of the Darkblood Witch Coven.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
My body felt numb and cold.. as if I had been in a heavy snowstorm, my breath halted a bit. I simply froze in my place, just as I had when one broke into the arena during a performance. My performance. The first and only performance I had ever faced a cliftolight.
I remember that day clearly. We had set up camp in the lands of Abdera, on the southern outskirts of Merlanis. The performance arena is not something people outside of Merlanis are used to, our spectators are few in other lands and some are old drunken lords in need of entertainment warriors and courtesans to spend good money on.
I had been staring at the mirror in front of me for a long time now- acknowledging the glitter around my arms, the bright-coloured hair piece and the adorned colorful paint that streaked my face. This had been to simply attract the viewers into seeing more as an entertainer in providing wonderous gasps and faces of awe. It was not your regular makeup, but rather a fury of face paint colors making tribal patterns all the way down to my shoulders. The clothes I wore for the arena were beautiful.. yet practical and for the arena only. Today I wore a ruby red tunic that draped down near the knees and was accompanied by black leather pants, which were fitting but not tight. The pants I'd keep. As for the tunic.. its a hard pass.
Breathe in.. breathe out..
Count the beads on the red material against your chest.. take notice of the smells around you.. keep calm..
I was nervous.. I always have been. This wasn't my first battle in the arena, to say the least, and yet this feeling.. stuck with me for days to come until I stepped into that arena again. I looked into my own eyes, into the makeshift plastic mirror in front of me. The darkness within the depths of my eyes swirled..
A sudden round of applause was heard behind me followed by squeals of young women, the curtain was pushed back by big hands as the performer stepped inside the dressing room. Red paint smeared half of his defined face and made tribal patterns around his bare chest which was one precisely painted and now slightly smeared from the arena. Red. The color of Abdera, the color of my very own tunic, tonight we are honored by their lord and have been told to give quite the show to the lord, told by Fala of course. If we impress the lord, it means brighter futures for everyone here in the arena.
"You're next." Ezra panted as he wiped out some of the paint from his striking face but only seemed to spread it more and I watched as his blond locks of hair caught onto the crimson red. He smiled slightly as he noticed me in my clothes, softly panting from the adrenalin and exertion from his performance. His skin glistened with sweat even though today had been one of the last few days of winter.
