Chapter Text
The Ash Tree glowed in the moonlight, ghostly white against the dark blue twilight sky. It stood like a sentinel amidst the falling snow, silent and waiting, as though even its bare branches dare not rattle in the breeze. A deer pawed at the snow, its hide taut over its protruding ribs, searching for any grass that may still be growing in the shelter of the Ash Tree’s roots. Anything to stave off the inevitable starvation already robbing its body of the fat and muscle it needed to survive the harsh winter.
Crunching snow alerted the deer to his presence, its head shooting up, ears flicking back and forth as it assessed the situation. Hot breath billowed out of its flared nostrils in a thick cloud as it snorted and raised its tail. Bunching up its emaciated haunches, its spindly legs barely cleared the roots as it leaped over them and bounded away into the thicket of trees, instinct compelling it to abandon its last chance at survival.
Dimitri ignored the retreating deer as he stood in front of the Ash Tree, tilting his head back to take in the enormity of it. It dwarfed him several times over, towering over all the other trees in the clearing, some of its lower branches so large they bowed beneath their own weight and grew along the ground. He let his lance fall from his grasp and it sank into the snow, fresh flakes already beginning to bury it where it lay.
He had always known the tree had been more than just a myth. Even as a naive child, despite the relentless teasing by his peers for actually believing in a fairytale, he knew this tree existed in reality. He would beg his nurse to tell him of it often, in spite of her concern that her charge should be so obsessed with a dark story. His nurse had received gentle reprimands from his father more than once for telling him of it in the first place. As Dimitri got older, his obsession with the myth itself faded, but he never forgot the subject of the story: a beautiful, terrifying daemon. She resided in the most isolated corner of his mind, tucked away so he would always remember her.
She had been almost a friend to him, a companion when he had no one else to turn to, no one else to confide in. She grieved with him at the death of his father, whispering promises of revenge the moment the sword separated his father’s head from his body and it rolled away from the bloody stump of his neck. Promised him retribution as Glenn was cornered and cut down before him, blood-stained swords hacking at his shoulders and arms as he’d tried to defend himself. Dimitri remembered Glenn’s arm as it fell to the ground, his hand still clutching the exquisite gold hilt of his sword, blood dripping from the blade as proof he had fought back. She had sworn he would find a way to bring them justice for their dishonorable deaths.
Though he did not care for honor anymore, vengeance continued fueling the inferno raging inside him. Her voice still echoed in his mind, creeping from the hidden corner and escalating until all he heard was her unwavering encouragement.
Approaching the tree, careful not to step on the roots out of respect, Dimitri raised his arm, presenting his offering. His hand curled around the head of a dead Imperial soldier: skin dull and gray, eyes clouded white, jaw hanging open in a final scream. Blood stained his red uniform, long dried to a dark rust brown around the gaping hole in his abdomen. It was empty of viscera, cut away to prevent attracting wolves or other starving predators. The biting cold suppressed any nauseating stench of rot that would have normally set in by now had they been in a warmer climate. Winter was not always a thing to be cursed.
He remembered her myth now: how she had conquered the early humans who made this land their home, ingraining fear into them with ruthless shows of violence, ensaring them in her enchantments and setting them loose on their kin to punish those who had committed atrocities to their own. How she had been driven out by Saint Seiros, forced to take on the form of this tree to preserve her strength and save herself from destruction by the goddess. Oh, to witness her brutal justice for himself, to finally meet the woman who had guided him in his darkest moments.
Tightening his grasp on the soldier’s skull, Dimitri crushed it in his hand, refusing to look away as it exploded in a burst of thick blood and brain. It splashed the bone white trunk of the Ash Tree, splattering over its roots and the surrounding snow. Dimitri dropped the body, relishing the tacky feel of the clotted blood between his frozen fingers as he clenched his fist and smeared it across his palm, coating his entire hand. Leaning forward, he pressed his hand against the tree, lifting it away to reveal a misshapen bloody handprint. He noticed tiny shards of skull suspended in the congealed blood, so small they didn’t have enough weight to break free and slide down the trunk.
Dimitri held his breath, stepping back and peering up again at the topmost branches. His fur-trimmed cloak, dirty and stained, billowed behind him as the wind picked up. His long hair blew across his face over his remaining eye, briefly blinding him and concealing the tree from his sight. He pushed his hair out of his face, matting the roots with sticky blood as he brushed it back.
Breath catching in his throat, his lungs seized painfully from the cold for the first time since he’d started his trek up this mountain to find the Ash Tree. Finally, she was here, standing before him, barefoot in a melted ring of snow.
Before the foundation of the Church of Seiros, before the goddess had descended upon Fódlan to bring light to a darkened continent devoid of hope and humanity, she had been here.
The Ashen Daemon.
She took a step, the snow melting beneath her foot and the wind immediately dying back. If Dimitri still believed he had a soul, her hard violet stare would have pierced it and set it aflame. Small animal bones braided into her dark hair clinked together with each careful step, creating a dissonant hollow melody that would have chilled a lesser man’s heart and prickled his skin beneath his clothes.
For as many times as he’d tried to imagine what she looked like, any face he attempted to assign to her had never felt right. In hindsight, he was thankful he had been unable to create a proper visage of his own. Her beauty was unfathomable, raw power glowing in her eyes and radiating from every inch of her exposed pale skin. Sharp eyes glared at him under thin eyebrows, her full lips compressed into a tight line as though she were holding back rage. She was perfection given a tangible human form.
“So,” she began, her voice surprisingly soft and ethereal despite her hardened features. “You have found me at last. I wondered how long I would have to wait before you came for me.” She halted in front of him, studying him. Two dark ridged horns curved out of her skull above her ears, sweeping up along the side of her head to point towards the sky. Each ridge was edged in gold, glittering nearly white under the silver light of the moon. Dimitri’s face flushed with heat as he realized he was staring and averted his eye, suddenly nervous to meet her gaze. A sudden urge to look back at her overcame him, drawing his eye to meet hers against his will, locking them together in an unblinking stare.
“You are real,” he breathed shakily, still hardly believing she was here. He had known in his heart she was real, but to actually feel the heat from her body as she stood so close to him, smell the bitter scent of ash and burning wood that clung to her hair…
“Of course I am. I have been with you all this time. My last believer.” The Ashen Daemon reached up to lay a hand on his cheek, dragging her long nails across his skin and drawing a single line of blood. The blackened tips of her fingers smelled of herb smoke, as though she had burned a bundle of cleansing herbs in preparation for their meeting. The heady scent filled Dimitri’s nose and calmed his racing heart, and he relaxed his shoulders as she dropped her hand again. Gold bands and bracelets of hand-carved wooden beads encircled her wrists. “You alone have been faithful to me. You have given me life. What is it you seek?” Her voice was almost too soft now, so sweet it would have rotted his teeth.
“I ask for your assistance,” he said plainly, his eyelid growing heavy from the overwhelming lingering scent of herbs. “That woman,” he growled, refusing to even speak her name, “she has taken everything from me. She was behind it all. I ask for your help to destroy her.”
“Oh?” the daemon asked playfully. Suddenly it was not the scent of herbs that filled the air now. Tearing his gaze away for a moment to glance down before it was pulled back again, Dimitri saw the short dead grass burning beneath her feet. All of the snow around both of them had melted in the short time they’d been speaking. He shifted his weight and moved his foot, the grass crumbling to dust beneath his boot. No, not to dust. To silken gray ash.
“And what would you give up in return for my help?” She chuckled lightly, her tone sharpening again. “As though I do not already know. You wish to give me your life in exchange. How typical.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“No,” he said, unable to shake his head for the control she still held over him. “I will give you everything in exchange for your help. Whatever you ask of me, it is yours. My life, my kingdom, all of it. Every person I slaughter will be done so in your name. I will deliver them –”
“You are quite enthusiastic,” she interrupted. “Though I have no use for a kingdom.” She paused, thinking, blinking slowly. Snowflakes landed on her long lashes and melted immediately, dripping down her cheeks like tears until they evaporated from the heat of her skin.
“I will give you anything.” Dimitri amended his statement, unconsciously growing desperate that she had not immediately accepted. His only companion all these years now hesitated at his new offer and he did not realize he was holding his breath until he suddenly needed to gasp for air.
Finally, the Ashen Daemon met his eye again, a small smile breaking through the facade on her face and lessening the rage there. “For now, I only ask for your undying loyalty. Swear this to me, and I will give you all that you need to crush her.”
“Yes,” he said far too quickly. “It is yours.” The daemon reached up to Dimitri’s face again, this time snagging a small lock of his hair and burning it off between her thumb and forefinger. She brought the singed hair to her nose, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply to memorize his scent as it disintegrated to nothing.
“And now, you are mine.”
Dimitri began to choke, fighting against her enchantment and straining to raise his arms to claw at his throat. The daemon clenched her fist, his eye and face reddening as the snare around his throat tightened. Dimitri inched forward, his boot sliding across the bare earth towards her. He gasped for a breath, his inhale like that of an animal caught in a death throe: a strangled cry rattling deep in his chest, reverberating through his bones as he battled her for control of his own body. Betrayal crept up his spine, spurring him towards her. Is this how it would end? Would she drain his life so soon after he promised his loyalty, never fulfilling her end of their oath?
The daemon yanked her arm towards her chest and he fell to his knees before her as though he was on a lead. Rage swelled inside him. He was not a pet.
“On the contrary,” she said, grasping his chin in her hand and forcing his face to look up at her. She smiled widely to reveal sharp fanged teeth, eyes dilating in excitement. “You are mine to control now. My pet, my servant, my monster. By swearing your loyalty, you swear to do as I command. You will worship me as though I were your goddess.” Her nails dug hard into his skin to retain his attention. “Do not make the mistake of thinking otherwise. Do you understand?”
Dimitri still couldn’t move but she nodded his head for him, cackling at herself as she forced him to agree. She was terrifying, now that she held this power over him. He should have been afraid, his heart should be pounding, he should be trying harder to escape…but he could not bring himself to fear her. Her aura intoxicated him even as his vision darkened around the edge and his head swam. How could he fear this kind of power when it was all he had wanted these past few years? Finally he could bring justice to his father, to Glenn, to his stepmother…they might finally rest and leave him in peace. But not until he finally killed her. That wretched woman who was behind all of this. Her and whoever else had sided with her in this war, they were all guilty of something.
“Now, Your Highness, worship me.”