Immortal Heirs

Chapter 1

It was not unusual for the piercing screech of the Ash Eagles to wake me from my sleep. I rolled over in my bed, the black silk sheet encasing me in their warmth. The light from the torches lining my walls lit with the timing of the sunlight entering through the long, narrow windows.

I sat up, my long snow white hair falling down to my waist, my intense violet eyes scanning my room. Only my usual handmaidens stood at the large doors. I signaled and they opened the door, allowing another three women in. They stopped before the edge of the raised ground where my massive bed sat. I set my jaw as they bowed. 

"Good Morning Princess Kasdeya, we have brought breakfast and a bath is ready for you mistress," my favorite maid, Xlynn, spoke as a tray was placed at the table. 

I nodded my thanks and they backed away before going off to perform their duties. I swung my lithe legs over the side of the bed and approached the table. I took a few spoonfuls of the soup and added in a few bits of the bright red berries adjacent to the bowl. 

Feeling satisfied, I left the tray and swept across the chambers in the night gown I wore. As I approached the bathroom, I could smell the scents of the oils in the bath water as steam rose from the pool. I slipped the sheer gown from my body as a maid collected the article and led me to the steps. 

My body glowed with a striking presence to behold. My lean body, rippling with muscle, was toned from battle training. My sharp facial features, including my elven ears, curved perfectly to accentuate my facial structure. My skin was fair and glowing with youth, unflawed by scars or redness. 

My body was covered in stark tattoos; all part of becoming an adult in the Demon clan. The tribal-esk patterns traces both arms, across my shoulder, down my back, before curing back in at my hip bones, accentuating the defined muscles; then continuing down both thighs and shins; ending over the tops of my feet. The higher the rank one has in the clan, the more tattoos they receive. When I become queen, my face will be tattooed as my mother's and father's are. 

I wade into the stone bath and let the servants take their time, running various oils through my hair and scooping water to wash the soap from my naked body. I waved them off and they back away after bowing, leaving me in silence. I let myself fall back into the water, my hair spreading like a white ink across the water's surface. I sighed, the 100th Spring Equinox festival was within the next few days and that meant that the Immortal clans would be visiting. 

We of the Demon clan could be considered the most "anti-social" of the four clans. Only when necessary do we interact with the others as we keep to our own affairs and take no interest in anyone else.

The Fae clan has been neutral since before I could remember, they were calm people of the earth; tree-huggers in my opinion, who spend more time discovering medicines rather than training warriors. But then again, no clan has a fight to pick with them so, in truth, their methods of staying out of conflict do work to their credit. 

The Fire clan I would consider to be our closest allies. We live with similar attitudes between our clans' people with a cohesive taste for battles and training. The kings of both tribes had been close when they were young and that translated to a calm reign between the both of them we worked closely with the Fire tribe. After visiting their land only a few times, I have come to appreciate the similar smell of ash and the heat of their natural, volcanic-like land. It almost reminded me of the dry heated climate of my own territory, although they lacked our massive dark forest and blackened waterfall coves, their lands was the most tolerable.