THREE DARK QUEENS
are born in a glen
SWEET LITTLE TRIPLETS
will never be friends
THREE DARK WITCHES
all fair to be seen
TWO TO DEVOUR
one to be queen
On the island of Fennbirn every generation three triplets are born, all equal heirs to the throne...
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Such a dark day Hecate notes as she glances through the window at the storm that rages outside. Lightning bolts racing across the sky and the bellowing of thunder following in pursuit. It is a good thing the Black Cottage was made to endure. Or the storm surely would've ripped the house apart brick by brick.
Such a display of strength from the island today. Perhaps it is just the natural superstition she has thanks to her sight gift but Hecate is sure it is an omen. She would not be surprised if there was at least one elemental queen in the birth to come.
"Hecate get your tools ready," Halia shouts suddenly, breaking Hecate's train of thought as she labours on, breathing heavily as her contractions get stronger, "in case you need to cut them out," eyeing the knives as she does so with a small smile.
Those razor sharp tools are always there for the birth, taken out of Black Cottage's storage for the countless labours of new triplets cycles, as some queens haven't always been so lucky giving birth naturally. Not that the island cares. Once a queen crowned gives birth the island is done with them as are their people, already turning to the next generation. Sometimes it has been natural complications that have caused the labouring queens to falter or at times the midwives have been incompetent or too young.
Well, Hecate may be young but she is no fool, Queen Halia trusts Hecate, her foster sister and friend both - she knows she's in good hands.
Halia is not afraid though. Not of the pain or the possibility of death. She welcomes it, the pain makes her stronger, makes her fight harder to live. Birth is a battle after all, albeit a different kind, except on a bed instead of a battlefield.
She will miss it slightly; although her reign was relatively calm, by war gifted standards anyways. But her rule was just after the famous cursed cycle of triplets, despite the war gifted stereotype, she is and was no fool to the politics of the island and knew constant battles/raids was not a good precedent to set. Especially as the island was still recovering from the effects of the civil war and its disastrous on the economy, the people and even the land - all during her predecessor's lifetime.
Arsinoe the White Handed - not her mother, simply the one who carried her and her sisters on the Goddess' behalf. Or so the temple's preach. Even if she did consider her poisoner predecessor her mother it wouldn't matter, she has never met Arsinoe or ever had the chance to build a maternal relationship with her. That is not the queens way. They are not born for such weak sentiment. They have a greater purpose.
The time of the Queens War was devastating, the island had never seen anything like it. In Arsinoe's own time as Queen Crowned people were finishing healing, no one was eager for another war or anymore bloodshed. The island had earned peace so she respected that to a degree, there had been a few battles and pillages - nothing near a full blown war.
Not when the island also had to maintain the recent relationships and tenuous alliances forged with the various countries in the mainland in Queen Arsinoe's reign after the famed mist was vanquished after it turned on the very island itself.
