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1545

"Is everything ready?" A stern, pinch-faced old man knocks once on the princess's door and walks in, uninvited. "His Majesty is asking for you."

The Queen sighs, shoving one last pin in her hair. "Tell him that he's going to have to wait."

"I'm afraid he cannot do that, Highness." The man lunges forward and seizes the princess's elegant sleeve. "You need to come with me. Now." The old man, the father of her husband, the king, was a man widely known for grabbing first and asking questions later. He should be in jail for unspeakable acts committed against women, acts that her husband knew about, but, alas, being the father of the king has its benefits.

The Queen yanks at his gnarled hand and twists it behind his back. He groans, falling to his knees. "I will go when I say it is time for me to go and not before. I am a queen and you do not speak to me this way." She was a determined woman. Forced into marriage at the age of ten, she wasn't supposed to have a name. The kingdom of Gondol only called her Your Highness. Queens were only figureheads on the well-polished arms of the kings, but she was determined to change that. 

She shoves the king's father out of the room and steps to the gilded wall mirror, studying her reflection in the glass. The Queen looked fabulous, red hair in a gilded crown, gold dress flaunting her assets, yet hiding them at the same time. Her purple eyes were a shade brighter than her gaudy maroon lipstick, yet she couldn't take it off no matter how much she hated it.

She smooths down her bodice and taking a deep breath, she says her name three times, a mantra for her and only her. Anya Aurelia.

She was once a powerful sorceress, queen of her little kingdom, unstoppable. Now, she was in chains, chains she could not find the key to, chains of her own making. Perhaps it was her fault. Perhaps she should've fought more when they came for her. She would never know.

Anya said her name to remember, to not forget who she was. The queens who came before her had no names. They had no pasts. They were soon forgotten by the cold hands of time and there was nobody left alive who would remember their names.

The difference with Anya was that she would not die without telling someone who she was. She refused to be forgotten. She was a Lunar, a summoner of light and a twister of minds, and she was powerful.

One day, she'd find the key to unlocking her cage, but today was not that day. Anya smoothed down her skirts one last time and went to go find her husband. 

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"Darling," the King's face lit up when she walked into the throne room, bowing as she entered, "Come here. I must show you something." 

Like the meek mouse that she was, Anya made her way over to him. The King looked like a child on Christmas as he held out a box to her, grinning from ear to ear. 

"What is it?" Anya asked, hesitant to take anything from him. She lost track of the amount of poisons and daggers that were hidden in her husbands kind words, in his loving smile and adoration. Her husband believed that all witches were an abomination, that all witches should not be blessed with the things that were given to them.

She didn't trust him.

He didn't trust her.

It was a recipe for disaster.

Anya reached for the box, and fingered the gold lock, observing her husbands giddy expression. Whether it was an expression of joy or glee masking his true intentions, she couldn't tell, so she didn't open it, not just yet.

The box was elegant with delicate script around the top. She could only make out the words Death and Life. The rest was covered by rust. Soon, Anya realized that the top was designed as a map.

Against her better judgement, she opened it. 

"What is it?" She asked.

"The answer to all our prayers." Her husband was stoic now, all traces of joy since gone.

"I'm-" Anya began to reply, but began to vomit and shake, collapsing onto the floor. She couldn't see anything. Everything was fading away. Including her.

The next thing she knew, Anya faded away, faded until she was in the box with no way out.

The chains had been tightened. Anya Aurelia had no way out.

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