I remembered the day this escapade started.  A man entered our humble home to take her. The man who came into our house, ruined our lives, and swept away with my sister. He could have chosen any girl for his son, the future prince, to marry. Anyone of the beautiful rich girls who walked along the promenade in flowing dresses. I still don't know why he took her, but he had his eye on her, and the prince always gets what he wants. My sweet sister, who would catch and release the bugs that got in our home instead of killing them, who would make us all flower crowns for the whole family on summer outings. Leaving a wailing mother, a cursing father, my two brothers, and me, Nerezza Drago, the Dark Dragon.

I only saw my sister twice after that, once when she was paraded through the streets like a prime hog for slaughter, and once when she was married to the Prince. As I stood at the back of the crowd watching her be forced to say the do’s, our eyes met, and I knew she hated all of this. She didn't want to do this. I had to save her.
But I would do more then that. I would crush him, destroy his legacy. And from the rubble of his empire I would build my own.
Now I stand in the back alleyway of the home of the monster I was to face. He was now the Prince of Aroway, and I was now the Prince of Darkness. I would win tonight, not him. Tonight, at the party he had been planning for months, I would make an appearance. It was time for a change. I crouched in the stinking filth that the rich discarded, waiting, watching. Finally, he came. The servant clutched a platter, which he carefully placed next to him in the cobbles. He was tasked satisfying the guests with appetizers, but had taken a break from the stuffy and rude guests. I must act fast, leave no mark.
I rose from my hiding spot several meters away and moved swiftly. He looked up from his endeavor of petting the stray cat at his feet. My blade flashed. The cat jumped away into the darkness. He had been a weak man, merely a rung on the ladder that helped me boost myself.
After dressing quickly I dragged the man's body to the back of the alley, hiding it under a pile of rubbish. The rats would finish him quickly.
I then entered the house as the waiter, and began my rounds. The home the the Prince of Aroway was beautiful and sickly at the same time. The corridor I walked down was a deep green, lined with portraits. Gilded trim glittered on vases specifically placed to draw one's attention to it and away from the cracked and peeling wallpaper. An exquisite oak door no doubt led to the main hall. I took the servants stairs to the side.
Exiting from the small and confined stairwell I emerged into an oval balcony stretching around the entire hall. Marbles columns supported the protruding terrace. I approached the railing and looked down upon the mass of flowing bodies that was the Italian nobility. Each wore masks decorated with ornate designs, illustrating the face underneath. Princes, mayors, lords, and simpler nobles mingled together, exchanging gossip and news from across their principalities. The hall was long and wide, with high ceilings, from which crystal chandeliers swung gently. And at the far end of the expansive space, on a raised platform draped in silks, he sat. The King of Aroway, in all his glamorous and overweight splendor. To his right, sat his son, a weedy and thin fellow, as skinny as his father was fat. To his left was a slight figure. It must be her, though the mask made it hard to tell. Upon her being wed she was given the name Mary of the Commons. The name didn't suit her, it was deigned to show the people that their Prince was accepting, that he took in the weak who needed help. All it did was remind her of her heritage, and that she was worth nothing in this sea on nobility. The the side of the pedestal stood the ladies in waiting. Theirs masks were blank, without even any eye holes, showing their servitude to the king. But there was no time to stare at the beautiful face I hadn't seen in months. I had to call the others.
Making my way around the balcony, I kept well back, a waiter would be out of place on the upper stories. Sneaking past the guards on the edge of the balcony. When I got to the other side of the hall I moved to the small servant's door at the left. Opening it I found the store room I had noticed on maps of this expansive palace. It was filled with biscuits and wine that could be easily fetched if the guests wanted more appetizers.
I was interested not in the room, but in the small window leading on the the roof where my allies waited. Smashing in the glass with the my elbow I cleared the broken glass from the window frame. Two figures dropped to the floor.
“What took you so long?” Gavi grunted.
“ I'm right on time! And you always say that.”
Dicra smiled faintly, we always jested with each other, that's what brothers do.
“Follow me, there are guards stationed around the corner, should make a good disguise.” I lead them round the balcony, behind the guards I saw before. They dispatched them with blades and dressed in the satin they had worn. Taking their places again, making all seemed usual again.
From there I procided down stairs, and finally entered the Great Hall through the oaken doors I had avoided earlier. Taking a tray of appetizers I mingled in the crowd, memorizing faces and checking the plan would go smoothly. Everything was in place, it was up to me now. I slowly directed my course toward the front of the stage, towards the Prince. As I approached it occurred to me that I must not kill him, or his son, first. I must take an innocent victim, one who knew nothing. This grievous act would begin the slaughter. My brothers knew this was the signal.
Breaking from the crowd I began to increase my pace, making for the raised pedestal. The slight figure who I knew to be my sister, of course it had to be her, did not register recognition of my face. My pace quickened, I was now running the last fifteen feet to the platform. The King began to rise a look of perplexed worry on his face. As I was about to reach the seat of the King I turned, changed course, raised my blade, and drove it into the chest of the lady in waiting. As she fell, the world changed to slowed motion, I heard screams from the guests close to me, then screams at the back where my brothers began firing into the crowd. The innocent maiden drooped, the life seeping from the form as it approached the floor. As she fell the weak cord holding the mask to her face snapped, and the porcelain shroud fell away.
My breath stopped, my heart slowed, pounding in my ears. It was only now I remembered the nobilities damned custom of hiding their women among the commoners. The look in my sister's eyes was one of betrayal, and reflected in them I saw all the brutality I had committed. She died in my arms. The maiden I had protected from birth died in the hands of the monster who loved her.
At that time I saw fully what I had done, I was no better than the pigs I was trying to kill. I had used the backs of the innocent to push myself to my own delusional form of “victory.”
Red clouded my vision. I lashed out at the figure streaming around me, with blade, hand, and any and all instruments of murder. They had to die. These things that had driven me to kill my sister had to die. I killed them all. The nobles. The King. Gavi. Dicra. All of them, dead. They had driven me to do this. The hall was strewn with bodies, mangled and slashed in my vengeful escapade. It had all been futile, this entire act of revenge. I stood on the podium in a blind haze. Wandering through the corpses for what seemed like hours.
So now you know, how I came to be here, lying on the floor of the most exquisite palace in Aroway, surrounded by the dead, with a blade in my gut. I finally beat the monster who robbed me of everything.
I think I’ll go now, I can see my sister calling me forward…