VIXERE

Prologue

A young girls dream

"That's the problem." The young girl said, her legs swinging mindlessly off of the edge of the bed before stilling. "All the good people wash their pain away with those pills," She turned her gaze out the window, admiring the sprawling garden below. "all the good men go to war they say, good men who turn bad who then turn to the bottle." The young girl stood up and silently walked to the window, "And even when they return from war," she rested against the window frame before continuing. "and even when they are good, the horrors they had faced trump any goodness and any kindness for the numbness they so desire."

The young warrior princess stood stiff by the door listening silently as the other princess spoke and as soon as she heard her finish she joined the future queen by the window. "But not all men who go to war are good, some are bad and some are even worse than that."

The young princess gave a sidelong look to the warrior princess before turning her gaze back to the gardens. "Maybe that's how it is where you are from, the land across the sea, but here those who fight for us are good."

The young warrior princess sighed, "That is what you are told, Ori. Just listen from someone who has been down there with those men."

The young girl turned abruptly facing the other, "Why would they send a princess into war, how horrible are your people?"

"My people are just and fair and my heart will always be with them no matter where I reside, but unlike here in your beautiful yet fragile empire the superiors do not command from above and do nothing, they are down there with their men doing everything." The warrior princess turned away from the other princess and turned her gaze too out the window. Beautiful yet so fragile, could be destroyed at the snap of her fingers.

"I meant no offence, Ana. I speak of only what I've been told and what I have observed." The young princess said politely and apologetically before taking a step closer to the warrior princess so that they were almost touching. "One day we will be the queens of our lands, you the warrior queen across the sea and me, well I'll have no fancy title like that I'll just be a queen but we will be a strong united front and we will fight on the ground with our men and women. The foe anyone would fear to face."

The warrior princess lightly touched the other girl's arm, "How will you fight with your soldiers if you haven't been taught how?"

"I was hoping you could teach me. I'd never be as good as you, of course, warrior blood doesn't run in my veins nor does a line of magick but I'd rather you teach me than some knight," the princess said quietly, under her breath. "I mean you have the title as warrior princess for a reason."

The girl, Ana grinned. "I presume I should not give you lessons on how to fight, and by that I mean your father would not be very happy with that." The warrior princess thought for a silent moment, "Of course I will teach you, but it must be in secret. No one can know, or your father will have my head."

The young princess unable to control her excitement wrapped her arms around the other smiling, "I can't wait to start."

The warrior princess wrapped her arms around the other girl smiling too, "You are really going to regret those words. It's going to be a living hell."

~

The sound of metal clashing on metal and the heavy breathing of the fighters carried across the empty field. The sound of feet moving and the whistling of the wind through the trees and tall grasses. Thump.

"Remind me again why I agreed to live through this hell." Oriana seethed, pushing herself off of the ground for what felt like the hundredth time that day.