Adelaide’s Quest

Part I – The Wastelands

Chapter 1 – Adrian

It was daytime, even it only showed in the faint grey glow that lined the horizon, and a slight illumination to the blackness. Unnaturally dark clouds churned violently in the sky, spouting lightning the colour of blood that lit a desolate landscape crimson. Ash covered everything in sight, smothering the few ruined trees that dotted the wasteland.

A small dot of life moved among the death-covered hills, fiery red hair painting defiant colour on the landscape. Dressed in what might have once been rich silks before smoke and ash attacked them and a sheathed sword by her side, she was obviously a woman of status, which all made it all the more odd to see her wandering here. The ash that blanketed the ground billowed up with every step, sometimes enough came up to her face to invade her eyes and mouth and make her choke, but she never once stop walking steadily onwards, except when a burst of red light illuminated a figure standing on one of the nearby hills.

Immediately her hand was resting on the intricate gold hilt of her blade, feeling the engraved eagle and sword that had once meant so much.

“Who goes there?” she shouted, with some difficulty, as her throat was dry from ash and she had not spoken in a time longer than she could keep track of in this near-lightless world. Still, even her choked voice sounded strange and excessively loud in this land of silent dust and muffled thunder.

The next flash of lightning revealed that the figure was no longer to be seen, but a voice answered her, sounding closer than she had judged the man to be.

“My name, lady, is Adrian, son of Joshua. You need not present yourself, able I am to recognize Princess Adelaide when I see her.” He did not seem to have the same difficulty speaking as she did, and that surprised her almost as much as the fact he knew of her.

“Are we still within my kingdom, that you would hold knowledge of me and my status, and recognize me solely by setting eyes on my visage?”

“Who knows, lady, and who is there left to care? The cinders sweep over all borders” he answered, sounding closer still.

She heard footsteps to her left and quickly turned. Standing was a figured robed in black, carrying not a sword but a staff of dark wood. The next flash illuminated a pale face and hair as dark as a raven’s feather, she had never seen anyone like that, and she had met people from the four corners of the kingdom.

“Know that I am no longer princess but queen, by right of descent,” she stated.

“You were never crowned, lady, and never will be, for your crown is as much ash as the rest of your kingdom”

Her frown was illuminated by another flash of blood-coloured light. “How would you know this with such surety?”

Adrian gestured at the eastern horizon. “It is enough to look about us, lady, to know that all that once was is no more than cinders and smoke”

After a slight pause Adelaide spoke again, “it is true what you suppose, the Eagle and the Blade is no more, and I shall never be crowned ruler of what now are plains of ash.”

“If so, lady,” he replied, “where are you heading?”

“To the east,” she said, simply.

“You head to the highlands? Are you hoping to escape the wastelands of your old kingdom, lady?”

She shrugged, “That matters little, a mission, a quest, guides me there, whether or not it is dark and desolate”

Lightning came and went, and then Adrian spoke, “we should travel together, lady, evil walks these lands, and it would prey upon lone travellers”