The Emperor's Concubine

Prologue

A world of monarchs, magic, and corruption, stands the flourishing lands of Cypheler, a kingdom run by King Cabel.
Victoriously taking over kingdoms and land, King Cabel's reputation became well known as the ruthless man who destroyed neighboring kingdoms to expand his own.
Kingdom Cypheler began growing, quickly becoming a new self-proclaimed empire. King Cabel's status promoted, crowning him as the only emperor who achieved his title.

A nearby kingdom, Kingdom Avris, ruled by King Weslium, and Queen Leveanne Avri.
The king and queen ensured no government officials had a voice in affairs, regarding their family. It seems as a sweet gesture to keep their children from formalities of high society, but it was all due to their secret beliefs.

King Weslium and Queen Leveanne gave birth to twins. The first born son, Micheal Avri, and a daughter, Celestia Avri.
The twins were inseparable, and raised side by side. They played, and learned to crawl and walk togehter. Celestia and Micheal felt nothing but happiness when they were with one another, until they reached the age of four.
The day of their fourth birthday, they were forced apart into their own studies.

Celestia was kept hidden away from the public. Her existence was known to the public, but lied about. The king and queen began rumours of their daughter being born ill, and so was unable to appear in society.

To give birth to twins is a rare occurrence. Almost all of the public believed the rumours as it was believed one twin would always be weaker than the other.
Due to the rumours, she was unable to contact or experience what it was like outside the castle walls.
She was given only a handful of servants and teachers, and never allowed to interact with anyone other than those chosen by her parents. Celestia was taught etiquette, and proper manners, but given 'special' lessons.

Feeling something was amiss with the special lessons being taught to her, Princess Celestia began to teach herself. Begging one of the only kind hearted maids she had, she asked her to secretly bring her books on other kingdoms, as well literature from around the world.
Celestia soon realized how twisted her parents truly were, once her eyes were revealed to the truth.

Through all her studying, Celestia missed her brother dearly.
At the same time, Micheal was being taught and raised to become a king, but was forced into submission to learn twisted lessons, taught personally by the king and queen.
He was forced to do unspeakable acts from a young age.
It started out as killing rabbits and other small animals, until being forced to torture and murder peasant children from the slave markets—children who were the same age or younger than him.

A year filled with lessons and isolation from each other went by, until the siblings were finally able to meet again on their birthday.
However, one look at Micheal's face, Celestia understood; The boy in front of her was not her brother, but a doll. A puppet with an empty, deep cold look within his eyes. He never smiled nor showed much emotions after that.
Celestia tried speaking to him but he spoke little, almost as if she was a stranger to him.

The king and queen smiled wickedly as they admired the two children, but all Celestia felt was a fear so intense, she was unable to comprehend it at such a young age.

Celestia engulfed herself in her secret studies, learning of languages, histories, astronomy, and read an abundance of novels to pass the time of her isolation.
She became an intelligent, studious child all before the age of seven.

Rarely meeting her parents, except occasionally for birthdays. She was comforted and found solace in her books. She understood and grew empathy as she read stories written by the lower class, learning to be grateful for her life.
Though it was a lonely life, she was able to live comfortably—until her eighth birthday.