The Lonely Queen

Prologue

14 years ago...

The royal palace of Halta was burning in flames.

Everyone ran for their lives; maids, servants, butlers, trying to escape from the fire. No one noticed when it started or who did it, suddenly the place was burning and people started screaming. It was a total chaos. The furniture burned, and, sadly, many people got trapped and their lives were lost. They saved what they could, only to be caught up in the fire. Some of them did not died instantly and suffered for the burns, in those last painful minutes the only thing they could do was regret the fact that many of them wouldn't see their families ever again.

The captain of the royal army was shouting orders to his knights, sending troops to evacuate the building and the city. Then, he and four other knights went in the search of the noble family of Halta, Lady Camelia, Lord Aaron, their son Damian and their daughter Lyn. They searched in every corner of the palace, but there was no sign of them and the flames were getting rougher, it was almost impossible to breath and their vision was getting cloudy.

The rooms and halls were full with corpses in the horrible and hurtful way they died, the gashes in their faces made them impossible to be recognized. The disgusting sight made one of the knights to feel nauseous. It only made him think that that would be the way he would die. Burned. He would not die because of getting old, nor in the war, but in this disgusting way.

"Captain Hector! They are not in here and the building is falling down, we must get out of here now or we won't make it!" The door of the Master bedroom fell and the troop hurried in. Hector looked to his soldier and glared at him.

"Our duty is to protect the royal family to all costs even if that means to die in battle. I am not going to abandon Milord and Milady when I already have gone this far. We must find them!"

"But Captain He-"

"Over there!" They abruptly headed to the place the other soldier pointed. There, in a secret passage behind the crooked bookshelf, was Lord Aaron and Lady Camelia creating a magic barrier to protect their children. Both of them were drained out of energy and seemed they would collapse in any second, and with them the wooden beams that would bring a tragic fate. Damian, semi consciously, was holding his sister tightly against him, covering her nose and mouth from the smoke with a handkerchief. The Lord's gaze met with the Captain's and gave a weak gesture with his head.

"Milord! We have to get out of here!" Two knights took in the children and Damian fainted, Lyn was still awake and mumbled incomprehensible words against her brother's handkerchief.

A beam between them fell. The smoke rose high, filling their lungs and cutting out the oxygen. The troop coughed harshly while they tried to focus their sight through the smoke.

"I am...afraid that I won't be able...to make it...Hector," Aaron's words made his wife turn her head to him with fear. Camelia shook her head violently and intensively stared at her husband.

"Don't say such things! You and I are getting out of this together!"

The loving and supporting words of his wife reminded him of when they were starting their life as a family; the beautiful and peaceful dreams and ambitions they had formed together. When they promised each other of never letting go of each other. But, alas, he couldn't keep his promise.

"I wish I could...Camelia, go with Hector and escape with the children. I will stay here," By now her eyes were full of tears and her body shivered uncontrollably. Hector was the only knight remaining with them, and the heartbreaking words of his Lord and friend made him wish to be in his place instead.

The curtains fell from the support of the window and the fire spread to the fallen beams which caused a fire barrier between them. Lady Camelia was no better, she was also getting weaker and weaker because all of her energy being drained. She looked like a delicate porcelain doll, in a matter of seconds she would fall and break.

"Hector...Please, take care...of them..." The magic barrier was getting weaker with the seconds and Aaron's knees gave in.

Hector clenched his fists helplessly and bid silently a good-bye to him. He took Camleia's wrist and pulled her out of the barrier. Her eyes were wide with horror and sadness, she couldn't leave him alone, she was his wife for Dana's sake! If she was going to leave then Aaron should come too! Camelia shouted and kicked but Hector's grip was stronger.

"Daddy..." Lyn bearly whispered as she fell uncounscious on the knight's shoulder, her hand never letting go of the handkerchief.

Aaron watched as his wife and children escaped, at least he could give them the last hope. He gave a last smile and prayed to Dana for the future of his family, he hoped that the demons that had hunted him in past wouldn't return to hunt his children.

"Hm, hahahaha! HAHAHA!"

A sinister laughed filled the air. The hoarse sound felt like a rough sandpaper, cutting through the air like a steel sword. The mere sound of this made Aaron sweat cold, he knew perfectly to whom this voice belonged, a descendant from the evil sorcerer that once ruled the country of Halta by force and who was defeated by the first monarch, the one who began the bloodline of the Darmanis royal family of Halta.

"What a pityful sight for a prideful king," the abstract shadow began to approach and took the form of a tall and heavy man. "It would be impolite of me to leave you in such a regrettable state, shall I put an end to your miserable life?" The man raised his spiky sword and red lightning covered it all, a tiny red ball of light formed at the tip of the sword.

The man approached Aaron, the flames opened an entrance for him and moved away when he passed, as if they were his servants they succumbed to his extraordinary power, and pointed the sword to his neck. The light ball worked as fire, it touched his neck and burned it, and the tip of the sword was leaving a blood trace all over the place. The mysterious man enjoyed the simple look of pain of the one who had supressed him through all this years in that Corrupted Realm; his wicked grin grew larger until the point it looked like the smile of dragon with sharp teeth.

"Nefrium..."

That whisper activated the spell and all the lightning concentrted in the sword expanded to the neck of Aaron and then travelled to his complete body. Aaron's face shouted in fear and pain, his eyes looked as if they were about to get out of their sockets, his body twisted and little pieces of skin fell from him. His body felt numb and painful, the burns it caused him made him cough blood. It was the worst kind of death one could imagine. But the man wasn't sastisfied yet, he saw how the body of the king twisted in the floor in pain, he raised his sword and then thrusted it in the left side of his rib cage, shattering his rib and and some heart tissue. He twisted the sword completely and pushed until something cracked.

The final blow made him expel all the blood left in his body. His pulse was slowing down and his conscious was wearing out; the sounds of the man's laugh seemed to fade away, everything was becoming pitch black.

"So...this is how it feels...to die..."

Flashbacks of his life with his family appeared in his mind, the only thing he regreted was not being able to stay by his children's side; not being able to see them grow, see his son grow into a full man and king and his daughter into a beautiful woman and princess with a loving family to take care of her.

When the king finally stopped moving, the man snickered a little and then it became into a sinester laugh. It was a pleasure for him, seeing the king dead and being the responsable of his death. "Such a special way to die, Milord, just for you," He kicked the corpse. "Don't worry about your family, I also have a special treating for them, especially your boy. "

He took out his sword full of Aaron's blood and saw his reflection in it, everything was ready. "It's time for the land of Ellaward to take control of things, and I, Gran, King of Assassins, shall make it come true."

A cloud of black smoke covered his body and disappeared into the air. When Gran left, the barrier that was around him to keep the flames away evaporated and the beams covered in fire fell over the corpse of the late king of Halta, consuming his body until nothing but ashes and a sword were left.

That day, the Royal Palace came down to ashes and the name of the Royal family, Darmanis of Halta, became nothing but a mere sorrowful memory in the wind.