The King's Concubine

Chapter 18

Serena looked out at the people bowed down around them, the legions of people staring up at their king and queen through eyes held only high enough to take in the glory of them. Serena had never felt glamorous, or beautiful, or even worthy of such attention. In the last twenty-five years she had fought for her own worthiness, something beyond the description of visionary. She had awakened the powers within Orphen and herself and they had created a majestic kingdom over the destruction that had occurred a quarter of a century ago.

The priest, an avid follower of the new religion that had begun to spawn over the country, was the one to crown both Orphen and Serena the claimed rulers of their kingdom. Amongst the audience were the saviors of the war, and somewhere deep in the recesses of the crevices was the shadow that promised to bring them all down.

For years Serena’s visions were filled with bright days and promises. She and Orphen had reconstructed an entire kingdom, and had laid waste to what had once been River Forest and was now only River. Together they had rebuilt and founded, worked with the rulers from adjacent kingdoms, not quarreling over land, nor taking the new high king’s position as high king. They left him to his devices and settled on less nobility, just plain old king and queen, all for the good of a dying world.

Today, on the day that Orphen and Serena were officially announced King and Queen of Danlio she felt the darkness creeping about in the shadows once more. Was he here? Was he amongst the guests who all dressed in their most dazzling gowns and applauded with undulated cheer? Was he the man standing at High King Nicholas’s back, or was it a she, the woman dressed in black in the very back who watched with distinct eyes from beneath her black hooded hair that covered most of her face.

It was odd that Serena would think of The Enchanter at this time, her mind scrambling to the man who had set in motion her own emotions. Serena could smile, she could laugh, and her personality shines through her very façade, but she will forever have visions with no expression on her face, which tells Orphen every time that she is having a vision. She will go from a smiling girl, for she will ever appear to be the eighteen-year-old girl she was when Orphen and she were joined spiritually, to a girl with no expression and blank staring eyes. She still can not speak of her visions without being asked, though the askance can be more vague. Every year she grows through this curse with the help of Lena’s soul still flitting through her body, and every year her visions grow stronger. So strong that nothing can usually hide from her… except this darkness. He’s here; it is all she can tell herself. The coming destruction has made an appearance and she does not even know who it is.

It was in the late hours of banquets and dining, of cheer and congratulatory pats on the back, that Serena came face to face with a man who would control all of their destinies. The moment he clasped her hand she knew who he was and why he was there and then the rest… became a blank. All visions of the future with him in it were broken; she watched them shatter in her mind. She felt her head swirling, her eyes rolling back in her head, and Orphen gripping her as he caught her from falling.

“I’m sorry,” Orphen said, his arms around his wife and queen, “I do not believe we have met before.”

“My name is Dralnu,” the man said, “I am traveling through the kingdoms and heard of the coronation. I meant only to congratulate the two of the heroes who saved this world from death. Nothing more.”

“You-”

“Orphen.” Serena’s voice was a warning as she regained her temporary unconscious state and began to stand on her own two feet again. She glanced at the man who gave the name of Dralnu and nodded to him, deeply. Everyone caught the revelry in which she bowed to this man, giving him a higher honor than she had greeted the high king with. Everyone noted it and it made the entire room tense. “My lord, Dralnu, it is our pleasure that you would join us tonight.”

“You need show me no deference, Queen Serena,” Dralnu said calmly. “I am only here to congratulate you on your victory and on becoming queen. Please, excuse me now, for I have many other places to be.”

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Lord Dralnu.” No one missed the beat of the queen. Serena, as a visionary, had a lack of deference to anyone or anything that crossed her path. She spoke to commoners like lords and lords like commoners. She never picked or chose who she would show deference to. Now she had gone out of her way to point out that this man she owed her loyalty to. Everyone within the dining halls gave small bows and curtsies to the man as he walked out. Even Nicholas, Stephen, and Sion, the high king’s sons and current rulers over all lands, seemed to bow their heads in a sort of obsequiousness.

“Who was that?” Orphen asked of his wife, the only one who had no regard ever for any reverence of anyone. He was more concerned with what had come over his wife.

“I know not, anymore,” Serena told him, her face blank as it often was with visions. “I only know that he is the one we should fear and give loyalty to, unquestioningly.”

“That does not seem like a promising future,” Orphen pointed out to his wife.

“Futures rarely are,” Serena said quietly. “Now, let us continue our dinner, we have many guests to greet still and never enough time to do so!”

The End of Serena and Orphen's Tale