Stell jolted up in her cot with a cry from the horrific dream she had. Her body stunk of a cold sweat and she shook at how real it felt. The feeling of walking through the dark hallway, the texture of the heart-shaped doorknob in her hand, the chill keeping her from seeing what lay beyond the door, the unseen force gripping her hand tightly, and the anger of the shadow's head as it lunged for her and turned everything around her into total darkness.

Her heart pounded against her chest as she tried to relax her breathing. She wiped her forehead of the sweat that slithered down her head. She lay back down on the uncomfortable cot that was placed within the cell Stell was forced to call home since the royal shadow family kidnapped her to perform dark magic for their own selfish needs. The faces of the terrified people of Trapario haunted Stell for years and the vivid dreams of the book didn't make living in the dreary castle any better.

When she had calmed down, Stell tried to make sense of the dream as she always did when she dreamed of it. She recalled her mother telling her that recurring vivid dreams, as if they were in the real world, were visions of something forgotten, something waiting, or something coming. Not recognizing the book at all, Stell doubted it was a vision about something forgotten. Luna Mooney had explained to her daughter that a forgotten vision had a sense of familiarity, something you felt you had seen it before whether it be in a different life or during the years of infancy.

The vision of being about something waiting or something coming was more believable. The book could have been in some castle or dwelling waiting for her to find it and see what was in it. Or perhaps a fellow witch or wizard was on their way with the book to finally save Stell and take her back home to Sefloria. It was a hopeful wish, but the heavily guarded castle of the Mallor family always made Stell lose all hope that anyone could get in and save her. The enchanted bars of the cells would only make things harder for either her or her rescuer to escape as Queen Xyla had ordered Stell to place a hex on the metal bars to send an agonizing shock through anyone who used their magic inside the bars. Anyone outside the cells could use their magic, but even if they tried the shadow guards would stop them in their tracks.

A drop of water from the ceiling of her cage made Stell jump and fall out of her bed with a thud. She felt her body heat up with embarrassment at being frightened out of bed by a leak over a vivid dream of a possible haunted book waiting or coming to save or kill her.

The sudden sound of the dungeon doors swinging open made her jump to her feet, her body turn crimson with even more embarrassment.

Two shadow guards stormed up to the bars, spears in their shadow black hands. Before Stell, at least what she believed was before her, shadows looked like humans; their skins pale, hair dark, and the power to use the darkness of the shadows around them. Now that Stell was in the castle, she was forced to fuse the bodies of the royal shadow army with their shadows, making them look like three dimensional shadows that walked and talked without the need of the sun. It disturbed her and she hated doing it, but she feared the rage Queen Xyla would unleash upon her.

One of the guards unlocked the jail cell, opening the cell door for the other to march inside and snatch Stell by the arm in such a harsh way that she was sure another bruise would form. He then yanked her toward the cell door, allowing for his companion to grab her other arm in the same painful grip. They both lead her out the dungeons, not saying a word, ascending the staircase and hallways until they reached the throne room, where Stell could already feel the cold blooded family of the Mallors.

Both the guards opened the doors and shoved Stell inside, letting her go as she stumbled on into the room, almost falling on her sullen face. Before her were the evil faces of the Mallors, the king, queen, and their three children.

"Leave us," Xyla ordered the guards. The two shadows bowed before stepping out the room and slamming the double doors behind Stell, leaving her alone with her cruel captors. "Good morning, Stell," Xyla purred down to the scared witch, "I do hope you've been practicing your spells."

"Yes ma'am," Stell was able to reply, though her throat hurt from lack of water and countless nights of crying herself to sleep.

"We have a couple special tasks for you today, dear," the queen said coldly as she stood from her throne, "you know that perfect little spell you do for us to turn our men into their shadows?"

Stell looked up at the shadow queen, she looking as a shadow should along with her husband and children.

"We want you to do that to some... Fallen soldiers and a dragon." Xyla continued.

Stell felt her blood turn to ice, her heart stop and world go dark. Dragons were the most feared beasts in all of Trapario. They burned everything in their sights and ate anything and anyone. They wanted her to fuse a dragon with its shadow because they thought it was easier to control? The only reason the shadows they had now did as the royals told them was because they were already terrified of them. Stell couldn't blame them. She had known them for only four long years, whereas the kingdom of Kespain had known the Mallors for many years. And even after three years of their brutality, Stell knew the royal family were not to be trifled with.

"You... Want me to turn a dragon into... A shadow?" Stell stuttered shakily, her hot pink eyes wide.

"And the fallen soldiers of previous shadow kings," Xyla spoke harshly, "honestly girl, learn to listen properly!"

"But... I don't understand... What do you mean... Fallen?" Stell asked cautiously, terrified of Xyla's impatient wrath.

"Are you dense?" said Elphina, the second oldest child of the Mallors, spat, tearing her eyes away from her pearl crested silver mirror. "Fallen as in dead, you stupid witch."

Stell had to keep herself from falling by taking a step back. Not only were the Mallors going to force her to turn a full dragon into a shadow, but now they were forcing her to raise the dead and turn them into shadows. What was worse, more shadows would walk the world all because of Stell. As if shadows giving birth to vow their children's loyalty to the Mallors wasn't any more of a nightmare to Stell.

"But... I don't know how to... Raise the dead..." Stell told them desperately. "I'm not even sure I can."

"Of course you can," Xyla shot as she began making her way to loom over her prisoner, "as long as I say you can, you can, especially if you don't want to be made dragon meal!"

Stell looked up at Xyla in fear. She knew she was needed for her magic, but she knew the Mallors wouldn't hesitate to kill her. They'd probably even slit her throat right now if they really wanted to.

"Now, get to it!" Xyla demanded, throwing a piece of old parchment at Stell. "Viva retrieved that for me on her trip to Sefloria," Stell picked up the paper after glancing to Viva, who leaned against the wall with the other two assassins, Piccolo and Chuckles, to the side of the room, "it's a spell that can raise an entire army of the dead, read it quick, we want our army and we want it now."

Stell looked at the paper, trying to read the spell's instructions, but all she could think about was her anger toward Viva for going to her home nation to steal a spell. She had dreamed of returning home to Sefloria and her home town where she wasn't forced to use black magic that hurt like blades. She wanted to return to her parents' final resting place below the cherry blossom tree her father had planted for Stell's mother. She wanted to leave Kespain. Leave she wanted to leave Kespain forever. She wanted to leave the vile, dark kingdom and never come back.

The ground shook slightly, snapping Stell from her angry thoughts. She shook the memory of her kidnapping away and stuffed the parchment into the black shirt Xyla had her wear on a daily basis. As the spell instructed, she placed her thin, pale fingers to the cold marble floor and concentrated hard on those forgetting buried deep below the dirt. She thought of their rotted, maggot invested bodies. What they must have done to create such horrible people like the Mallors. Whether or not they deserved to be forced to walk the world again or remain rested and dead. She could feel the dark magic inside her punish her with its painful strikes against her head, bones, blood, and heart.

She recalled the frightening stories her mother told her as a child. The stories about the witches and wizard who were cursed for eternity for using forbidden spells for their own personal gain. The curses ranged from ugliness to a slow and painful death. Looking in the mirror, Stell believed she was suffering through both as her cheeks had become sunken, her face tear stained, dark bags under eyes, and a skeleton of a body. She was practically a living corpse.

Much like the corpses she was trying to revive. The magic crawled its way through Stell's body to her arms and into the ground. A purple light glowed below her hands and spread out around her body, forming a symbol of a five pointed star and the symbols of the elements at each point. The ground shook below Stell's body as the pain dared her to stop the spell before it got worse and let Xyla teach her a lesson in ceasing the spell. The young witch pulled for the dead to crawl their way back to the surface, wanting the pain to stop and let her body rest from the strain. She was too young for such an advanced spell that was forbidden from practice. She had only done basic spells before being brought to Kespain. She never even imagined having to do such dark spells.

The sudden shooting out of a green, decomposed claw made Stell jolt where she sat. It clawed at the floor as the hole began opening wider. A shadow soldier from an older Era pulled its way out of the hole with a flesh and bone skull following it. The rest of the shredded clothed, decayed, flesh of a body following suet. Once the one made its way out the hole, more came crawling out after it. The pain of pulling the horrible dead soldiers was starting to become too much. Soon she was going to have no choice but to stop the spell and catch her breath once more. She wanted to scream in agony and beg for mercy from Xyla. She searched for sympathy, but all she saw were the evil smiles of pleasure from the Mallors and three assassins in the room.

Finally, when about a dozen soldiers had made it out to the land of the living, Stell gave in and ripped her hands from the floor and the purple light vanished, along with the symbols and the hole where the dead had escaped from. Pitiful moaning filled Stell's ears as she gasped in air, hurting her lungs. She looked up to see the woeful looks of the dead stare down at her, moaning their pleads to return to their deaths. A feeling of pity came over her. Perhaps even the dead didn't like what their world was coming to and had rather remained dead than to walk again, even if they were shadows in life.

"Is that really all you could summon?" Xyla asked with deep disappointment and anger.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," Stell breathed agonizingly.

Before Stell could explain herself, Xyla snatched her by the long purple of her hair and yanked her up to her boots. Stell held back her tears and cries with great strain, not wanting to be harmed any more than necessary again.

"I don't want to hear it, girl!" the shadow queen spat right into Stell's face. "Turn them into shadows so we can get to the dragon!"

"I... Have to regenerate my power f-" Stell began but was immediately met with a strike across the cheek with Xyla's wedding ring hand. Stell stumbled back down to her hands and knees. She felt the blood well up on her cheek and begin trickling down to her jaw. Again, Xyla pulled her back up by the hair and shoved her to the dead soldiers.

"Now, you filthy witch!" Xyla demanded in a raised voice.

Stell could feel the tears start to well up, but she held them back with whatever strength she had left within her. She took a deep, sore breath and held up both her hands to the dead soldiers. She concentrated hard on their shadows below their feet. She will the darkness that followed everyone to cover the dead bodies above them.

The dark circles of shadows below the bodies soon began to slither out from below and form into the shapes of their masters. They then rose from the ground, turning from flat to three dimensional beings that stood in front of the dead. Stell then put her weak strength into pushing the shadows into the soldiers, making their dead skin fuse with their own shadows. Their moans becoming muffled until they could no longer be heard below their new bodies. Their eyes vanished and were quickly replaced with nothing but the color of their irises.

"Perfect," Xyla purred cruelly, "now go and fulfill your new purposes to your king!"

"Go and hunt down anyone who defies me as their king," King Alabaster ordered as he stood and pointed to the doors, "if you must kill do so; they will learn to be loyal to me, dead or alive!"

The new shadows bowed blindly before making their way out the throne room. Their strides were slow and limping. Stell started feeling even more awful than before for being the reason they had to return from the dead and serve an iron fisted family.

Elphina then let out a disgusted gag, echoing all around the room. "They smell like death, mommy!"

Xyla shot a death glare at Stell and gripped her tightly by the back collar of her shirt. "You summon the dead and you don't take into consideration the smell?" she threw Stell to her hands and knees once again, this time breaking some skin on her palms and knee caps. "After the dragon, you'd better take care of the smell, or I'll whip you twice as hard!"

Xyla pulled up her shadow from the floor and formed it into a long, thick whip. She lifted it above her head before slashing down on Stell, sending the witch writhing in pain. She could feel the blood well up more and more as Xyla continued to strike her over and over. She held back her tears as much as she could, but she could feel one rogue drop slither down her face. She cried out her apology with each whip, but none of the hits seemed to slow.

Once the queen's arm got tired, she let the whip slither back down to the floor and vanish back into her shadow. Stell shakily pushed herself up to her feet, whipping the tears that had escaped her eyes, but smudges of the blood on her hands took the wet drops' place.

"God, you look like shit!" Elphina spat. "Why these two play with you is beyond me!"

"That reminds me," Arlin, the oldest child, smiled darkly, "since that smell is so God awful, I might want to play a punishment game with our little pet later, mommy."

Stell froze. Her body still ached from the last time the prince played a punishment on her. Last time he almost choked her to death it had felt like her arms were going to be ripped off from how tightly he gripped them.

"Of course, sweetie!" Xyla looked to her children sweetly. "Anything for my future king and queens!"

The two oldest children held their heads up proudly, while the youngest, Ameria, played with her doll in indifference.

"Now, move it, witch!" Xyla demanded as she kicked Stell forward. "That dragon will be my husband's sure fire way to making all of Trapario fear shadows again!"

As if there wasn't already enough to be frightened of... Stell thought as she made her way to wherever it was the dragon was being held.