Preface

"Push! Here it comes!" yelled the midwife as the sweaty, bloody, and slowly dying woman pushed one last time to finally get the child out. It had been a very long, very strange labor to begin with, it had started two days ago, for one, and it had also been quite painless but very bloody, but as soon as the child was born, it became a very unusual birth indeed. In all the years that the midwife had been helping giving birth, she had never seen a child like this one before.

This child was a demon! She had the eyes of a serpent the color of the sea at storm, and she had a huge white mark on her forehead. It was white and was in the shape of a peculiar star. Like two V's stuck together, one right side up, one upside down, and the color wasn't pure white, put had slight titches of gold and other metallic colors in it.

"What is it?" asked the poor mother after the midwife looked at the child in silent horror. "It's a girl," said the priest softly, not wishing to cause any alarm. He took the child from the midwife and gave her a particular look saying not to tell about the deformities. The midwife held her tongue. He left with the child in hand and placed it in a blanket and in a bed.

"Father, it's a demon! It's a demon child! A monster! We must kill it," said the midwife as soon as she was sure the mother could not hear. "No. No, we will not kill it, and we will not tell Tishera until I tell the High Priest for console. I will not have an innocent child's blood on my hands," snipped the Priest angrily. Tishera's husband had been his best friend, and when he had died he vowed to help watch over her and the child.

"Tell me, without considering the…deformities, is the girl healthy?" asked the concerned priest. "Yes she is, Father," answered the midwife, "but the mother…she has lost too much blood. I fear she will die. Already the demon child has taken a life, Father. You cannot let it take another," said the midwife desperately. "No! I will not take the child's life," he said sternly. Now that Tishera was going to die, he could not let the last of her and her husband die, not if he could help it. "I'm going to the church to consult the High Priest. Nothing will happen to the child until I come back. If you or anyone else harms it you will go directly to hell, I guarantee it," he warned the midwife and left.

He went to the temple to fetch the High Priest. "Father, Father, you're needed desperately at the house of Crichal," panted the young priest. "What is it my son?' asked the older priest calmly, attending to his duties at the church. "The birth is an unusual one and Tishera is surely going to die. But the child is safe and healthy, but she is…well… deformed, Father. The midwife is calling her a demon and she is threatening to kill it. "I must see this child. Take me to her," said the now alarmed High Priest.

They both ran to the house of his old friend and he showed him the child. "This is a demon child. She bears the mark of the Overlord of Darkness," said the wide eyed Priest. "No, it cannot be, Father. Crichal and Tishera are the best people I have ever known, no child of theirs could be evil," pleaded the priest. "This is a child of the Devil and it must die," said the priest firmly. He took a knife from the midwife and raised it to strike the life out of the child. "No!" he yelled, taking the knife from the older priest. "How dare you! This is blastfamy!" yelled the startled High Priest.

"Stop!" yelled Tishera from the other room. Both of the priests and the midwife entered to where the dying woman lay. "Please, Father, do not take the life of my daughter. She is all I have left of my husband," she coughed up blood, "and she will be the only reminder of me. I beg you, do not kill her. She is good I know it, and if the Devil has entered her body, you can exorcise it out of her. Please, I know that she will be good, if you give her the chance," begged Tishera with the last of her strength.

"I…all right. I will not kill her until I am certain that the Devil is within her," said the Priest. "Swear it!" Tishera yelled. She was pale and bloody, but the reminisce of her beauty were still there. She would always be beautiful to the young priest. "I give you my oath in the name of God, I will not harm the child," swore the High Priest. She sighed heavily, then motioned for her old friend to come to her. In a fleeting voice, barely more than a whisper she said, "And you, dear Morvit, you promise me that you will not allow anything to happen to her. She is all I have left and I need her to be safe. Promise me that you will raise her." He so swore and the beautiful Tishera who he had secretly loved since childhood, died with her hand in his.

"You swore to the Lord on High, on the deathbed of the widow of the most religious man in the whole town, that you would not harm the child, and you shall uphold it or else I will personally see to it that you go to the very depths of hell," he said as he got up from his secret love's bed, his best friend's wife's bed, and glared at the High Priest. "I so swore and I so uphold it, as you will uphold your oath to her. But for the protection of both the girl and you, I want you to leave this town. The midwife will not be the only one that wants to kill the child, and they might not be as kind as the midwife who did not kill the child," said the Priest.

"You should go into the woods and live in isolation, even go as far as becoming a monk so that in case she is possessed she can be taken care of immediately, but you will not stay in this town or any other, if you want you and the child to live," he said and walked out.

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