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Princess of Prophecy II: Kalara's Secret - Part Two


by saeryena

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“You’re—”

      I couldn’t believe it. For a second, I wouldn’t believe it. Her, my mother’s sister?

      “But... how?”

      “Kalara!” my father said. “Is this true?”

      He didn’t know either! In fact, I wasn’t sure if any citizen of Altador had ever known that their Queen had a sister.

      “Why didn’t you tell us?” I asked.

      My mother’s face turned sad. The smallest bead of a tear formed in the corner of her eye.

      “Alyxandra was... taken from me at a young age,” she began. “The Faerie... she was horrible. She tricked us... all of us... and then she took my sister...”

      A Faerie? The figure in my visions!

      “Before she came to us, I was training as an archer and Xandra as a mage. Our mother, Katryca, was—is—quite rich, and she acquired Faerie blessings for the both of us when we were born. I got intellect and precision, something I seem to have lost... Xandra got the gift of magic... oh, I can’t say her name, I just can’t... she’s still out there somewhere...”

      Before I had a chance to ask who it was that had caused my mother such grief, my father whisked me away to room full of maps.

      He took a scroll from the shelf and laid it out on the table.

      What I saw before me was a map of Altador—except much more rural. In the outermost part, it was dotted with random houses, but nearer to the palace in the center there were grander places, almost like miniature palaces.

      I looked at the bottom of the map. It said “Kingdom of Miarra.”

      “Miarra,” my father said, “was—”

      That was all I heard him say, for only a moment after, his face blurred in front of me. Soon, I could no longer see it.

      My father was in warrior’s armor, running into a place ravaged by flames. Behind him was a Faerie. She, too, was gilded in armor. When I looked closer, I saw the Betrayer. “The Darkest Faerie,” some call her.

      Opposite them, I spied another Faerie—a Fire Faerie. She wore a queenly gown, a crown of ruby laurels, and her hair was in braids. I thought her pretty until I saw the look on her face. It was one of absolute malice. And she was smiling.

      Was this the Faerie who’d made off with Xandra? If so, I could kind of see where she was coming from. Already I didn’t like the look of this one.

      When my eyes shot open, it was the middle of the night. I was in my bedroom.

      Gingerly, I opened the door to see if anyone was still awake. No one was. Even Nyvenne, who had frequented the palace (occasionally it was a surprise) before the Faerie Festival disaster, was nowhere in sight. Perfect.

      As quietly as I could, I tiptoed to the palace library with a candle in my hand. Taking a quick look through the small window on the door, I didn’t see a soul.

      I walked into the library and started searching for a book on a kingdom called “Miarra.” No place by that name existed in Neopia, or so I thought...

      I finally caught sight of what I was looking for: The Complete History of Altador. I set the candle on a small table beside one of the chairs, which I then plopped into and started reading.

      Chapter 4: Miarra

      The land upon which our Kingdom of Light now stands was once under the rule of a lovely Fire Faerie name Miarra. Queen Miarra was known for her benevolence and for the magical gifts she gave the children of her kingdom. Many of the Neopets living in her land became powerful mages or warriors. Unfortunately for her, her daughter, who many called “spoiled and spiteful”, had such a strong hunger for power that she overthrew her mother. One Scorchio said that “the whole palace had become a piece of the sun in the way that it would never stop burning.” Queen Miarra was never seen again after that.

      When our Twelve Heroes had teamed up together, they came upon Miarra, which was by now a wasteland under the rule of Queen–

      But before I could get this horrid Faerie’s name, my book was slammed shut. I looked up to see a pair of sea-green eyes before I saw the sighing face of Xandra.

      I froze on the spot. I knew she was pretty powerful, and I was scared.

      “What are you doing here?” she asked.

      “I... I just—”

      Wait a minute.

      “I think the real question is, why are you sneaking around the palace in the middle of the night?!”

      Xandra sighed again.

      “It’s got absolutely nothing to do with you, so don’t concern yourself,” she replied.

      She took my hand and we walked back to my room. As soon as I could I let go of her. I slammed my door in her face before plopping back down onto my bed.

      I began to ponder things. Who was this mysterious Fire Faerie? And just how much was she connected to Xandra? One thing was for certain: my experience with Faeries was a little warped as well. I knew Psellia and Siyana; they were my friends, but when I’d first seen Nyvenne in a dream I hadn’t known what to make of her. All I’d known was some Faerie was telling me she had “gifted” me with prophetic visions and that I absolutely had to be hero due to “fate” and “the path” and a bunch of related insanity. Over the years I had grown to resent her for her messing with my mind. I had visions and this “hero” destiny when I didn’t want it. At all. There had even been one point when I’d downright disliked her altogether, a concept which was incredibly tough to grasp nowadays. And let’s not forget Alilire, a particularly malicious Air Faerie who had posed as Psellia, pushed me into the ocean, made me highly distrust Nyvenne and kidnapped both me and my mother—all for the purpose of seizing Altador.

      But this... this Fire Faerie seemed to be, if anything, worse. I remembered my first vision of Xandra. She’d looked quite frightened. How long had she been a captive? Years? Possibly... until she was no longer a child? If I had had to endure most of my childhood with a Faerie like that, I would probably be hiding out in some remote forest or on some distant island trying to keep from going completely out of my mind.

      And that, I realized, is exactly what Xandra did... or at least tried to do before something else happened...

      All this thinking soon tired me out as my eyelids began to droop...

      I ran into my parents’ room with them and Xandra close behind me. As soon as they were all inside, I closed and locked the door. I then pushed a chair up against it, but I knew it was no use.

      After a few moments the chair was ablaze as well as the door. Soon they both disintegrated into ashes, and the Fire Faerie from my visions stepped through the archway where the door had once been.

      She smiled an evil smile and sent a bolt of fire at Xandra—laughing. I screamed.

      My scream woke me up. What a horrid dream—or was it? Oh no...

      “Saeryennan!”

      Nyvenne materialized before me.

      “What happened?” she asked.

      I told her. She sat down next to me and and lowered her face into her hand and sighed.

      “I should’ve known she wouldn’t stay away for so long... and now that Xandra’s back she’s pretty traceable. Poor girl must’ve got her hopes up that she was gone for good after the crash... but with someone as powerful as Queen Katriana, that just isn’t at all likely. In fact, I would go so far as to say impossible...”

      I felt oddly and uncomfortably warm, and a lump formed in my throat. Nyvenne had just told me that the maniac was looking for us.

      “Isn’t there... anything you can do at all?” I asked, not expecting any kind of good answer.

      Just as I thought, the only news I got was bleak. Nyvenne was just a prophecy Faerie. She could only tell one’s fortune along with the normal manipulation of the winds she had, which could fend off a thief, but she couldn’t do a thing against Katriana. If anything, she would be making her all the more powerful.

      With a great feeling of fear in my heart, I made my way down the stairs. Calissa, sweet, innocent, lucky ignorant Calissa, was sliding down the banister and seemed much happier than I.

      I made my way into a sitting room, where my parents and Xandra were sitting and talking. It didn’t matter what about. I had to warn them.

      “Mother,” I said, “I had a vision about Queen Katriana. She was in our palace and she attacked Xandra.”

      I saw Xandra’s eyes grow bigger. Immediately she stood up, made her way over to my mother and grasped her shoulders.

      “Kalara...” she said in a half-insane voice. “She is coming for me... she is returning to her kingdom!”

To be continued...

 
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Other Episodes


» Princess of Prophecy II: Kalara's Secret - Part One
» Princess of Prophecy II: Kalara's Secret



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