Tales of the Throne: Queen

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

In a time of uncertainty and suffering, it was said that the goddess herself bestowed a gift unto the earth realm. A gift that would lead her creation out of suffering, the stones of zircon and obsidian.

From these stones was the Rule of Cardinal born and tethered a balance between the zircon stone of creation and the obsidian stone of destruction.

The goddess felt this was necessary as corruption filled the hearts of many, death plagued the earth as her creations of life suffered among those with evil hearts.

The Rule of Cardinal is an entity that chooses the next successor to the throne, it chooses who it pleases to sit on the throne and who would lead the Kingdom to thrive.

Which is therefore not based on lineage but on one's character.

It embeds itself into the person it has chosen and grants them the power to rule. It is evident the Cardinal has chosen the next ruler when the crown no longer protects itself from being held by supernatural beings.

Many leaders (other kings and queens) had dominion and ruled the lands of the world but under the reign of the Kingdom that possessed the Rule of Cardinal, this was absolute.

Xerxia was the first to be taken and made Queen. The coronation was filled with ancient languages, sacrifices, and incantations.

She was the first to experience the full power of the Cardinal.

Among the first order of witches, the prime witch was against Xerxia becoming Queen because she foresaw untold horrific events.

But at the risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy, she said nothing and reluctantly made Xerxia Queen, knowingly causing a cycle to form.

A cycle she knew would bring about misery.

Xerxia relished being Queen, she relished the fact that she had absolute power from the Cardinal.

She had the support of the goddess, the people and the prime witch, or so she thought.

However, this wasn't enough for her, she became greedy and lavished unreasonably in her power.

Soon after she realized what she had wasn't enough, and out of greed, she would get more power by whatever means.

Queen Xerxia called on the order of witches to make her even more powerful than she already was. Xerxia was so desperate for more power she didn't care about any consequences that would affect her and even her successors.

"The effects of performing this ritual are untold, I don't think you should go ahead with this, my liege." The witches warned her because they knew it would have grave consequences.

Xerxia grabbed the young witch by her scalp, looked her dead in the eye with a glare that sent chills up her spine, and whispered, "Just do what I asked." As she let go of her hair, the witches didn't waste time as they began the Ritual of Soderin.

Xerxia got exactly what she wanted but when she reached the limit of her power and exhausted all she could, she died.

What she didn't know was that getting more power from the ancient souls the witches conjured came with a price, and that was for every Rule of Cardinal Queen successor that reached the peak of their power, they would die.

The Ritual of Soderin embedded itself into Xerxia and in turn, the cardinal as well, offsetting the balance of creation and destruction, this imbalance leaned towards the side of destruction.

The ritual is meant to grant power to the beholder, but performing the ritual on Xerxia corrupted the cardinal meaning that any queen the cardinal embedded itself into would face the same corruption of the heart.

It began to feed on the sins of the heart, and the desire for evil.

But the prime witch built in a fail-safe, from the direction of the goddess supreme, before any more damage can be done, as the Queens reach their strongest potential, all that magic and evil will take a toll on the heart and kill them.

As time passed and as several queens ruled with corrupt hearts, the corruption affected each queen differently.

The people grew more and more worried about who the cardinal would choose to rule their Kingdom. They began to secretly wonder if the goddess supreme sent them a gift or a curse.

Anger and disdain for the throne settled in the hearts of the people, as the rulers that were chosen to protect them did not and grew worse by the day.

Only the prime witch knew of the secret she kept hidden from not only her coven but the rest of the kingdom because she knew if the people knew about what Xerxia did, they would try to overthrow the cardinal and order would be lost or again, but this time, permanently.

She believed what she was doing was for the long term benefit of Nydisia.

However, despite her noble efforts to save the Kingdom, on her deathbed, she received another prophecy from the goddess supreme, who could no longer bear the evil deeds of her creation, that the cardinal will die with its last successor, and one day the Kingdom will fall.

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Hi! I hope you enjoy the book, I'm very open to constructive criticism. Comment and let me know what you think. I plan on taking it slow so you can get the chance to really get to know the characters and see some character development throughout the series.

This chapter is concise, but the first few chapters are just background information. I promise as we get into the actual story chapters are going to be way longer.