A Willing Theft

She was beautiful, which was why Lythrace snatched the infant Persephone from her overgrown nest. His aching heart craved something which he hoped she may someday fulfil; and also, as a Nocturne, she was MEANT to be in the Tangled Wood - or so he explained to a bemused Elke when she asked him his reasons for snatching an already hatched dragonling. Elke, amused by his daring and intrigued by her new daughter's strange eyes, simply laughed and allowed it.

She spent her days frolicking among the brambles, learning the ways of the Shadowbinder and listening raptly to the secrets she was granted; Lythrace taught her magic, and she soon surpassed her teacher, much to his pride.

Alas, as this tale always seems to go, the theft of the dragonling was spotted, and after many months, Persphone's old clanleader found her and demanded her return. Despite protests, Elke allowed it for reasons of her own.

The Viridian Labyrinth felt like a prison, and prisons, Persephone believed, were meant to be escaped.

Especially when one was on death row - her discontent with her "home" was obvious, and her clanleader decided it would be best to consign her to the Gladekeeper 's service. She did not, however, expect them to act as soon as they did - she lead them on a merry chase, her "family", and shed much of their blood before they cornered her in the Scarred Wastelands.

They thought she was helpless; but Persephone knew the paths that Elke walked when she roamed the Plagued lands, and used those paths to lure them into the home of an allied Plague clan. Persephone was baptized into her new, true clan in the blood of those who would bind her.

Triumphantly, she returned home, and claimed her teacher as her mate, though in time she realized she was not the Persephone his heart ached for - their parting was amicable, and they remained close as Persephone took up her role as the envoy to the Gladekeeper's domain.