A few years before Rya was ever born.
The colossal iron-bound doors of Runevale's throne hall were forced open with such violence that they slammed against the walls and rebounded. The sound rolled through the palace like thunder.
A young woman strode through the doorway with blood dripping from her chin, her hands and her hair.
Her entire body was drenched in it, as though she had bathed in crimson. Her travelling cloak hung in ribbons, soaked dark colors.
At the far end of the vast hall, upon the high throne of platinum and beaten gold, sat the queen.
She did not raise her eyes from the thick leather book in her lap. She turned a page slowly, as though a blood-soaked intruder had not just torn through the palace.
Aeloria had heard the whispers all her life: Nyxelene was rumored to be the most beautiful woman ever to walk the earth. Seeing her now, even half-mad with grief and rage, she could only stare in stunned silence.
It looked as though several gods had worked overtime to craft their finest masterpiece and then placed it on a throne.
The queen wore a dark gown with intricate golden patterns, but the black dominated everything. Her skin was almost as pale as a corpse and her hair was so dark it seemed woven from the fabric of the blackest night.
Any normal ruler would have flinched when a blood-drenched maiden barged into their throne room like a mad woman.
However, Nyxelene did not.
Any normal ruler would have demanded the intruder be arrested the moment she crossed the threshold.
Nyxelene simply turned another page.
Aeloria had bitten and torn her way through the palace guard, leaving bodies in her wake. She had caused chaos in the dead of night, but the queen did not seem to care.
Aeloria stepped forward, her boots leaving wet red prints on the floor.
She took another step. Getting closer with each step.
The queen slammed the book shut at once.
A pair of crimson eyes rose and fixed on her, cold gaze devoid of anything human.
Aeloria froze on her next step.
One word left Nyxelene's lips.
"Kneel."
It was not Šērēĺįťh. No. It did not need to be.
Invisible force smashed Aeloria downward. Her knees struck the stone floor so hard the impact cracked her bone.
Pain shot up her knees, but she could not rise. She could not even lift her head.
"Aeloria, tell me your reason for such commotion at night."
Nyxelene said at last, her voice sounded almost bored.
'So the rumors were true. She knew everything that happened in her kingdom. She even knew my name even though I am just a commoner.'
Terror and fury choked Aeloria's throat, but the words spilled out anyway.
"So you knew. You knew one of the high-ranking nobles would ambush us on the road from the kingdom of Namesh. We were only out trading our stocks from kingdom to kingdom. They had no reason to harm us. I was wounded, exhausted, and pregnant. Do you know what it feels like to give birth alone in the dirt, with no milk, listening to your own child cry itself to death from hunger? Do you know how it feels to eat your own baby just to silence the screaming in your gut? To end their suffering?"
Her voice broke as she spoke the words.
"I ate my own child to survive. And you knew they were coming for me. Their target was me. Yet you let them slaughter all twenty people in the caravan just to be rid of one inconvenience. You monster."
After her harsh outburst, there was only silence.
Nyxelene leaned her elbow on the armrest of the throne, rested her chin in her palm, and looked down at the kneeling, blood-soaked woman with an expressionless face.
"That, is a very strange way to blame your inability to protect yourself—and your child—on another person," the queen said at last, with a conversational tone.
After a heartbeat, she rose from the throne with fluid, impossible grace, allowing the black gown to flow around her like living shadow.
She descended the three shallow steps until she stood directly over Aeloria.
"You were unable to defend your caravan. You failed to save your child.
You were too weak to even keep milk in your breasts. I don't see how any of that was my doing."
Nyxelene took deliberate strides until she stood directly above the kneeling, blood-soaked woman.
"What is yours is your responsibility to protect and nurture. Be it life, children, land, or gold. Failure to protect it lies with you and you alone," she said, in a perfectly levelled voice.
Aeloria lifted her tear-streaked face as rage and grief warred in her eyes.
"What is the point of having so much authority if you cannot make the kingdom a better place? If you had helped, my baby would still be alive!" She shouted in a cracked voice, looking up at the woman.
Nyxelene's expression did not change.
"Such hypocritical words," she replied in a tone laced with cold disappointment.
"I am deeply disappointed that you caused all this commotion tonight just to say such foolish words. The world does not revolve around a single person. Everyone is a significant character in this world, and no one is. You killed twelve guards on your way to force an audience with me."
"In that action, you were a significant character and the guards were unimportant obstacles in your way. Only what you wanted mattered and nothing else. Not even their lives. However, they too, are significant characters in their own small world."
She stepped even closer, the hem of her black gown brushing inches away from Aeloria's knees.
"One of them was named Nol. He has three children: two girls and one boy. His wife is pregnant with their fourth child, another boy. Nol was diligent, always on time for his shift. Every evening when he returned home, his wife and children ran to hug him. He brought them costly gifts bought with his hard-earned wage. The next time they see him, he wouldn't be able to hag them because you killed him tonight. Bit him to death.
Another guard was named Ramion. He lived with his elderly grandmother and was the sole breadwinner. Soon she will die, because she will have no one left to take care of her. Many more of them had people relying on them to live. You may have lost a precious child but you took someone's father, husband, brother and grandchild."
Aeloria's shoulders shook harder. Guilt temporarily replacing fury.
She had charged through the palace in blind rage, tearing apart anything in her path, never considering the consequences, the families, the lives she was ending.
"I did not interfere as you attacked them, just as I did not interfere when you were lost in the wilderness. Those guards failed to protect their lives exactly as you failed to protect the life of your child, Lira. Unless the results would endanger the kingdom itself, my interference would always be unnecessary." Nyxelene continued, beginning to circle her slowly, to the left, behind her, right, in front, left again. Each step measured and unhurried.
The great doors burst open once more. A full squad of palace guards stormed in with their swords drawn and shields raised and a guarded stance.
"My queen, are you alright? We heared there was an intruder," the captain shouted as his eyes darted from the blood-drenched woman on her knees to Nyxelene's calm figure.
However, the queen paid them no attention.
"Regardless of your situation, you still owe the kingdom a tremendous debt left on your shoulders by your family. The recent stocks you went to sell were a failure, which increased your debt by several folds. Your sudden commotion demands your execution as per the laws of Runevale," she said to Aeloria.
As she circle to the front, she stopped pacing and looked down at the kneeling woman. "But I will give you an offer. Join my army, Aeloria, and pay off all your debts."
Aeloria's head snapped up with a defiant gaze.
"You really are exactly as the rumors describe. You break the mind by blaming people for their own incompetence, then you offer them a deal like you're doing them a favor. After that you use them and discard them when they're no longer useful. You disgust me, Nyxelene." she spat in a voice filled with hatred.
One of the guards who had approached the scene struck her hard across the head with the hilt of his sword. Aeloria crumpled sideways as fresh blood trickling from her temple.
"Watch how you speak to your queen, you filth!" the guard snarled.
Nyxelene raised a single, pale hand and the guard froze mid-motion.
"You seem to misunderstand something fundamental, Aeloria. If I want something, I take it. Deceiving a person is not something I do, especially not to vermin like you. Come to me after you have given my offer a logical thought," the queen said in a voice so soft it pleased the ears.
"Escort her out."