The Mistaken Elemental

CHAPTER 1-DINA AELLE ENDOR

It was not surprising that the moment Duke John of Langley proposed to seventeen year old Dina on one knee that she ran away from him--not because she was shy but rather she couldn't bear the thought of marrying a man who was old enough to be her grandfather and looked like he was going to die any moment with his sickly wrinkled skin or his pot of stomach pouch.

It was just her bad luck that the Duke's beady eyes found her among all the girls of marriageable age for his new wife. She didn't have a choice. He was the Duke and nobody says no to the Duke about anything be it a thing or a human being. He was a vile man. At sixty-five already a widower of four wives and father to three princes, people whispered how every one of his late wives did not die of natural causes but rather he killed them, for his sick pleasure. But what could the common folk do but whisper, in fear for their life and their loved ones. It was no secret that one foul word against the Duke was enough to get yourself a one way trip to the gallows.

Life was never fair. It was also not fair when Dina's father and brothers agreed with the Duke's proposal wholeheartedly giving consent with such glee in their voices; one could take one look at the Endor men and know by their dreamy eyes and calculating eyes, how being called the Duke's family even though only through marriage would benefit them and their exports business. Her father John Philip Endor being the eldest son by law acquired the family business from his late father--an exporter of rare spices and artifacts and the proud owner of six magnificent ships and now one of the lucky ones of not parting with one of his ship to give away in dowry as was the custom in Langley for generations. It was easier for the fathers to part with daughters but not their ships. A daughter could be made easily but a ship. Years of blood and sweat goes into acquiring a ship. So the men of Langley preferred to drown their girl child at birth rather part with their ship in marriage. Say whatever of about men of Langley, they considered themselves men of sea. So when a commoner is selected to marry into the royal family of Langley, the customs of dowry nullifies. The Duke owns the biggest ships in Langley and the surrounding ports, some say even the likes of the great ships which comes out of Kings Port in Capital. So it would be an insult to present a ship of lower status to the Duke's royal family. Her father and brothers were happy to oblige.

The Duke considered himself The King on this side of the continent. Langley an Island generous with spices and rare fruits and cloths situated on the opposite side of capital, cut off from the Kings Capital by the widow sea. A land where women are considered men's property, where the right to study or run businesses lies with sons whereas the responsibility of maintaining the home of men falls on the shoulder of their wife and daughters; if they decide to let the infant daughter live long enough to see her future. The only land in the whole world where magic didn't work, it's as if the whole essence of the strong elemental connection has been wrung out the lands core. Stories which travel from outside the border of the widow sea tells of the amazing thing people could do with their elemental connection with the lands core. One could only imagine what wonders lies out of Langley and how different it will be from the barren life here people have created for themselves. Such was the life in Langley, if one could call it a life. And such was the view of Dina Aelle Endor, the youngest and the only daughter of a very rich exporter. The Endor men were creatures of sea through and through yet they always stayed anchored to Langley even though they had seen half of world in their travels. But Dina had not set as much a toe in one of their ships. It was a privilege that was meant only for the sons.

Dina not wanting to marry the Duke and dying in some crude pleasure of his, she decides to take matters in her own hands when her wails of protests against the marriage were falling on the assumed deaf ears of her two elder brothers and her father. Fate was failing her again and again. First was when her mother died giving birth to her and leaving her alone with her father. And second was when her father decided not to kill her in infancy. Third was now. Marriage to a wile old Duke who killed his previous wives and mistresses slowly in their young lives; it was also not the marriage to the Duke. What was life to her now? When she was slowly giving up on her miserable life, living a life as a chore among the citizens of Langley. No it was not this. It was the secret her friend had told her just before her mysterious disappearance. Dina knew it was no disappearance, she knew that her friend was now dead, long gone from the land of living. Just before her friend disappeared her last words to her were, "Secrets are leverage. Use the knowledge out of Langley for no one will listen to you here but once outside maybe people might give an ear." Maybe that is what she meant, get out of Langley.

That is what Dina plans to do. Get out of Langley. Run away with the secrets. Maybe then she might stop her cursed fate from ruining her. And go where no other lowly born girl from Langley has gone before. To the Kings Capital, where the real King lives and where her acquired secrets might earn her fame or earn her a noose around her neck.

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Hello,

Welcome to this world of Magic. Follow the story of Aelle, Prince Charles and Lord Alex. And their search for this mythical heir of the Lost Queen. 

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Yours truly,

Pallabi