Chapter One

In which we meet a new King and Queen

The wars started then, for the King and Queen had left behind no heir and not all believed in the Prophecy. There were a great many who believed that they could rule more efficiently than the recently departed monarchs, and very few of them possessed good intentions.

Those who did believe the Prophecy foresaw all of this; in fact, on the night of the ritual those understanding the language of the ancient secrets had gone underground, fully expecting to remain there for the better part of a decade.

During that time it was a corrupt sector of the church that ultimately came into power, and the High Crown began its most bloody lineage, traveling through twice as many reigns as there were years. There were so many political upheavals that when subjects found themselves adhering to the same rules and taxation for more than a fortnight they became increasingly nervous.

Rather than outline that first miserable decade immediately following the Queen's untimely departure, we will skip ahead to the period of time during which her second cousin, a man dubbed as a Duke almost in afterthought, rose to his full power. Many said he only came to be King due to the large army of outcasts he had quietly accumulated during the Crown's rotating reign and none dared challenge him because of his troops' low moral standards when riled to arms.

This was true.

Some believed he had risen to power because he was as cunning and patient as he was ugly.

This was also true.

The absolute truth, however, as those waiting underground for the return of the Queen would tell you, was this: Darwin took the throne and remained there simply because this was how it was meant to be. Duke Darwin of the forgotten barony, awkward cousin who often was not invited to Yuletide parties simply because he was not a memorable man became King because it was written that he would be. He did not know this; few, in fact, did. Most subjects knew there was a Prophecy, but all were vague on the details. They knew that it spoke generally to the effect that things would turn out all right in the end and all of this carnage and disease and pestilence brought on by corrupt Kings and clergymen must be a Test of Faith.

Darwin was under the illogical and false pretense that he was an exceedingly clever man. Those close to him were never quite sure how he had ever come to this conclusion, but they allowed him to feel superior. Mainly because technically he was, and any attempt to correct or educate him inevitably lead to a date with the High Executioner. Not even his own mother had escaped such a fate. (That was, in fact, his first act as King; he had hardly risen from being crowned when the order for her death was issued. Darwin wanted it made perfectly clear from the beginning that he was not a man to be trifled with.)

His second act as King was to find a suitable bride to bear him children. At least one male child to claim as heir to the throne, to be precise. This was an ancient tradition, to be sure, and traditions were not observed as strictly as in times before. Even still, he figured it couldn't hurt to be prepared, and he knew that this was the only way to secure a wife. Without the Crown and subsequent power he was simply Darwin, a man who happened to be related to royalty and walked bowlegged and spat slightly when he spoke. He may have been able to lie and convince himself he was clever, but even he himself knew that as Plain Darwin he was no catch. Before assuming duties in the castle he had never managed to seduce a woman into his bed, drunken or otherwise. He was more than eager to use heavy title to its full advantage.

The King by law had the right to marry whomever he wished, regardless of the subject's age or marital status. By the time he reached the throne Darwin was nearing his thirtieth year and held not one romantic notion within his head. He did not wish to hold gala events or tack up royal proclamations to procure his Queen. He and one eighth of his army rode though neighboring towns and villages, commanding all women ages fifteen to twenty-five to form lines in the town square and strip down to their shifts. That last bit was completely unnecessary, for Darwin already knew what his wife should look like; he thought it would be a treat for his men, some of which were as awkward and blundering with the fairer sex as he.

Darwin knew what his Queen must look like because it had come to him in a dream. This may seem to contradict the previous claim that he was not a romantic man, but this was not a romantic dream. It was simply a woman's face and The Voice,which said simply

“Marry this one.”

Darwin at times in his life had heard The Voice in dreams, and he never failed to obey it. He hated to admit to himself " and never would he utter it aloud " but at times he suspected that The Voice was the only reason he had lived this long and made it to King.

He found her on the third day as the sun was nearing back down to the horizon, just as he was debating whether or not to give up on the woman from the dream and settle on a redhead he'd taken a fancy to a few towns prior.

She was a milkmaid and had not even been notified of the King's visit; subsequently she was fully clothed and happened to be walking through town on an errand. Darwin knew as soon as she rounded the corner. He caught sight of her dark hair and the way she held her head, proud, as though she was just a milkmaid to pass the time and not due to the necessity of livelihood. Her startling green eyes and full mouth that seemed to be in a perpetual half-smile, amused; these features also matched those of the woman in the dream; but it was the tilt of her chin and the way those emerald eyes never seemed to leave his even as she knelt in his presence that completely rang true with his nighttime visions.

Darwin took her home and married her (much to the despair of Olivia's husband and two children, as Olivia was the name of the new Queen. Darwin sometimes forgot this and called her Opal. She wisely decided to accept this as a pet name and wore her new moniker with her typical grace.). She bore him not one son but three and became the jewel of the Kingdom, not rounding out but balancing out Darwin's glaring personality flaws. King Darwin did not become a gentler man after marriage, but his subjects found it easier to tolerate him with the saintly Queen at his side.

Author's Note

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