Your Life Over Mine (on hold)

Chapter 1

 “Dear, I know it’s not ideal, but we can’t let you stay here in Eldaris. People are growing suspicious,” Irene spoke to her son with regret, wishing nothing more than for him to remain in their small village. It was too dangerous, though. People were wary about Philip; always had been. For even though the boy was quite likeable and usually cheerful, a lot of the older folk could not brush off the strange things that had happened in the first few years after Philip’s birth. Strange things that could only be explained by sorcery, not that anyone dared to initiate such a thing without actual proof.

They had all still stayed suspicious towards Philip though, even when he had finally learnt to control his magic and stopped setting fire to heaps of hay by accident, or making his mother’s crops grow higher than those of anyone else even though they had been looking poorly only a night before.

Upon further thinking, Philip didn’t mind leaving his village all that much. He had never quite felt all that homey and welcome anyway, and the people had always made him feel uncomfortable, following his every step as if they were waiting for him to make an obvious mistake that would confirm their fears and suspicions and give them a reason to ask for an audience with King James and demand an execution. Philip shivered at the very thought of it.

His mother had tried to explain to him why King James had outlawed magic several times, but the story changed every time, for no one fully knew or understood what really had happened back then, a good fifteen years ago. There were a few parts that were the same in every version of the tale though.

“The Kingdom used to be a beautiful, almost perfect place when King James first became king,” Philip’s mother had said with a sad sigh and a flicker of regret in her voice, “the people were weary for some time, scared of the changes their new king would bring. Not the first time would it have been that a new king meant new rules; cruel and unjust rules, benefiting only the wealthy and the noble. This time their worries were for naught, though, at the beginning at least.

“King James was a just and mighty king. He ruled the Kingdom like no one had before him. He solved quarrels and wars not with fighting and with weapons but with calm, convincing offers and compromises. The poor folk he helped as much as the wealthy. He was the sort of king everyone would wish to be on the throne.

“His marriage with the Lady Audrey, the daughter of King William of Gravia, only strengthened his ruler ship, for the two lands were now joined in peace and no longer on the brink of war. Although a long time it took until the preparations were finished – treaties needed to be made, borders were renewed – in the end it was all worth it. The wedding was more beautiful than any wedding before. King James, clad in the gallant robes worn by his ancestors before, stood proudly beside his newly-wed Queen, the Lady Audrey, who was fairer than even an Elf of old tale could be. Beautiful and ageless she looked with the crown of Avalon upon her brow; her face resembled the faultless texture of pure porcelain and her dark-brown hair fell down her back in waves so full even the Sea was envious beyond measurement.

“Not even a year after their wedding Lady Audrey gave birth to a healthy and strong little boy. They named him Daniel and cherished him like a gift of God himself, and like a gift he still is treated. He is the only heir of Avalon and for ever he will be, for soon after the second anniversary of the King and the Lady Audrey’s wedding a dark shadow spread over the whole Kingdom. Tales were told of an evil old witch, who travelled the lands in search for a potion so fatal it was bound to bring death and sorrow upon anyone who only consumed a drop of it.

“And so it happened that one night, when the rain poured down unusually hard, bringing a mist upon the world so thick not even the keenest eyes could pierce it, the witch snuck past the guards into the castle and up to the Kingly Chambers. There, driven by greed and lust, she poisoned the sleeping Queen and put a love enchantment upon the unsuspecting King. The enchantment King James broke; too pure and real were his feelings for his beloved wife. The poison, however, he could not make undone.