Crowns And Swords

Prologue

Centuries ago, in a land not known by too many nowadays, a baby was born. This wasn't any ordinary baby, however. No, no no no. This child was the first of four, the princess of the kingdom of Deprimere. When Queen Lucia gave birth to her first and only daughter, both she and King Andrew were filled with joy and hope. The land they ruled over reigned poorly in the last century or so, and having a girl as the first born to the royal family was considered great luck to the Deprimerians. You see, most of the royal families in the past during this era had birthed a son as the first born. Many times, the prince would go off and marry a princess in another kingdom and forget those who raised him, rule poorly during his reign, or would go join the military and eventually was killed. Women were sacred here, because the people believed that if the first born was a female, they wouldn't have to worry about possible outcomes of these princesses, compared to the princes. It was custom for princes to come and marry the ruling princess, so the princesses rarely had to step out of the kingdom's walls to find a soulmate. Princesses usually received their education from early on in their lives up to the moment just before they were crowned queen. And, most importantly, women weren't allowed in the military, for they were needed for... other reasons.
Anyways, the king and queen were extremely happy after the birth of their first child, for they knew that this daughter of theirs would give their kingdom a chance to rise from the ashes it had become. They named her Giada, which meant peace, wisdom, and balance (according to the Deprimerians). Lillian and Andrew hoped that, if their newborn daughter was raised correctly to become queen, her reign would be full of peace and wisdom.

For the first few years of her life, Giada was a happy child. Her brother, Sebastian, who a came a few short minutes after Giada, were the best of friends. They'd play games together, such as chess and dress-up, and every so often, they'd pick up their toy wooden swords and pretend to be on great adventures, side-by-side. King Andrew highly disapproved of this behavior, but since they were only children, he let this pass (after giving young Giada a lecture on why ladies shouldn't fight).
After Queen Lillian gave birth to her second son, Liam, the kingdom of Misia, which was far off to the west of Deprimere, had called for war against their kingdom. This was so because one of the royal Deprimerian council members had accidentally threatened the king of Misia, and he took it too seriously. King Andrew was called in to fight in the war, and he couldn't refuse.
On the dark, gloomy night before the battle, Andrew sat in the royal chambers with his once more pregnant wife and his three children. Fully clad in the armor of his father before him, he whispered to his family:
"Protect each other while I am away. Make sure that no one in this room gets hurt severely in any way, shape, or form, otherwise I won't be able to forgive myself."
Lillian, Giada, and Sebastian all nodded. Liam cooed, as he was too young to understand any language but his own. As Andrew stood and made his way to the chamber doors, Lillian handed her small child to Giada and rushed to her husband. She hugged him extremely tight, and said quietly,
"I love you, Andy... Please, come back safe. For all of us."
He hugged her back as she began to tear up. He kissed her on the lips for the last time and left the chambers. His children shouted their good byes before Lillian could whisk them away to a safer part of the castle.

The battle between Misia and Deprimere was extremely brutal. Thousands of men from each kingdom fought on the battlefield, slashing at each other with sharpened iron swords and shooting with flaming arrows. The battle lasted for a few weeks, and with every passing hour, hundreds of men were killed by the opposing side. Eventually, Deprimere came out victorious, but sadly, not everyone came back. Families of these soldiers were either crying with joy that their loved ones returned safe, or crying with despair, as their loved ones were killed.
Standing at the enormous castle gates, Queen Lillian waited alone in the cold to watch for her husband come back to her in the crowd of wounded soldiers for hours on end. Eventually, as dusk drew nigh, the captain of the royal guard came up to Lillian and handed her the dented and dusty helmet of her husband, saying the words:
"I'm extremely sorry, milady. He fought well, but the arrow hit him in the chest before he could shout 'Victory is ours.'"
This brought tears to the queen's eyes. She took the helmet with shaky hands, thanked the captain for bringing it to her, and made her way back to her chamber. She sobbed for days on end, asking the Lord why things happened the way they did.
The event traumatized her, and even the sight of her husband's face from the royal paintings would cause her crippling depression and grief to worsen. Giada and Sebastian were both traumatized by this too, and they tried all they could to bring their mother back to her original mental state. But, no matter how hard they tried, there was no change in the grieving queen's attitude. Even after the birth of her fourth and final son, Elijah, she couldn't do anything else but mourn over her husband. It actually got worse, for Elijah was the only child of hers who resembled Andrew the most.
Giada cared for her brothers, alongside the queen's maidens, in absence of her mother. It wasn't until after Giada had turned thirteen, approximately six years after the battle, that Lillian was able to come back to reality and she could get over the loss of her husband. From that moment on, the queen promised herself that she wouldn't let her children, especially Giada, go into battle like her husband did before, for she didn't want to risk losing her children to the sword.