Prologue
Twelve years ago:
Freyril of House Lofn
Rules Kritainia as King,
Entering his sixteenth year as monarch
under the colors of purple, silver, and red...
Thunder rumbled above the winged silver castle, covering any noise that may have woken the servants from their sleep. Not even the breaking of an iron sword could wake them as it shatters in the hands of a desperate warrior. The King could have won, could have beat his adversary if it wasn't for a pair of storm grey eyes peaking out from behind the portrait of the first king of Kritainia. Gavril the fire beard had been painted with shocking green eyes akin to nymphs mossy green hair, but instead those eyes had been replaced by a childish silver-grey much like his own, That one moments hesitation was enough for the man dressed in black to make the kill. Moving fast in the dark room he darted under the warrior and withdrew a blade of obsidian coated in a thin layer of near translucent green poison, the blade twisting between the arm and shoulder in order to embed itself into the socket of the red haired warrior who refused to scream for worry of seeing tears fall from those stormy grey eyes looking out from the portrait. He falls to his knees knowing that this death would not be fast nor pleasant as he looked up into a violent purple eyes of his killer. The room was already filled with a coppery tang of blood, not the killers or the warrior king's blood, but the blood instead came from the chest of the woman laying still in the bed, a with a knife sticking forth from her throat, the blood had colored her hair a vibrant red darker than the warriors own, the lifeless blue eyes of the woman stared at the silver ceiling as the warrior held contact with the man in front of him
"You have won, my death and my crown are before you, The kingdom is yours. Just let my children flee." the warrior said as he put a hand on the stone before him, the poison already making his ability to sit straight falter. The warrior, nay the king, looked up at the man with the orchid colored eyes, begging for mercy, but none came as the man turned his back on the king, his gold cape catching in the air as he walked toward the door just as the king fell to his side in an attempt to hold back the agony tearing apart his body. He looked toward the heavy black boots of the retreating man and saw him stop and hope flared within him but it was dashed with the first scream, high pitched but obviously male. The king's face paled
"Please!" he begged "I'll give you anything! Just let my family flee!" he managed to yell but the man in black clicked his tongue as if scolding a child
"And what, King Freyril, can you give in return?" he asked, turning his head just enough so his straight shoulder length black hair fell back over his cloak. The King could say nothing as the man just smiled with his lips tightly pressed together as if waiting for Freyril to offer him something, anything, but the man was right, he had nothing.
"The only thing you have left to give me is the look of despair on your face, the ashen grey it will turn when you hear the screams of your children ring though the silver halls of your silver castle. The look of torment in your eyes when the age of the Silver King falls with his Silver Halls stained as red as his flag." The man smirked as he turned around in order to fully look at the king laying on his side as another scream rolled down the halls, diminished slightly by the thunder
"As we speak every loyal house falls to the dust, and your heir's will soon join them" he said before bending at the waist in a mocking bow
"Your Majesty" he said, curling his lips in a cruel smile before turning away from the king and walking out of the room.
The princess stood in the secret passage behind the painting of her unknown number of greats grandfather, Gavril the fire beard, watching as the King laid nearly limp on the ground with that horrible dark blade sheltered in his body. She wanted to run, she felt the fear in her body and the stench of urine sticking to the insides of her legs as she kept her hands over her mouth. She had only come though the passage so she wouldn't get caught by the guard roaming the halls, she didn't want to walk all the way back to her room when the roaring Lion's in the sky could come down and tear her throat out with their mighty flashing claws of light, but she wished now that she could return to her room if it meant she would have never seen what she had, the dark blades cutting into the flesh of her mother and father so easily, mighty warriors who had downed the evil Tyrabera, King of Shadow and darkness, with ease. Instead she had watched as her father and mother where ripped from her life. She knew her father saw her, she knew he had been injured because of her. Their eyes had met just before the blade had taken him down and it wasn't until the storm left his grey eyes that she pushed the portrait forward and stepped down onto the stone floor. Her tiny legs pushing her toward the Freyril, the King, Her father. Things ran though her head, fear, hate...she had never felt hate before, at least not this much. She had thought hate was when her big brothers would taunt her about being so little compared to them, she thought fear was when every time the light flashed outside and reminded her of the story her older sister whispered to her in the dark, of mighty lions of nightmare born of the first screams mating with darkness. No, this fear, this hate, was far greater then that. As she stood in front of her father with her tiny toes dipping into the red spreading out around his body she felt something break inside, something that should never break. It was like a dam of water had finally put enough pressure on the stone to cause the wall to burst, and when that dam burst the princess knelt down and grabbed the beautiful ring of silver and ruby off her fathers hand and shoved it onto her thumb before she picked up her father's broken sword. Already the weight dragging her tiny arms down as she stood with knees dripping with red liquid. The princess got as far as the doors before she was blocked by a large body quadruple her size, she looked up and saw the familiar eyes of Phyras, her fathers captain. She looked up at the man, eyes narrowed as she hefted the broken sword as if to strike him, her cheeks puffed out and her eyes red with unshed tears. Phyras didn't smile as he picked up the princess with one large hand, and grabbed the sword with the other before tossing it back into the room
"What are you doing!" The princess yelled, but Phyras didn't answer as he took his other hand and put it over her mouth and despite her wiggling, despite the fact that she bit down on his hand hard enough break the skin, he kept her from screaming as he ran down the silver hallways of the castle, passed broken doors and beds covered in unnaturally vibrant red. Her eyes went wider with each room they passed, visiting nobility, loyal servants, the twins from the boarder lands that had picked on her earlier that day, saying her skin was to pale to be healthy, she had told them to fall on a sword but she had never meant it, she had never thought it was going to truly happen. The hatred faltered and was replaced by fear that coiled around her heart like a snake and squeezed like a vise, rendering her immobile as Phyras managed to sneak out to the stables. She was placed on the ground and she didn't move as the captain saddled a horse
"Were are we going?" the princess finally managed to choke out just as Phyras put her on the horse, the captain looked up at her
"Someplace safe" he whispered as he climbed onto the back of the horse and grabbed the reins, trotting the horse to the stable doors. He stopped for a moment and sniffed like a hunting dog, and it seemed he found nothing to worry about as he snapped the reins, the horse let out a terrible sound before its hoofs pounded on the ground racing toward the palace gates. The princess saw dark arrows fly from the castle and a hiss of pain escaped Phyras but he didn't stop until they where deep within the surrounding city.
Phyras jumped off the horse and lead the animal into a side street the Princess saw several arrows in his back but she didn't know why. They stood to the side of a lovely house lit from end to end with candles and the stood, waiting, the princess didn't know what for until a large woman waddled out of the house with an unmoving bundle swaddled in white cloth. Phyras looked down at the princess and then got down onto his knees
"this is your home now." he said as he took her by the shoulders "You must forget everything that just happened, do you understand?" he said, and the vermilion haired girl frowned, but then nodded her head
"good, give this to the first person who answers the door" he said as he looked at the door as he shoved a yellow paper into her hands. The princess nodded and Phyras turned her around and pushed her toward the door before getting back up onto the horse and riding away as another clap of thunder roared though the sky.
The princess stood for a moment watching the jet black horse race into the night with the strange man atop it. She followed his instructions and went to the door and with a deep breath she knocked three times as she clutched the paper to her heart like a life line, whatever it was must be important if he wanted her to hand it over. A woman with greying black hair opened the door and looked down at her in confusion as she held out the yellow paper. The woman took it and the longer she held it the wider her eyes got until she left the princess at the door and ran over to the fire blazing in the corner of the room, tossing the paper before walking back over to the princess and ushering her inside. The princess thanked the woman and padded inside, the red on her knees had washed away and just left her with brown smudges on her knees as she looked up at the lady with a wanton smile. Her mind was empty as she was brought into the room of a beautiful brown haired bed bound woman and was introduced, the woman in the bed started to cry, blubbering about a gift from the goddess of children when a man walked in dressed in gold and red. She understood some yelling but the words where strange and mumbled until finally the man seemed to give it and storm out of the room. She turned her head back to the bed bound woman with the friendly smile and then to the woman with salt and pepper hair. They spoke some more before the older woman walked her out of the room and stopped her just down the hallway
"Do you know who you are?" the woman with the black and white hair asked, but she shook her head, she didn't remember anything except being told to forget, and when she told this to the woman in front of her all she got was a sad, cracked smile before she was walked down the hallway to a beautiful room filled with lavish extremities.