When I started working on this over 2 weeks ago, I originally was calling it "selfhate.psd". I didn't know where it would lead me, just that it would have an overall very dark mood.

After I started to work on her, abandoned it and started working on other projects, all of these ideas for her started flooding into my waking and sleeping thoughts, and I returned to a theme I previously visited over 2 years ago in a photo manipulation called "Little Sister". I never explained the idea behind Little Sister and it wasn't well liked, and everyone had different ideas of what was going on, but none of them were right. So here is the story of Denela and her little sister.

Denela was always a talented student of the magical arts, but unlike most students she was extraordinarily vain. Her main motivation in studying magic was to stop herself from aging, but the opportunity to practice what she learned did not arise until she became unexpectedly pregnant by a peasant boy.

Her younger sister, Uria, offered her a place to stay in her home. Denela had always been jealous of her, as Uria was just as beautiful as Denela, but also youthful, and now she had married well on top of it. After she gave birth, Uria pretended that Denela's child was also hers, claiming she had given birth to twins.

As time went on Denela began murdering peasants and drinking their blood, hoping at first that it would reverse her aging. She realized after a short time it was not helping her at all, but she now had a hunger for blood. She began murdering her sister's servants, maids and stable boys, and before long Uria's husband figured out where they were all disappearing to.

He feared her and forced her to live in a garden shed at the edge of the property, but he went to her shed despite his fear and attacked her. She stabbed him to death and then drank his body dry, tossing the discarded shell into a nearby river.

When her husband failed to return home that night, Uria went to her sister to ask her if she knew where he had gone. But Denela was waiting for her, for she had finally discovered a way to steal youth in her beloved collection of mirrors.

As Uria walked around the corner of her shack, Denela thrust a mirror into her face. Uria saw a purple light and looked into the mirror, discovering to her horror that her reflection showed a withered old woman. She hurried back to her home, wailing and clutching her skin, unable to understand what had happened to her.

Denela was quite satisfied, as she now appeared to be a young maiden. Her magic eventually backfired on her, however, when the Gods interfered. Instead of transforming her back into what she had been before or what she had made her sister, they bewitched her reflection to display her sister's withered face, granted her immortality and trapped her in her shed full of mirrors. She could not wash the blood of her victims away from the walls or her clothes, and she could not escape her reflection.

They restored Uria to her former beauty and gave her immortality as well, forcing Denela to reflect on her deeds, her envy and her hatred for Uria.

This print is a limited edition run of 150. #1 and #150 are 12"x16", matted to 16"x20" and framed in glossy black wood frames. They are available for $95 a piece.

2-149 are 12"x16" prints, unmatted for $30, matted in black for $40, matted and framed in glossy black wood frame for $50. Each print comes signed and numbered, and as of 2/19/07, come with a certificate of authenticity.

Anatomy reference: ~Sinned-angel-stock

Image, character and text copyright 2007 Tiffany A. Toland, [link]. No unauthorized use permitted.