Perhaps it was because she strayed too far into the darkness. Many had warned her brother of the same path though it took him losing his mate and mother of his child for Krystopher to understand the depths of the situation. Paige, on the other hand, as she drifted from consciousness and into the growing dark, did not learn. Her sister’s demise only fueled her need as she felt alone in the world even surrounded by her kin at times. She was often the dark horse of the family and once she had learned that the man that gave her up when she was an infant had made it alive and was among her family, Paige had turned more reclusive than ever before. Hate and anger festered within as she buried herself into the dark arts until its overwhelming presence caused her to rethink things…a little too late.

She had collapsed onto the floor of her home and slipped away.

Cold. Bleak.

She couldn’t feel anything around her; it was as if she was drifting into nothingness. Perhaps that’s what she truly wanted. She felt as broken as she had been since she had been violated by that vampire- when he took her life from her and turned her into an abomination. The woman she had been before had vanished though many times she had tried to pick up the pieces. Tried and tried, and she failed and failed over and over again. Maybe now she can finally fade and find some sort of peace she’s searched for all her life.

Or perhaps not. It first hit her as a glimmer of light sparked from the distance. It felt so faint that it barely hit her until she noticed it slowly growing brighter in the abyss. Was it fate’s attempt at furthering her pain? Could she not just rest in peace? She’d imagine that someone she knew, one of her brothers or maybe a nephew or niece had come to aid her.

The light soon engulfed her and she drew breath, gasping for air as she launched herself up into a sitting position on a rather lavish floor. The pain in her chest was unbearable but she would live. Something that the she-wolf wasn’t exactly thrilled with.

“Where…where am I?”

Nyxhelm was changing, in a sense. New buildings were raised and constructed from the very earth itself at the whim of its master as he shaped the realm to best suit his latest ventures. While an old creature, Nemesis wasn’t a complacent one and changes were necessary in this ever expanding world that was Revaliir. He watched from top of his palace as the building that would soon serve as the orphanage. Perhaps his own growing family, especially the little ones, had influenced the monster into becoming a man again; he was a destroyer at heart and a killer for centuries. A far cry from who he used to be.

The charming thought made him chuckle ever so slightly before he felt a deep pull from the realm of darkness. It was powerful yet not enough to feel like a fellow deity had plunged from their graces. It felt more like…despair had reeled in someone and they fell into his territory without permission nor an actual desire to.

Should they venture further, then they would simply cease to exist- the dark would swallow them, body, heart and even soul. While the Father could simply let them be to their own devices, he wasn’t about to let such an intriguing situation go without understanding it first. Closing his eyes, Nemesis searched through the abyss, tracking down the source of the negative feelings and found her. He reached out with his hand, for which she would feel the force of the grip from her side of things and be pulled into the “light”.

Once that was done, he made his way into the throne room where she would be waiting.

“My palace, dear girl.” The voice came from behind her as he approached his seat, his eyes carefully studying her before sitting. She smelled heavily of wolf but she carried the strain of vampirism as well. A vaewolf, just as he and his loved ones were. There was little doubt that she wouldn’t notice his own scent. “I am Nemesis, ruler of Nyxhelm. He who reigns over the Light and Dark. Now if you’d be so kind to tell me your name? After all, it was I that saved you from the cold, cruel situation you befell.”

She felt her heart racing, her chest clenching up as panic slowly weaved itself into her mind. What had happened? Why wasn’t she home anymore and where was she? Slowly Paige rose up a bit more- everything was unfamiliar to her yet it felt nothing like that bleak dark place she fell into. That was until she heard the voice and froze immediately. She dared not turn around and see the man that addressed her- his scent reeked of power and familiarity. She wasn’t sure which of them had caused her to feel like prey but either way, she kept still as he passed her by and sat down onto the throne she had yet to pay any heed to until now.

His strength was unlike any she had felt before and he smelled nearly like her. But he was pureblood, which something like a hybrid was ironic, that’s for sure. Meanwhile Paige was scrambling to make sense of this ordeal. Trying a deep breath, she rose completely to her feet and slowly made her way closer. So this Nemesis was master here, and he certainly wasn’t just some monarch that just so happened to save her. He was a god, the first that she could recall meeting in her life.

“Paige. Paige Wintercrest.” Her name brought up some lingering scorn across her thoughts; she was still crossed with that man who helped bring her existence. “If anything, I might have been drifting away, your lordship.” She made sure to make a last minute effort to curtsy; she had hoped that she didn’t sound too disrespectful. The gesture was appreciated though after everything she had suffered through, she was tired. The wolf within her was tried. Tired of everything.

“My destruction was brought about by my own hand, I suppose.”

The little wolf was scared, that much he could pick up with simple effort. She wasn’t trying hard to mask it either, granted. But she couldn’t be blamed; a predator in a territory of a grander one would swiftly act as prey. But her trance was soon broken and she could find her words again. When her surname was mentioned, he couldn’t help but to make a face. “Wintercrest? Are you in any relation to a Toya Rose-Wintercrest?” The coincidence was uncanny if it was simply that. While he wasn’t too acquainted with them, she did smell like the wolves his sister-in-law were involved with.

Leaning forward, the god looked puzzled. She…didn’t wish to be saved? Either Paige was a brave or a foolish woman. “You’d been completely gone, Paige. And if you are family, how am I supposed to explain that to your kin? He’d have an earful from Angela if she would have put two and two together; and unfortunately she was far too smart for him to lie to. Nemesis took no offense to her words and even waved off her gesture. He had once been like herself- lost and tried. There was no focus at that time for him and all he could think about was death’s embrace.


“If you were trying to take yourself out, then you nearly did a flawless job of it. But I suspect that your emotions were to cause for that, instead.” He was still picking up on them and they were dancing like little flames within her. “You have anger in your heart, child. Anger, sorrow and doubt. And it's been growing for a long time it seems. But you do have power.” A finger lifted towards her direction and before long it was ensnared by the tendrils of darkness that stirred from her aura, now presence. It wouldn’t hurt him; he was not to be outmatched by his own element. “Power and reckless feelings are a dangerous match. You should…learn to temper your mind and leash the power and not the other way around.”

“Yes, she’s married to my brother, Blaine”, she replied. So he knew of her family, which meant either he was familiar with them or someone did something stupid and stirred him. It couldn’t be helped; the Wintercrests had a nasty habit of attracting trouble. And Toya was…Toya who was a trouble incarnate. Especially when booze was involved.

Her answer looked difficult for Nemesis to ponder; it would have been for plenty of people. She was pretty sure of that but it made the most sense to her. She didn’t feel like she belonged in this world and everything seemed to go that direction for her. “My brothers, their mates and their children will mourn. I’m sure of that. But that bastard…my father wouldn’t. He didn’t the first time he abandoned me.” She blurred out the last part, but she didn’t care. He didn’t seem to be in a rush to try and explain his side of things when they encountered each other. She didn’t remember him, but the nobleman, her real father, explained things on his deathbed. She had been casted out because of some ridiculous omen that didn’t bring anything. What a surprise!

Perhaps Nemesis was right; she learned the arts, but can never master them as long as her feelings weren’t in check. She felt the energies surging and coursing through her body. Her eyes grew black and her knuckles cracked as the darkness poured out, much to her shock. Nemesis did it with but a finger and held it at his mercy.In an attempt to heed him, she started to try and calm herself down and slowly pull the dark back inside her. It went for nearly ten minutes or so but she did it, though it was exhausting to say the least.

"So…" Paige was still trying to catch her breath in-between her words, "Are you going to inform them of my location?"

“I see.” He couldn’t say that he was beyond shocked, but still that did make them family. Distant family at that, but it was a fact in any case. “I’m growing familiar with Toya and her brood as I am married to Angela, her sister.” From the hint of slight annoyance in his voice, she would easily see how much he loved dealing with her. More so whenever she and his wife get into their rivalry. Fortunately this case was less delicate; the only question was trying to figure out what to ultimately do with Paige.

She was a danger to others, particularly to her family at the moment. She seethed with rage, and everything pointed to her father. Nemesis looked on and felt some sympathy for her- his own father deemed him a monster when he was forced to turn the first time. The last time he thought of him was when he set fire to his former home and watched the bastard burn alive while the others fortunately escaped. All ties to that family had long since been severed. But she did have others to fall back on- but only once she learned to harness her power completely.

He released his pull on her power and let her draw it back inside her. It took a good deal but the time allowed the God to think appropriately. “Perhaps. But only to safeguard them. You will not be going back to the world, not in your current state.” Nemesis rose up and stood in front of her, his stony look remaining across his face. “You are dangerous, Paige. That can’t be argued. You will need to find resolution in your anger. The method you take is clearly up to you but right now, your power will swallow you and others around whole.”

Closing his eyes, his voice became much softer. As if he was speaking to one of his daughters. “I will offer assistance in that, if not simply because we shared ties. You will have to put in the world but I can guarantee that you will get a grasp of the darkness.”

“However, should you not wish to take my help, I can’t protect you from the consequences when you go back. The choice is your, child.”

Angela was one of Toya’s sisters, she knew that much. While she had personally never interacted with her, she had heard bits about the goddess, which made this situation all the more understandable if he had known from the start about their ties. It would explain why he had plucked her from her doom more so than just merely rescuing a stranger whose life wouldn’t even matter to him.

He was right; she was seething with anger, something that before her turning had been foreign to her. But, maybe Paige had it all inside her long before that nightmare occurred. It could have just been buried beneath her and when she was changed, all that had been pent up had been unleashed. And it manifested into the physical plane, where she could do more harm than good. But the god sounded like all wasn’t lost for her; a thought that she would have normally scuffed at had she been anywhere else and with anyone else.

The look on her face when told that she wasn’t going back was of shock for a brief moment and then it resided away. It made sense, but she wasn’t too thrilled about not going home. She simply wanted to be left to her own devices. She wasn’t going to hunt anyone down, not even her bastard of a father. “I suppose I don’t have much of a choice; I’d rather go back but… if you believe that I’m better off here then I’ll go along with this for now.”

She felt herself shrinking down at his presence, submissive almost. He had both the control and knowledge of her aliment and without the proper assistance, she would be snuck like she had been for so long.