.A Spark From Before.

-50-

"Long live the queen!"

But I could barely hear anything as I sat slumped into the throne I was forced into and with a crown that weighed so much that I thought my head would break off at the neck.

I barely heard the cheering of the crowd stuck in my mind.

I moved on instinct, almost like watching my body from the outside.

My heart grieved the pain it caused itself.

I had had little to no say in what was done with her body after it was all over, the crowd hollering and cheering as the corpse of the 'Witch Queen' was burnt on a stack of hay by my fire and to honor her words, the head of the tyrant queen was sent to the elves.

I wanted to cry but couldn't anymore, exhausting all the tears.

And I was left here, in a role I never wanted, alone and far away, no mentor, no family, no lover, nothing.

I had nothing.

At the prim of my life, I had nothing.

As the days passed, it felt like the world had stopped turning.

Somehow, the town of the Capitol and the queendom was healing by themselves, or was it the help of the Elite? I didn't know, and I didn't want to know. All I wanted was to be left alone.

I'd stare into nothing in the day and cry myself to sleep every night.

It was just so much pain.

Love can be crueler than the most vile of warlords, the most heartless of winters, or the most evil of storms.... Love was harsher than all of them. Just why did it be like that?

There was no reason for me to want anything since all I could ask for was gone from the face of the world, and I would need to live with it.

And despite it all, despite fighting against time, it moved on.

I took the mantle forced on me and did my best.

Being nothing but a little girl from a backwaters village, I knew not what to do. The men and women I previously wanted dead for my whole life were what I could rely on to not kill Solor for good with my inexperience.

Days filled with different classes, learning from the simplest things, what a bow could mean done in different ways, to the hardest of things, how to speak the language of dragons. Anything magic-related, tho, I needed to figure out myself, rediscover it, remaster it, like seeing the words appear on a page when supplied with magic was something I accidentally did. Now, I wondered how many of these secret magic books were thrown around the castle for me to find and discover.

There was that bloody book of forbidden spells too, something about only the queen and the heir knowing what was in it and only showing the head mage when in absolute need, that too fell on my shoulders, the knowledge of all the spells and magic banished, all the horrible things that could be done if someone else learned of what was in there... I just wanted to curl up and cry.

I immersed myself in learning to rule a queendom I only wanted to see free, never wanting them to bow at my feet.

And I had no one to share the burden with.

Or so I thought, having forgotten one person.

The Elites' were tense and scared when the auburn-haired woman showed up, silver streaks shining through her hair.

"Seems that you heeded my warnings." The gatekeeper spoke up. I never thought I'd see her in real life, not through the spirit plains. "Maybe a bit too late, tho."