Prologue

I never thought I knew what it felt like to be alone; always being surrounded by countless people wanting your opinion, your approval, your demands. I had the world, many would say. What I didn’t see was the darkness inside of me growing over so many years of carelessness. I don’t know when it began; the memories of my youth are gone and nothing remains now. I am just a barren desert, dried out long before my days. Just as he, the King, my husband, thinks of me… just an unfruitful vessel to sit upon the throne, never to bore a royal child. With the rage of a dying line, I watched his heart harden. His people fell to their knees in fear rather than honor and I let it happen. I watched as the world slipped away from my grasp. I watched mindlessly as I fell into a dark void of oblivion.

~*~

Chapter 1

An unbearable light woke me from my slumber and I groggily pushed myself upon on my elbows which was accompanied by an unexpected, piercing pain in my leg. Throwing the rough covers off of me, I nearly screamed when I saw a crimson soaked rag wrapped around my thigh. It was then that I realized that the surface I was lying upon was hard and I looked around. This was not my room. The walls were made of some kind of animal skin and you could see it move with the air from outside.

Where the hell am I? Have I been kidnapped? I thought in panic and I tried to stand up, forgetting about my new injury.
“Careful,” came a soft voice that I didn’t recognize. I looked up to see a slender woman entering through the flaps of what I finally realized was a tent. Was this my kidnapper? This small, harmless girl?

“Who are you? Where have you taken me?” I asked in an authoritative tone, but felt vulnerable from my position, “Do you know what they’ll do to you when they find you?”

The woman’s eyes sparked with fear.

“How do you-? Look, calm down, please,” she said in an unsteady voice, “Do you remember what happened? I need to check your leg.”

“No!” I shrieked, “I don’t remember what happened. All I know is that you kidnapped me and I messed up my leg trying to get away from you. But I can’t remember anything because you probably drugged me to keep me quiet. By the Gods!”
I grabbed my head, unable to do anything else, as it began to throb. Pearls of sweat were forming on my forehead. She sighed from beside me and as much as I wanted to act scared or threatened, this woman’s aura gave off nothing of the such.

“My name is Zaid,” she said and extended her hand to me perhaps to shake, but I didn’t move, “and I am by no means your kidnapper. Feel free to leave as you wish, but I don’t think you’re going to get very far with that leg of yours. Which by the way, I really should change that rag or else it’s going to get infected. I promise you I had no doing in your injury. I only want to help.”

My eyes finally focused upon the woman who claimed not to be my kidnapper and for some odd reason I believed her. She seemed too kind to have that sort of agenda and far too small to have dragged me around herself. Unless she had a companion; if so, I was surely a fool.

However, I found myself captivated by the woman’s earthy stare; it was as if I was looking into a dark forest. My anxiety dissipated as I took in the young woman’s appearance. Her hair was red like an autumn leaves; it sat messily on her head in short, uneven strands, looking as if it had been a few weeks since she had gotten a decent bathe.

Zaid, what a strange name, I thought to myself. I gave a dejected sigh at my situation and began to unravel the blood soaked cloth, needing to see what was causing me such misery. I gave a violent hiss as I removed the material clung to my swollen, heated flesh.

“Careful,” Zaid said carefully again, “Can I take a look at it?”

I finally gave her a curt nod and watched as she cautiously began to tend to my wound. What other options did I have? Her attentive fingers were slender and pale, but they didn’t seem to have the roughness that I had expected.
“The guards were all over you,” Zaid interjected at some point in an attempt to see if I remembered anything, “I’m glad that I came when I did.”

“The guards?” I asked with confusion. Why would the guards be after me? That didn’t make any sense at all.

I shivered suddenly as an ache ran through my body and I groaned.

“I think you might have a fever,” Zaid said with a worried look and touched my forehead; her cool fingers were a strange comfort.

Visions of a place I didn’t recognize began to flood my brain and as the seconds ticked on, they became faintly more recognizable.

A winding corridor into the depths of the earth. A delirious man that didn’t make sense. A glowing vial of liquid that shimmered like the stars.

A fever I surely must have had because these memories couldn’t be mine, but my gut told me otherwise.

“Find me again to reveal the emerald,” the voice echoed, “Your secret won’t stay hidden in the dirt forever.”

As if a wave crashed down onto me, I gasped and all of my forsaken memories flooded back in.

“I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” Zaid gulped fearfully, but I couldn’t reply.

What have I done? I asked myself, afraid I had made a foolish mistake.

Here I was thinking this child before me was careful in fear of my presence, but how could she know I was the monarch’s wife, Queen Esmeralde, when my face resembled nothing of the such? I wanted to reach for a mirror to confirm my thoughts, but that would have been odd and this woman obviously didn’t carry anything with a reflection on it.
If I was correct; if my dawning memories were right, then I was nothing more than a peasant to this woman. A dirty, insignificant peasant. What she didn’t realize was that I had consumed a magic potion which allowed me to become someone who I was not. Someone who never existed in the kingdom of Nyxalia or in the world for that matter.

In my futile attempt to find meaning to my life, I had sought out the kingdom’s most mysterious and dangerous man, a practitioner of the Forbidden Craft: the Unspoken One. Someone who not even the Monarchy would dare pick a fight with, for they had done so before and failed miserably. Legends were that he was older than this kingdom and could see everything all at once.

Magic was a concept that only the esoteric mind could understand yet it called to many with its siren’s melody. Men and women of all ages took little heed of the consequences which brought about disasters; foolish minds causing the equilibrium of the planet to shift. Magic meant chaos and therefore was deemed unlawful. Anyone caught dabbling in the Craft in any sense would be sentenced to a life of imprisonment.

Upon finding this man, which was a challenge in itself, I told him of my wishes to walk in the shoes of those under me to understand life better. I had been in this world no longer than three decades and yet I felt my life’s purpose was over, past due, and wasted.

Oh, but how life has a way of granting your wishes in the cruelest of ways.

Upon entering the village disguised as an ordinary peasant, the villagers around me had taken little notice upon my presence which in itself made me angry, but I had to remind myself of who I was not.

“Tread carefully on the path of the Fool; one must always remember their place.”

The Unspoken One’s voice had been too faint in my ears; his words seemed nothing but nonsense. Surely, he was the Fool. A collection of people had been standing around a villager on a crate who was shouting words of anarchy and damnation to the Monarchy. Little control did I have when I stormed into that circle to uphold the kingdom.

“Why are you just standing there?” I had asked with superiority to a royal guard standing nearby, “I demand that you arrest this man.”

Chuckles and boos came out from the crowd directed at me and the guard crossed his arms, unmoving.

“I don’t take orders from peasants.”

“How dare you. I am your Queen,” I blurted out, giving little thought and suddenly the guards face darkened.

“Impersonating the Queen?” the man chuckled flatley and sighed, “Delirium has plagued this town. Come on now, I’ve had enough of you,” he replied and made a grab at me. I panicked and elbowed him in the gut.

Expressing one’s opinion wasn’t the problem here, but the fire was stoked when I attempted to call myself Queen. One greater crime than practicing magic was impersonating anyone from royalty, and the closer to the Monarch, the higher the penalty.

I think my delusional slip may have been forgiven except I had to make matters worse and assault a Royal Guard. In response, there was a reddening shade blossomed on the guards face. For quick, effective action, royal guards were given the freedom to act how they saw fit in order to protect the Kingdom.

Needless to say, I tried to run when he unsheathed his sword. I hadn’t noticed the woman emerging from the edge of the woods as I turned the corner of a building. I was a fool to think I could outrun the kingdom’s protection. Oblivious, an arrow was shot effortlessly my way and I went down into the dirt like angel falling from grace. Perhaps it was my adrenaline that kept me from moving, as I was pulled up by an unfamiliar hand. I didn’t pause to look at the person assisting me, leading me away from the village into the dark canopy of the forest. It was when the pain began to creep that my world went black.

“I’m sorry we’re so far from the village,” Zaid said, interrupting my distracted memories, “but I had to get you out of there before they arrested you. Or worse, hanged you.”

I shivered.

“Tell me,” the girl spoke again, “What shall I call you?”

“Oda,” I blurted out randomly, and cringed at the first word that had spilled from my lips. It didn’t seem to phase the redhead.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Oda. I’m glad I came when I did. I didn’t see the entire thing, but I couldn’t let a woman be taken into custody by those filthy men.”

My leg jerked as her ministrations grew tense momentarily before she finished up her work, tying another rag around my wound. I let out an uncomfortable cough and slumped back onto a blanket that had been made into a pillow. Why was I feeling so terrible?

“You have a fever,” she commented as she dipped another rag into water and pressed it against my forehead. She stood to her feet and told me to get some more rest

Setting down a cup of water in case I became thirsty while she was gone, she told me she would go fetch something to eat. I tried to protest until I realized that I was indeed tired; more tired and sore than I had been in a while. As much as I objected the ground on which I laid, I was knocked out into a dreamless oblivion almost as quickly as the younger woman disappeared from sight.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read this. This is an old project I've decided to manipulate from a popular fanfiction novel of mine. I'm taking the characters and making them their own as well as rewriting the chapters to fit the new plot.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!