The Kingdom of Fallen Stars

Chapter 1

1

My fist collides with his jaw as Motevas tries to crouch down and trip me, making him grunt harshly and stumble back from the force of the blow. I retreat a few steps to keep distance and let him catch his breath. He chuckles and looks up at me while holding his chiseled chin, adjusting it slightly with a look of discomfort gracing his features. "Beautiful blow, Your Majesty..." He says as he slowly stands to his full height, and I glare at him while my hand clenches at my side.

"I told you to never call me that during training." I returned, my voice tight and cold. He rolls his eyes and puts hus hands up, grinning gently. I glare at him and walk over to the water station near the entrance to the training area. I get myself a glass of water as Motevas puts a rag on his face, groaning gently at the cold bite of the water.

Motevas and I have been training in secret for years, every since my mother said it was "un-lady-like" to perform such rituals, which was when I was fairly young and Motevas was admitted to being my body guard and my play mate. She always said that princesses should be proper and tampered whenever there was an option to do so. It always made me sick to think about being tampered. Whenever I got an expensive dress, piece of jewelry, even when I get a meal that the cooks took hours to prepare, I try and refuse it or give it to other people throughout the castle that would enjoy it more than I would. I would feel spoiled if I accepted anything of high value. Luckily, I met Motevas properly when I was beginning to rebel against my mother because of such tampering. It took me almost a full year to get his name right afterwards, but now it rolls off the tongue. Mo-te-vas, I say quietly in my head as I glance to my right at the swollen area on his jaw where I punched him.

As I refill my cup, I look around the room we were in. It was more of a courtyard from the lack of ceiling, as Motevas has put it many times, but I still considered it a room. The floor has a layer of pale, fresh dirt covering the foundation of the room to soften hard landings, but it barely made a difference. It only made it harder for the maids to clean our clothes from how many times we're struggling on the floor throughout our sessions. The walls were in a circular shape and were made of cobblestone and timber support columns, the stone now starting to crumble from age and the wood rotting. "I really need to get those columns replaced" I thought as I rub one of the support columns behind me, making Motevas' eyebrow raise while he wipes his neck down.

I looked up at the sky as thunder roared through the air, like the gods throwing boulders against the mountains. "We should head in before we get soaked.." Motevas said at my side, his rag discarded. I nod slightly in distant understanding, still hearing my blood in my ears from the thrill of fighting. Motevas takes my wrist in his callused hand and leads me into the corridor making me glance at the sky one more time before shutting the door behind me.

The corridor that was right before the training area had a high ceiling that always made me feel dizzy whenever I looked up at it. The designs were very strange, mostly two letters covering the shields that the knights held.. "MS" were the letters, and whenever I asked anyone in the castle what it meant, they got skittish, pale then left, like I just saw them commit a crime that will lead to their execution the next day. The knights were clad in obsidian armor, the sun making it look almost silver in the mural. Some of them in the mural bore battleaxes in both of their hands, where others bore the shield designed with the crest of the Woodbleeds. The shield was made of dark iron that was designed to look like wings of a crow preparing to shoot into the endless sky. On the front of it, a cherry blossom tree has been carved into it with MS carved into the delicate wood of the tree.

The last detail that made me sick to my stomach was.. The tree bled from those letters, making me shiver and look away at the rest of the room. Motevas follows my gaze up at the mural and sighs gently. "Such a cruel mural, yet beautiful.." he murmurs into the silence weighing down on us. "Remember when we used to stare at this for hours when we were young? Just sitting on the floor and staring at it in silence."

I did. Those times felt so distant now. Instead of a young princess and her playmate, sitting on the marble floor that reflected like a mirror, there was a young queen and her guard. Her closest friend.

"I miss those times," he says as I finish my thoughts, making me look up at him. "Where we could just sit, and not worry about anything. We didn't have to travel to secure trading agreements, or treaties. We didn't have to settle wars." He smiles gently at the simpler times, my mouth curling gently into a soft smile as well.

"Those were such easy going times, compared to now." I mumble, looking up at the mural now, taking in every detail that ive seen a hundred times over. "I didn't have to worry about if letters made it to foreign kings and queens, I didn't have to create an image for others that showed power or grace."

"You technically did, you just didn't want to." He says, looking down at me with a wicked grin.

I glare and snarl teasingly, "Do you want me to break your jaw?" He chuckles and shakes his head looking back at the mural, not answering my threat. I sigh through my nose and look up with him.

I look at the letters on the trees painted in the mural. "Have you ever figured out what "MS" is? Or did you get the same treatment as i?" He scoffs in response, answer enough. Same terrified faces, same silence. I stare at it for a little longer, crossing my arms and tilting my head. "I don't remember any of my family adorning an M as a first letter in their name.."

"Maybe it's from your father, his was Magnus." He shrugs and I shake my head, trying to think of any other family that may start with an M. Silence then fills the room once more as him and I just stand and look up at the ceiling.

After a long silence between us, he murmurs "I don't think you should marry him." I sigh gently as the letter i read last week flashes before my eyes, stating I was to marry a king named Aldrin Farrowmight, only to create an alliance between our two kingdoms.

Aldrin was recently admitted as a king, yet he has made a large name for himself in the recent months by conquering kingdoms in mere weeks. He was also known for killing many nobles during there refuge in his castle, sometimes for no reason. The death tolls that were written in some of the freah documents I've recieved after accepting the marriage in the library mere doors away made shivers shoot down my spine.

"You know I have no choice. Its either i accept this and keep the alliance between our two kingdoms, or i refuse and see it crumble." I say quietly, yet with an edge that I rarely use with anyone.

"He will kill you if you even breathe the wrong way. Your citizens have been yelling at you, and sending you letters showing their anger at your decision."

True. There was a large stack of letters on the floor, almost as tall as her desk, from the people of Udrya showing their anger about the decison. "They won't be touched. They won't be affected by me sitting by his throne, and him sitting by mine. That's what I was promised. Guarenteed."

"Promises never last. You know that." He growls gently, starting to glare at me now. I turn to him with an equally hateful glare.

"Do you really think there was anything I could do. All of the other recent kings have already wed, and he was the only one left i could create a strong alliance with."

"Just because you didn't have any oil ther suitors, does not mean that you couldn't have waited and made a better decision that being wed to that psychopath of a king!" He snarls gently and i snarl back, Motevas soon storming off to his room and slamming his door shut hard enough to make the wall around the door frame crack.

I sigh gently and shake my head, soon wandering around the castle aimlessly, soon arriving in my throne room. I look upon the two thrones in the room and stare at the larger one. The one that will be occupied sooner than I would like. I slowly walk towards it and run my finger over the arm, the cold of the stone nipping at it. Something tingles throughout my hand and i sigh and pull my hand away, soon going to my throne and sitting down, the cold encasing my body as i close my eyes and think.

Think about the future of my bloodline. My kingdom.

Think about the king soon to sit in the empty throne next to me.