The Downfall of the Kingdom

Chapter 2

"Father, I don't understand why I have to learn all of this nonsense about magic!". In a chamber within a beautiful castle a young princess argued with her father about her reluctance to delve into the aspects of magic. The mighty King Veldon stared angrily down at his daughter Anne. King Veldon Archiamedia was a majestic king who was fair and just. He possessed the blue eyes that all in his family had and had bold features with gray hair and a short beard. He was a kind man at heart but also a brave warrior who had amazing swordsmanship skills and a lethal magician. He dearly loved his daughter Anne, but also had far too much pain feeding off of him due to the death of his beloved wife and the mysterious disappearance of his elder daughter, Drea. "It is essential that you learn to protect yourself against any who oppose you," he replied very calmly and then continued, "It was magic that allowed this kingdom to survive through the many years where darkness had ruled and killed," he emphasised. "All right I'll slave away yet another day in this dreary chamber whilst the sun and birds live outside," she mumbled. This chamber could be described as the most amazing place in the entire castle as well as the kingdom. It was a chamber from where you could see every wonder of the land for it was the centre of the kingdom, at the highest point and also completely surrounded in glass. Anne stared dreamingly through the glass while Veldon spoke of something she wasn't even remotely interested in. She stared at the entrance to her great castle which was guarded by a heavy door and huge metal gate. The streets and houses that surrounded the castle were full of people all happily walking along to their destinations. A lake with glistening water shone through the glass inviting her to dive in and explore the depths of the water. Anne had a wonderful life full of many of her own little adventures that she's taken whilst venturing outside of the castle. But ever since she had reached the age of eighteen, it felt as though everything had changed. She was now forbidden to leave the premises of the castle alone. She was now forced to attend lessons of magic and occasionally practice her swordsmanship skills. Before all of this her mind was free, out in the open, but now that she had to memorize so many other spells and techniques, many of her saddest thoughts managed to crawl their way back into her mind while she purposefully ignored most of the lessons. These thought were all concerning the death of her mother which had happened so recently and unexpectedly that it had shocked many. She thought it was the work of dark magic and her father pondered over that too which only increased his insistence that she must be trained as a magician. The disappearance of her sister had also had a negative affect upon her for although they had slowly been growing apart over the years, she was still very fond of her older sister. The voice of her father brought her back into the present and she glared at him defiantly through her sapphire blue eyes her long brown hair rolling elegantly down her face. She spoke quietly, ''Father, if you would allow me more freedom to roam the land then I would be more than willing to oblige to learning your lessons on magic but until we can reach that agreement I shall continue to ignore these lessons.'' "You are now old enough to take care of yourself and think that I will grant you this one request but there are limits... I want you to excel in your studies of magic and take more of an interest in the kingdom that will one day be yours. Now go and explore your world. You have the rest of the day off but tomorrow I will personally begin teaching you in the art of magic. Go and enjoy yourself!" he ended off with a smile. A cry of joy from Anne and a huge hug were all she did before she raced down the candle lit hall and out into the streets where the people walked happily.

Meanwhile Veldon immediately consulted his most dear friend and the most powerful magician in the entire kingdom, Cigam. "I want you to now follow her every step. I fear that the evil we imprisoned at her birth, eighteen years ago is now growing stronger and trying to escape the forest. I know not as to where Drea is but I suspect that she may be involved in all of this," the king said. "I understand your fears," Cigam answered, "Already almost all of the witches I know of have turned to the dark side and those pure of heart are dying very quickly. The leaders of the witch clans are now under the service of the dark creature. The witches of fire, air and water have all turned evil including their followers. The only witch that comes to mind that remains pure of heart is the witch of ice and past memories, but she has no followers leaving her very vulnerable to attack from the other clans. I will watch young Anne and protect her with my life. You need not worry." " This news of the witches is indeed very disturbing and I think that I should begin to assemble an army so that we are prepared if the need to go to war arises. I trust you my friend and now go in peace..." Before Cigam left the room the king suddenly asked, "In all the years that I have lived, I have yet to meet a man with so strange a name as Cigam. Why are you known as that?" With a smile the magician replied, "Spell it backwards," and with that Veldon was alone in the room.

Anne immediately set her destination towards the lake which had seemed so inviting. She passed through the many streets filled with merchants selling goods from all around the world. Priceless vases, silk and spices were offered to her. Everybody loved young Anne and thought that she would make a fine queen when her time comes. At the same time everyone was also mindful of the fact that the elder daughter, Drea was never around and some argued that the eldest child was meant to take the throne. However none complained as the bright Princess Anne now walked amongst them. She arrived at the amazing area and sat down her feet dangling just over the water. She couldn't believe that her father had allowed her this extra bit of freedom and was thrilled with the fact that he had. She would also honour her commitment and learn magic. Now that she thought about it, the prospect of controlling fire, air and water was an exciting idea. She felt herself slowly dozing off and very silently, out of the depths of the water a hand reached out. It had a black ring on each finger and water slowly dripped off of the grey skin. At this point Anne was asleep and a dark and menacing witch with huge fangs and eyes of red emerged. The dark creature could see all that the witch saw and he couldn't believe his luck that the princess was right here with no protection. He could have laughed with joy at this sight! He ordered the witch to drag her beneath the water to drown to her death. The witch, as eager to kill the girl as the dark creature was, gently grabbed one of Anne's feet and slowly, so slowly that it appeared as though Anne wasn't even moving at all, pulled the girl towards the edge of the lake. Once Anne was no more than a hair's width away from the lake, the witch took a firm hold of her ankles. Upon the touch Anne awoke and stared into the red eyes of the foul witch and screamed. A scream so loud and terrifying that the birds rose into the air and the people's hearts froze for what seemed an eternity.