The Varyan Princess

Valencia

Out of all the nights without Sir Yve by her side, the eve of her birthday seemed to be the worst one. She paced back and forth from the chambers, repeating the plan over and over again in her head.

She knew once the clock struck 10:00 is when the servants are relieved of their duties, that is also when the knight guarding her tower with switch shifts. Valencia waits for three knocks on her door to signal that is is Sir Yve right behind. They will then sneak into the courtyard where they will meet with Sir Godart and that is where Valencia leads her group at the back of the courtyard where a door hidden in vines will lead them to a passageway. The princess only knew about the secret passage because it had been used once when the castle was once under attack from when the Dyt'sukians decided to take over the whole of Elysia. Of course, considering the amount of well-trained knights of Varya, the Dyt'sukians were easily bested before they could even take over the rest of the seven kingdoms. The King became known as the protector of Elysia because of this event. The passageway connected to a small, secret chamber where which the princess, the queen and a couple of servants hid until the attack ended. If the Dyt'sukians ever found the chamber, there was a tunnel that bypassed the moat and outside into the woods for escape. Although she was only 10 years old when the attack happened, she remembered the walls of that chambers too vividly.

As they arrived at the door covered in vines, Valencia gave one quick look at the courtyard one more time. She couldn't doubt it, she was going to miss this castle-- not just the castle but her father as well. Then, that's when she saw him; Commander Farwaters, charging towards the group with furrowed brows. Sir Godart took out his wand but Sir Yve quickly pushed his arm back down.

"What is the meaning of this?" He exclaimed. "Sir Godart? Sir Yve?"

The two knights stayed silent. The commander shifted his gaze to the princess.

"How do you think the king will react when he finds out that his daughter, the only family he's got, has gone and escaped?" He scolded. Valencia looked down before she composes herself.

"Please, Commander. You know my father. You, out of all people, would know how my father is." She pleaded.

"I can't let you go, Princess Valencia. It's against my duties."

"But it's not against your duties," she said getting closer to the commander, "you did not take an oath for it. It's just against my father's orders."

"Your father's orders is the king's orders and disobeying the king is against my duty," he elaborated. Valencia looked down at the ground, feeling the failure of her plan on her shoulder.

"You've done it for me before? Why not this?" She asked.

"Because this is different. This is escaping! Letting you get away is a bigger risk than derailing from your schedule!" Then the commander looked at the knights behind Valencia, "Is this why you wanted to meet with Sir Yve and Sir Godart?"

"Please, commander, the princess had nothing to do with this." Yve spoke out,

"Yve, please," Valencia said trying to stop the knight from saying anymore.

"I encouraged her to escape with me, it was I who brought the idea to her. If anything, I'm the mastermind of all this. So if you're going to punish anyone, let it be me."

"No!" Valencia shouted at the knight, "it's not fair! I cannot live trapped in the castle let alone be wedded to a prince whom I've never even met! For once in my stupid life I'm doing something that I want and I'm not letting a king, a prince or even a whole kingdom take that away from me." Valencia clenched her jaws and raised her palm in front of the commander.

"Valencia don't! You don't know how to control it yet! You can kill him if you do this!" Yve warned. Valencia ignored Yve's cries and opened her channels which led to the commander's body breaking through the glass and into the corridors of the castle. As Valencia turned around to get back to their plan, it had seemed that it wasn't only commander who's gotten affected; both the knight had been slammed on the walls. Valencia quickly came to both the knight's aid.

"Are you guys alright?" She questions.

"We're fine, don't worry about it." Yve answers as she stood up.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't just-"

"You don't have to apologize, Valencia, you did what you had to do." Yve answers. "Let's go before the whole castle is alarmed."

As the group made their escape, the king was quickly awoken and ran toward the commander where he was found with shards of glass surrounding him, his head still pounding from the impact.

"Commander, what happened?" The king asked, helping him stand up.

"Alert the alarm," the commander instructed to the knights who had awoken to the commotion.

"What happened commander!" The king shouts once more.

Commander Farwaters hesitates for a bit, "the princess has escaped."

Fury grew in the king's eyes. "Where did they go?"

The commander glanced at the hidden door, "I don't know," he answered.

"Was anyone with her?" The king asked. The commander clenched his fists.

"She was alone, your majesty."