Nerezza:

  The fortress sat on top of a seemingly never-ending mountain surrounded by nothing but contradictions. One side was fully covered in snow while the other side bubbled with streams of magma. It was the deadliest place, and yet the golden fruit said to be sent by the heavens grew in spurts all over, able to transcend a true believer to communicate with the heavens themselves.

  The deadly terrain was said to be to protect the fruit, so no one could survive long enough to covet it. Yet the one who built the fortress in this inhabitable place was considered to be the evilest entity that graced their world.

  Nerezza watched the latest band of adventurers who trudged up the mountain to either condemn her mother for her crimes or end her nefarious plans for the Heaven’s fruit. The point of it all was lost to Nerezza.

  In truth, her mother had no interest in the heaven’s fruit. If those who came hadn’t mentioned it, she probably wouldn’t even notice that it did grow on her mountain. It was the mountain itself that had intrigued her mother. A place that no one was meant to be able to live? It was a perfect place for a fortress of an infamous woman.

  And her mother was infamous, trained in the dark arts, beautiful as sin, with a harem of men who swore their allegiance to her, causing havoc everywhere she went, doing only what she wanted and using everything like it was her personal play thing, with the full power to keep anyone from stopping her.

  Nerezza, who’d always lived tied to her mother’s goals and intensions, always found it thought provoking to watch people come when all the evidence ensured that they would be slain before they even got the chance to set eyes on her mother. She’d snuck out a few times to question those who climbed the mountain. Sometimes they attacked, which resulted in their last breathes, but sometimes they answered. It seemed an overarching theme of faith in a deity, a nation, their comrades.

  It lit them up, and it sparkled with a warmth Nerezza had never felt.

  Even if they perished soon afterward, that overwhelming warmth and motivations filled her mind at the times she felt the most insignificant, alone and cold.

  How beautifully odd was it to trust in something so completely that the facts laid out no longer mattered.

  Nerezza had gone out and searched through the surrounding lands and as far as her ties would allow her to go, for something that she could put herself fully behind.

  It was hard, though to believe in something so fully. Nerezza, was always filled with doubt, seeing ill intention around every corner, bitterness in hearts and greed gripping soundly. And then there was herself. She was evil by association with her mother, her grey swirling eyes with sparks of brilliant silver branded her as dark magic.

  It didn’t matter that she hadn’t chosen her magic, hadn’t chosen to awaken it, or that it was so tightly sealed inside her that it often felt like she could only use the magics that hurt her and only her the most. No one ever paused long enough to ask.

  The only thing that Nerezza ever found that she could put anything of herself in without fearing that she might be misunderstood or be proven wrong after giving herself were books. Books never judged what magic she had even if they had holy scripts in them. Books never looked at her wondering what use she held for her mother they just gave her information and answered her questions without scoffing at her. They never put down or praised her situation. They simply gave her what she needed.

  Nerezza could truly read or learn anything she desired as long as it didn’t involve her actual magic and didn’t cause issues. Her mother didn’t bat a single lash to receive multiple page orders for books, if she noticed a theme in Nerezza’s interest she’d either hire or more often abduct a tutor for Nerezza.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Sometimes she’d wake to boxes sitting in the entrance to her tower filled with treasures that hadn’t interested her mother. She had a closet full of dresses that didn’t fit her mother’s style that sat unworn because Nerezza was terrified of being pointed out as wicked, without any of the same protections her mother had.

  Nerezza herself was a contradiction of the mountain. She was both the most loved and the most neglected thing in her mother’s possessions. Her mother was wicked but she was truly the thing that Nerezza wanted more then anything to put her faith in because looking at her mother she didn’t see the dark things that made her feel unwanted. Yet her mother often didn’t even glance in her direction.

  She didn’t really live with her mother or her harem, she was cast in the farthest tower even if the whole tower was hers. Nerezza could reasonably spend a month without being noticed by another soul.

  Nerezza looked at the most recent box of books left in her entry way she looked around wondering how long it had been sitting there. She wondered if anyone considered the books anymore. It had been a very long time since her mother had shown interest in her interests. Nerezza opened the crate and found most of her recent order but a few extra books. Things her mother probably hadn’t been interested in. The extra books were all bound the same without any writing on the cover.

  The cover page though read The Effect. A card fell out of one of the books she smiled it was another small joy of her life the description cards provided by an unknown individual.

  This book series is an interesting exploration through the effects of decisions through time.

  She made the trips to transfer the books to her little library. Then she found a spot and curled with the first book in the series.

  Normally she liked the books that warranted little notes but she found the interesting description to not be wrong… but Lacking. The books were poorly written in a incohesive almost thought process flow following the points of view of the worst people in the world. Their choices and how they keep negatively affecting the world. It grated on her reading through thoughtless, careless and cruel actions that were so terrible and not always necessary that not even the author tried to defend them.

  If Nerezza were to rate the story it would be the worst thing she’d ever read. She hated it. It sent frustrated heat through her blood and she wanted to find the author and demand an explanation. But she couldn’t stop reading it. A part of it was she needed to know how it ended but she also was drawn in by snapshots background characters. Her favorites a family that barely appeared themselves but were spoken of frequently.

  The house of Icortos a man known as a Guardian of the lands with a magic that was describe much like her and her mother’s were attributed with being the most powerful force in any of the Kingdoms mentioned in the stories. Everyone recognized his name, much like her mother but instead of seeing him as wicked he was respected and treated with reverence. He used his shadows to protect and he used his influence to help. He took in at different times three little boys that were scarred and forgotten by the world and named them his sons.

  He never hesitated in his love for them. He never hesitated in his values. And all of her beloved side characters trusted in the things he built while the main characters that made her skin crawl feared him even when they feared nothing else.

  She had to admit that this family was truly why she spent so long on this book series. Even going back to high light all the times they appeared or were mentioned. It was rather silly to wish for a family like the one she was reading about but she did.

  She wanted to one day be able to love as unwavering as Guardian Showl.

  For the first time she had hope that she wasn’t cursed to be wicked.

  It was a sharp unexpected blade through her heart as she read mentioned off handedly in a conversation that that dependable unwavering person who never faltered in his love managed to kill all three of the sons he’d spent all the stories building up and nearly killing a wife and child that had never been mentioned before.

  She flipped back through the pages not able to find any sort of explanation at all.

  No matter how many times she looked for it.

  After that point the stories that were already told by the worst individuals grew darker and more hopeless. As often as the Guardian Showl’s family was mention another imagery was scattered through. Blue Roses. They died off after the third book but now they popped up far more frequently.

  The world was drowning in blood and blue roses.