The streets of Vareth lay empty beneath a sickly yellow sky. A foul mist slithered between the cobblestones, thick with the stench of rot. It moved with purpose, curling around doorways, creeping through cracked windows, seeping into the lungs of the unfortunate few who still drew breath.
At the heart of it all stood Selene Nocturna.
She laughed softly, her lips stained with dried blood, her teeth flashing like a wolf's beneath the hood of her tattered cloak. The Pale Widow had come to spread her gift—a sickness born not of nature, but of her twisted alchemy.
A frail woman staggered from an alley, her eyes wide with terror, her body shaking. Her skin had begun to blister, dark veins crawling up her neck like the roots of a dead tree.
"Please… help me…" she gasped, her voice raw.
Selene tilted her head, feigning curiosity.
"Help you?" she purred, stepping closer. Her movements were fluid yet unnatural, like a predator toying with its prey. "Oh, sweet thing… I already have."
The woman trembled. A tear traced through the grime on her cheek.
"W-what have you done to me?"
Selene sighed, exasperated. She reached forward, caressing the woman's cheek with blackened fingernails.
The woman choked on a sob. Then—her face twitched. Her lips curled into an unnatural grin, wide and stretched. A ragged, forced laughter bubbled from her throat, growing louder, more desperate, until it became a shriek.
Selene stepped back, watching the transformation. The veins thickened, her pupils dilated into black pits, and her muscles seized—before releasing all at once.
The woman stood still.
A horrible, toothy grin, eyes wide and empty.
"Thank you, Pale Widow," she whispered, her voice hollow, joyful in a way that was deeply, deeply wrong.
Behind her, the mist swirled, spreading further, carrying the infection. The laughter of the damned began to rise all around—men, women, children—each one caught in the grip of Selene's new Grinning Plague.
Her Hollow Legion would march at dawn, but the city would be hers long before then.
As the laughter grew into a cacophony, Selene turned her gaze toward the palace.
"Your turn, dear king."
And the city screamed.