“To see the good in yourself is to also see the evil within,” said the prophetic White Witch. “It is to tame the demon down and conquer it that makes everyone be pure again. It is this since the start of time and will always be till the end of time. Only upon the return of the Third King’s Lost Daughters will the Kingdom rise again. All things will be restored as they were. From the pure magic of the White Witches down to the redemption of souls of the fallen warriors she had slain. The kingdom will rise again at the fall of the Evil One. ”
And return they did, after so many years of despair caused by the Black Witch Nathara, the sorceress of the Everglades. They were Third King’s own identical daughters. But at an early age, they were sent out to different warring families as a precaution—to prevent Nathara from seeking them out all at once and risking the chance of the prophecy from being ever fulfilled.
They were summoned almost a year past, and with that, came forgiveness and enough time for them to get to know each other as the family that they were. It wasn’t easy. But before they left to challenge their fate, they were able to spend a good number of months with their true mother and father, both whom they had grown to love.
Their mother, Queen Branwen, held all the virtues of being a loved and admired Queen. Their father, King Aedan, loved her so much. She made their transition to Royalty easy as she had loved them more than they could have ever expected. She was the Queen but she made herself their mother first before anything else. Because of this, they could never have accepted their places in the kingdom.
But things must come to a conclusion at a point in time. To fulfill that prophecy, they must have Nathara’s blood on their hands. She who has slain must be slayed in order to restore balance into their kingdom. There were no other options.
It was the night of the Solstice Moon, the eve of their twentieth year. It was the appointed time for the prophecy to be fulfilled as the time of the Solstice held the greatest source of magic.
The woods were dark and deep. Everything was quiet except for a few howls from the night’s wolves. In front of the roaring fire, the three raven haired princesses gathered. Kiara cast a spell that sent all of them into a trance. At first, it was a little weak as the memories they sent out to each other were vague and cloudy. Only until they held hands, did they understand each other’s minds clearly. Upon contact, their skin surged with such strong impulses, bringing memories to the surface that were much clearer than before. It took quite a long time for them to digest everything. Until a few moments later, a sudden gust of wind and the rising of the fire signaled that their demons have indeed been awakened.—hungry and waiting to be let out from their cages.
Daemons, that’s what they were called. Snake spirits slithering and wrapping themselves up in the coils of the three warrior princesses’ hearts.
Kiara tried to control these demon manifests but it turned out that they were beyond her control. They were tense, always on guard and ready to snap at them anytime. They were untamed beasts, these snakes. However, they all came out slithering slowly out of their open mouths, making eerie noises that echoed loudly in the woods.
At first, they were hissing softly. But by each growing minute, the skin-crawling tone made it past their ears and it went straight into the insides of their chests—occupying every space left and crushing out the air inside them brutally.
It was now or never.
Andreva’s hate was a rattlesnake made out of roaring fire. Since the prophecy was unveiled, she would run off daily into the woods every time she recalls the hate that she had for her mother—the woman elder decided that she would never be taken into the tribe’s immediate family’s circle. She was not welcome. She was not her own flesh and blood—in her eyes, a constant living reminder of her mother’s dead biological child.
Nia’s insecurities were a seven headed viper. The last of a brood of six talented hunters, Nia preferred to enclose herself in caves. Her brothers and sisters were all excellent in their fields of art and warfare. She only had her spear skills to show to her dying father who wished to marry her to another tribe elder’s son. She wanted to refuse but she couldn’t. She was a daughter first and a warrior second.
Kiara’s self destructive thoughts were a venomous, fanged cobra. It was deadly and agitated. Like the way she would climb treetops just to be out of anyone’s reach. She learned to hide in places and within herself. She had been left once on top of a mountain amongst bears and wolves as her family thought she would never manifest magic if not under intense fear. In fact, she didn’t. She only did when one of the tribesmen thought she was worthless and tried to shoot her with his bow. He was blinded ever since from the glow of the blue light she cast from around herself.
Each snake, glorious in their coldness, uncoiled themselves out of their bodies and came out, suddenly real, from out of their bodies. They went down from their hosts’ mouths and gathered at the middle of the ground where the three young ladies stood in horror at what laid before them.
The snakes began to attack each other but can’t seem to injure or poison the other. It went on for minutes and longer, until the sisters saw something magical happen. Each snake went into a trance and move around each other in circles. They did this awkward hypnotic dance until they stood up in the center and slowly, coiled themselves into union.
The three women warriors stood stunned. The snakes, oblivious to them, started hissing louder and louder until more snakes appeared from their center. It grew bigger and bigger until it became a huge snake covered pillar.
It was so frightening. Only then, it wasn’t true.
Out of the array of twisting scaly magical snakes that merged came a creature with a woman’s head and a basilisk’s body. She had a very beautiful face and an equally fanged mouth at the sides—a face that had a wide evil smile.
Nathara., the Black Druid, finally in the flesh. She, whose beauty, fed off on all the kingdom’s demons and used those same evils to turn every brother and sister, husband and wife, parents and children against each other. Their fears fed her beauty, which she held in high esteem. Her beauty gained her the love of a man—a man that later spurned her youth for a simple peasant girl from the woods. The King and Queen were wrong to have their children sent against her. She will ruin them; break them in pieces, and crush them like what they did with her heart. She looked at them straight in the eyes and saw their
“I am all your fears manifested,” she said with a hiss, “There’s nothing you can’t do against me. I am you and you are me.”
The air all around the forest became tense. All everybody had to do was to feel it slowly enter their bodies and let it chill their insides with pure and intense fear—the right one that might just get them killed.
Andreva could only fearfully stare, Nia’s blood turned cold and Kiara’s eyes were shielded against her image. But inspite of it all, the three sisters felt that was before them was a matter to them no more. They were suddenly aware that instead of bearing heavy hearts, they were suddenly freed of their inner burdens, maybe because they knew that this creature grew inside them all these years. Tending to those fears only made them weaker. So now, they’re gone, they knew exactly that they were stronger than they really thought they were. They should have released them sooner, but it wasn’t meant to be. What it just needed was time and faith.
Suddenly aware that the time has indeed come for the prophecy to unfold, the sisters kept their minds sharp. They exchanged messages unceasingly in their heads, talking in short bursts about series of attacks to do. Back and forth they drew on each other’s plans. Like hunters, they didn’t dare miss a single thought.
It wasn’t an easy plan but it was one they’re betting on to do.
On the count of two, Kiara sent out her magic in front of Nathara. She was hit between her chest. The woman snake hissed again in anger and lunged forward towards her. Kiara ducked and out came Nia from behind. When Nathara got close enough, Nia slashed her eyes with her spear. She drew first blood and left the snake whipping her tail in agony. She was in pain and she sent a strong surge of power that knocked them on their spot. She swished her tail blindedly and knocked the other two sisters over, Andreva included. Not long after, Andreva got to her feet, jumped from behind and with her sword, she proceeded to slash off the head of the great Druid.
For few painfully slow seconds, Nathara saw her life flash before her--the burst of black magic from her fingertips, shouts of glee at her scale ridden face and body, her mother abandoning her in the woods and the image of Aedan, her lover going away into the castle with his new wife. It was pain beyond measure. All the inner beauty she had was shadowed by her ugly strangeness—Aedan couldn’t see past the snake-like image of hers. She had loved with a great love and all she received was suffering at the hands of this one man whose life she wished to be tangled with hers. It was pain without measure, pain without light. She saw the reflection of her slit-like eyes reflected in the sword of one of Aedan’s daughters. It was coming down on her fast and sharp so she just closed her eyes and waited for the end to start.
There were loud shrieks. And the next thing they knew, blood sprayed all around them—blood that once seared them with pain their demons had given them all these years.
Nathara is gone and so were they.
Andreva, Nia and Kiara gathered around the remains of the fallen Druid. They all knew the stories of her stirring up demons from almost every person she met. Some said it was for personal gain, others believed it was because of a great love she had for a man who never saw her more than what she is.
“Who could that man be?” Andreva asked. Nia and Kiara could only reflect her question back, until something strange happened.
At first, there was silence and the thunderous wall of magic built within the place bursted. There was blinding light around them and suddenly, the spirits of the fallen warriors and the magical guardians of the kingdom—The White Druids, went up from below the ground and enveloped the sisters entirely with their white magic.
The magic surrounded them in what seemed to be an eternity until they felt themselves float and land in an awfully familiar place they always saw in their dreams—the palace. The white light around them disappeared and they all landed safely on the floor of the main hall where they saw the King seated restlessly on his throne.
“Father, what’s wrong?” Nia asked. She sensed there was something horribly wrong in their victory and that, it reflected on their father’s voice.
“Where’s mother?” Kiara added.
Andreva cut in, “We want to tell her that we finally killed…”
“Your mother is dead,” he said. “Nathara linked herself to your mother—a secret she kept hidden from me all these years. You see, she is and was your mother’s twin. If Nathara dies, she dies. ”
The three warrior princesses couldn’t believe what they’ve just heard. Their mother, the Queen, was herself a part of that demon they just slayed? Grief enveloped them immediately after they heard these words from their father:
“Time must come when we have to choose the good for the evil and the evil for the good. I may have chosen wrong for leaving Nathara but it was for your mother that my heart really longed for. If she had done great evil things, it was because I spurned her love. It is I who should be punished, not your mother. She linked herself to Nathara instead so that I may live.”
The King’s demon was himself. He couldn’t bring out the fact that he loved one and hurt another. He loved with a great love and he couldn’t accept the truth that he had to hurt another. It haunted him all his life. He had to send his children away to protect them from the wrath of his own making. He had to keep them alive and give them a bigger chance at getting the better end of the prophecy. He had to make sure they survive.
Andreva, Nia and Kiara put down their weapons and bowed their heads. There was no family to begin with, no mother to come home to now. They had defeated an enemy but had lost a loved one in the process.
“She died so that you and me, my daughters, could restore the Kingdom back to its glory,” the King said, standing up suddenly with a voice trying to be brave. “Fear not. Grieve not. She is very proud of you as you have done your duty well,” he said.
Andreva, Nia and Kiara understood the sacrifice their mother made. She was a beautiful soul and a selfless Queen bound by her love for husband, her sister, her kingdom and her daughters. No other sacrifice could ever replace the one she did just now. None--not even the one they just did.
The next day, the King and his daughters, announced the fall of Nathara and the untimely death of the Queen. The Kingdom half rejoiced as they, too, felt the loss of their loved Queen. It was a bittersweet victory indeed—one of the few things that’s still went down in the kingdom’s legends.
As for the sisters, demons will always hunt them through their days. But most of all, it will haunt their father for eternity. They realized that in place of one demon, another will come. It was now up to them to rise up to more of these demons in their lives and that meant, ruling and restoring order and balance the Kingdom had once had.