The battle-witch was running hard through the forest towards the clearing she glimpsed ahead. Branches snagged at her purple dress and whipped her exposed skin, leaving angry red lines across her cheeks and forearms. Her lungs burned and her legs were heavy, but she continued at the quick pace, the warning scrolling across her hand driving her to hasten her step even more.
The medallion beating against her chest with each step was made as a sign of the love and trust of the Shadow Knight, embedding the magic of Black Moon Draw into it and entrusting her with the protection of his kingdom. She grasped it with one hand and felt her power swell.
She broke out of the dense forest and stopped to suck in a deep breath, eyes taking in the battlefield before her. The Shadow Knight's armies were defeated, nearly everyone dead, while the Desert Knight of Brown Sun Lake stood at the center of the last battle.
The Shadow Knight knelt before him in defeat, his warrior frame shaking from blood loss and his proud boar's head bent in sorrow.
Her heart broke for him and guilt tore through her. It was, after all, her fault the battle had been lost. She'd tempted him in a way no other battle-witch ever had. On the night before certain triumph, they both surrendered to their desires for one another instead of making preparations the way they normally did. They whispered the vow of eternal bonding as they made love and exchanged names, the most sacred act between a man and woman in a world where a name gave someone else great power.
At dawn, he was gone, and the message of his death began scrolling across her palm. She initially did not understand how it was possible, since she had gifted him her purity. But soon, it became unimportant why her gift worked when it should not. What mattered: saving the man she loved from certain death.
As she watched, the Desert Knight raised his massive sword.
She ran, a scream tearing free from her throat.
The sword dropped, and with it, the head of the Shadow Knight.
The battle-witch didn't stop running, even when the warriors of Brown Sun Lake rushed to intercept her, not when they fell beneath her power and lay writhing in agony from her magic.
She stopped over the body of her dead lover and husband, tears burning down her cheeks. The battle-witch whipped off the magic medallion and held it up for everyone to see. Summoning her magic for one last spell, she turned her gaze to the Desert Knight, who stood ready to take her head next.