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Matilda Berlioz was born and raised in the town of Haifield, a large town in Asvalagia by her loving parents and older brother. The Château d'Berloiz sat perched upon the crest of a hill that overlooked both the walled-in town and the surrounding woodlands. The family had ruled the area until the reach of the church had extended even to their small corner of the country. It was the priest of the Cathédrale de Seuil that held the fealty of the men of this region, more so even than their Lord. Her parents took the child to church on every holy day and she had not only memorized the Book of the Eternal but the girl had truly taken its teachings to heart. Despite this, the priest felt the need to test the Lord by selecting his only daughter as a decennial sacrifice to the Aeon of the forest upon which the town relied for so much.[break][break]

On the whim of the priest, and despite the broken hearted pleas of her father and the desperate tears of her mother, Matilda was dragged off into the forest by a group of her fathers men that included her brother and several leaders of the church. They bound her hands and she walked alongside their horses for almost two days before they reached the altar where they bound her wrists and ankles in the same tattered twine that had held their last victim, ten years prior. Then they fled. [break][break]

Matilda screamed and struggled against her bonds until they snapped. She wandered the wilderness alone for three days with no food or water before collapsing at the base of an ancient tree. As her vision began to fade, a creature of pure darkness bound in a tattered cloak appeared and whispered secrets of beyond the veil. The young woman sensed great power emanating from this creature but also frailty, an otherness, and a desire to connect with the mortal world. The creature tempted her with knowledge and revenge. Tillie had nothing to lose but a painful death so she opened her heart to the necromancer and it became a twinkle in her eye and reinvigorated her spirit. The woman stood up and walked back to Haifield, covered in cuts and bruises but with her head held high.[break][break]

She did not receive the warm welcome she had hoped for when she arrived at the Château. Her mother, inconsolable, had thrown herself from the tallest tower and now lay dying in her room and her father could not bear to look upon his heretic daughter who’d failed to die as fate had declared she should. The sacrifice their family had made meant nothing if Matilda lived but the girl pleaded with her father, arguing that the Aeon in the forest had chosen to bestow its mercy upon her and gifted her with awesome power. She attempted to demonstrate this power on the body of her mother but it was not how she’d imagined it at all. Her mother’s hand twitched, her eyes opened, she pushed herself up against the headboard and pulled her feet up under her knees but her movements had a strange stiffness to them. She was like a marionette doll, moving but not in a natural way and there was something like a feral animal in her eyes. Mother lunged forward and for a brief second there was a flicker of hope in her father’s eyes as he imagined a look of recognition. It would be their last embrace as her mother sank her teeth into her father’s throat in a truly horrific display.[break][break]

Tillie stumbled backwards and scrambled to the door, fleeing into the arms of her brother who escorted her back to the village square where she awaited the judgement of the priest. The young noblewoman knew what would happen next. She was an abomination in the eyes of the people of the village and she couldn’t be allowed to live. They were ignorant fools. Just before her sentence was to be carried out, a valiant knight from her father’s court rode past and pulled her up onto his horse. They rode away to the west, towards the forests of Hnifs and then Winbia where she would be safe but on the journey a torrid romance would blossom.[break][break]

He delivered her to Winbia, to live the life she was accustomed to, but their affair would endure even her marriage to the King. Her husband was a brave and loyal man; selfless to a fault and he would have honored their alliance to Asvalagia even to the ruin of Winbia. It was important to keep up appearances but sacrificing their own resources to save their neighbor was fally. Let the Aeons save them. She thought savagely. Their prayers will be answered any day now. The King grew weaker by the day and although he called on many healers, none could cure his mysterious ailment and when he passed so too did the crown… to the Queen.