Becoming The Shadow Witch (part 1 & 2)
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Being a twin, one feels they are just two sides of a coin, not of any value. That is especially true for Malantha Sultan, who had to remain hidden for most of her life. She was not what one would call the "normal" twin. She had been marked since her conception, which was something no one could hide. One could not hide something that came from the blood that flowed inside her veins. Her twin Mihriham Sultan was beloved of Hurrem and Suleiman as well as all of the Kingdom. She was allowed to go wherever she pleased because she did not have the mark or gift Malantha had. Where her twin was just a person with no advantage, Malantha could speak to the shadows as if they were her friends.

At times, at least, that is what she felt, which was the illusion of the shadows. The shadows took pleasure in taking one to total darkness and building them right back up. Their gift or curse of them was to make one feel alone at the youngest age of one's life so they could reshape the person who would soon use them. That was what Malantha had to figure out, along with the truth of her abilities. None of that changed of the fact that she loved her family or would die for her family, for blood is thicker than water. Family is everything to her.

One summer’s afternoon, Malantha took a stroll into the large garden of the Sultan’s located in Istanbul. She enjoyed the smell of the flower come into her senses. It seemed like every other day which was a boring day. There was nothing out of the norm at least to Malantha as she walked through the beautiful garden. A smile appeared upon her face when she thought that she would get a peaceful day to herself without any issues. She took a deep breath as she picked a blood red rose and did not mind feeling a thorn prick soft flesh. It was interesting to her for normally she would have felt something, yet Malantha felt nothing.

The Imperial Rose should have known that something was off, however, Malantha felt safe within the castle wall. The garden was peace and the place she went when she wanted to feel at peace. What she should have been was more alert, for what was happening was slowly dark shadows was creeping around her from all sides. There was guards of course but none could help what was going to happen. The shadows could smell the princess and they knew that she was marked. “Sultana” she heard one of them scream from behind her. Malantha’s pearl white eyes scanned around her and for a saw nothing.

Again she heard, “SULTANA!” but again saw nothing as if the guards were playing again, “What is going on?” she asked with a confused look upon her face. “Malantha!” she could hear her mother scream in the distance now far beyond on the balcony overlooking the garden.  She could not understand what was going on.  “Mother?” she said looking up to see her face looking ghost like. Her heart race as if something was surrounding her or she was running. She looked around once more. At last, Malantha could see the shadows surrounding her.  She couldn’t move nor would her body work with her to move for her. They were just shadows and yet they felt like a threat. “What do I do? What do I do?” she began to say to herself over and over again.

Her fears and the fears of those around her began seemed to feed them. Fear only seemed to make them grown stronger. They may look like normal shadows, but they were far from it. “What do you want?” She finally asked with a thick Turkish accent seemly to know that they were fully after her and her alone.

Continuation of Becoming the Shadow Witch:

Suffocation, a feeling that the Imperial Rose had never felt. Something she never wanted to feel in any format, yet she started to feel right at home with the feeling. The shadows began to tighten around her body like a snake about to devour its prey. There was no way to move from the grasp of the shadows. “We want you?” they said in unison. She could hear them in her mind and yet felt they were speaking loudly enough for others to hear.

“You have been chosen since birth. There is no way to escape what was foretold long ago.” The shadows said as if an old friend was speaking to her. Malantha’s mind raced as she attempted to control her breathing as best, she could. Every breath was strained as the suffocation increased more and more with each passing second.

The Imperial Rose, felt as if her mind was becoming cloudy with every passing moment as the shadows surrounded her. Like two eels around her neck, she felt choking increasing suffication. “Great power shall be yours.” She heard them say. It was never power that Malantha wanted in her life. In fact, Malantha always seemed to wish to be hidden almost like a shadow herself. Either way, Malantha could feel her body begin to break under the pressure of the tightening shadows.

One might think that shadows did not have such strength, but they have minds of their own as well as strength that comes from the deepest parts of hell. {Crack} went her left arm being broken into multiple pieces at the bone. Trying to gasp for whatever air she could, Malantha could see that if she did not give in soon than every part of her would be ripped to shreds. Was she to give up her soul to gain power? It was forbidden to think of such in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire followed a strict religion that even dictated how one was to dress.

Her mind became blank as the oxygen that goes to it began to be cut off. The tightening around her neck became almost too much for her to bare. But could she give up everything that she knew to go into the unknown. She always knew in the back of her mind that she was quicker to want to destroy someone’s lives for the littlest things. Furthermore, Malantha knew that she had a darker personality than her own twin who seemed to always get the praise of the family.

For what seemed like hours, Malantha was being consumed by shadows and darkness. Though it might have been light outside, to Malantha it was completely dark. Her eyes began to gaze over as her breathing slowed. “Just accept your fate. All will be well.” A haunting voice spoke in a demonic tone. She tried to look around only to see above her a hooded figure. The figure was neither human nor of this world.

The figure slowly walked towards Malantha repeating the words, “Accept your fate.” The words pierced her mind like knives. Being lifted into the air, Malantha was met with the eyes of the figured and a smirk slowly spreading across its face. Those were the only features that Malantha could make out at the current time for she was in too much pain and attempted to keep her focus on breathing. The figure stared down into Malantha’s eyes and reached out its hand towards her forehead.

Placing a long, thin, boney finger on the middle of her forehead the figure said once more, “Accept your fate. Accept who you were born to be.” The Imperial Rose wanted to have the suffocation to stop. She wanted to breath, and she wanted her mind to be cleared to be able to think.  The Ottoman Princess knew that the only way she could be able to breath, not have pain, and be able to think without voices in her mind was to give in. However, to give in meant having to become consumed.

Feeling the shadows losen around her neck, Malantha took a deep breath choosing to give into, and spoke the words, “obumbratio Consume” or “Shadows Consume.” These words leaving her mouth caused a small form of a contract to begin to form between her and the figure that still held its finger in the middle of her forehead as well as the shadows themselves. A laugh came from the figure’s mouth, one that caused fear to form within Malantha’s stomach. Taking another deep breath, Malantha felt the shadows move towards her mouth and finally within it.The consuming of the Imperial Rose has begun and the Shadow Witch would be born.

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