“The Prince is so handsome, he leaves all of the girls speechless,” said Mila noticing my dumbfounded expression. He knew that I was lying the entire time, yet he said nothing. Why? What game is he playing?

“What do you know of the Prince?” I asked as Mila unbound my hair and began brushing it.

“Well, he is handsome for one, but I think you know that already,” she said and winked at me playfully in the mirror.

“Yes, he is very good-looking, but what else?” I asked growing somewhat impatient with her idle girlish chatter.

“Let’s see,” said Mila thoughtfully. “He is kind. He treats all of his servants with respect. I guess it comes from his mother. She was like us… a commoner, I mean. My mom tells me she was a kind woman and loved Prince James very much.”

“Your mother is here too?” I asked. Mila was so young, of course, her family would be close, but did they also work in this castle?

“Oh yes, Mrs. Harper is my mother,” she said brightly. “But don’t think she goes easy on me. I think she is even tougher on me than any of the other maids here.”

Mila sulked for a minute then continued.

“The prince’s mother was never made queen. He is technically a bastard, but the king never properly married, so there aren’t any others to take the throne,” Mila continued to brush and tease my hair into small braids as she spoke.

“The king was an odd person. Gloomy and kind of brutish, if you know what I mean. He’d be gone for days without telling anyone where he went. But Lady Lena, Prince James’ mother, seemed to be okay with that… until she got sick that is.”

“How old was James when that happened?” I asked enthralled in the story so much I didn’t mind Mila’s occasional tugging and pulling as she tried brushing out the knots from my hair.

“He was about 12 when she died. The king stayed with Lady Lena until her final breath and then he left and never came back. The prince came of age, but since no one knows if the king is dead, he can’t be crowned. So, Lady Thorne is here to oversee things until that whole thing gets resolved.”

Mila led me to the dressing screen and started undoing the many buttons of my riding clothes.

“What do you think of Lady Thorne?” I asked trying to sound as casual as possible.

“Not my place to say, but she gives me the creeps,” said Mila in a hushed tone.

“Me too,” I said quietly.

***

Mila dressed me in a pale blue gown for dinner. I felt stiff like a porcelain doll walking down the hallways of the castle. When I entered the dining room, Prince James was seated at the table. He looked up and smiled warmly.

“You look beautiful,” he said softly and pulled out a chair next to him for me to sit down.

“Thank you,” I said feeling more awkward than I ever have in my entire life.

“All of this can be hard to get used to,” said the prince as if reading my mind. “I hope, though, that you are comfortable.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

My rage felt like a bolt of lightning. I balled up my fists and raised from my chair.

“I don’t get you!” I snapped. I felt blood rush to my face. I was angry and confused. “This morning you sent me to my death and now you are worrying about my comfort?! What is going on? If I am to continue fighting your monsters, I deserve the truth!”

“You are right, Ash,” he said with a cool composure. “You do deserve to know what’s going on, but I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?!” I said half-yelling.

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, this place is cursed,” he said while cutting up his food into smaller pieces. “You know, creepy shadows, hags… that whole thing. I don’t know if you know much about curses, but one of the unpleasant side effects is that you can’t talk about them.”

“So, you can’t tell me what’s happening here,” I said realizing that my anger was futile.

“Nope,” he said and gave me an apologetic smile. “I wish I could. It would make my life a whole lot easier.”

“Am I here to break the curse?” I asked feeling unsure if I wanted to hear the answer.

“Well, that remains to be seen,” he said and continued to focus on his food.

The rest of the dinner unfolded without much incident. We chatted casually about our families and our lives, but any serious topics were purposefully avoided. I had so many questions for him, but I felt unsure of what to ask. I didn’t know how much he could tell me or which topics were too sensitive to him. So, I avoided asking him about Lady Lena and the king. In the end, I walked away from that dinner feeling wholly unsatisfied.

***

I was walking through a snowy woods. Was this a dream? It had to be. I was wearing my nightgown and was walking barefoot, but felt no cold. The woods around me were dark but there was also light. It was as if I was making the light somehow. No. It was Luminaria’s Edge. It was glowing. A golden light radiated from the blade as I carried it before me like a torch.

I was following a sound. A sad yet beautiful song was coming from somewhere deep within the woods. It made me think of love found and lost and of grief suffered by someone who lost their life too soon.

I walked deeper into the forest. The dark trees stood around me like sentinels guarding some deep secret no mortal meant to know. I felt their watchfulness and fear enveloped my heart. My breath became jagged and uneven as I stumbled my way toward it.

Soon a clearing appeared. It was illuminated by the full silver moon shining in the otherwise starless sky. The clearing was covered in flowers. Poppies as red as blood grew from the snow-covered ground.

Impossible, I thought as I stepped into the meadow.

The song grew louder and I could finally see the singer. It was a young woman. She was dressed in a bright red gown and her raven black hair was crowned with a poppy coronet. Her back was turned towards me so I couldn’t see her face.

Luminaria’s Edge sprang to life in my hands and started to sing the same mournful melody as the woman in the meadow. It was as if the sword was calling back to an old friend.

The woman continued singing as I slowly walked towards her. But she stopped abruptly when I was no more than five steps away from her.

“You came,” she said without turning around. Her obsidian hair reflected the moonlight. The poppies around us swayed in the cool breeze of a winter’s night. “Will you break the curse?” She asked with hope in her tone.

“I don’t know where to even start,” I said earnestly. The woman continued to look away from me.

“Start here,” she said. “Find me.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

The woman took a slow step forward. Her gown glided through the snow. She then slowly turned around and I saw a beautiful woman with a hideous scar that stretched across her face. It oozed with blood and scabbed over in places as if the injury was at once new and old.

“I am Lena,” she said and moved slowly towards me. “Find me.”

Her hands reached out for me and I felt her cold fingers on my shoulders. Fear and urgency permeated her words. Her beautiful features distorted into something otherworldly as she urged again: “Find me!”

I sat bolt upright in my bed. Beads of sweat cascaded down my face. My head was spinning and I felt nauseated. That wasn’t a typical dream. I glanced at Luminaria’s Edge which hung on the wall next to my bed. It was glowing with a faint golden light, the same as in my dream.

The candles in my room have been extinguished and the shadows pressed all around me.

Free us, huntress! They whispered. Find Lena, break the curse!