The old woman settled deeper into her chair and began.

"After six years we were celebrating our young lady’s fifth birthday. She was the daughter of Lady Mirena who had married a noble six years before."

"Everything was going as it should be. Lively as ever, everyone was dancing, enjoying themselves."

Then her tone shifted.

"I was serving drinks at that time when the doors broke apart."

She paused. Swallowed something painful.

"And there stood a man in a black blanket. I recognised him in an instant. He had those same blue eyes, same black hair and that same face. It was Dorian."

Her grip on her walking stick tightened.

"But something about him was wrong. His skin which was barely visible under that robe looked grey and there were dark markings around his neck and arms like his veins had been filled with ink."

I could feel even Aria beside me had gone still. Listening.

"Within seconds the air felt suffocating. His body was wrapping itself in a dark black aura and his sole presence was the reason that fear took hold of every one of the hundred people present in the hall."

She took a shaky breath.

"Seeing that foreign, terrifying power the guards instantly charged at him, ordering him to surrender. But little did they know who he was and what he was capable of doing to the ones who once thrashed him right there in that very place."

Her eyes went distant. Like she was watching it all play out behind her eyelids again.

"And from there what followed was a complete massacre. The boy I had seen since his childhood, since my childhood, he was nothing like before. His expressions, his rage, it was something that even I found myself fearing."

She held up one finger.

"One hit. One hit was all it took for the guard closest to him to fly up to the ceiling and get his body stuck in the chandelier with his chest splitting apart."

My jaw tightened hearing that. One hit sending a grown man through a ceiling wasn’t some exaggeration. If this woman was telling the truth, we were dealing with something far beyond what anyone of us had prepared for.

"And that one action was enough to tell the other guards what would happen to them. Not only them but every person gathered in that hall as well."

Her voice was getting heavier with each sentence.

"Then the panic erupted. People tried to flee, flanking and rushing through the exits. But the main way out was where he stood and not a single one of them made it past because Dorian wasn’t forgiving anyone."

She shook her head slowly.

"The brute power, that mysterious power which was out of this world was making him a monster among the whole crowd. Some hid and some who thought fighting was the only way charged head on only to be killed within seconds."

Her hands were trembling on her lap now.

"One punch was enough for Dorian’s fist to go straight through their chest. Very cleanly. Every person was getting their body hollowed out, whoever came in his sight. Men, women, servants who had never wronged him, nobles who had never even met him. None of it mattered. He was moving through the hall like fire moves through dried wood."

I glanced at Aria. Her expression hadn’t changed but her fist was clenched on her knee.

The old woman continued, her eyes filling with a horror that six years hadn’t managed to fade.

"Then on his death march I remember how he grinned like a demon when his eyes met the Count. Mirena’s father. The man who had always looked at him like a filthy peasant."

She stopped. Closed her eyes for a moment.

"I won’t describe what he did to the Count. It still haunts me. But Dorian did something to him that made many vomit on the spot. The head, the same head whose eyes always looked down on Dorian, was resting at his feet without the support of its body. He had separated it completely."

She opened her eyes and they were wet.

"Seeing the Count fall, one child shouted grandpa. And immediately Dorian’s gaze went to the child. She was Mirena’s daughter and he recognised her well because she was wearing a princess crown and a dress that set her apart as the girl of the hour. And what confirmed it was her features which resembled Mirena quite a bit."

Her voice was barely holding together now.

"He walked towards her in rage and the poor girl had no clue what would happen to her. But then a man came in between them, shielding the girl with his body. He said to her, daddy will handle the bad guy so just run and don’t look back, okay."

She wiped at her face.

"The girl was baffled, didn’t know what to do. And before she could think of anything Dorian charged forward and grabbed the man’s throat in sheer anger."

She swallowed hard before continuing.

"Then for the first time that night his voice came out. But it wasn’t the voice of the boy who grew up with us. It was someone else entirely. Something in between a human and a demon. The kind of sound that could make your skin crawl."

She recited his words like they had been branded into her memory.

"He said, so you are the one who married her. You made a bad decision and it will cost you your life."

She closed her eyes again.

"His grip on the man’s throat went too hard. First the man’s eyes bulged outward with red veins cracking across them before Dorian snapped his neck completely."

I heard a faint crack in my own jaw from clenching it too hard.

"He released the body. His eyes were set on the girl who was barely holding her tears from the utter confusion she was in. And then Dorian grabbed her from the ground. But before he could do something terrible, a voice came that he recognised in an instant."

Her voice cracked.

"Dorian, please... please stop it. It was Mirena. Dashing towards him in tears. She got on her knees pleading, begging him to leave her daughter."

The old woman’s tears were flowing freely now but she kept going.

"All of it was making Dorian enjoy the moment. He let go of the daughter because he was enjoying what was in front of him far more. He bent down a little, raised Mirena’s jaw and said with that terrifying voice."

She repeated his words. "Déjà vu, isn’t it? I still remember every single thing from six years ago. The place was the same, the spot was the same, even the begging and the pleading was the same."

A pause. Then she added his grin.

"But the positions of the pleader have changed."

She was fighting through her own sobs now.

"He grabbed Mirena by her throat, teasingly pushing pressure while adding more with each word. I was right here, just like you are right now. Pleading. Begging you to..."

She told us he was breaking even from recalling it and that only made him angrier. His grip hardened until blood dripped from Mirena’s mouth.

"You told me I was a toy. You told me my feelings were an amusement. You threw me away like trash after I made you my entire world. Did you think there would be no consequences?"

I could feel the weight of those words even secondhand. Even through the filter of this old woman’s retelling. The pain behind them was the kind that doesn’t fade with time. It just ferments into something worse.

"He let go of her and she crashed on the floor coughing blood." The old woman’s voice was barely a whisper now. "And Mirena, through all that pain and blood filling her throat, she tried to speak."

She repeated Mirena’s last words the way someone repeats a prayer they wish they could forget.

"I’m sorry, Dorian. I... never wanted this. It was my... fault for thinking... my greed that made your life..."

The old woman shook her head. "But she wasn’t able to complete her words. She collapsed. She died either from the pain or from seeing what Dorian had become."

Tears were running down both her cheeks now as she forced herself to finish.

"Dorian looked at Mirena’s dead body and said, at least you died knowing what you did. So rot in hell. And then he crushed her chest. Destroying the heart he once believed belonged only to him."

She pressed her trembling hand against her mouth.

"And each punch didn’t only bring blood or more rage. Each one came with tears. Tears running down his face while his fists kept going."

She took a long shaky breath.

"When he was done with her he turned to the crowd and his aura told everyone still alive that he wasn’t done. His rage, his grief, it all showered on them as he continued his assault. His massacre. Destroying every heart in that hall."

She looked at us both. Her face completely ruined by the weight of her own story.

"This was the story of your so-called demon. A kind boy who only knew how to bring warmth to the people around him. Now showing no mercy to any of them."

She wiped her face with both hands.

"I somehow managed to run from there and was among the very few who made it out. After that, for years it was said that Dorian lived in that palace. No one who dared to approach it because no one had came back alive from there."

She steadied her breathing.

"But now something is off. From last month he has been leaving the palace. Hunting the villagers in the evenings. Leaving behind the same brutality."

She wiped the last of her tears and looked at us with eyes that had carried this burden for far too long.

"So children. Understand the threat you are walking into. And don’t risk your lives in a matter that doesn’t belong to any of you."