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🐈⬛ Adalind: The Cruel, Vengeful Mage 🐈⬛
Adalind is born in Yelena’s final litter. The cub looked so much like Yelena, and like her relatives before her that her mother knows this is the cub she will keep in the pride, the one who will continue her legacy. Yelena dies soon after the cub is weaned, and Adalind is instead raised by the rest of the pride.
Although there are few cubs her own age, the young Adalind does makes friends with passing cubs from other prides, who travel through Jask’s territory to trade and migrate to other lands. She’s a popular cub, and is doted on by the lionesses, as she is the only cub for a while, since Rosalee had just turned an adult a few months after Adalind had been born.
However, Adalind is a bit more sneaky than her outward kind nature might suggest, and eventually she learns a darker sort of magic, one Wanda, the Pride Sorceress, had not harnessed when she was alive. Adalind keeps her knowledge secret, originally telling herself it would be used for the good of the pride. However, the ‘good of the pride’ notion became confused with power and recognition, and the adolescent begins plotting.
She notices the group consisting of Monroe, Rosalee and Juliette, and in her mind, she believes Jask unfairly favors that group, as Rosalee is their daughter. She wants whatever power she imagines the monarch’s daughter and her friends to have, and her jealousy grows, until one night, when a shadowy feline figure appears to her. The spirit says they can teach her how to get all the glory she wishes, and they point her towards a spell that would make the victim lose their mind, even going so far as to make them fall into obsessive love in certain instances.
Adalind can’t think of anyone better than to test her aptitude with the spell with than Rosalee. After all, wouldn’t it be better if Jask could see that Rosalee was undeserving of her Pride Herbalist role? And wouldn’t it be oh so tragic if Monroe was pushed to the side, given the cold shoulder by the lioness he calls his soulmate?
Adalind performs the spell as the apparition told her to, however when she calls for the spirit to deliver the spell to the recipient, something goes wrong. The feline delivers the spell instead to Juliette, who had been sleeping next to Rosalee that night while Monroe was out on patrol. Adalind doesn’t know this information until the next day, when Rosalee is seen in a worried conversation with Juliette, the latter of whom looked significantly worse for wear.
Adalind panics, but the feline spirit assures her that all will work out in time. After all, she’s merely an adolescent. What could the kind-hearted monarch do, even if they did find out? But Adalind isn’t so sure…if Jask found out it had been a failed attack on Rosalee, what punishment would they dole out? And even worse…there’s the topic of Monroe.
Luckily for Adalind, her treachery is not discovered, and Juliette is eventually given a sort of antidote, though it causes other issues for a time. What has the lone daughter of Yelena learned from this? Oh, simply to bide her time. That, and…if you want something done right, do it yourself. She’d find the right way to strike the trio, and the feline spirit is constantly whispering into her ear, fueling her anger.
Eventually, fate must take its course. Adalind’s anger, now a burning fury. In the time since her attack on Juliette and now, the great leader Jaskiier has joined the stars…kind of. Whatever the deal with the new monarch, the lioness didn’t really care. It was the perfect time to enact the plot she’d been biding her time for, for all these moons. She’d been acting the perfect lioness for long enough, now it was time for the Herbalist ‘Princess’ and her friends to get what they deserved.
*‘If you take care with what you seek, untold power will be yours to reap’*
The spirit whispers to her, on the night of her strike. Adalind, ever the Dark Mage, had acquired the ingredients for a fatal elixir, enough for two doses. Now, to deliver her gifts. She intends to administer the elixir to Monroe and Juliette…to see just how tough Rosalee can be without her mate and friend by her side. Of course, as fate would have it, that isn’t what happens next.
The trio awakens, and Adalind has to scramble. Using her Dark Magic, her face mutates into something horrific, something monstrous. The elixir, resting within special tips on her claws, is ready to strike its first victim. She lashes out, hitting Juliette first. The lioness, forever changed by what had happened all those moons ago, strikes back and actually hangs on to her life for longer than Adalind had anticipated, but eventually drops dead to the ground. A sneer forming on her face, her maw splitting open down her cheeks, Adalind turns to the remainder of the ‘trio’.
Her eyes focus on Monroe, the giant beast. Rushing forward, her red claws held high, she hears a cry from Rosalee as the elixir punctures her mate’s skin. Monroe, once so strong, is left writhing on the ground. Adalind sees Rosalee crumpled on top of his body, with Juliette’s not far away. The Dark Mage smiles, turning away to leave the Herbalist to the carnage. Suddenly, she sees a flash, and her vision goes dark in one eye as blood fills it. Her mind races to catch up with the present, as she realizes what had been done. She whips around, focusing her remaining pupil on Rosalee, who is puffed up with rage and grief. Tears stream down the rosy lioness’s face, and Adalind laughs maniacally.
“Did you think you were sly, little fox? I was going to let you go with your life, and -this- is the thanks I get? Fine. Suppose you’ve nothing to live for anyways. Why don’t you join your mate?”
A little off-balance, Adalind still manages to overpower the feisty lioness, though it was a longer fight than she’d though. The Herbalist apparently had some skills, who would’ve thought. The now-disfigured lioness holds her head high as she walks away from the brutal massacre, the bodies of the trio lying together. Fitting, together in death, just as they were in life.
The Dark One rushes to Jask, informing them of the situation, though she leaves out some key details, of course. A vigil is held for the three. The Herbalist’s tiny orphan, Delphinia, cries for the loss of her parents and ‘aunt’, comforted by her sobbing sisters. All…is…well…? For Adalind, at least. She’s won. Rosalee had lost.
Moons later, Adalind is surprised with cubs. Two tiny little things, both streaked with the same white pattern. A male and a female. Gloriosus and Heliconia. These cubs would continue the Dark Mage’s legacy, or…so she thought. Secretly, a few lionesses had been speaking with Jaskiier, and had conspired against Adalind. A fight rings out the night of the twins’ birth, one that leaves the pride without a murderer….and the cubs orphaned. A dark shadow is visible for a split second after the Mage is killed, but dissipates quickly.
🐈⬛ 🐈⬛ 🐈⬛
*‘The Dark One’s fight is finished tonight, but will that be the final strike?
The wraith lurking in her mind remains sharp as the pointed pike.’*
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