Ana woke up and was confused with her new surroundings. Where was she?

She trembled when a gust of wind came inside her room. She grabbed the thick quilt and covered herself. A window on her far left was left open and she saw something white was swirling inside. She wrapped the quilt around her shoulders and approached the window. The land outside was enveloped with thick blanket of snow. It was dark outside, but it wasn’t evening. It was like dusk, or dawn. There was no sun, but there was no moon. Only stars adorned the dark blue velvety sky.

She heard hinges creaked and whirled around just in time to see her mother approaching her.

“Are you feeling well now, dear?” her mother asked. She only answered with a nod. “Good. Your father wanted to see you.”

“Father?” It was the first time her father wanted to see her.

“Yes. He heard what had happened at Eldar.”

“Oh. Am I at Sanggre?”

The queen gave her a warm smile and placed an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “Yes. This is your beautiful kingdom: A land in eternal darkness.”

“You mean there is no day or night here? Only like this?”

“Yes. And once you have finished your meeting with the king, I will personally show you the kingdom.” She gave Ana a fierce and affectionate hug. “It’s good to have you back here in the kingdom. After all those years I had kept you hidden… The people are just ecstatic to see their princess.”

They made their way in a room where her father, the king, and Kristoff was waiting for them. Kristoff made his way towards her side, while her father remained seated behind his large desk. Parchments, quills and scrolls were cluttered on top of the desk.

“You wanted to see me, dad? I mean father?”

A frown creased the king’s forehead. “Yes. Naturally I would want to see my daughter after the ordeals she had gone through.”

His tone wasn’t affectionate; it didn’t even give a hint that he was worried over her daughter. But Ana shrugged that off. “I’m fine now.”

“Yes, well if at the beginning you were made to stay here instead there with those bastard elves then your life wouldn’t be at risk. Nevertheless, that was all in the past and we need to make sure that incident will never happen again,” the king said.

Ana made a nod. “How about my marriage to Ivan? What will happen to us? To our kingdom?”

“I have never recognized your marriage with that elf in the first place. I will do everything I can to have it abolished. We never really needed the elves as allies.”

“I couldn’t believe Ivan would want me dead!” she found herself saying. She wasn’t able to stop herself from making her disbelief known. She couldn’t even fully accept it herself.

“It did not even surprise me that the elf wanted to kill you,” the king said grimly. “His brother wanted me dead as well, if you all recall. Well, anyhow, the elf is now under our custody for investigation. The Council of Elders is trying to intervene of course, since Lianthor made an appeal before the council to transfer the case under the council. The elves think the vampires will not be fair in passing the judgment.”

“There is to be a trial for Ivan? I don’t understand?”

“What is there you don’t understand?” the king scoffed. “Your husband tried to kill you, a royal princess. Therefore, the sentence is death upon vampire laws. My men found the dagger he used to stab you inside his room, along with the concoction of poisonous substance he used to rub on the dagger’s blade.”

“He… he was really my killer?” It shattered her to know the truth. Ivan really did want her dead. Why would he want her to die? What was he to gain from her death? Did he want to be free from his marriage to her? Why did he even marry her in the first place if he wanted out of marriage? Or maybe he wanted her dead because he couldn’t accept that she was now a vampire. She needed to talk to him, to find her answers. She needed to hear the reasons from his mouth. “I want to see him.”

“Nonsense!” her father answered. “I forbid you to go near him.”

Kristoff gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Come now, sister. Do not worry yourself over that husband of yours. I can assure you, he deserves all the nasty little treatments he is receiving right now in the dungeon.”

“My king,” queen Talya interjected, “wouldn’t it be unwise for us not to head the council’s orders? If we oppose them then it is not only the elves we will have as enemies but the wizards and nephilims as well who support the council? This could start a new war!”

A chill crept along Ana’s spine when she heard her father gave an eerie dark laugh. It only dawn to her now how sinister her father looked with his dark ominous black eyes and menacing smile on his face. “Oh I do not worry over that trifling matter. I have allies of my very own who will help me when war breaks.”

“And who might these allies be?” queen Talya asked.

“One they never wanted to cross with,” the king answered, his voice laced with great malice that made Ana wondered if he really was her father.

***

Ana could sense her father was evil. And although she felt bad for seeing his father as an evil person, she was still wary over her father’s odd behavior. He was elated that Ivan was imprisoned within his castle. He was ecstatic that an imminent war might break loose. She could never understand the euphoria her father was experiencing over the thought of crushing the elven kingdom once war would start.

King Viktor seemed to be hungry for blood. But it was not a hunger that could be satisfied by drinking blood. No. Ana saw it in his father’s eyes –his gluttony over war and killings glowed in his dark scary black orbs.

Her mother explained to her that the Council of Elders, comprised of one representative from each race in the realm with the Chief Wizened Wizard as the head, had made an order to turn over Ivan under their investigation. However, King Viktor refused to heed the council’s orders and decided to risk the creation of another war.

Why was her father willing to fight another war? Wasn’t the point of her marriage to Ivan was to stop the countless wars between the elves and the vampires? She knew and felt, even though it was hurting her to realize it, that her father had no affection towards her and that he was doing all of these not to retaliate with the elves because her daughter was nearly killed. It felt as if her father was only using her current circumstance as an excuse to spurt conflict between the vampires and elves. But why? What was the point of everything he was doing and willing to risk?

“Father has his own dark side, dear,” Kristoff told her that evening when she asked him about their father’s penchant for blood and war. “He was raised during the time when war was just a natural occurrence. He was raised to believe that the vampires should rule over the other races. That’s why he never takes orders from anyone else, most especially from the council.”

“You’re probably right,” Ana said with a sigh. “I guess I’ll never understand how things here work.”

“You will someday,” Kristoff reassured her.

“Kristoff,” she started, “I want to see Ivan. I want to know why he wanted me dead. Can you help me?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t help you with that. Although I always disagree with father, this time I do agree with him that it is for your best that you will not go near Ivan.”

“But I need to know! I can’t go on not knowing the reason. I can hardly sleep thinking about it.”

Kristoff seemed to take her request a consideration before he said, “Tell you what. How about if I will be the one to talk to the elf on your behalf and I will relay to you his answer?”

“But–”

“No buts. Take it or leave it.”

After a sigh of resignation, Ana said, “Okay, I’ll take it.”

“Good. Now run along and enjoy what remained of your day with mother while I attend to some pressing business.”

Ana gave him a nod before she went to look for her mother.

The whole castle was in a state of uproar later that day for the castle guards were running past Ana when she was walking along the hallway. Even the servants left their errands and huddled with one another to exchange gossips as to what had happened within the castle that caused panicked among the guards. Where was Lucya to share the gossip with her?

Suddenly, Lucya materialized before her eyes and snatched her hand. “Princess, come with me. Quickly!” And before she could even make a reply, Lucya teleported both of them back to her room.

“Lucya! What’s the matter?” she asked when she noticed Lucya looking agitated, pacing back and forth while clasping and unclasping her hands. “Sit down and try to calm yourself. You’re giving me a head ache seeing you acting like that.”

“Princess…”

“Yes?”

“Your husband, Prince Ivan…”

Her heart made a loud thump. A sense of foreboding doom wrapped around her. She felt her chest tightened, and her hands became cold and clammy. She was afraid to hear what Lucya wanted to tell her for she knew she would not like the news. “W-what about him?” she forced herself to ask.

“He…” Lucya avoided her eyes before she continued. “He is dead.”