The King's Concubine
folder
Fantasy & Science Fiction › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
18
Views:
8,092
Reviews:
15
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Fantasy & Science Fiction › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
18
Views:
8,092
Reviews:
15
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
I Love You
The war lasted less than one full revolution of the planet. The whole structure of the world had fallen apart in less time than it took to travel through the entire kingdom that Orphen oversaw. When it was over, and all had ended, Orphen’s kingdom, or what was left, was nothing like the grand majesty it had once been. He walked through those streets, remembering children and families, his own terror over them when things did not go as planned, and he mourned the innocence of the time that had been shattered.
He now stepped through blood that ran freely through the streets, from monsters and humans, mortal and immortal, Serena quietly following him, not even protesting to the gore they trampled through.
“Our being alive, does this mean we have won?” Orphen had the presence of mind to ask the visionary who followed him through the river of blood.
Serena looked up at him, her eyes glazed from the attacks, her face expressionless as it would be any time she was having a vision for the rest of her life. She shivered once and shook her head. “No one has won here,” Serena explained to her king. “With this,” she hesitated to speak the word war, for war usually meant years of violence, not a quick death of races and kingdoms in less than a day, “destruction,” she continued, “we have only started a much larger war, one we will both live to see.”
“I’m not sure if that is promising or not,” Orphen half-joked.
“If you mean in terms of longevity, it is promising,” was all Serena offered to that. Orphen sighed.
“Tell me again, because I need to hear it again, are there any dragons left alive?” Orphen asked that question to Serena every hour since they had gone into hiding with much of his kingdom. They found caves and dug holes and found basements to hide within. Many in his kingdom had not dug far enough, had not fallen deep enough, and had left themselves too exposed. He could only say about a quarter of his kingdom was still alive, and most of that were the families that had fled with him and Serena.
“There are no born dragons left alive,” Serena explained, then she looked to Orphen, that same deep look that spoke volumes while saying nothing at all she often gave him every time she answered the question, and he knew he was meant to ask something else.
“What is out there we should fear?” Orphen asked.
“There are many things out there we should fear,” Serena said in explanation.
“Is the high king dead?”
“Yes,” Serena said, then amended, “and no.”
Orphen felt like tearing his hair out and hoped it was only nerves and anxiety that were making him irritable, though he doubted it since he had always been an irritable person. If he lost this much patience with Serena now, in the very beginning, how would they last a lifetime together when she must feel the same frustration at his ineptitude to ask the right question.
“Is it just this kingdom that has been affected, or is the entire world affected?” He was trying for patience; she was his only answer to the questions.
“Every town, village, and kingdom throughout the world has suffered loss and destruction,” Serena answered coldly. “Dragons had laid in hiding, biding their time for the war to start, certain that their brothers were going to win it. Some kingdoms were absolutely prepared to fight and still strive; some were unprepared but are not wholly gone. Most cease to exist on this planet.”
“Who could fight so many dragons?”
“The three brothers, who all will be king,” Serena glanced up, her eyes fixing on something in the ashes of her once village. “A duke from Northumberland, magic that we did not know we have, a promise that is opening, and the egg that has not hatched.”
“Rivalen.” Orphen knew the Duke of Northumberland well. The man was a rival in all things, including greatness, and if Rivalen had not been determined to win out another kingdom, the kingdom of the high king, Orphen would be the duke while Rivalen ruled over this particular kingdom. Rivalen was half elf and half vampire and formidable in many ways.
It was another heartbeat before Orphen stopped completely. Serena had seemed to already be waiting for the next question. “How can an unhatched egg fight off dragons?”
“Power,” Serena said blankly.
“And in this unhatched egg?”
“A dragon.”
Orphen knew the answer now to the riddle of it all. “The whole vision Lena saw was only escalated due to this war,” he stated, not really asking of Serena the question, though she would answer if it seemed like one. “The dragon we all have to fear is not the ones that came to kill Lena today, but the one who is in the unhatched egg.”
“Yes,” Serena said on a quick breath. Orphen could not allow the question to escape his lips. As much as he wanted to ask her every and any question that came to mind he could not. He was afraid of the answers. To his utter surprise she gave them to him despite his sealed lips. “You will rule this kingdom again, it will be rebuilt, it will be restructured, and this kingdom will be something of your own making, not something you had stolen out of greed. You will never be a perfect ruler. You will always be under the shadow of the high king, and one day Duke Rivalen, who’s true goal is to be king, will be your enemy. For the next four hundred years from the moment the egg hatches and before he emerges we will know nothing but happiness and peace. In the last four hundred years we will know more than our share of misery.”
“Serena…”
“Five will be born,
Created of God.
Five will breathe,
Four destined to die.
None will know,
Where their hardships fall.
A prophecy born,
Of a God’s lie.
The Light born of The Gypsy
The Dark born of The Assassin
The Lover born of the Mistress
The Accomplice born of the Priestess
The Prince born of the Princess.
There is no prophecy of who is savior
No prophecy to follow for the four
They will not know who they are
They will not know why they live
They will only know misery as it comes upon them
They are the beginning of a new world
And the end of the old.”
Orphen could only stare. Great, of all the things he needed, a prophecy was not one of them. Serena turned to Orphen and took his hand into her own. She pulled him close and said gently, “I will be with you throughout it all.”
Orphen sneered for a moment, but gazing upon her he realized he loved her, that he could not see his life without her, as he had not been able to do even before the horrors had begun. He had always seen Serena as his gleaming light and now… now he was forced to acknowledge that love, that light, until both of their candles were extinguished, and he feared it would be by the sleeping dragon.
“I love you, Serena, my queen.”
“I love you Orphen, my king.”
A/N: No, this is not the end, but it is close!