Crimson Kingdom

Chapter Five

Ryla awakes in a place she doesn't recognize. Before her was a palace one that doesn't exist in her realm. She sees a gate appear before her, her longing to stay in this place of complete bliss is strong but a quiet voice whispers in her mind.
"Don't Astra this is not where you belong go through the gate"
At the sound of the voice she finds great comfort in she reaches out and touches it. Slowly the gate creaks open it's like she is in a trance she takes one step forward and pain shoots through her body her wounds are present her old battered body is returned to her. She realizes she didn't feel pain on the other side of the gate she fights her urge to cross back over the threshold.

"Of course," she laughs "I'll never belong in a painless place" She lets out a scream even though she knows,she has always known, no one will ever hear her. Only the everlasting darkness ever heard her yet this place has none. Her emotions break through sporadically, a curse she has learned to live with
In a place between life and death a mother sobs despairing over what has happened to her baby. She cries out begging someone to help her child. Everyday for the last nineteen years she has cried out for help to come for her precious child. Her cries have always been answered with silence until now.
After some time Ryla rises up she swallows a scream as she stands hearing the quiet whistle of the wind knowing someone is behind her. She turns quickly and comes face to face with a being she has only heard of in folk tales. A man with long red hair and sea blue eyes that hold a red crest she recognizes but cannot place.
"Why are you here Ryla"
She does not know how he knows her name but she ponders his question an unimaginable peace floods through her body as she knows exactly what she must do. A peace that was never hers.
"I have come here to offer myself as a sacrifice for the god's to help save my kingdom" slowly this man approaches her and reaches into her chest with a gasp her eyes close
As he searches her soul an image flashes before him a queen that was so very powerful one that has been presumed dead for many years a power stronger than he has ever known shoves him out he knows in that very moment she was never meant to come before him as a sacrifice but as a Queen someone messed with fate and she was made to pay for it. He withdraws his hand and her eyes open and a gasp shakes his chest. Golden eyes of legend that have been declared for centuries.
"I refuse" Her eyes widen surprise overwhelms her, this offer was something she had not predicted.
"No you have to accept it please I beg you god of anger please" she falls to her knees a Queen bowing before her subject and something hits this god he knows exactly who this young girl is. No Queen in history has bared such wounds except for his Queen. No Queen could have survived such pain he knows she is dead but her name slips past his lips.
"Amaris Alexandria Odessa" she looks up and smiles at him sadly
"Your not the first one to mistake me for a mother I never knew" his eyes start to water because the plan Amaris gave her life for utterly failed she didn't even get to spend more than a day with her child.
"My name is Ikari and I served your mother and grandmother" an old type of magic wraps around her as her eyes turn golden a bond she never felt worthy to recognize, her hair once as pale as the moon changes, a color that never belonged to her. Replacing that moon colored hair is darkness, hair as dark as the midnight sky, it was almost too much. Gazing down at a puddle she sees what Ikari is trying to show her who she could be, a Queen with dark hair a fiery golden gaze and ...wings so brilliant her knees begin to tremble.A shudder runs through her body as tears run down her cheeks, confusion fills her, she isn't sad?

Those wings were a sight she had not seen in years. The last piece of her heritage. Her gaze hardens as her belief is not shaken the girl of hope and the girl of dreams has long since been burnt to ash. His magic undoes an old spell used to hide her true self. Permanently. All consuming pain floods through as she realizes finally coming to terms with what just happened.
She has yet to recognize her Majesty and her right to the throne.
She believes the thought is laughable, her the peasant, the beaten and adopted daughter of Das and Portia heir to Odessa's throne. The hunting life suits her better but how does she tell this god that stands before her that, how can she deny this god of the hope he rightfully deserves. Hope is the heartbeat of a fragile heart, only the weak hope, this god could survive a little heartbreak.