* * *
Breanna, a young Etruscan princess no older than five years old, convulsed on the bedroom floor. Cool hands firmly held her warm, sticky forehead as her body shook uncontrollably.
“What’s happening to her!” a woman cried out in the background.
“Brian, what’s going on? Use your magic to heal her,” a man’s panicked voice demanded.
A soft blue hue filled the room. The cool hands touching Breanna became hot, but returned to their cool state when the blue light disappeared. “I can’t see into her mind. Something is blocking me. She is beyond my power right now,” the man with cool hands replied, stroking her silk brown hair.
Breanna stopped convulsing and relaxed under the soothing strokes from the cool hands. Her eyes fluttered open and a calm, kind looking man with blue eyes smiled down at her. His calmness quickly disappeared when he saw her usual bright hazel eyes had changed to liquid gold.
The women in the background gasped at the sight of the ill child.
“Who are you?” Brian firmly asked, still holding Breanna’s head. His hands trembled with fear, not because he was afraid of the countless answers that it could be, but afraid to hear the confirmation of what he already knew.
Breanna answered in a raspy dangerous growl, “I am Elpis. Who in Tartarus are you?”