Such is the irony of life...She was born in a land where she was not welcome, none of her kind were. She was a wicked curse inflicted upon this magnificent city that stood amongst the world's strongest at those times.
A land of fire worshippers, this place was one big fireball. It is hard to describe this flashy place...to begin with the streets lamps had fire lit regardless of day and night time, the people made everything from fire--- clay, bricks and glass and such was the blind faith that even the food plates were made of paper and were directly thrown inside a fire pit in the centre of the city as an offering to the three fire gods.
Here water was considered as an evil element that was only used for survival purposes. There was a whole legend on how the evil water god tricked the first humans into taking a sip from a cursed goblet, and thus cursed humanity into needing to drink this water forever. Even the water was boiled before consumption, clothes once dirty were burned down and new ones were bought---needless to say the fabric market flourished in such a town. This bought along currency, wealth and trade and thus the city flourished until it became one of the greatest strongholds of the olden times. The Irony wasn't that she was born here; it was that she was to become the Emperors first born....
Many witnesses claim that they had noticed what had happened that day, it was fairly clear that whatever it was...it wasn't going to be good news.
This city had a ritual, like all ancient civilizations do. The emperor is supposed to place his child in front of the elder flames---flames that were rumored to be burning since times before the city was even made, these were the flames of the gods and special care was taken for the whole cycle of day and night to keep this fire running no matter what. The Scholars believed that this fire was the reason their town was so safe.
And it finally happened, the Emperor stepped inside the royal chamber...a small fragile being in his hand that snuggled easily between his big palms. The whole courtroom danced in tunes, bards sang and gypsies gyrated along the floors, celebrations all around as the Emperor's first born- a daughter- a princess was placed before the elder flames on the pedestal as is ritual since times immortal.
And then the unthinkable happened...
The ghastly look on everyone's faces was covered by shrieking shrill noises of several women! Everyone could see it easily now....The fire that had burned brightly through ages was suddenly vanishing--rather extinguishing very fast. The Emperor screamed at the keepers to take care of the flames. The keeper poured in a vat of oil to no use. The flames continued to grow thinner and thinner as seconds passed! In all that commotion the queen had raced towards the abandoned child and pulled it back in her warm grasp. The baby smiled at the touch of her mother. And just like that the fire returned back---but only slightly.
The warmth that once spread through the courtroom was now considerably less, but it could also have been because of cold fear that grasped everyone now. It didn't take long before the all the courtroom pointed their fingers towards the small princess, and spoke of her as a cursed child, a demon sent by the evil water gods...people can be so creative when they are panicked.
All the pleas of the Emperor were denied by the crowd, they had decided that this child was not fit to live. The helpless fragile mass of flesh was looked upon as a bag of malice---an abomination in this paradise. And thus it was in majority that the child should be executed for the greater good of the nation.
The queen-the mother of the doomed child cried out in mercy, Ironically much like many criminals did in this very courtroom before they were 'brought to justice'. She wept in the courtroom to forgive her child and forget what had happened. She also promised to never let it happen ever again...
