A Valentine’s Memory – The Queens’ First Meeting

The stars shimmered like shards of diamond, cold and distant against the velvet darkness of the demon realm's sky. The air was sharp with the metallic tang of magic, the kind that clung to the skin and settled in the lungs like an unspoken challenge. It was on such a night that Queen Verida Valthorne and Nyssara Starwind met for the very first time.

Of course, neither of them knew then that their paths were about to entwine forever.

Ten Years Earlier – The Battle of Shadowspire Keep

The battlefield was a wasteland of smoldering ruin. Corpses of demons and human mercenaries littered the charred earth, their twisted forms bathed in the crimson glow of a dying moon. The siege had raged for days, and the defenders of Shadowspire Keep—an ancient fortress that guarded one of the realm's most volatile magical ley lines—were down to their last reserves.