Eternal Awakening

Epilogue

Epilogue

The End... of the Beginning

The day had become cold and dark, and Reiea sat alone in her room staring down at the sealed envelope on her large and elegant wooden desk. Her name was written on the front of it in her mothers flowing script, and cold tears stung at the edges of Reiea's eyes. She had been staring at it for close to an hour, and had yet to open it. It was just too hard for her, because this was probably the last time her mother would ever speak to her.

Three weeks had passed since the Copper Focus had attacked the palace and murdered her mother, and life hadn't gotten back to normal. Repairs on the palace had been finished, and everything had been cleaned and made proper once more, but it still felt like a war had been fought there. The Queen had been murdered in her very own palace, and now the throne sat empty.

And sadly, that wasn't even the worst of it. A squabble had broken out over who should be crowned next, like it was even up for debate! Nobles and members of the royal family branches were arguing that they should be the next in line, despite the fact that Reiea was the crown princess! It was like she didn't even exist! Her mother had just died, the kingdom was in shambles, and they were fighting like none of it mattered! They were just a bunch of petty morons who wanted more power than they already had, and it make Reiea sick to her stomach.

Thankfully nothing had come from it yet, as the Council of Lords had stepped in to mediate the situation and make sure no fighting ever came from the bickering. Unfortunately, the Council was also backing Aura to be the next Queen, instead of Reiea. The reason for this, so they claimed, was because they didn't think Reiea was old enough to be a ruler. It shouldn't have even mattered! Old enough or not, the throne was hers by right, simply because she had been born! But those old cows thought they knew better than she did.

Reiea's troubles didn't end there either. No, her life had even more surprises in store for her, and now the only man she had ever loved, and the one man she could ever actually touch, had been taken away from her as well. And it was all her fault. Or that's how it felt, at least. He had come to the palace that night to try and save everyone, and it had been when he had tried to stop her from being kidnapped that he had disappeared. And now he himself had been kidnapped.

There had been no word on him in the three weeks after the attack, and it was really starting to feel weird. At the very least there should be a ransom demand sent to them, or some kind of proof that he had been killed. But there was nothing. Those criminals who had attacked the palace, killed her mother, nearly killed Aura, and then made off with Richard had disappeared beyond the borders to the North, hiding in the country of Zygog and out of their reach. Not even the Council was having any luck getting Zygog's government to hunt down those criminals and send them back to Alysia to stand trial and be executed. In fact, it almost felt like they were helping them.

So there she sat alone, with people trying to take her kingdom away and Richard missing with no word about a ransom. And just in front of her was the last words her mother would ever have for her, written on a piece of parchment and stuffed into an envelope that was still sealed by wax.

Reiea had been debating with herself if she should even open it and read what had been left, and she had gone back and forth too many times to count. On one hand, this was left to her by her mother, and she desperately wanted to see what she had written to her that she couldn't tell her until she was dead and gone. But on the other hand, Reiea didn't know if she could handle any more bad news; and she didn't know if she wanted to risk it.