Thinkin' that they've won
it's only just begun, when I go into that ground
I won't go quietly,
I'm bringin' my crown
and when I go into that ground
oh, they gotta bury me,
bury me face down
- grandson

-----❅-----

- Victorine -

-----❅-----

After what seemed like an eternity, I felt my breathing upper body rise and fall slightly. I tried to organize my thoughts and calmly relate what had happened.

I lifted my arm and grabbed my face, wincing as I grabbed my open eyes, which left a burning sensation. Slowly, I straightened up. My throat was dry as dust, my eyes were watering and I was coughing hard.

I clenched both hands into fists and struggled to my feet. A wave of emotions flooded me. Anger, despair, and a pervasive, consuming uncertainty. My legs trembled as I walked up the aisle, feeling my way with my hands.

At some point, I encountered a resistance that felt like a door. I couldn't find a handle, so I pushed against it with all my might. It was no use. Breathing heavily, I sank to the floor and fekt a cold, pointed object against my leg. I took it into my hand. It was my mother's crown.

Stunned, I pressed it to me and took comfort in the object that seemed to be my only support at this moment in this endless darkness. I forced my quivering body to stand up. My left hand was tightly clasped around the metal of the crown. With the other, I groped my way in the other direction.

My ice-cold evening gown stuck to my body and hindered my walking. I stumbled a few times and forced myself to walk more slowly. My whole body ached. Having to struggle up after a fall would cost me precious energy.

At some point the ground got wet and after a few seconds my feet were standing in water. It stank of indefinable smells. Where was I? In the sewers? I continued to walk while the cold water rose higher and made my bare ankles freeze under my dress.

After some time, I caught sight of a faint glimmer of light. Far too quickly, I was out. The daylight blinded me and I held a hand in front of my eyes. Suddenly I had no more ground under my feet and felt myself falling.

As I fell, I wrenched my eyes open, recognized blue water below me, and held my breath. In the next second, I slapped the surface of the water and submerged. I opened my eyes and swam upward, orienting myself to the brightest spot. Then I hit the surface and gasped for air.

Holding the crown, I swam toward the shore, where I pulled myself out of the water, propped myself up on the ground, scrambled toward some bushes, and hid there. Cautiously, I looked around. I had fallen out of the sewer pipe which was on the edge of the village that surrounded our castle. The sun was high in the sky. Had I really been lying in the corridors all night?

I didn't want to imagine all that had happened during those hours. Was my family dead? Were the villagers dead? Had they been murdered while I had laid in those corridors?

With a deeply oppressive feeling in my chest, I peered out from the bushes and observed my surroundings. When I saw and heard nothing, I ventured closer to the village. On the ground I recognized fresh traces of horse hooves. Countless horse hooves, in both directions. Had the attackers already left? I could not be sure.

It was frighteningly quiet in the village. For a moment, there was no other sign of an attack until I turned the corner. Scattered, covered corpses lay along the roadsides, a few residents in dirty or bloody clothing scurried about or wept bitterly. My heart froze at the sight.

"Can you tell me what happened?", I asked the woman closest to me who was tending to an injured child. She looked up at me in wonder, her dirt-smeared face full of fear. Then she widened her reddened, swollen eyes even more. "Your Royal Highness-" Before she could get to her feet, I knelt down to her and helped to tend the child's wounds.

The whimpering boy's shirt was pulled up to his chest. At his waist was a clean, inch-long cut that was still bleeding slightly.

Who on earth would attack a child?

The hands of the woman next to me trembled as she cleaned the wound. "They came at dawn yesterday. It was a whole army, as if from nowhere. They came with horses, dragons, and shadow creatures. The humans wore the crest of Tenebris." Her quivering voice broke off and she started crying.

My breath got caught in my throat. Tenebris.

The troops of Tenebris were known to spare no one. Not even children.

"You must go to the castle at once, Victorine. I don't know what happened there," she continued to sob.

I scrambled to my feet and wheeled around. I had been so captivated by the gruesome sight that I had lost sight of my family. Crown in hand, I ran through the village, blocking out the death and suffering around me as best I could. I noticed cold tears on my cheeks as I sprinted down the path to the castle gate.

Anger drove me even further when I saw the destruction in the castle courtyard. Weapons were lying around. The stench of blood and iron, metal and corpses thickened the air, making it hard to breathe. Dead horses lay on the stony ground. Flies flew around their bodies. A few employees were tending to the wounded and rushing around; no one paid any attention to me.

I ran to the throne room. A few employees called my name, but I couldn't stop. I had to get to my parents, who were holding their places on the thrones, coordinating everything, rebuilding the defenses, sending doctors and helpers to the village.

But when I got there, the thrones were empty.

Bitter shock ran through my heart, everything felt incredibly heavy. I pressed the crown against my chest, my legs threatening to give way to my weight.

"Victorine!" a dark voice called out.

I whirled around and fell into my brother's arms. My upper body shook as I sobbed, shaking my head violently. "No, no, no, no," I repeated over and over, as if those words could undo what had happened.

"Listen, we have to be strong now," my brother ordered, grabbing my shoulders and looking me in the eye.

I saw how Darius had found our mother. With a dagger that had been rammed through her chest and heart.

How he had run into the briefing room and seen our father behind a pile of dead soldiers. Sitting down on a chair. His throat had been half cut so that his head lay on his shoulder with staring, wide eyes.

"No!" I screamed, whirling around to keep from looking into my brother's eyes.

My chest was so tight and my throat so closed that I couldn't breathe.

"I'm going to kill them," it came out of my mouth then after the first breath. My feet carried me to the nearest wall, where I lashed out with my fist and slammed into it, sending searing pain through my knuckles. "By God, I'm going to slash them all!"

For a few seconds there was silence in the throne room. Then a thought occurred to me. "What about Crescentia?", I whispered, fearful because of the impending answer. I had not seen her in Darius' mind.

"She is nowhere to be found," Darius answered gloomily. He slowly approached me, embraced me, and held me close. For a moment, I allowed the closeness. Even the tears that ran down my cheek. But it didn't take long for my tears to dry up. I pushed my brother away from me.

Anger and hatred flooded me. At Tenebris, but most of all at me and my mother. Why hadn't she fled with me? Why hadn't I been allowed to fight back, to protect her? Where was my sister? I swore to myself that if they had done something to her....

"Listen to me, Victorine. We barely managed to push the army back. That's the only reason our kingdom hasn't been overthrown and taken over yet. We need to focus on rebuilding our defenses."

I suppressed the urge to angrily ram my fist into his face. Of course he was right, but our parents were dead and our sister was nowhere to be found.

"We're about to have a meeting with the advisors of the royal house and figure out what to do next. Get changed and then come to the meeting room," Darius finally said. That was reasonable. We would organize a search party and soon bring our sister back home. I was about to hurry away when he suddenly stopped me.

"Victorine, wait. Is that... Mother's...?" he asked, whispering the last word softly. I stopped and felt myself getting dizzy. Tears threatened to well up in my eyes, while a knot as if made of dirty rags formed in my throat, as I pressed the crown to me again and looked at my brother.

"She paralyzed me in her bedroom and hid me in a hidden escape route. There was nothing I could do. It was so terrible, Darius," I reported in a trembling voice that threatened to break off.

As I stared at the crown in my hands, everything suddenly became clear to me. My mother did it to protect me. The enemy soldiers had targeted her. If she had escaped with me, then that would have been a risk for me. Maybe they would have scoured the room for places to hide.

Breathing became more and more difficult and I tried to suppress any thoughts. Hesitantly, I walked up to him and put the crown in his hands. It was hard for me to give it away, but it was not mine to give. Darius' wife would wear it someday.

My brother blinked away rising tears. "That's just like her," he whispered, giving me a tiny smile. He didn't even have to try that on me. I could read how much sadness was in him.

Experiencing the emotions of two people was too much for me, so without another word I turned away from him and walked through the castle, which was even more empty and cold than usual.

Once in my room, I took a few deep breaths in and out, then looked in the bathroom mirror. My face was scratched, dirty and soiled, my eyes red.

Shivering, I peeled myself out of the damp dress that stuck to my skin. I washed my face with cold water, then stared at my trembling fingers for a few seconds. My parents were dead. My sister was gone. Perhaps I would never see her again.

In a trance-like state, I dressed and made my way to the meeting room. As I entered the large room, several people present looked up at me. I recognized a lot of men and women dressed in dirty and bloody soldiers' uniforms, many of them looking slightly injured, but what was most striking was the angry blaze in their eyes and the determination on their faces.

Likewise, there were a few advisors dressed in noble clothes, bent over maps and papers. A few tired and exhausted-looking employees scurried back and forth. There was no room for sadness here. I didn't fully understand that until I looked at my brother. He was sitting at the end of the large table, talking to some consultants, pointing at cards. His left hand clenched into an angry fist at irregular intervals.

"Your Royal Highness Victorine, are you well? Do you have any request?" inquired a clerk who instantly left her previous duties to the left. "No, thank you," I replied and raised my shoulders, standing up straighter. I needed to be strong, to concentrate. There was no way I was going to let events stagnate.

"Darius," I called attention to myself as I reached the end of the room. My brother looked up at me and offered me a seat next to him, which I took and immediately examined the papers in front of us. There were dozens of maps and some kind of documents.

"There is a new report, Royal Highness Darius. The confidential servants have followed them successfully after the attack. Apparently they were heading straight back to their kingdom. They were last seen here," reported a soldier coming up beside us.

"I see. Send more dragon riders in their direction and to patrol the surrounding areas. Have all the doctors and any other aides been sent to the village?" inquired Darius.

"Yes, Your Royal Highness," confirmed one of the advisors.

"What about Crescentia?" wanted to know. "We have to look for her, Darius. Perhaps they have kidnapped her," I voiced my gruesome thoughts.

"I know," my brother confirmed gloomily. "But we can't do anything right now. Many soldiers have fallen, we are defenseless and too weakened. We have to take care of the villagers first. That's our duty."

I gritted my teeth and cracked my knuckles angrily. Of course he was right. But it was our sister we were talking about here. She had powers with which she could defend herself, but otherwise she couldn't really fight. She was young, beautiful, and a king's daughter. Ideas came to my head that scared me beyond belief.

"What can they want with her, Darius? Why did they attack us in the first place?" Why doesn't someone follow them and cut off the head of Cephas, the king of Tenebris?

"Cephas has attacked other kingdoms in the last few months, Royal Highness Victorine," one of the advisors then reported to me.

"What, why didn't we know about it?", I asked, stunned.

"I think Father was going to tell us last night," Darius surmised. "They weren't particularly powerful kingdoms. But apparently there have often been abductees with special blood and abilities. Cephas is a power-hungry king. He would have attacked Sanguis long ago, too, if he didn't risk a loss by doing so."

I began to sort out all the information in my head. Cephas had become king of the kingdom of Tenebris a few years ago. There had been rumors that he had caused his father's death. Kingdoms attacking each other was not uncommon, and as long as they had no other helping allies, there were no consequences.

Our kingdom, Spero, had been one of the more powerful kingdoms. Tenebris had been the richest, most powerful, and largest since Cephas' coronation. The best mages and soldiers lived there. Arguably the second most powerful was Sanguis.

"Speaking of Sanguis," Darius continued. "They were here last night. About two hours after the attack, the army arrived here and fought those of Tenebris. With their help, we were then able to force them to flee."

The army of Sanguis was here? Why? Had they known about the attack before we did? Although, with fast dragons, they were here in Spero within an hour. I didn't understand anything anymore.

"We think it is likely that King Nicolas wants to stop the further power moves of Cephas. Sanguis is not necessarily an allied kingdom of ours, yet they didn't want anything in return for their help either," one of the advisors interjected.

"Then we join them," I decided in an angry voice.

"It's not that easy, Victorine," my brother countered, looking at me seriously.

Easy, not necessarily. But Cephas had my parents' lives on his conscience. And I would give anything to see his head roll and to free my sister from his grip.