Iona was becoming confused as to what it was that would overcome her mind to destroy her own paintings. After spraying gray and black paints over them she would just make harsh strokes over them and blur the images. Little Iona thought she was going mad. Her nanny was scared for her and even told the queen about it. Adrianna had come to see her daughter along with a bunch of healers, but they couldn't find anything wrong. 

For a long time, all the madness stopped and Iona painted more. It was just before her tenth birthday that she felt the same strange sensation over her. It was as if it was crawling over her, soothing her, like a lullaby. She had dazed into nothingness. The paintings were calling her. They wanted her to travel inside them and little Iona was… fascinated with the idea. As she sat dazed in front of her latest painting, she felt a tug in her brush and then she gasped. Something came out of her body and got sucked in the painting. 

There was so much darkness inside. It was as if she had entered into dense gray clouds that never ended. "Wh— who is there?" she asked, trembling as hell. She was alone. "I— I want to go out!" She walked through the dense clouds and peered around, heart racing like a wild horse. In the dense clouds of the world, she was in it was difficult to gauge the distance. Suddenly she wanted to go back. "Mother…" she said. 

"Iona…" a voice called. 

She whipped her head to the right. There was more denseness.

"Iona…" The deep throaty voice of a man that sounded like a cello came again. 

The voice came from close this time. Her heart pounded wildly. Her lips trembled, "Mother…" she called. She was scared. She clutched the sides of her dress. "I want to go back," she muttered. She thought she had completely gone insane. What would her friends tell her at the school about these incidents? What would they make out? This was maddening. "Who is there?" she asked in a very low, careful voice. The fog around her was so dense that it dampened her clothes, but she was still sweating. Or was she imagining? 

The fog gathered tighter, as if it was pulling itself in order to form something in front of her. Iona gasped. 

The fog materialized into a man's form with no distinguishable body. It had an illusion of a shoulder with a strong arm, a leg and a broad chest. Covered in the mist, Iona could not see any clothes on the man but a distinct face came into view. Gray skin, high cheekbones, black hair and bat-like wings that looked like waves floating in the fog. The face gazed at Iona. 

"Wh— who are you?" Iona asked, as she took a step back. 

"My little genius," said the man with a smile that revealed his fangs. 

Iona stared at him with wide eyes, as her body shook. She forced herself to remain strong. "Who are you?" she repeated her question.

"Seraph, your Master," the man said as his eyes became a narrow slit of yellow. "Don't worry, little child. I am here only to tell you about your potential. Potential that your mother doesn't see or tell you." 

Iona took in the man, his spirit shifting constantly. "Wh— what potential?" she stuttered. 

"Come here," he said as he beckoned her with his clawed finger. "Take my hand, Iona and I will show you." 

As if entranced, Iona walked up to him and took his hand. A wide grin formed on his face. "And now there will be no looking back," he said and took Iona deeper in the fog. 

When she came out of the painting, she found herself on the bed surrounded by healers. Her parents were looking at her, her mother's eyes were red as if she had cried and her father's face was etched with worry. As soon as she opened her eyes, her mother said, "Iona! Baby!" She picked her up in her lap and embraced her tightly. "How are you?" 

Little Iona didn't reply. Her thoughts went back to the Master who showed her the real potential she had in her. She could call dark forces at her command and make them do whatever she liked. Seraph had shown her a world of amazement. She had only seen her brother bursting in shadows, playing with darkness, traveling in time and secretly wished that even she could do that. However, her parents wanted her to control her energy under the pretense that they wanted to channelize it? Little Iona had suddenly found so much power that she didn't want to come back. 

The dazed episodes continued for days altogether when she would simply go into coma and let her spirit roam free in the darkness along with Seraph. Her Master was one of the most accomplished spirits. She learned how he gathered dark forces of the world only for her. He pampered her a lot and coddled her. There was not a moment when he scolded her or said that she was wrong. Gradually, she began to like him and the world. 

"Do you want to come to me on a permanent basis?" the Master asked one day. 

The question put her into a tizzy. She didn't want to leave her parents. "I like this arrangement," she had said and had continued to play with Diumbe who she had grown to love. Little did she know about their true nature. 

Seraph didn't respond to it. That day when she went back to consciousness, as usual she found herself surrounded by healers. Her nanny was also there, but her parents weren't. Her nanny exclaimed when she opened her eyes. "Iona!" she said and hugged her. "Why are so ill, child?" she had wept and wept. 

The next time when she had gone, Seraph asked the same question. "Would you like to come and stay with me Iona?" 

"No!" she snapped. 

"But I can show you so much more. Together we can do wonders," he said as a Diumbe licked his feet greedily. 

She shook her head. "I will leave my parents!" 

When she was back from this world, that day she found her mother looking at her paintings. All of them were sprayed with gray paint and the original paintings were beneath the paint. Adrianna had asked, "Why do you do this Iona? They are so beautiful to be blotched?" 

"They are my paintings and I will do whatever I want!" Iona had snapped. She took more gray paint and splashed it over them and walked away. 

"Okay Iona!" Adrianna had huffed exasperatedly. "Do what you like!" She went to sit with her daughter. "We have received an invitation from the king of Vilinski to attend their daughter's tenth birthday celebrations. You will have to come with us." 

"I don't want to go anywhere!" she had said because she wanted to go back to her Master. 

"It's not a choice Iona," Adrianna had chided. "You will come with us." 

Iona had protested... a lot. 

A screech from the outside brought her back from her dreams. Iona looked at the heavy iron door of her jail. Her heartbeat increased, "Master…" she whispered, staring at the door. 

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