The Black Hand

New edit for my prologue, appreciate advice

Prologue
One moment it was nothing more than an empty tunnel, the remnants of a better more prosperous time in the world, the next it was a glow of flashing purple light that illuminated the long lonesome passage with dancing shadows. The source, a portal, opened out of thin air. Oval in shape, it spun slowly, serenely, in a clockwise motion as small bolts of what looked like liquid lightning jumped out from its sides with a hum of soft cracks and sizzles.

At first nothing else happened, but after what would have seemed a precious amount of breaths for anyone unfortunate enough to watch, there came a disturbance in the otherwise flawless mirror-like face. A slight glow formed, sending ripples flooding across the surface, followed by the emergence of a face. It was a beautiful face, pale blue skin like a blue bird day’s sky, pointed ears that broke through a tangled mess of jet black hair and a darker set of lush lips completed the flawless picture. That was, until she opened her eyes. Pupils of pure unnatural blackness revealed the chaos and deceit that lay within the creature.
The rest of her emerged, flowing white robes that hugged the ground, sending small tufts of powdered dust into the air, as she made her way through the winding cavern. Her only possession was a black leather satchel that hung from a fine chain chord draped over a shoulder.
Her solemn expression began to change as she rounded the corner, bearing a set of pearly white teeth as a gleeful sneer overtook her once kind features. A large round door lay ahead at the tunnel end. A door that led to the next stage of her plans, plans that had been over a millennia in the making, since even before the turn of the last age.
Arriving at the decadent entrance she wasted no time in moving through, greeted by a wave of misery and suffering, she stepped over dried and broken bones that littered the floor.
Cries for mercy echoed from all sides, forsaken souls begged from cages suspended from the cavernous ceiling above, cages too small for a child to stand. A terrifying array of rusted torturous tools hung aloft on pointed hooks or lay neatly set on a blood stained bench. The room was filled with a meek dim light from scattered candles, although she required little assistance in making her way through the darkness. She had been here plenty of times before, albeit in a much different form.
Past the welcoming stench of dried blood and gangrene she arrived at her destination, she did it quietly as only a creature of the dark could, surprising the group of hooded, stale looking creatures that sat around an equally pitiful excuse for a table.
“Ma…Master” Stuttered the first to jump to their feet in a mixture of shock and fear “You…you have returned so soon” hopeful realization beginning to creep into his voice
“Yes, I have returned” The voice was as beautiful as was the face that produced it “and I have succeeded”
“Of courssse you have Massster” Hissed another of the hooded creatures, green-brown scaled hands with long black curving claws protruded from its sleeves as it dropped to its knees, followed quickly by the rest of the disheveled band
Scanning over her cowering followers, she shook her head in disgust at what she’d been left to work with. Not for much longer, she thought to herself, In a matter of hours, this world will face a new rule, a new power. My power.
“So we shall begin tonight?” A voice of curious confidence rose from another, long greying hair flowing from an otherwise unyielding hood
“Yes, we shall begin immediately. Rise” Raising her arms out before her, towering over the pitiful creatures that called this plane of existence their home, she beckoned them to stand “And begin the preparations”
The same candles still burned, although mere nubs, by the time they were ready, with the addition of a hundred more that now lined every nook and cranny of the otherwise gloomy dungeon. An elevated space, at the very back of the cavern, had been cleared.
A stage of sorts, something the blue woman thought very fitting, for what was to follow would indeed be a marvelous show. A show she had been waiting for far too long to witness.
Hooded creatures, a mix of races, Noble and Dishonored among them hustled about in preparation. A black Iron stand was dragged across, placed in the middle of the platform, a pronged head like dragons teeth at its top, designed for one dire purpose, and that purpose sat safely in a bag, hanging loose at her side.
Another two brought forth a contraption of ropes, wood and bloodied bone, positioned off to the side of the dais that now resided near the iron stand. Nodding in approval, counting down the mere delicate minutes it would take to be prepared, brought another sneer across once joyful, free features.
“Bring the maiden” Harked a newcomer who stood taller and straighter, his robes of a much higher standard than the rest. Whereas the others bore holes and stains, this one had freshly pressed, cleaned garments of a much darker hue. The Arathian, pride and arrogance had made him easy to corrupt and a powerful ally he had become, but it had come at a cost, promises that would have to be kept. Perhaps.
Screams filled the cavern and echoed about, bouncing off the stalactites that plagued the ceiling, filling many with a tingling of joy. Moments later a girl was dragged, kicking, screaming across the stage to the contraption, her youthful features caked in a mixture of blood and dirt, tears drawing crooked lines as they rolled down once rosy, human cheeks. Naked, except for a loin cloth that covered her hips, she was bound, hands and feet to the rectangle frame, lashed by leather bindings that were stapled deep into the blood tinged wood. There would be no escape.
The grey haired man approached, he bore a rectangle chest of oak laced with bands of black iron and a lock the size a Toloran’s fist. He placed it gently before his master’s delicate sandaled feet, dropping into a deep bow he hurried on to continue with preparations.
Merely waving her hand over the lock it began to disintegrate, veins of rust began to appear along its surface before it gave way, falling apart with a heavy clunk onto the stony ground. Retrieving the precious contents with the casual urgency of someone who expects an attack at any moment, she cradled them in her soft arms. A scroll and a necklace.
While the scroll was nothing special, simple parchment with words of an unfamiliar language sketched over them, the necklace was by all means far different. Specially selected and crafted for the purpose, it was shaped like a demons head. Horns protruded from the top, twisting wickedly upwards, ruby eyes glistened in the candlelight giving the uncomfortable sense of being watched as the mouth sat wide open, four vicious pointed fangs coming in from top and bottom closing over a flawless diamond the size of a child’ hand.
Perfect, she held up the fine craftsmanship once again admiring its creators work, although no regret befell her for having to kill him afterwards.
“Are we ready?” She asked, a gentle, calm eagerness in her voice as the finely robed Arathian approached, falling into a deep bow that brought him parallel to the ground.
“Yes master, we are ready”
“Then let us begin” the excitement now clear in her voice. Moving towards the lectern she unfurled the scroll, placing it gently upon the stand before slipping the necklace over her dark hair and pale blue neck so that it rested comfortably upon her breast. She waited as the remaining followers took their position branching out from either side of her. They created a half moon shape, with her at the center facing the Iron stand and the clear stone wall in front. As if on cue, the robed men lit braziers, sending large plumes of heat and smoke wafting into the air as she walked forward of the lectern and unlatched the satchel by her side. From within she withdrew an egg shaped gem, the size of a human head, all polished and smooth. Staring inside, once again falling into its hypnotic dance as the rich red ruby’s insides swirled like a living fire, twisting, turning in a vibrant fiery orange spiral around its core. Of course, she knew this was no ordinary ruby. It was something far more powerful, far rarer and ultimately priceless. It was the legacy of an elemental queen, the one thing she would leave behind that was more powerful than her kingdom combined. It was her heart, a Firestone, the key material required to open the portal to the lower planes. To her home.
Cradling it gently on the four dragons teeth protruding from the stand she returned back to the lectern and began to read the words scribbled onto the scroll before her. The language felt odd, unfamiliar to her lips but she’d practiced, as was necessary when speaking the language of the Elements, it had to be perfect, it had to be right, it had to be flawless.
The hooded figures around her began to chant, drowning out the constant screams of the bound girl as their masters voice became louder, more confident. Speaking the words that hadn’t been heard since the beginning of time, the words that had been locked away and buried but found, copied and brought to her, her voice rose. Louder than the chanting combined, it began to change. No longer was it the melodic, soothing voice of the blue skinned woman but something far more sinister, far more evil and definitely something not of this world. It was deep, hollow and gave the prisoners caged behind the feeling of despair and hopelessness so much so it was as if death itself would be a more welcome friend.
The Firestone began to glow, the swirling inside becoming more volatile , more sporadic, fighting the very words that were being spoken, for it could sense what was to come. The braziers on either side brightened, flaring, sending waves of heat over the hooded figures, drawing beads of sweat from already withered, strained faces.
Elation filled those in the room. It was working.
Continuing to read, becoming more comfortable with the words, she caught a movement from the braziers from the corner of her eye. A stream of opaque red, like the mists that hung over the fresh carnage of a battlefield, drifted from the braziers, floating towards the Firestone that was now a whirl of trepid excitement. Her voice increased, a deep booming came from her lungs that sounded unnatural even from the toughest of giants.
One of the hooded men who had stayed aside now moved over to the bound girl, a wickedly jagged blade of glass resting comfortably in his hands, glinted cruelly in the candle light. As his master’s voice reached a crescendo, he raised the blade, standing in front of the doomed girl instead of behind, wanting nothing more than to enjoy the pain and suffering as he watched her die. A dark purple mist began to from her body, fear, horror and hatred in its most pure state drifted towards the Firestone.
Suddenly, his master stopped, the chanting stopped, and he drove the blade home, piercing her heart in a single plunge. Her scream fell, muffled by the gargling of blood that now sputtered from her lips as her chest pumped forth a veil dribbling life fluid down her naked front in a curtain of red.
Slowly a greyish cloud left her, oozing out of her mouth, as if it were her soul departing the body, but instead of moving to the afterlife, it drifted, moving towards the stone as had the purple and red mist. All those watching understood the true identity of the mists, for they were what magic was created of, the essence that elementals lived, the auras that mages could control.
Slowly the last of the mist disappeared into a now clouded Firestone and for the longest moment nothing happened. The fires died down to mere embers, the only light emanating from the candles surrounding them, flickering light off worried faces underneath deep hoods.
Then it happened. As if culminating all at once, came the flash, the bang, the powerful blast that blew out all candles, sending the hooded figures keeling over into heaps of tarnished rags on the floor, beams of power shot out from the heart of the stone, one into the stone wall, another into the diamond buried in the demon faced necklace at the breast of the blue skinned woman. Pulsating, thumping, drumming, the power went on. The diamond began to change colour, from clear to cloudy dark, as a portal began to take shape, starting only small, it grew, a shimmering, spinning oval of lightning, fire and ice all mixed into one marvelous performance. It grew until it towered over her, until she couldn’t even with her own unique height, hope to reach the top with her outstretched fingers, it grew until it reached the top of the cavern ceiling but instead of stopping it merely grew wider, until the entire wall, seven men wide was a giant glowing, shimmering portal of magnificent power.
And with that, the beams of power stopped. Beads of sweat poured down her face as she clutched on to the lectern, doing all she could to fight the push of force.
Once the beam faded away she fell forward, exhausted, only the dais keeping her from collapsing entirely. Had she been in her true, complete form, such an act would hardly have affected her but this was not her true form for that was trapped elsewhere. Believing the worst to be over, the hooded followers began to right themselves, crawling out of their cloth heaps and attempting to make their way to their feet, only their master knew the truth.
It wasn’t over.
An explosion erupted forth from the stone, a last ditch effort of power shooting directly into the center of the portal, sending outward a wave of energy that lifted the followers of their feet and sent them flying several feet away. Only their master was spared for around her neck she now held the key.
The first part of the second step.
The portal began to change colour again, this time simmering down to a gentle ripple of orange.
It was only then that the first approached from the other side. A glow in the portal turned into a face, standing several feet high it towered over the blue skinned woman, almost reaching the ceiling itself. Horns, tusks, protruded first attached to a cruel set of fiery orange eyes, followed by a black leathery skinned head. By the time the creature stepped free, it consisted of a full set of bat like wings that when stretched out expanded almost the entire width of the portal.
Cruel orange eyes spotted its first target, staring directly at the black haired beauty it moved forward menacingly, a wicked sneer giving glimpses to yellowed hungering fangs. It moved with malevolent intent, stepping its way across the stage, not caring if it tread upon the unconscious followers. Reaching the one whom had summoned it, the demon straightened to its full height, almost scraping its horns on a stalactite above. Bellowing a roar that would send even the bravest warriors running it spoke, its voice thundered, shaking the cavern with every word, sending the cages of horrified prisoners swinging, pools of blood rippling.
“Master, we have come”