Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Chapter 56: Blade, Wolf and Girl



   Enia loved awakening.  There was this single moment in time inbetween
waking and sleeping.  A moment in which she just had escaped her horrible
nightmares, but was not fully awake yet.  In this confused state she was
unaware of where she was, who she was and why it was that life was so
terrible.  Sure, she had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but she
could still give herself to the illusion that life was actually a bearable
thing.

   Of course, a moment later she realized that this was not the case. 
Right next to Enia's bed stood a portrait of her twin sister Enli.  It
showed Enli as a twelve-year-old girl.  Enli had been so incredibly cute
back then that it was almost maddening to look at it.  Enia had masturbated
while looking at this picture thousands of times.  The smile of her
beautiful sister was etched on Enia's memory from all the sessions in which
she had furiously stroked her cock with her gaze fixed on this small
picture.  Often, it had become unbearable for Enia to even be next to her
sister Enli.  Feelings of lust, of longing and of jealousy had made it
impossible to even look at Enli without Enia's mind flaring up in madness.
In those times, she had retreated to her room and put up with this picture
of Enli.  The Enli in the picture had never grown up.  Even now, she was
still the same innocent and carefree little princess that Enia had fallen
in love with.

   The real Enli was far from being innocent.  Just a day ago, she had been
put to death because she had murdered her sister Haena.  Enia remembered
that she had cried and screamed in misery until late in the night after the
execution.  She had been overcome by so much sadness that she had thought
she would have to die of it.  But today, she was strangely calm.  Enia
hadn't felt this composed in years.  Probably because she knew that it was
all over now.  The girl that she had adored so much and that she never had
been allowed to love, she was gone.  There was nothing left in this world
that was of any relevance to Enia.  She felt that she too would die soon.
What an entirely wasted and pointless life it had been.

   Everyone else was dead already.  Enia's mothers Lanua and Ruala, her
aunt Laenis, her cousin Daeryn and her half-sister Haena had all perished.
Enia was the only one left of the royal family.  Except for Enli's
children, Enia reminded herself.  Just like Enia, her two nieces shared the
fate of being unhappy.  Just yesterday, they had been forced to watch the
incredibly violent torture and execution of their mother Enli.  In a way,
Enia thought, they must have been even more miserable than herself.

   Enia hadn't attended the execution herself.  She had been physically
unable to.  Initially, she had asked to be allowed to hold Enli's hand in
her moment of death.  Enia probably was lucky that she had been denied this
request.  It probably would have killed her to watch the execution, just
like it had killed her mother Lanua.  Although Enia had been locked up in
her room, she still had been able to hear her sister's terrible screams of
pain.  Each of these screams had pierced her heart.  Enia had screamed in
pain herself.  She had screamed until her voice was gone.  In a way, she
had been happy when they had finally used the sword Ragoth to cut off
Enli's hand and put her out of her misery.  If only they would have cut off
Enia's head too and spared her the pain of having to live on after her
sister's death.

   Enia stood up.  It took her a long time to get dressed.  Her spasms and
shivers had gotten worse over the years.  Nowadays they were so bad that
Enia was hardly able to live on her own.  Still, she refused to take any
maid's help with her daily life.  Enia feared the thought of having to deal
with another person.  She wanted to be alone as much as possible.

   When she had finally finished dressing, Enia left her room.  It was
quite a rare sight to see her walking around in Vargran castle.  She spent
most of her time inside her own four walls.  The people she met greeted her
very politely, but the revulsion in their eyes was too apparent.  Enia knew
that everyone thought she was insane.  She didn't really hold it against
them.  Enia was insane, after all.  She knew it herself.

   Enia walked very slowly.  While her body was in a good condition, her
mind oftentimes denied her the control over it.  It happened way too often
that her knees would suddenly begin trembling uncontrollably and her feet
would refuse to take another step.  Then Enia would remain frozen in place,
sometimes for a mere minute, other times for half an hour.  The people who
walked past her still greeted her awkwardly and tried not to look at her
too much.  They knew that Enia didn't want anyone to help her.

   This way, it took Enia quite some time to reach her goal.  It were the
rooms of her nieces Loori and Neril.  Her relationship with the two little
girls wasn't the best.  Whenever Enia looked at them, she was reminded of
the fact that both Daeryn and Haena had conceived a child with Enli.  If
only Enia would have had a daughter from Enli...  It would have given her a
reason to live on.  The thought brought a tear to Enia's eyes.  She wiped
it away as quickly as her shivering hands permitted.

   There was a guard standing in the middle of the corridor that led to
Loori's and Neril's rooms.  She was blocking Enia's way.  Still, the guard
put up a smile.  "Greetings, princess Enia.  Can I do something for you?"
Enia halted and looked to the floor.  "Yes...  No...  Please.  I just...  I
want to visit my nieces..." The guard cocked an eyebrow.  She didn't move
aside.  "Is there anything you want to tell them?" Enia shook her head. 
"No...  I just wanted to...  maybe...  I thought...  I could comfort them,
after..." She gulped.  Enia was unable to say it.  But it was painfully
obvious what she meant.

   The guard still forced herself to smile, but she also didn't get out of
the way.  "That is certainly very nice of you, princess Enia.  But I'm
afraid that they are too...  shocked to see anyone right now." Enia
couldn't believe it.  Did this mere guard really deny her the access to her
nieces' rooms?  "But...  please, understand..." The guard vehemently shook
her head.  "I'm sorry, dear princess.  I have orders not to let you pass."

   Enia's eyes widened.  Orders?  Who was able to give such orders?  Now
that duchess Laenis and her sister Lanua were dead, there was no leader
left.  Naturally, Enia would have been the successor to the throne.  But
since she was insane, the people probably wouldn't have accepted her.  Enia
really didn't want to become this castle's leader.  But that she was denied
from seeing her nieces by a guard came as a shock to her.

   Enia turned around and staggered away from the impudent guard.  She was
furious.  Some people apparently had used the fact that Vargran's royal
family had massacred itself to their advantage.  Enia cursed the new
Vargran that was about to be formed.  As far as she was concerned, all of
Vargran should have died together with her sister Enli.

   Enia rushed back to her room.  The angrier she got, the more she
regained the control over her body.  When she reached her room, she slammed
the door shut and locked it.  Her eyes fell on Enli's portrait.  She panted
with rage.  In the end, this was nothing but a cold, dead painting.  Enia
threw it to the floor.  She had to stop deceiving herself.  Her real sister
was not a smiling little girl, like in that picture.  The real Enli was
being tortured in the fiery pits right now as a punishment for killing her
sister Haena.  This was the truth.  Enli was in hell.

   Enia screamed out in anguish.  When people heard screaming from Enia's
room, they didn't think anything of it.  They were used to the disturbed
princess and her antics.  Enia picked up a paper knife and cut into her
left hand.  It hurt, but the pain was nothing in comparison to the
knowledge that her beloved sister was in hell.  She smeared the fresh blood
onto the floor and began to draw an arcane symbol.  Enia had already done
this once before.  "I summon you, Inekin...  Get up here already, I know
that you can hear me!"

   And really, it happened.  A swath of pitch-black smoke rose from the
arcane circle that Enia had drawn with her own blood.  Out of the smoke
stepped the demon that had helped Enia to forge her first sword, Enegoth.
Inekin was not taller than Enia herself and had quite dark skin.  Like all
demons, she was naked.  But her form was rather modest.  Her tits, her cock
and her ass, they all had a size that would still have been acceptable for
a human being.  Two mysterious dark-blue horns grew out of her short white
hair.  Her wings were black and looked more like they were made of cloth
than of flesh and blood.

   Indeed, Inekin was an unusual demon.  She was a being that neither felt
at home in the human realm nor in the fiery pits.  In both worlds, she was
treated as a strange being that was hard to deal with.  But her cooperation
with Enia had been very successful.  It had led to the creation of a
powerful demonic weapon and consequently even turned a demigoddess into a
being possessed by hell.  That's why she was more than eager to appear when
Enia called her now.

   Inekin was surprised to see Enia in such rage.  "Here I am, valued
contractor.  How can I serve you today?" Enia obviously didn't care about
exchanging pleasantries.  She looked at the demon with eyes full of anger.
"Give her back!  I want you to return my sister!" Inekin looked at Enia in
confusion.  "What do you..." Enia interrupted her.  "My sister Enli!  Her
soul is in hell!  I want you to return it to me!" Inekin gulped.  Many
humans had made that request in the past, but it was hardly ever granted.

   Inekin looked at Enia very seriously.  "This...  is something that goes
against the very fundamentals of life.  A task that it is costly and risky
to perform, even for hell.  While I don't want to say that it's impossible,
I have to tell you that it always comes with a high price." Enia grunted at
her.  "I don't care about the price.  I pay whatever it takes." Inekin
smirked.  This was just the kind of human that she loved dealing with the
most.  A woman who had lost all reason.  Someone who was willing to take
all risks and sell everything to achieve her goal.  It even made Inekin a
little excited.

   As always, she was quick to think and make a decision on how this
bargain could look like.  "Alright, then.  These are the conditions: I can
bring your sister's soul back to this world.  But only for a single night.
Once the sun rises, I have to take her back to hell.  And I will take you
along as well.  A blacksmith of your ability will be a welcomed addition to
hell's forge." Enia agreed immediately.  Inekin wasn't even sure whether
she really had listened to the conditions.  "Fine with me." She was ready
to sell her immortal soul for a single night with her sister.  Inekin was
impressed.  This was true love.  And true insanity.



   It was close to midnight, but there were so many stars on the sky that
the woods were brightly illuminated.  Enia had been called out by Inekin to
come here tonight.  This was the night in which Enli would return.  Enia's
final night in the mortal realm.

   Since it was midsummer, it was not really cold outside.  Also, Enia
didn't feel tired at all.  She kept wandering through the forest aimlessly.
Enia just did so to kill time.  It was strange.  Tonight, Enia felt
stronger than ever before.  Her spasms, her shaking and all her mental
problems seemed to have dissipated in the warm summer night.  Tonight, she
felt like a normal woman, probably for the first time in her life.

   To her surprise, Enia found out that she was not alone in the forest. 
Sitting on a tree stump, she found a frail little girl with gray hair.  Her
clothes were quite shabby.  At first, she looked like she was half asleep,
but when she saw Enia, the gray-haired girl jumped up in fear.  Enia smiled
and tried to calm the girl down.  "Sorry if I startled you.  You don't have
to be afraid of me." The girl looked at her warily.  Her eyes were like
that of a wild animal.  "Wha...  What are you doing here?  Are you here to
get me?"

   Enia shook her head.  "No.  I don't even know who you are, girl.  I
just...  came here by chance, I guess." The gray-haired girl was relieved
to hear that Enia wasn't here to cause her any harm.  She sighed and sat
down on the stump again.  "That's good to hear.  You really scared me for a
moment..." Enia slowly walked closer to the girl.  For some reason, she was
interested in this strange child.  "Are you in trouble?" The gray-haired
girl sighed again.  "I'm in more trouble than you can imagine.  I can't go
home, I can't go anywhere else.  I'm starved and I don't have a single coin
in my pockets...  I wish...  that the whole world would just disappear..."
She hung her head.

   Enia still smiled at her.  "Yes.  I wish that too." The gray-haired girl
looked up with wide eyes.  "Why do you say that?  You look like a wealthy
woman...  why would you want the world to end?" Enia looked up to the sky
as if she was thinking.  Then she answered the girl.  "It is true that I am
wealthy...  I am even a princess.  I know nothing of your troubles, but...
the world that I live in is still the same.  It is still the same sad
world." The gray-haired girl could hardly believe what she was hearing.  "A
princess?  Then you must be...  princess Enia?" Enia nodded.  "Yes, that's
me."

   The child sized Enia up for a while.  Never would she have expected to
once talk to a princess...  and even less inside a forest in the middle of
the night."I...  I heard some stories about you.  You are said to be a
great blacksmith, but you only ever finished three swords." The girl
gulped. She almost had added what she also had heard: That Enia was
supposed to be insane.  Enia giggled.  "Yes, that's what the people
believe. But I'm going to share a secret with you, girl.  I actually made a
fourth sword that no one knows about.  I have never shown it to anyone.  Do
you want to see it?" The girl nodded.  Although it was warm outside, she
was shivering now.

   Enia drew the sword from the scabbard on her belt.  It looked like a
rather simple sword, but there was something strange about it.  When one
looked at it for too long, it became blurry and began to flicker.  Its form
seemed to be unstable, but after looking away for a moment, it looked like
a plain sword again.  Clearly, there was some crazy power within this
strange blade.  Enia looked at it proudly.  "This is my fourth and last
sword.  Its name is 'Hope'." The gray-haired girl looked at it in
fascination.  What a strange name for a sword.  There also was some writing
engraved in the steel.  She looked up to Enia.  "What does that say?  I
can't read it..." Enia read it out loud for her.

   "My day will come.  I know someday I'll be the only one."

   It didn't make any sense to the child, but she never had assumed that
she would be able to understand the thoughts of someone like princess Enia
anyway.  Looking at the sword made her feel dizzy, but she also felt tired.
She found it hard to keep her eyes open.  After a while, the girl fell
asleep on top of the tree stump.

   Just when the girl had sunken down, Enia could hear Inekin's voice from
behind.  The demon's voice sent shivers down her spine.  "I came to fulfill
my part of the bargain.  Your sister's soul is now resting inside this
girl's body.  I put her into a magical sleep that made her forget the
sufferings she went through in hell.  But it also made her forget about her
life.  When she wakes up, she will not recognize you.  She will not look
like your sisters and have no memories of you.  Is that fine with you?"
Enia still hadn't turned around to face the demon.  She grimly looked at
the sleeping girl.  Her voice sounded very bitter when she answered the
demon.  "You really don't understand anything about love, do you?  All
these things don't matter as long as it really is Enli."

   Enia felt that Inekin was walking towards her.  The demon continued
talking with a soothing voice.  "It is, I assure you.  You have one night
to spend with her, so you better make the most out of it..." Something
happened within Enia.  At first, she couldn't say herself what it was.  But
it was a completely new feeling, unknown to her so far.  With a low voice,
she asked.  "What...  if a single night is not enough for me...  what if I
want her to be with me...  forever?"

   Inekin suddenly halted, but it was too late.  Enia hurled around and
struck the demon with Hope.  It was the first time that she had attacked
anyone.  But with a weapon this strong, it happened effortlessly.  The
sword hit Inekin's chest and cut through her torso at ease.  Not only did
it cleave through both of her boobs, but also through her demonic heart. 
The two severed halves of Inekin collapsed in a rain of blood that shot out
of the huge wound.  Enia looked at the blood-smeared blade in her hand.  No
doubt about it, this sword was stronger than any weapon that Enia or her
mother Ruala had ever created.  It was almost too strong.  The steel
refused to hold in all of its power.

   Without taking another look at the demon she just had murdered, Enia
turned around and walked over to the girl that lay over the tree stump. 
She stroked the girl's gray hair.  "Wake up...  Enli." But the girl didn't
wake up.  She wasn't even breathing.  Enia's eyes widened.  She touched the
girl's chest.  Her heart wasn't beating.  "No..." Enia looked at the dead
body in front of her with tears in her eyes.  Her sister's soul was
probably already beginning to descend to hell again...

   Just then, Enia heard a sinister growling from the underwoods.  It made
her instinctively take a step backwards, away from the girl's body.  A big
black wolf was walking towards them, constantly growling at Enia.  It
looked starved.  Apparently, it had come to take the dead girl's flesh. 
Enia screamed at the wolf.  "Don't you dare!  Stay away from her!" But
neither did the wolf understand Enia nor did it care about her.  Its
growling was louder than Enia's voice.  The wolf took a step towards the
girl's dead body and then bit into its belly, immediately drawing blood as
its teeth dug into the girl's intestines.

   Enia yelled.  "Stop that!" Then struck with Hope a second time.  This
time, she put all of her anger, all of her desperation and all of her love
for Enli into her strike.  She brought out all of Hope's powers.  They
proved to be too much for the sword.  While digging into the wolf's flesh,
the blade grew unstable again and then it completely lost its form,
disintegrating everything in its way.  In a flash, they all merged into one
and assumed a new strange form- blade, wolf and girl.

   Enia stared in awe at the being she had created.  It looked at her with
the eyes of a frail girl and with the eyes of a hungry wolf, gleaming like
the cold steel of a sword called hope.  Enia hardly even dared to breathe.
"Is...  Is Enli's soul inside you?" The being answered with the soft voice
of a girl, the growling of a wolf and the clank of steel.  "She is right
here.  But I am still hungry...  so hungry..."

   Enia was shivering all over.  But inside, she felt very warm.  Maybe,
she thought, this was the happiest moment of her whole life.  It would also
be the last one.  "If she is there...  then I want to be there too..." Enia
still had a dagger with her.  She took its hilt with both her hands and
rammed the small blade into her chest.  The razor-sharp dagger opened up
her ribcage.  With her last strength, Enia whispered.  "This is yours..."
The wolf leapt her, ripped the beating heart out of her chest and swallowed
it, together with Enia's soul.