Royally Cursed

Chapter 3: The Trainee

Daria Asadi:

Six Months later

It wasn't easy preparing myself for the next and biggest step to Aunt Zahra, Uncle Mustafa and my plans.
We all had a personal vendetta against the Royals who reigned over the Palace of Syrena. I sat by the window in the room that me and Lenor had shared, as my thoughts consumed me.

The night when King Leon had ordered his men to raid my house, murdering Baba and Mama.Whilst me and my brother Amir had visited the market, was a memory that always haunted my dreams. My Father had worked closely with the King of Reatha, he paid no attention to this and labelled my baba as a fraud. Amir was quite a bit older than me at the time; he had noticed the Royal horses by our house first. He made me wait by the tree and bushes near the window of our living room. I saw the expressions on his face as he took the scene in the living room, I had caught on to the look of agony and disbelief as he turned around. I remember the shriek I let out, as his face filled with betrayal. He caught my eye shaking his head. Betrayal was the last glimpse I had seen on my older brother's face before, I saw a sword glide across his neck. I clearly remembered the waves of pain that had taken over my chest as I curled up behind the bushes. The shouts of agony I heard from Mama; it went on forever before it had gone silent. Her shouts had haunted my dreams, her shouts of pain were the last time I ever heard my mother's voice.

It was forty-eight hours before Aunt Zahra and Uncle Mustafa had found me. I remember the wide eyes they shared filled that was filled with surprise when they found me. The first year my family had left, I became a shell of the innocent girl I used to be. I vowed to take down the Man that had turned me into an orphan only at the age of 17, who had turned me into a monster not showing mercy to anyone in his family. For Mercy, it didn't cross his mind when he sent his guards to wipe out the only home I knew.

To succeed in the next crucial part of our plans, I spent the past six months physically and mentally preparing myself for what was to come. I made sure to put my reckless killing of the Royal guards to sleep, now it was time for bigger prey.

That included disguising myself as a man, training with the other men that were going to be handpicked by Roman Giovanni, the future General, to become part of Prince Zakaria's royal guards. The first month I was picked on by all the other men, due to my size and my feminine features. I learnt to wear more layers of clothing, so I looked less petite. I learnt to wear men's shoes that had more of a heel, so I appeared taller. My hair had to be cut for this image to be sold, it now lay by my shoulders, and it was always in a bun, though it was always covered by a hat. Then came the second and third months where challenge after challenge I had proved my strength. My only aim during these tasks was to keep my head down and not to speak until I was spoken to. Despite gaining the nickname of 'Scrawny little man', I had proved over and over that strength during a dual, was what mattered. I might have been small, but I had packed quite a punch.

Roman Giovanni, the future General, had towered in height over me. Giovanni, to put it simply, was ruthless. He told some of the men to go home after the first few weeks, knowing they had no potential to be one of The Royal guards. He had a calmness, that had to be studied. His eyes had yet to show any type of emotion and I always found myself studying his features not out of attraction, but his brown eyes had reminded me of mine a few years ago. It lacked emotion and was empty. He had barely spoke, only when he had to instruct us. As the months had passed, I had quickly realized why Roman was to be the future General, apart from his physical strength he was smart from his challenge techniques and picking out the strongest and smartest of the 45 men to narrowing down the group to 15 men. From what I gathered, all operations through the Palace had gone by Roman first. This would be an important piece of information in the future which I had stored away. The last month of the Task stages was the hardest, it included Roman, a man who looked like his brother and a few other royal guards from the Palace teaching us to endure pain in the cases of 'The Misfits', or even a rival Kingdom using us for information on The Knight family.