The Shadows Crown

Part 11

Unedited.

Third Person POV

Flashbacks (20 years ago).

Turning back to the night where the rogues were left behind to kill Gemma in the woods, the rogues were too busy scanning the body of the unconscious she-wolf, mentally conjuring different ways of using it the way they please before disposing of her as per orders, they so lost that they didn't notice the wave of shadows that surrounded them way before the darkness moved.

The Shadows figures didn't even bother to hide themselves as they usually do, the black and dark blue gigantic figures moved gracefully fast from the darkness few feet away from the group and circled around them in a blink.

The rogues were surprised when the first one of them was thrown few feet away with an invisible force when he launched at the laying figure of the she-wolf, hungrily. Only then did they snap out of their daze and saw the lustrous glow painted in the palest shades of blue forming a circle on the she-wolf.

It seemed to be a shield of some kind.

However before they could take a closer look she was lifted up and pushed towards the darkness they just realised was slowly but steadily coming their way.

However, the screams that left their mouths at once were not because of the advancing darkness, it was because of how suddenly they were brought to their knees by a strong but invisible force.

Their screams increased when they felt a pressure from within, it was so strong, as if somebody was squeezing their internal organs together in a death grip, blood oozed from their heaving open mouths.

Then whispers were heard from behind the trees surrounding them, hissing like whispers that were so scratchy it was uncomfortable to the ears. The whispers were chanting something in Ystanvia, the Old Witch language, and the more intense and consecutive the whispers were the more the pressure on the rogues' organs increased.

The Shadows that surrounded them earlier came out from behind the trees and formed a circle on them as the once slow speed of the darkness increased.

The rogues couldn't even plead, no words could be uttered because of the pain in the organs, it felt as if their captors didn't want them pleading, didn't want to hear their their voices. They just enjoyed torturing them in the clues to of ways possible.

This continued for sometime before the second phase of torture began, the outer layer of the rabid animals' skin started pealing off of their bodies, ever so slowly, extending the torture as long as possible. The Shadows above them never ceasing their bothersome whispering.

"Pridré nooq mnk lin." (Queen harm punishment death.). The Shadows whispered in unison when the screams of the rogues ceased as the outer layer of their skin was completely pealed off them and soon everything under it followed, baring their skeletons.

The Shadows then break the circle they were forming around the rogues and went in the direction Gemma was pushed to earlier. Though the darkness was so intense around them, they seemed not to mind it as they walked ahead. It was almost as if they were walking with all lights on.

The five Shadows passed through what seemed to be a door made of pitch darkness, their humongous figures vanished right through it. One wouldn't think it was a door unless they made contact with it and they get deliver to the other side of it.