- 14 hours ago
Her Demon Husband
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🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:04I was born a cursed princess.
00:07Only my sister cared for me.
00:08On her 18th birthday, she was sent to be the Northern Warlord's bride, yet returned a handicapped corpse.
00:14My father, instead of being angry, hastily convened the Parliament out of fear of the Warlord.
00:19I wiped my tears, tearing down her bloody gown and dress it myself.
00:23Looking at those cowardly ministers, who were as frantic as ants on a hot pot.
00:27Send me north. Send me as the next bride.
00:30The night I was born, my shadow tore itself off my body.
00:33I was in front of my father. It swallowed every other shadow in the throne room.
00:38The servants ran, screaming. But shadows are faster than feet.
00:41One by one, every shadow got more. Melted into a single black puddle I wanted.
00:46The high auger came rushing in. He flicked his silver sensor at me.
00:50And just like that, the shadow snapped back to normal.
00:53Everyone called me a curse. Even my own parents drew their swords.
00:56Then, she came. My elder sister, Lysen.
00:59The point of my father's sword pressed right against her chest. She didn't move.
01:03She's not a curse. She's my sister.
01:05She scooped me up like I was a flame about to go out.
01:07She knelt and swore on her life that she'd raise me into the kindest princess this kingdom had ever seen.
01:13My parents put their swords away, but they wouldn't even look at me.
01:16So Lysen carried me back to her own chambers. I grew up under cold stairs.
01:20Even the maids pulled their skirts aside when I walked past, like my shadow was filthy.
01:24Only Lysen kept kneeling down to gather me into her arms.
01:28She was the only thing keeping the cold off me.
01:30I hated those two-faced courtiers.
01:32I dreamed of skinning them alive and flying their hides as kites.
01:36But for her sake, I played sweet. I thought it would be the two of us forever.
01:39Then, I turned my team.
01:41The northern war bands were getting bold.
01:43They were raiding our borders.
01:44To leash their warlord, my father signed a marriage decree.
01:48Lysen would ride north as a peace bride.
01:50The morning the decree came down, she sat me in front of her mirror and combed my hair one last
01:55time.
01:55She combed slowly, gently, like she was braiding her whole heart into that final coil.
02:00Sister, don't go.
02:01Let's hide. No one will find us, sweet Erin.
02:05I'm not going just to stop the raids.
02:07I want to one of them bring our writing to sin, our medicine, our songs north.
02:11I want to build a road between us, so no sword ever crosses it again.
02:15Her eyes were rock steady.
02:16That afternoon, I watched her put on the white bridal gown and climb into the carriage.
02:20Sister, take me with you, I'll be kidding.
02:23I'll be a shadow, just don't leave me alone.
02:26A slipper fell off.
02:27Sister, be happy.
02:30Come back and see me one day.
02:32I didn't see her again for a year.
02:34A messenger from the north arrived with a small black box.
02:36My sister was inside that box.
02:38That was the day I learned a person, after death, can be made to fit inside something the size of
02:43a jewelry chest.
02:43Her arms were gone.
02:44Her legs were gone.
02:45What was left of her had been packed into a coffin, no bigger than a vanity case.
02:49She left home, eyes burning, voice steady, ready to build a road between two peoples.
02:53How had she come home so small, smaller than me?
02:59Sister, hold me.
03:00I shook her gently, hoping she'd lift her arm and pull me close, like she always had.
03:08What I touched was wet, soft, like a sweet pastry left out in the heat.
03:12The motion turned her face toward me.
03:14Her beautiful face was a wreck of long, deep claw marks.
03:18My mother's jade cup smashed in the floor.
03:23The princess was delicate.
03:24The northern winds were cruel.
03:26She fell ill.
03:27To stop the sickness from reaching her heart, we had to remove the limbs.
03:29Sadly, she was already too weak.
03:31Our warlord grieved deeply.
03:32But I could see it.
03:33Those weren't surgeon's cuts on her stumps.
03:35Those were teeth.
03:36The marks on her face weren't pox.
03:38They were claws.
03:39What sickness.
03:40My sister had been fed to something.
03:42The barbarians had done this to a princess, sent to them in peace.
03:45I didn't scream.
03:46I didn't cry.
03:46My fingernails dug into the wood of the coffin until splinters drove under the bed.
03:49Then I yanked the long pin out of my hair.
03:51I was going to peel that envoy's skin off in strips.
03:54But you don't kill envoys during a truce.
03:56My mother saw my eyes and dragged me, sobbing, into a side chamber.
03:59She could only hold me for so long.
04:01That night, I stole my father's sword.
04:04I walked toward the envoy's quarters.
04:06My sister had died without limbs.
04:08I'd take theirs.
04:09I'd lay them at her feet so she could sleep home again.
04:11I reached the door.
04:12Inside, the envoys were drinking, laughing.
04:15Those soft southern fools actually swallowed that little fairy tale about the sickness.
04:19Did you see?
04:19When that pretty princess was locked in the iron cage,
04:22our warlord's favorite consort walked her white wolf right up to the bars.
04:25She'd starve that thing for three days.
04:26All night, the cage rattled.
04:27Bones cracking.
04:29Sweater than any light.
04:31The sword shook in my hand.
04:33Iron cage.
04:34Warlord.
04:34Consort.
04:35White wolf.
04:36Four nails driven into me, pinning me where I stood.
04:39I didn't push the door open.
04:40I turned and ran for the throne room.
04:42My father was meeting with his ministers.
04:43They'd had enough of the northern envoy's arrogance.
04:46They were ready to march.
04:48Father.
04:50Send me north.
04:51Send me as the next bride.
04:53Every head turned.
04:54Shocked.
04:55I lowered the sword behind my skirts and made my face into a princess's face.
04:59Their warbands are at the height of their strength.
05:02War means rivers of blood.
05:04Better another bride than another decade of widows.
05:07The hall went still.
05:08My father stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time.
05:12The cursed daughter.
05:13The shadow thing.
05:14Talking like a queen.
05:15Only I knew what was running underneath those words.
05:18The ministers conferred.
05:20The decision came down.
05:21No war.
05:22The bride would ride.
05:23My father set his hand on my head and called me a worthy princess of the realm.
05:28The court historian wet his brush.
05:30And just like that, I was written into the chronicles exactly the way Lysen had wished.
05:36The gentlest, most merciful princess of our line.
05:39Days later, I put on the red gown and rode the road my sister had ridden.
05:43The carriage stopped before the black iron hall of the warlord.
05:47Inside, he sprawled across a throne of furs.
05:50A woman draped herself across his lap.
05:52His favorite consort, Anara.
05:54At her feet, sprawled her white wolf.
05:57Anara's laugh cut the air.
05:58Oh.
05:59Another little southern doll come trotting up to the warlord's hall?
06:03Did the last one's screams not travel far enough south?
06:06You southerners are such cowards.
06:08Not even a fight.
06:10Just another meal for my wolf.
06:12She trailed her fingers through the wolf's ruff and clicked her tongue.
06:17The wolf rose.
06:18Yellow teeth.
06:19Green eyes.
06:20I felt no fear.
06:21Only a clean, quiet hunger.
06:23For the chance to send this animal after my sister.
06:27It lunged.
06:27I had the pin out of my hair before its paws left the carpet.
06:31I drove the point into the soft hollow of its throat.
06:35Hot blood.
06:37A choked howl.
06:38Four legs jerking.
06:39Done.
06:40You southern bitch!
06:42You killed the wolf my father gave me!
06:45She tore a fang knife from her belt and started toward me.
06:49Anara.
06:50Enough.
06:51The wolf was killed.
06:52That means the wolf was weak.
06:55You forget.
06:56The strong eat the weak.
06:58That's the only law of the north.
06:59He stood up.
07:00His name was Ragnar Hethrek, the Iron Conqueror.
07:03They called him the Bloodburner of the North.
07:05The war god the northern tribes worshipped on their knees.
07:08The wolf pelt across his shoulders had once worn another man's blood.
07:12His amber eyes settled on me.
07:14Not cold now.
07:15Curious.
07:15Amused.
07:16A monster's interest in another monster.
07:18Predictable.
07:19Your name.
07:20Wolf blood ran in slow lines down my cheek.
07:23I didn't wipe it.
07:24Eer in veil.
07:26His mouth curled.
07:27Eer in.
07:28More entertaining than your sister.
07:30Tonight you stay in my hall.
07:32Torchlight leapt across the great black wolf inked over his chest.
07:36Anara was let out.
07:37As she passed, she stared at the blood on my face and spat.
07:41Monster.
07:42You monster.
07:43Yes, I am.
07:43So when the servants moved to drag the wolf away, I raised my hand.
07:47I knelt by the body with the bloody pin still in my fist.
07:50The warlord watched.
07:52Head tilted.
07:53Fascinated.
07:53I worked the point under the hide.
07:55I'd never skinned an animal in my life.
07:57My hands moved like an old butcher's because in my dreams, I'd done this a thousand times.
08:03What had been done to my sister, I would return a thousandfold.
08:09I lifted the white belt clean off the ribs and dropped it at a maid's feet.
08:15Bring this to her with my regards.
08:17The girl trembled and carried the still warm hide out toward Anara's chambers.
08:22Ragnar's interest sharpened.
08:24He hooked a finger under my chin.
08:25His other hand closed around my waist.
08:28He lifted me onto the furs of his bed.
08:30I'd spent a lifetime learning to play the lamb for my sister.
08:34I knelt prettily on the pelts.
08:36I laid my hands on his broad shoulders.
08:38I tilted my face up.
08:40He bent.
08:40He took my mouth.
08:41A kiss that tasted of iron and smoke.
08:44He didn't notice the bloody pin still in my hand.
08:48He didn't feel the cold tip slide up against the back of his neck.
08:52I tightened my grip just as I was to plunge it in.
08:56A hand closed over mine.
08:58He turned the pin in my fingers as easily as turning a page.
09:01Why are you keeping this filthy thing?
09:03He flicked the pin away.
09:04Dirty things don't suit you.
09:06Tomorrow I'll get you a better one.
09:07His eyes lingered on the dark stain at the tip.
09:09No anger.
09:10No surprise.
09:11Just a man noting weather.
09:13The lamps were snuffed.
09:14His breath came down hot.
09:16Wine and wormwood and something colder.
09:19Like a snowstorm closing in.
09:21My fingers shook against the inked wolf on his chest.
09:24In the dark, there were only two heartbeats.
09:27Two trapped beasts under wet skin, slamming the cages of our ribs.
09:31By dawn, his women had stripped me of southern silk and fitted me into the heavy furs and felt skirts
09:37of the north.
09:37He gave me no time to ask.
09:39He lifted me onto a horse and rode.
09:42He said he wanted to show me the most splendid place in the north.
09:45The wind that met us carried rust, sweat, and the thick perfume of blood.
09:51A scent meant to make ordinary stomachs turn.
09:54Mind safe.
09:55When the horse stopped, I saw the cage.
09:57A vast iron cage welded out of crude bars.
10:00The dirt inside was red-brown, soaked years deep.
10:04Inside, a man already half-broken and a starving brown bear with foam at its jaws.
10:10I'd heard of this place in the south.
10:12Border traders all whispered it.
10:14Blood-bringer's favorite amusement was watching men and beasts kill each other in this pit.
10:20A roar!
10:21The man and the bear lunged at each other again.
10:23Bone snapped.
10:24The bear chewed.
10:26Ragnar reined in.
10:27His arms slid around my waist.
10:30Ervin, after last night, what do you think of the morning's entertainment?
10:35He'd asked my sister the same question.
10:38She wasn't me.
10:39She couldn't bear it.
10:40She'd gone white.
10:41She'd begged him on her knees to stop.
10:44That was the moment he started to despise her.
10:46The northern men worship the strong.
10:49They despise pity.
10:50They despise tears.
10:52What Lysen carried, that gentleness, had no place in his hunting ground.
10:56So he cast her off.
10:57So Anara was given license to play.
10:59I leaned back into him.
11:01I let my mouth curve.
11:02It's marvelous.
11:03I lifted my hand and pointed at the man, the one clawing in the dirt with the most left of
11:08his arms, trying to rise.
11:10Look, my warlord.
11:12He's still moving.
11:14What strong bones he must have to break so beautifully.
11:18Ragnar laughed.
11:19Real laughter.
11:21Little southern princess.
11:22You're not afraid?
11:23I tilted my head.
11:25Afraid?
11:26Why should I be afraid?
11:27It's far better than the soft puppet plays back at the palace.
11:32Better when the actors are beasts.
11:34I wasn't only flattering him.
11:36There's always been something black at the bottom of my blood.
11:40The pit cage cracked something open on me.
11:42And what came out was joy.
11:44He liked me even more of it.
11:46His grip on my waist tightened.
11:48His breath was hot against my ear.
11:50A few years ago, a clan tried to overthrow me.
11:53I didn't slaughter them.
11:54I put them here.
11:56Generation after generation, their children are born inside this cage.
12:00They live their whole lives as actors in this pit.
12:03Irin, that's what betrayal earns for me.
12:06He was telling me something.
12:07On these lands, you're either the audience outside the cage or the beast inside it.
12:12He didn't yet know I was a beast outside the cage too.
12:15Beneath my softness lay teeth he hadn't imagined.
12:18She should never have come to this place.
12:21I should have come.
12:22If the cursed twin had ridden first, maybe the Iron Conqueror and I would have made a perfectly matched pair
12:27of monsters.
12:28But she did come.
12:30And she's gone.
12:31Traitors deserve nothing else, my warflord.
12:34Their blood enriches your soil.
12:36They should be honored.
12:37I leaned into him.
12:39Where he couldn't see, my eyes went cold.
12:42In my ears, the screaming of the man in the cage.
12:45Behind my eyes, my sister.
12:47Locked in a cage just like this one.
12:50Dragged.
12:51Torn.
12:52Devoured.
12:53While Inara laughed.
12:54That day, Ragnar showed me the north.
12:57Frozen river.
12:58Heather hills.
12:59A purple wash of small flowers.
13:01The sun sank red into the western range.
13:04The grasses bent in the wind.
13:06And in my mind, I saw only how I'd use this man.
13:10This perfect blade.
13:12To carve Inara apart.
13:15A flower watered with a pretty woman's blood blooms brightest.
13:19He kept me in his hall for days.
13:22Inara came clawing at the entrance again and again.
13:25His guards turned her away every time.
13:27Word reached her elder sister.
13:29Her name was Yushara, chieftain of the next clan over.
13:32She rode through the night to reach us.
13:34A woman, yes, but bolder than any man in the north.
13:37Her arrows split a hawk's eye in flight.
13:40She'd cut the heart from a bear with her own knife.
13:42Even the wolf riders moved aside when she rode through.
13:45All the women in the warlord's lands, Ragnar respected her most.
13:49When she arrived, courtesy demanded he meet her in Inara's chambers.
13:53I was just sitting up in the furs when I heard.
13:55The thought of an elder sister storming in to defend a younger one curdled in sight.
14:00My fingers found the hem of my robe and twisted, twisted, twisted until the knuckles went white.
14:07So you have a sister too, Inara?
14:09One who comes when you cry.
14:10How fortunate.
14:11My sister was like that once.
14:13She couldn't bear to see me hurt.
14:14But she's not here anymore.
14:16Tell me what I'm supposed to do with that.
14:19The tears came.
14:20I've always been slow to feel things.
14:22When the wet first slid down my cheek, even I was startled.
14:25The salt reached the corner of my mouth before I understood.
14:28This was for Lysine.
14:30I missed her so badly, I thought it would crack the bone.
14:33These tears were late and too hot.
14:35I scrubbed my sleeve across my face for a long time.
14:38I didn't braid my hair.
14:40I didn't change my robe.
14:41I walked out barefoot, hair loose, dragging the hem of my skirt through the dust.
14:45I ignored the stairs.
14:47I had servants haul out a fire pit and a roasting frame.
14:50A guest from far away.
14:51One must show hospitality.
14:53When the wood was stacked, I had them drag out the flayed carcass of Inara's white wolf.
14:58She'd come to Ragnar's hall again and again, not just for his bed.
15:03She'd come, mostly, to beg back the body of the wolf she'd grown up with.
15:07The cold-hearted woman, it turned out, had a heart for one creature.
15:11She wanted to bury it in honor.
15:13I wasn't going to give her that.
15:15I lashed the wolf to the spit.
15:17It had been dead some days.
15:19The meat was past fresh.
15:20But the cold of the north had spared it the worst.
15:23Good enough for Inara and her sister.
15:25I lit the fire myself.
15:26I'd never cooked in my life.
15:28My hands moved like an old butcher's.
15:30Outside Inara's chambers, I built my smoking, fat-spitting roast.
15:34The acrid smell of singed fur rolled into the walls.
15:37A maid came out, looked at me, and ducked back inside.
15:41A moment later, Inara stalked out, pinching her nose.
15:45Filthy southern slut!
15:47What sickness is this?
15:48Stop burning your foul mutton at my door!
15:51You reek up the whole compound!
15:53Get away!
15:53The pelt was charred enough that she hadn't yet recognized her wolf.
15:57I set down the carving knife and walked to her with the gentlest, most considerate smile.
16:02Sister Inara, I heard your sister had arrived.
16:05I prepared a roast in her honor.
16:07Won't you taste it?
16:08It smells wonderful.
16:09I cut a tender slice and offered it on the blade.
16:12She moved to slap my hand away.
16:14I made my eyes round and pitiful.
16:16I let my voice tremble.
16:17I stayed at your side for so many years.
16:20Won't you eat just one bite of him?
16:22You only get one chance like this in a life.
16:25Slow as she was, she heard me then.
16:27She understood whose meat was sitting on her tongue's edge.
16:31Her hands flew to her head.
16:32She lurched at the spit.
16:34Her wail tore the air.
16:36This is my wolf!
16:37Inara and her maid scrabbled at the embers, beat at the flames, salvaged the pitiful blackened
16:43carcass of the wolf.
16:44You bitch!
16:45Are there no sane women left in the south?
16:48They sent us a mad dog as a peace bride.
16:50You came to wed, did you?
16:52Or to play this filthy game?
16:53She screamed until her voice broke.
16:55The noise drew the people inside.
16:57What is this commotion?
16:59Ragnar pushed open the door.
17:00Inara flung herself at him, weeping.
17:02My warlord!
17:04She killed my wolf!
17:06She killed him and now she's roasted him on a spit, calling it a dish!
17:10She clung to his sleeve.
17:12The tears poured.
17:13He hated tears.
17:14He'd always hated tears.
17:16Tears meant helplessness.
17:18Tears meant uselessness.
17:19I watched him look down at the woman, sobbing into his coat.
17:22There was no tenderness in his face.
17:24Only open distaste.
17:25He didn't push her off, only because Yashara had arrived.
17:28I knew his mind already.
17:29I covered my mouth and tittered.
17:31I spoke the words for him.
17:33Poor Inara.
17:35Crying so very hard.
17:36And so very ugly.
17:38Don't you know the men of the north despise a woman who weeps?
17:42Sister.
17:43Have you truly let one little southern girl break you so easily?
17:49This isn't the Inara I raised.
17:52A woman in dark leather stepped up.
17:54Yashara.
17:55Her hair was bound up in one high tail.
17:57No braid.
17:58No chimes.
17:59No ribbons.
18:00Clean.
18:01Cut for a fight.
18:02I beamed at her and lifted the slice of meat Inara had refused.
18:06Sister Yashara, I roasted this wolf for you.
18:09A welcome feast.
18:10Inara lost what was left of her mind.
18:12That was father's gift to me, his dying gift.
18:15And she's roasted him for the guests.
18:17Sister, I beg you, kill her.
18:19Kill her by inches.
18:21Yashara's face hardened all things of spirit.
18:24Your kind has no respect for life.
18:26You insult our north with your very breath.
18:29A woman like you should be thrown into the cage and torn apart by beasts.
18:32I laughed.
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