~Prologue~

Dusk soon fell, replaced with a cool, sleepy night. The moon had finished waxing, casting a gloomy full moon upon the kingdom. It seemed as though even the animals of the wild knew what was coming. The queen laid a slender hand against her large, protruding stomach. The baby would be coming soon. The thought sent chills of fear in her bones, yet excited flurries in her stomach. Oh, how good it must feel to finally meet the baby growing in your womb for 9 months!

The blue orbs of the queen stared out the window, fear now completely erasing any excitement at the thought of what was to come after the birth of her firstborn.

“Do no fret, my love.” The soft voice of the queen’s husband, King Jason, pierced through the comfortable silence of their bedroom. bl[injection]inking from her daze, Mary realized she had been standing at their bedroom window since dusk began. She’s been doing that ever since she found out she was pregnant with a baby; that, with fitful sleeps, weeping, and anxiety eating at her stomach.

Turning her head away from the night sky, she gave her husband a sullen ex[injection]pression. Reaching out, he brought a hand to her cheek just as his bride finally found her voice.

“How can I not, Jason? Our child…” Before the words could leave her lips, before she could admit the worries racking her brain and driving her mad, something seemed to release a rush of water, soaking her bare feet. Brown, scared eyes locked with blue shocked eyes.

“Mary…” The king whispered, as if he didn’t want to believe his wife’s water broke, no matter how obvious it was.

“I- the baby…” Without another word or any hesitation, King Jason came to his wife, picking her up bridal – style and taking her to their bed. Tears streamed down the pale cheeks of Mary, but only because she knew what was to come after the birth, not because of pain.

Jason ran from the room after settling Mary down gently, as though she was glass and went in search for the doctor. Mary leaned her head back as she waited, her heart racing, tears still streaming down her cheeks and wetting her blonde locks and pillow. She lay her hand on her stomach again, not looking forward to this birth for more reasons then one.

~ 12 Hours Later~

“Congratulations, King Jason and Queen Mary.” The doctor said in a fruity, pleasant voice as though harsh sounds could hurt the fatigued queen. And it was very true, in her opinion. She wiped sweat from her brow, ignoring any odd pains she felt as her eyes looked at the bundle in his arms with a light pink blanket that gave way what gender the baby was.

“Say hello to your new baby girl.” He said. The doctor had already kissed the baby’s forehead, giving his princess of the kingdom a blessing of safety when he was cleaning her up. Though he didn’t tell the King and Queen such.

With quivering hands and a tired bl[injection]ink of her eyes, Mary lifted her arms to have the bundle brought to her. King Jason sat on a wooden chair next to his wife, wanting to have a peak at his baby girl.

The happiness you’d think would surround the air soon disappeared. Feeling as though he was being a third wheel at this unexplained sadness on the king and queen’s faces, the doctor quickly fled from the room, leaving the new parents to suffocate in thick silence.

“She’s beautiful.” Jason finally said, admiring his baby in the arms of his wife. The compliment was said in a low tone, as though disappointed. It broke Mary’s heart to know It was her fault that they weren’t enjoying the birth of the kingdom’s new princess. That if she was normal, they would be rejoicing the new member of the family, not about to drown in their own, sorrowful tears at fate.

“Maybe Varsidious won ‘t find her.”  Jason added in a doubtful type of voice though the words tried to show optimism. Mary looked at her king, tears filling her her eyes. Why not, instead of wallowing in the sadness of their predicament, they enjoy each other while they could.

“Jason…” She said as she looked down at their baby. She couldn’t say anymore, the hurt of what was to come so painfully etched in her mind.

A gray smoke had accumulated around the bed the queen laid on, covering the kings feet. It was odorless, and so close to translucent, that the king had yet to notice it.

But Mary was fully aware.

She didn’t want to frighten her husband. Even though he already knew what she was, he still didn’t handle things of this nature very well.

“We don’t have much time left.”

Mary said in a weak yet urgent, shaking voice as she forcefully put the new princess into her father’s arms. King Jason finally noticed the now extremely thick smoke-like substance at his feet and slowly going higher and higher above the bed. His handsome face paled as he watched the next events.

Mary’s usually baby blue eyes were starting to gradually fade to the lightest of grays, matching the smoke now rising to the height of the king’s knees around the room. Her blonde locks were lifting on the ends above her shoulders, also gradually becoming the lightest gray before she seemed almost transparent, mixing in with the smoke that King Jason now realized was coming from his bride.

“Do not fret, my love.” Though the queen’s appearance was changing, the silky smooth voice coming from her lips as she repeated what he had said to her before did not change. It reverberated around the room, calming his soul. It was one of her abilities that always had me enraptured, able to cure me of any worry or anxiety or pain. I was close to not even hurting over her slow fading, her slow death.

Slowly, with a sullen ex[injection]pression, Mary looked to their daughter. “Take care of her, Jason. She doesn’t have to live the way I did.”

The way she used past tense broke Jason’s heart. His wife’s power was fading, her not being able to appease the pain choking his throat.

“And she doesn’t have to die the way I am.” Though the royals new this day would come, the powers surrounding his queen and keeping her heart pumping had been given to the baby in his arms, forcing her to die. It still hurt to watch her slowly fade away with each last breath she took, with each last word she said. With a painful ex[injection]pression, as though any movement pained Mary, she reached over to trace her daughter’s chin.

“I’m so sorry to bring this upon you, my child.” Her voice wavered, becoming more of an eerie whisper as her body was still gradually fading away. “I pray that you will find a way to break this curse that encircles us. I pray that we will be reunited again.”

She reached up to caress Jason’s cheek, though Jason didn’t feel her skin against his. She was fading far faster then her mother had, forcing a tear to trace his own cheek, going through the fingers that were against his cheek.

“I love you Jason. Take care of our child,” She told him again to make sure he had it in his head. She took her last pained breath, her last words finishing her sentence before.

“… Our Sara.”

And with that, the queen had faded away completely, like a ghost, in Jason’s mind. Jason imagined his love’s soul somehow going through the window and flying high in the sky with all of the other powerful people losing their lives today because of Varsidious. By power, Jason wasn’t thinking of royalty or authority. No matter how much he didn’t want to admit it, no matter how many times he threw the truth under the rug during their marriage, no matter how many times she tried explaining her abilities to him, he had ot admit now that he had married a mage. Though her powers and abilities were to complex to be described as ‘mage’. So he never thought of her that way and never will.

Holding their Sara close to his broad chest, his brown eyes scanned the sky for a sign of her as he stood by the window like she had done so many times since she found out she was pregnant with Sara. It was lunacy to think he’d somehow see her soul, or she hear him but…

“I love you too, Mary. I will take care and protect our child with all I have.”

He whispered, tears streaming down his face though he wouldn’t allow sobs to come from his throat. He looked down at Sara and could already see her resemblance to her mother, little blonde hairs peaking from her head. He wanted to believe that she resembled Mary because of genetics, but it was painfully obvious she looked like her mother for one reason and one reason only.

The curse.

~Chapter One~

Years passed by slowly for King Jason after the death of the kingdom’s queen. He watched the princess grow up with tears in his eyes every night, knowing the day was soon coming. He was more aware now, than he was with Queen Mary, of what this curse meant. It was bondage. It was a circle of powers that one possesses from mother to daughter or father to son. It was the circle of powers that Varsidious desired; the powers he’d take without hesitation, no matter how he was to do it. The thought of Varsidious had King Jason even more protective of his daughter. 

The story about Queen Mary was that she had died during child birth. It was a normal cause of death in this age so it didn’t bring uproar or have any townspeople suspicious. Everyone mourned. Everyone offered condolences. And, soon, everyone accepted the death. Everyone except Jason. 

Because Jason new. Jason new that the reason his wife died was because she had powers since birth, knew that the powers literally sucked her dry and the only reason why her heart could pump was through those powers. And once those powers were passed down to her daughter, her heart was left to dry rot, along with the rest of her body.

Sure. There were times when Jason forgot about the burden of knowing that the sweet daughter he watched dancing around the room every morning, and staring at the older princess’s and queens in admiration, held powers tucked away at the center of her heart; just waiting to blossom.

The first indication that her ‘blossoming’ powers were coming came way too soon to Jason’s liking. 

~<><><><><><><><><><><><><>~ 

With eyebrows furrowed and blue eyes filled with rage, a blonde-haired blue eyed beauty stomped up the staircase. Grumbling unintelligible words, she came half way up the stair case before looking back at Princess Laura at the bottom of the stairs. Laura was a friend who had come to play.

“I can’t believe you did this to me, Laura!” 

Seven year old Princess Sara exclaimed with a high pitched voice and teary eyes. Her fists were clenching in anger yet she wanted to burst into tears. “You ruined it!” She added, tears dripping down pale cheeks and meeting her muddied and wet purple gowns’ bodice. Princess Laura looked up with a lifted eyebrow and a cross of her arms. 

“It was a ratty old thing anyways, Sara. You should have thrown it out a long time ago.”

Sara’s lip quivered as she looked down at her purple dress. Before Laura had ruined her dress, the dress had already had stains on the lace of her bodies, and holes at the hem of her dress. However, Sara didn’t care if there was a stain or two. This gown held meaning to her.

“My mother wore this dress!”

Sara said with a stomp of her feet on the stair. “And. And… And you ruined it.”

Sara repeated, her vision blurring from her temper tantrum tears. She, too, wanted to throw out the dress when her father first sized her for it, but once she had put it on and heard the king say how much she looked like her mother in it, she adored it. 

Princess Laura, a ten year old that always seemed to try and out shine Sara with anything she did, gave an exasperated sigh.

“It wasn’t like I purposely tried to trip you into that puddle, Sara.”

Sara gulped, turning slightly to try and look at the back of the dress – only to have her depressed ex
pression be replaced with a look of horror. Not only did her friend ‘accidentally’ step on the back of her dress as they were running – forcing Sara to fall right into a mud puddle – but her foot also made a wide hole in the material. 

“You… You…” Sara’s fists clenched even tighter, a glow coming to the tips of her fingers so faint, Sara didn’t notice. Yet.

“Besides. This was probably for the best. The trash bin has this shabby dress’s name all over it.”

Laura knew exactly where Sara got this dress; she just couldn’t stand the attention her friend had for lacking a mother figure. 

That statement sent the princess on edge. She stuck her finger at the door, planning on telling her to leave, when instead, the brightness of the light on her finger tips shown brighter, until it was more like fire burning on her skin. A golden, blinding light stretched from her finger tip to the chandelier at the ceiling as though the candles flame attracted the light. The light collided into the candles full force, causing static noises to fill the foyer, candles falling on the ground, fire eating away at the foyer’s floor, and soon, causing the whole chandelier to fall on the ground in itty bitty pieces, some of the roof falling as well. Guards started calling for help as the maids ran to get water as the fire grew and grew. 

This all happened in a matter of seconds before Sara finally was brought back to the present from her shock and put her hand down. The catty argument was forgotten, both princess’s eyes on the floor. Princess Laura ran up the stair case to give the adults room to work, coming next to Sara on the stairs. An older maid soon came to them, tearing their eyes away from the scene, and took them both upstairs to clean them up from their playing outside. 

“Did you see that?” 

The princess looked to her friend, Laura, in shock. Laura looked at her with a ashen face. 

“No duh, Sara, I’m not an idiot. I wonder how the chandelier fell.”

The statement made Princess Sara stop in her tracks, her muddy, purple dress dripping on the shiny floor. 

“What? You didn’t see that light coming from-“

She looked down at her finger tips, still remembering the burn that was there. Laura had interrupted her. 

“What light? Sara, you’re just a baby. You were probably just imagining it.”

Sara looked up in shock at Laura. She didn’t see that light? Sara would have fought back over being told that she was just a baby, but the day’s events had her just keep walking with a faraway ex
pression.