1: Anlëann ] – Nyx used to be named Anlëann, the spirited, pretty daughter of a small farmer on the edges of Duskbright Forest. Like her aunt, young Ani always knew she was a little magical, and used her minor gifts to help out on the farm. She blossomed into a proud, compassionate young woman, and it was not long before she fell in love with the ranger's son, Arlen, a hunter himself, considered the most handsome lad for miles around, who had courted her sweetly for several months. They grew very close, practically inseparable, and were soon engaged, to the joy of local villagers, who deemed them a good match. Arlen and Ani's brothers began building a new house for them to move in to after the wedding, and everything seemed perfect.
[ 2: The Duchess ] – The town of Vont in which Ani and her fiancée lived barely appeared on any maps, but it was located in the La'Comte duchy. The Duke had recently passed away under mysterious circumstances, and now his wife Ciana, who, unbeknownst to the public, was secretly a dark fae, seized power and traveled through her lands to make all her people swear allegiance to their new ruler. She never went as far as Vont, but the people of Vont were called to a larger town to the west, and there they traveled to pledge loyalty to Ciana La'Comte. Man after man stepped forward to her ornate pedestal and bent the knee, simple farmers, brave knights and wealthy merchants alike.
[ 3: Arlen's Faith ] – But when Arlen came to swear, Ciana bid him rise, for she was struck by his handsomeness and youth. Ciana herself was known to be a very beautiful woman, with smoky chestnut eyes, a delicate jaw, full blood-red lips and tresses fair and shining, and she ordered him to her chambers that night, never expecting rebuttal when she attempted to seduce him. But Arlen was an extraordinary man, pure of heart, and refused to be separated from Anlëann, his true love to whom he had pledged fidelity. Incredulous, Ciana persisted that he had just pledged loyalty to her the Duchess and insisted that he be her consort; Arlen held that while her subject, he was a free man with the right to love whom he wished.
[ 4: Vengeance ] – Furious at the rejection, Ciana banished him from her presence, but could not get his face out of her mind. In disguise, she traveled to Vont, and heard there that Arlen and Anlëann were being married in the church. Being a dark fae, she knew she could not step upon the holy ground, but nevertheless she spied on the proceedings through the windows, and thus saw the happy couple embrace and kiss. She set her eyes upon the young and pretty Anlëann and even though the simple peasant girl was no comparison to Ciana's glamorous allure, jealousy blossomed thick and black in the evil fae's heart. She was a formidable sorceress and a powerful duchess and the most beautiful woman in the duchy of La'Comte, and could not bear that this penniless farmer's daughter could have what she most desired. Thus she hatched a dark and cruel plan to separate the undeserving peasant from her Arlen forever.
[ 5: The Boar ] – From the night of one full moon to the next, Ciana worked an evil enchantment, ancient and terrible, and in the forest of Duskbright an enormous, monstrous menace arose, fabricated of dark magic and totally under the sorceress's control. This beast was let loose to plague the townsfolk for miles around, and many great hunters, among them young Arlen, were sent to the Forest to dispose of the monster. Ciana engineered the hunt thus that Arlen would battle alone against the vicious shadowbeast, but just as he was about to fall defeated and wounded, a light mage, called by rumors of the calamity, came to his rescue and banished the evil spirits from the maddened boar, whereupon Arlen made the killing blow, and was hailed as a hero by his people. Ciana was frustrated that this tactic had not worked, but she had a backup plan that was even more terrible.
[ 6: The Plan ] – The Duchess promptly ordered the handsome Arlen to appear in her court, and once there she honored him in front of her people for his duties to the realm. She also gifted him with a magnificent helm tipped with polished stag antlers and a cloak of bearskin, and claimed that there was some great peril in the Duskbright Forest not far from Vont that she needed him to eliminate. Now the faithful Arlen was suspicious when he heard this order, but he had no choice. With a heavy heart he said farewell to his dear wife Anlëann and departed to face the invented peril. Meanwhile, Anlëann stayed behind in Vont, anxious for the safe return of her husband. Since Arlen's hunts had always brought the food in, Anlëann was reduced to gathering berries, and grew meager with hunger as the weeks passed and Arlen vainly sought his fabled quarry. One dark day, the pretty young peasant woman was approached by a tall, dark hunter: the Duchess in disguise, though Ani could not know this. He came from whence Arlen had traveled and said he was a hunter and had met Ani's husband in the forest; he was well and had asked the strange hunter to bring his wife some food and an apology for the unexpectedly lengthy absence. Ani accepted the food with much gratefulness and when the hunter offered to teach her how to use a bow and arrow so that she might provide for herself should her husband be gone longer still, the peasant girl accepted with many thanks for his generosity.
[ 7: Anlëann's Greed ] – The hunter was very patient with his pupil, and they practiced until late afternoon in the woods, penetrating ever deeper into the south of the forest, and the darker the day became, the larger Ani's prey grew. From squirrels and rabbits they progressed to foxes and badgers, until finally dusk fell and Ani suggested they return home before nightfall; they had hunted a long time and accumulated enough food to last for many days. But the hunter insisted that she also slay a stag, to sell its hide for a fine profit. Deep in her gut, Anlëann knew no hunter stayed out past dark, but the thought of a great pair of antlers and a supple hide to sell at market made her throat dry with greed. So she followed the hunter deeper into the forest, the shadows becoming long and dark so that she could barely tell what moved not far in front of them.
[ 8: Betrayal ] – Finally the dark fae in disguise sensed her victim nearby, and she whispered to Ani, "Can you hear him? It is a stag, I am certain; I hear his hooves galloping across the moss." Anlëann heard no stag, but she did not want to appear stupid after the hunter had spent so much time teaching her, so she said, "Aye, I hear him." The sorceress nodded eagerly, and muttered hoarsely: "He comes near, girl. Quick now, draw your arrow and let loose as soon as you see his great bone antlers, for if you hesitate a moment longer he will smell us … and begone." And hardly had she spoken the last word than that a great pronged shape with a shaggy hide loped out of the shadows, and Anlëann let her arrow fly, straight in the heart as the dark fae in her hunter's guise hat taught her … and with a tortured scream, Arlen the ranger's boy fell to the forest floor, dead. Keening and screaming with sorrow, Ani rushed to his side and held him in his honorary helmet and bear hide as he died, felled by her hand. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, oh I'm sorry, my love…" she whispered. Behind her the hunter loomed, with a smile so wicked and black-hearted that Arlen's eyes widened with realization, but when he opened his mouth no words came out, but for a trickle of blood. Frantically he tried to form words, and Ani saw him struggling with tears running down her fair cheeks, thinking that he was trying to profess to her his love one last time. And thus he died, a warning on his lips and Anlëann's arrow in his heart, in his weeping wife's arms.
[ 9: Enslavement ] – Thus carrying her husband's bloodstained corpse Anlëann returned to Vont and made her way to the Duchess's castle, weeping and lamenting all the way. Finally she managed an audience with the Duchess, who was outraged to see her greatest hunter felled. "What did this to him?" she demanded of his keening wife. "Who did this?" Ani could tell nothing other but the truth, as she knew the hunter had been witness; and thus she confessed to the Duchess Ciana La'Comte that she had slain her husband with her own arrow. Pretending shock and rage, Ciana called it murder and threatened to sentence Anlëann to death for her crimes. The horrified widow went to her knees begging the Duchess for forgiveness, and there in her private chambers Ciana changed into her true form, and told Ani that she was a sorceress. She told the mourning widow that if she would not face her punishment through execution, she would have to become Ciana's slave for as long as the Duchess lived, which could be hundreds and hundreds of years to come. The grieving Anlëann looked at her bloodstained hands and the cold blue face of her lost love and willingly relinquished her old identity to become someone entirely new: Nyxanne de L'Apatê, in service to the dark fae Ciana La'Comte.
[ 10: The Gathering ] – Nyx has served Ciana for close to 40 years now, yet thanks to the longevity blessing of the dark magic which also enslaved her, appears about four times more youthful than her true human age. Ciana never hesitates to point out that the nature of the enchantment enslaving her is such that Nyx could free it by sacrificing her life as well, but Nyx cannot bring herself to throw her life away, even one without free will, and tells herself that serving Ciana is the only purpose she has left in life anyway. Ciana's last command was to send for Nyx to come to a gathering in the dark Forest to the east where the dark fae gather annually. The order was urgent and Nyx left immediately, knowing they would need her magic to help strengthen the considerable eaves they required to perform their ritual undisturbed. She would not be the only enslaved human there, but she was likely to be among those of the highest status.