Queen of the Dying Lands Part 1

The wind blew through the strands of Kira’s platinum hair as she flew through the field on the back of her brown and white painted mare. She could hear the birds chirping their morning songs and smell the freshness of nature as the sun began to rise through the forest, drying the dew dampened flora. When she reached the a large plateau, she halted her horse and looked over the edge of the cliff to see the sun as it began to peek over the horizon, bathing the lush green and thriving lands below in an ethereal golden glow. She sat down and began to meditate.  Her morning rides always calmed her, giving her the peace and strength she needed to make it through the long days at court. She had no interest in such matters. With each day, she grew more tired of the manipulative, backstabbing world of politics, but for her, there would be no escape.
Every day, Kira would take a long ride out to this plateau, avoiding any villages along the way. This was the only time she felt she could truly enjoy herself, and she would not allow the presence of others to ruin this time for her. She sat at the edge of the plateau, dreading the day that was before her. She looked back over the beautiful land below, dreaming that she had been born free like the villagers below, able to make a life for herself as she saw fit. She wanted the freedom to be herself, and do as she pleased. She wanted the freedom to find her own way in the world, to find love.
Sometime later, she was pulled from her reverie by the voice of one of her guards in the distance. “Your Highness!” he yelled. She ignored him. “Princess Kiralia Grisbain!” He called again, unsure whether she was ignoring him or simply did not hear.
“Yes Darius?” she replied, barely containing annoyance with his interruption of her tranquility.
“Your Highness, it is almost mid-day. It is time we headed back to court. The king and queen informed me they have a very important matter to discuss with you.”
Ah yes, Kira knew that her parents had such matters to discuss with her, and that was precisely why she had been waiting until the very last minute to return to the castle. Kira had just turned eighteen years old. The only important matters her parents could have to discuss with her were matters of a marriage arrangement. She had no interest in discussing or committing to such things at this time.
“I suppose I have no choice.” She replied, resigning herself to her fate. “We will cut through the town of Galin on the way back. It will be faster that way.
Galin was a small town located just to the south of the capital. Initially, it was a poor village, constantly attempting to rectify its poverty through the trade of jewelry and textiles; however, as they never had the money to obtain the finer materials needed to make quality items, they never managed to sell many of their goods.
That all changed about three years ago, when a young wizard named Elian decided to make his home in the small town. Only eighteen years old at the time, Elian was the youngest wizard to pass training and the magical trials. He was a magical genius, already leading research on ancient magic. He came to the small town in an attempt to find a place to get away to study the components of ancient curses, many considered unbreakable, in an attempt to learn to dispel the vile things.
When he arrived at the small town, he saw the sorry states of the tradesmen, and took pity on them. Unlike many wizards who attempt to hoard their magical items, or sell them at exorbitant prices in an attempt to make themselves rich and powerful, this young man freely used his magic for the good of the town. He charmed items at no cost to the town’s people, and allowed them to sell the items at low prices. They were simple charms that warded away sickness or minor curses, made a person appear more attractive, or gave a person more strength or charisma, but even the smallest charm can increase an item’s value exponentially.
Eventually, word of the charmed items got to other villages, both near and far. People began to flock to Galin, buying the cheaply made jewelry or clothing, but paying high prices for the charms. Eventually, as the city grew wealthier and the shop keepers were able to buy higher quality materials to create their wares, Galin became a pivotal trade conglomerate for the country.
Now, Kira always looked forward to her strolls through the town. When the sun rose high in the sky as on a clear day such as this one, the entire city seemed to glow and sparkle and shine, and not from the sun refracting off of the fine jewelry being sold by the street venders. Magic itself gives off an ever present sparkle when exposed to bright sunlight, as though the rays are being refracted through a prismatic filter which the human eye cannot see. It was truly a sight to behold.
As Kira and Darius strolled through the town, Kira watched the townspeople attempt to make it through the crowds to their favorite vendors before the best items sold out. She always felt that the vivacity of the city also made it beautiful in its own right. She couldn’t help but be amazed by this place. Her presence alerted nobody, as she was dressed in her riding clothes and Darius was dressed in peasant’s garb. It was general procedure. If she was to go out in public, she and her guard must not war anything carrying the golden, twisted dragon insignia of the royal house. Doing otherwise may as well paint a target on their backs.
To Darius’ dismay, Kira dismounted from her horse to take a look at a small shop located in the center of the city. Every time she passed through the city, she made a point to visit this shop which was simply named “Elian’s”. Though it was owned by Elian, the store was generally run by an old shopkeeper from the town named Griffith. She had yet to see the young wizard visit the shop.
It was a quaint little store filled with magical trinkets, cultural items and anything else that the young wizard may have found interesting or unique in any of his many travels. Kira never bought anything in this shop. She came simply to look and learn. Under each item there was a plaque describing what the item was, where to find it, how it was obtained, its rarity and what magical abilities it had, if any. Much of the store was made simply for people to view the items, as a great number of the items were too dangerous to be owned by the average man.
“Good to see you again, Madam.” Griffith said with a wide smile, making the light wrinkles around his eyes more pronounced. “Feel free to look around. We have many fine items to buy or view today, and if you’re lucky, you may get to meet Sir Elian himself. He is due back from his trip to the Red Valley today, and he should be bringing some fresh new items any minute now.”
“Thank you, Griffith.” Kira said. “I will take a look around then.”
She didn’t show it, but she was very intrigued at the prospect of meeting Elian. She went to his shop regularly, using it as a way to live out her fantasies of freedom and travelling. Every week she would stop by and read about the new items, and what adventure he had lived to get it. It was like immersing herself into a different world for a short time, imagining herself being the one to live the stories. She imagined actually hearing the stories from the man himself would be even more interesting.
Kira began to make her way around the shop, moving from item to item, and living out each adventure in her mind when she heard a strange rasping sound behind her. She turned around and saw a withered old man looking at her.
No, he wasn’t an old man, looking at him again, she could see that he could not be older than thirty years old; however, his fingers were tinged a dark greyish-blue, his skin was sagging and gaunt and his eyes looked as though a grey film was forming over his pupils, blinding the man. His breathing was labored and with every breath there was a deep gurgle resonating from within his chest as though his lungs were filling with fluid, but just less than what it would take to suffocate him. You could see the deep pain etched into every movement he made.
“Help me.” He wheezed out. His voice airy and raspy. “Please help me.” He rasped again. Taking his gaze from her and looking around the store. “Lord Elian. Please help my tortured soul. I suffer, but I cannot weep. My heart and breath labor, but I cannot die. I have been engulfed in a perpetual darkness of which there is no escape into light. I have been cursed into a purgatory of pain and sorrow. Please, lift this curse.”
“Good Lord….” Griffith breathed. “I am so sorry, but Sir Elian has not yet returned. Perhaps you should go to a healer.”
“No healer!” the man yelled. “Does not….work. Already..tried…”
As though the outburst was too much for his frail body to take, the man then began hacking and coughing as though he had breathed in liquid and could not expel it. Kira watched in horror and morbid fascination as the man then turned blue in the face and eventually seemed to lose all ability to inhale, but he did not even lose consciousness. His eyes were wide and terrified as the oxygen he so desired eluded him, and he wheezed and gasped and labored for breath. He had gone well past the point where the lack of oxygen should have killed him, but rather than losing consciousness, he collapsed onto the ground. He grasped his throat as if somebody were strangling him and rolled back and forth making guttural sounds in his agony.
The man began to convulse on the ground, coughing and sputtering. Eventually, each cough pushed out a spray of fluid, allowing the man to get in a single shallow breath before his lungs filled again. He got onto his hands and knees, desperately looking around for help that nobody in the store could give him. The other people in the store began to panic, screaming and running out the door. Only Kira remained in place, staring at the man, frozen by terror. In his panic, his eyes locked on to Kira’s. He began to crawl towards her. As he did, the liquid that had been filling his lungs welled up through his throat and began to pour out of his open, gaping mouth. He was still gasping and gurgling. Veins in his eyes had burst, leaving his sclera red and tortured.
Kira willed her stiff legs to move away. Every instinct in her body was screaming at her, demanding that she absolutely could not let this man touch her. She scrambled backwards, only to back up into a wall. There were bookshelves to either side of her. She was trapped.
At the same time Darius began to move to tackle the sick man, she saw a young man enter the shop. Was tall, had jet black hair, and eyes filed with intelligence. He was carrying twisted, red wooden wand. As he took in the scene, he immediately understood the urgency of the situation, and waved his wand and concentrated. The tip of the wand began to glow with a blinding white orb which he then launched toward the sick man.
Then Kira realized that she was wrong. He did not launch the orb at the man, but instead at her. It hit her like a bolt of lightning, just as the man reached out to touch her. She felt a searing pain in her hand she looked down, screaming in pain as a rune was slowly etched into the skin on her right hand.
As she began to slip into unconsciousness from the pain coursing through her body, she saw the man stop mere centimeters from touching her, and be blown back into the opposite wall from her as though he had been hit by some sort of concussive force. Kira drooped to the ground. The last thing she saw was Darius changing course to tackle the young wizard before she passed out.