The Unknown (Book 1)

Prologue

Long ago there was a King and Queen. They had a Princess, she grew up and soon needed to marry. She couldn't choose one and so, the queen and King and Queen arranged a fight for her heart.

Two boys, best friends, they debated on joining this fight. One named Mark didn't debate for too long and sighed up the next day. As for the other Nick, he didn't want to, but his little sister encouraged him to.

"You should at least try." Those words from her were impossible for him to refuse.

When the fight came it soon came down to only Nick and Mark, but Mark was different. His eyes were dull as if his soul had left his body replaced with nothing but anger. It ended with Mark drastically hurting Nick's leg, and when it healed he had a permanent limp in his leg.

Mark was King, but he wasn't the same. Soon after this the princess lost her mom and dad, leaving her alone with him. He soon became obsessed over power; he soon got rid of the high classes he didn't care for others he loved handling things himself.

As for Nick he continued a nice life with his sister, but with his injury he wasn't able to work as much. At first that was fine, but soon as the new King raised the taxes it became hard.

The King became upset when the people couldn't pay up. It led to the first death made by a King in the kingdom. This scared the young Queen. She was too scared to do anything.

Nick was soon unable to pay and he grew in debt. As for his sister she soon fell for a young man. She was so happy to have someone besides her brother in her life. Nick tried everything to keep her happy but he never thought of losing her.

One day Mark came to Nick's house to talk with him about the taxes. Nick was expecting him soon and for A precaution he told his sister to go see the garden. He hoped she would stay outside. She didn't, she right back in the moment she heard yelling. Mark decided to take her life as payment.

The moment she died Nick lost his old meaning in life and gained a new one. That day he swore the royal family would pay.

Nick went to the woods outside the kingdom, and he figured how to use magical items that he had owned. The woods were known for the magical creatures, but the creatures had never seen such dark powers that Nick possessed and it scared them. He took their magic and used it for his own dark deeds. The woods died the day he entered them.

8 years later the Queen finally realized the true power she possessed as a Queen and soon the kingdom broke into a war. It didn't last long before she looked for a way to have peace. She heard rumors Nicholas which Nick went by as a dark wizard of the woods.

The Queen forced the King to see him, and he couldn't even recognize Nick. They spoke to him and asked for him to help them split the kingdom easily with magic to stop the war as soon as possible. Nick told them.

"It will take a lot of magic, meaning a price. In the future ether your kids or your grandkids will have a curse, I don't know what it will be, but there will be one."

They accepted blindly and soon two kingdoms were born. The kingdom of Eudaimonia was the home of the Empress made from stone. The kingdom of Apelpisia was the home of the Emperor made from wood. The kingdoms grew well and soon both rulers had children with no curse.

The Empress raised a lovely child with a loving father. The girl into a young woman happy to take on the role of Empress, she was just like her mom.

The Emperor on the other hand, raised a boy with no mother. That boy grew up to despise his father, and finally when he was old enough, he murdered his dad and became a better Emperor.

As life continued in the kingdoms, Nick continued to steal life from the forest. All the magic he absorbed he saved for the generation. Knowing the curse was coming, he knew that the only people who could kill him were coming. Nick split his magic into black amulets, with a spell that could weaken their power.

The new Empress wanted to have as many kids as she could. Her first 3 were boys and they weren't cursed surprisingly, but her daughter Daphne on the other hand, inherited the curse. Daphne's eyes were black, her hair white, her skin was so pale it was almost as white as her hair. None of that was the problem though, the problem was, her wings.

When she'd get angry her wings would become stone spikes, when she got sad her wings would become a waterfall of tears that never touched the ground, and when she was happy her wings would become bright yellow. It scared her mother.

The Emperor didn't want many children, but he needed a male fit to rule he had two girls before he had Drake. Drake was born with half of his body scarred with purple and black and one of his eyes was well was purple and black. He had magic and could teleport, light things on fire, and make things fly. His mother thought it was good, but his father didn't like the idea of the unknown abilities.

Both decided to seek out help, just as Nick wanted. They went to him and begged for his help. Nick obliged, but of course there was a cost.

"I can fix this for the rest of their lives but, it will take away half of your life away." He explained this to both of them, and of course they accepted blindly just like their parents. They both took an amulet handed it down to Daphne and Drake

They never thought that Nick would lie to them,but he did, both parents in each kingdom died when Drake and Daphne were only 5 years old. No one ever truly understood what happened to the parents, and they just played it off a sickness.

Both grew up remembering the rule their parents made for them.

"Never remove your Amulet."