Guardian of the Realm, a Fantasy fanfic

Guardian of the Realms: Escape from Darkness

A young girl with deep brown eyes and brown hair huddled in the corner of her jail cell. She looked at the door and saw the shadows of guards outside. Why me, she thought. Why do I have to be locked up in here? What went so terribly wrong these past years?

A 10-year old Alianne sat in her room, reading her latest book. The brunette was known for being a hard worker. Yet, despite her charisma, she had never had any friends. For a reason unknown to her, she was an outcast. Suddenly, her door was opened and in the hallway stood one of the servants.

"Your Highness," said the servant, bowing deeply, "your father, the king, wishes to speak to you. He said to say that it is about your required knight and mage training."

Alianne sighed. She was a princess and heir to the throne of Priston. It was dictated by law that all heirs undergo knight training, and, if they possessed magical gifts, mage training. "Go and tell my father that I will be there soon," Alianne ordered the servant.

Quickly and quietly, the servant bowed one last time, and left. Alianne put her book down and headed for the throne room, thinking about her future. She knew that knight training was hard, and most girls who attempted it dropped out. As far as mage training was concerned, she knew she had magical gifts, but before she went to training she would have to test her abilities to find out what gift she had. Alianne walked swiftly and soon came upon the gold door to the throne room. She quietly knocked on the door and entered the room. There she found her father and mother – King Alaron and Queen Liliou – upon their thrones.

“Alianne,” her father began. “It is time you began your knight training. As you know, you are first to become a page for four years. Following that, you become the squire to a knight for the next four years. Then, at age 18, you are knighted. As for mage training, well, the amount of time for that is dependent on your learning pace and extent of your abilities.”

“If you are willing to begin,” Queen Liliou said, “we will test to see which magical gift you have – veralidine or alinine(1). Then we will send you to the University for training.”

“Yes,” Alianne replied. “I am ready to start both knight and mage training.”

Nine years later, Alianne had been knighted. Of all knights – male and female – she was the best. In addition, she was now full-fledged mage and one of the strongest in the realm. Surprisingly, she had both veralidineand alininemagic. As far as anyone knew, no one else could control both magics. However, one depressing fact haunted Alianne throughout her years of training: she was an outcast. No one cared about her although she was always best in class. She was a loner and never liked to socialize.

Nine years after Alianne began training, Alianne watched her life slide downhill.

One day, Alianne strolled the palace grounds. She was in her favorite guise: the average girl. To the eyes of most, she wore a cotton shirt and breeches. However, the clothes were just a multi-layered illusion - they were just used to fool the eye. The only people who could decipher Alianne’s illusion were those who were more powerful than her. However, few mages were better than Alianne, and the chance of meeting one of them was miniscule. Underneath her illusion she wore a chain mail suit made of mitorite, a hard metal that was impossible to bend or break, yet lightweight. She also wore a jeweled belt. Dangling from the belt were two items: her famous – and infamous – sword known as the Dynaro and a double-headed axe. She also wore thin, razor-sharp daggers on her arms, legs, back, and sides, but they were hidden by her illusion. She also carried with her a bow and quiver of arrows – the quiver cleverly disguised as a backpack and the bow hidden by an invisibility spell. She also wore a purse, but it was no ordinary purse. Instead of carrying personal belongings, the purse contained bloodrops. Bloodrops were strange creatures; there were like a little lump of a thick black liquid. They could shape themselves into any shape they wanted, and could become nearly invisible. They were the perfect spies: what one bloodrop knew, all of Alianne’s bloodrops knew. All Alianne had to do was send all but one of her bloodrops on missions. The last one she kept, and it would report to her all that the other bloodrops saw. As far as Alianne knew, she was the only one who could control bloodrops.

Alianne looked up and saw a golden eagle. It soared above her, and called out its message. Stranger ten miles North of palace and appears to be heading for the palace. Reason and background unknown. Has never been spotted by any of my flock before.

Alianne quickly shape-shifted into the form of a golden eagle and rose to meet her friend. Take me to this stranger, Alianne ordered.

Together they soared and flew over the city. It was a beautiful sight – people milling around in the numerous markets, knights in armor on horseback patrolling the city, and the King’s Guard protecting the palace and its occupants. Alianne ignored these distractions and concentrated on the path her friend was taking her. Suddenly, her friend flew into a tree. Alianne followed inquisitively. Look there, her friend said. There, beyond the trees. Our ‘friend’ who is heading towards the palace.

Alianne looked. There, sure enough, was a stranger on horseback. He wore a long, jet black coat and black armor. The hood of his cloak hid his face. He rode in a black saddle, atop a black horse. Alianne looked at him closer with her alinine magic and noticed a blood-red aura surrounding him – the aura of his alinine magic. Following him was a large number of men, all clad in black. They had the appearance of a group of merchants, but with one quick glance, Alianne realized it was just an illusion. The men were part of an army, and the stranger was their commander. Everything about them was menacing. Alianne looked at her guide and quickly said, I must get back to the palace and warn my parents of the new arrivals.

With that, Alianne flew back to the palace, a distance of two miles as the crow flies. As soon as she landed, she transformed back into human shape and rushed to the throne room. She slammed the gold door opened and ran to her parents.

“Mother, Father,” she addressed them, “there are a group of strangers heading towards the palace. Their leader looks more like the commander of an invading force, and the group of supposed merchants is just an illusion – they’re an army, most likely here to take over.”

Her parents exchanged worried looks. “Alianne-”

“A group of merchants demand Your Majesties company at once,” stammered a servant who ran into the room. He bowed and left. Again, Alianne’s parents exchanged worried looks. This is going to be bad, she thought. Things may never be the same.

Alianne would soon find out how correct her prophecy was.

Throughout the rest of the night, Alianne stayed in her room, not wanting to get in her parents’ way. She also was apprehensive about meeting the invading force. She was too nervous to read and sat twiddling her thumbs. The clock struck midnight, but still Alianne could not sleep. Something was terribly awry.

The next morning, Alianne found that she had finally fallen asleep in her chair. She walked to the door and yanked it open – but the door would not budge. She looked at the door with her alinine magic and saw that blood-red magic held it tightly in place. But that was not the most frightening thing: all the doors in the palace were bound shut by blood-red magic. Alianne thought quickly and realized there was only one person she had seen who could do so much with blood-red magic: the commander of the “visitors.” Uh-oh, Alianne thought. We’re in for it now.

Alianne had to get out of her room and warn the others in the palace. Then she remembered something that might help: her bloodrops. She had sprinkled several of her bloodrops throughout the castle to eavesdrop on interesting conversations. Perhaps I could get them to spy for me and break this curse, she thought.

Alianne smiled and took out a bloodrop named Dream. “Dream,” she told it, “can you get the other bloodrops to report on last night’s visitors?”

Dream dropped from her hand and onto the floor. It spread out, forming a “mirror,” except instead of seeing herself, she saw what the commander was doing in real time.

The commander was pacing about. In front of him, kneeling with his head bowed, was one of his men. The commander stopped pacing and looked the man in front of him in the eye, and through gritted teeth said, “I, your Lord Sevmire, locked all the doors with my magic except for one – the door leading to the king and queen’s room. I even made sure that the door to the rulers’ room was not bound by any magic. And yet, you cannot manage to sneak in and kill the king and queen so I can take over! Why, you-”

“Please, my lord-“

“SILENCE! Remember your place Sir Ishram! You will do as I say: follow my previous instructions and do what I have assigned you to do! Now go!!”

“Yes, my lord,” the man – apparently named Sir Ishram – quickly got up and left. Alianne remembered now why hour parents’ door had not budged: she had placed one of her bloodrops - named Cloud - there to eavesdrop on her parents. Sensing danger, Cloud must have held the door closed. She knew Cloud could do a fine job, but it could not hold out forever. I have to do something, she thought. But what? I may be a more powerful mage and stronger knight, but how can I manage the whole army Lord Sevmire brought with him?

First, she had to do one thing: warn her parents. Alianne concentrated her magic on her door. All the doors were interconnected; if she broke her door free, all the doors in the palace would open. She also noted that the spell was very weak – and apparently made by one less powerful than her. Alianne would have to act quickly if she was to warn her parents without being caught. Silently, Alianne broke her lock and transformed into a mouse. There were plenty of mice in the castle to hide among, and she hoped that would be enough protection. Suddenly, a shout rang out: the magic was broken. Hurriedly, Alianne scurried to her parents’ room and squeezed inside. Her parents were sitting bolt upright and squinted at Alianne. “Is that you, dear?” her mother asked.

Alianne transformed back into human form. She put a finger to her lip. Walking over to the door, she put a quick locking spell on, and did the same to all of the windows. Finally, she put a protective shield around herself and her parents so no one could eavesdrop. “The ‘visitors’ are actually an invading force. Their leader is Lord Sevmire. He locked all of the doors – except for yours – with his magic. He left your door unlocked so his Sir Ishram could kill you.”

“And you broke the lock magic and sneaked out to us?” her father asked.

“Yes. I can try to get out of here and round up the King’s Guard to protect you.”

“Please do,” her father said.

Alianne left, transforming back into a mouse. She scurried down the hall when she came upon an angry Lord Sevmire running down the hall. She quickly got out of his way, but not before catching his attention.

“A mouse?” he asked himself. “I thought that I had captured all of the animals around this palace to disable the veralidinemages and prevent them from helping the king and queen.” He looked at Alianne again, and she could feel him searching for any trace of magic. Well, Alianne thought, at least I am more powerful than Lord Sevmire; my magic will be hidden from his view.

He must have known that he was a weak mage, for he picked Alianne the mouse up, took a cage from his pocket, and dropped her into it. “I think I’ll have my most powerful mage look at you.”

Alianne squirmed and tried to get out of the cage. Then she realized this was a mistake: If she were a real mouse, she would not have understood what Lord Sevmire had said, and would have stayed in place. Instead, she had moved and revealed that she was a transformed veralidinemage. “Ah, so you are a transformed mage,” Lord Sevmire said with a malicious grin.

He brought Alianne down the hall and entered a room. At a desk was a man in black robes. He was copying from a scroll, and had a dark navy blue aura surrounding him. When Lord Sevmire entered, he stood up and bowed.

“Master Golrath, please turn this veralidinemage back into human form,” Lord Sevmire ordered.

“Yes, my lord.” With that, he took Alianne out of the cage. He tried a charm on her, but it did not work. “My lord, I am afraid that this mage is more powerful than I.”

“Damn you!” Lord Sevmire yelled at Alianne. He cursed again. He then ordered Master Golrath, “Get all of the other mages down here and together force this mage back into human form for questioning!!”

“Yes, my lord.”

Lord Sevmire left, leaving Master Golrath behind with Alianne. Alianne noticed a long mark on Master Golrath’s arm: it was the insignia of a slave. Moreover, his facial features appeared to be that of a Pristonian. Alianne recognized him: he had been in the same alinine magic class as her at the University. He looked at her closely and said, “I am a Pristonian and slave to Lord Sevmire. I know that you must be one of King Alaron and Queen Liliou’s personal veralidinemages. I would rather not hurt you, and if I got the other mages to force you to transform…well, it will not be fun. So, could you just transform yourself? Please?”

Alianne looked at him closely. He was not lying, but she was still suspicious. After all, he did serve Lord Sevmire. But she knew the spell the other mages would use, and she also knew the pain that came to its victim. She transformed, but as soon as she did, Master Golrath recognized her. He bowed and said, in a formal manner, “Your Highness, I apologize for forcing you to transform. I am sorry, but I must hand you over to Lord Sevmire – I swore in blood(2) to follow his orders. However, I will do whatever I can to help you escape - that is, if you need help, as you are one of the most powerful mages.”

“Fine, I will go with you to Lord Sevmire,” Alianne replied, “and if I need help in escaping, Master Golrath, you will be the first one I turn to. But first, I will require you to swear in blood to help me and not tell Lord Sevmire…”

“Yes, Your Highness, of course.”

He swore in blood, satisfying Alianne. “Alright then, Lord Sevmire did say he wanted to see me…”

Master Golrath led Alianne down the hall. They reached the main guest room. He knocked on the door and silently opened it. Inside, Lord Sevmire and another one of his men were sitting at a table. When they saw Alianne, they cursed loudly in surprise. Lord Sevmire’s facial expression was full of malice. With an evil grin he said, “I will spare you the suffering of a private interrogation. Instead, I think I will publicly torture the answers out of you…Take her to one the prison dungeons immediately! Do not put her in the dingiest one though, and make sure to give her plenty of food and water. We want her to be healthy for the public interrogation!” He turned to the man beside him. “Captain Balrog, please escort her, guard her cell, and make sure she does not escape.”

Late that night, Alianne was left alone, thinking about the events that had led to her imprisonment.

(1) veralidinemagic: wild magic; a mage with veralidine magic can speak to and heal animals (many of them are also shape-shifters)

alinine magic: normal magic; a mage with alinine magic can do spells, charms, potions, and heal other humans

(2) swear in blood: to make a promise on an official document by signing one’s name in one’s own blood; if he/she breaks the promise, their blood will boil and they will suffer a terrible death

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