Origins of the Highwayman’s Blade: A Deal with the Devil (Cliohna). F13US1E1

Long ago, in an age when mystics and fairies roamed freely, their whispers carried the weight of ancient secrets and untold power. It was a time of enchanted forests and shadowed glens, where the line between mortal men and otherworldly beings blurred. In this world, grief and rage could summon the Devil himself.

The story tells of a hunter, a man of skill and solitude, who returned home from a week-long hunt to find his world reduced to ashes. His homestead was ravaged, his wife and daughters slaughtered by marauders. Their blood stained the earth he had once called his sanctuary. Despair clawed at his chest, and vengeance seared through his veins.

Haunted by his loss and burning for retribution, the hunter wandered deep into a cursed grove—a place said to be untouched by mortal hands and tainted by the whispers of fairies. There, under the canopy of ancient, gnarled trees, he called out not to the gods, but to the Devil himself.

The Devil came, cloaked in shadow and malice, his voice a low growl that seemed to vibrate the very air. "What is it you seek, mortal?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

“I seek a weapon,” the hunter said, his voice raw with grief. “A blade that thirsts as I do. A dagger of unimaginable horror to spill the blood of my enemies.”

The Devil’s smile cut through the darkness, sharp and wicked. “And what will you give me in return for such a weapon?”

The hunter did not hesitate. “My soul,” he spat. “If I can avenge their deaths, my soul is yours.”

Satisfied, the Devil reached into the void and drew forth a blade forged of shadow and flame.

Sleek and gleaming, it seemed alive, as if it pulsed with the anger and anguish of its maker. He named it Cliodhna, after the malevolent fairy queen of beauty and destruction, whose spirit he bound to the blade.