In the kingdom of Alessia, the largest monarchical state on the continent of Oro, sits the quaint village of Midwater. It is not unlike most other villages its size: in fact even a well traveled merchant may have trouble telling it apart from any other village of less than a few hundred people. Most of the peasantry that inhabited it were farmers or craftsman, men and women who toiled the land and worked with their hands to provide for their families and loved ones. The one thing above all else that the lowest class in Alessian society shared amongst themselves in the year 1145 was their reverence for the Queen, Sophia of the Sun. Bedtime stories we told frequently of her heroic acts that stabilized the kingdom both from external threat and internal inequality. This is one such story.

- Vorn -

“Alright kids, time for sleep. I’ll need Mika’s help with the Vanu in the morning, they have to be let out to pasture and you know your mother hasn’t been feeling well.”

Ignoring the annoyed look my twelve year old gave me as he trudged down the hall to the room he and his sister shared, I turned and crouched in front of my Shel. My darling daughter, hard to believe she’ll be five soon.

“But Dadddddyyyy….I want to hear the story about the Sun Princess!” She pouted.

She knows exactly what face to make to make me crumble.

“Hmmmmm, ok fine. Promise me that you’ll be a good girl and not bother your brother tonight if I tell you?”

“Yes Daddy! I Pwomise I won’t bawther Mika allll night!”

I swear she’s doing that on purpose at this point...anyways, “Ok which story do you want, the one where she fought the mountain troll all by herself? Hmmm, perhaps the tale of her forming her contract with the Ghost Panther, Silva? Or maybe…” I catch the glimmer in her eye that tells me she already knows where I’m going with this. Time to sell it. “Maybe, you want me to tell the story of the Summer Plains, where she led ten thousand brave Alessians into a hopeless battle against the wretched horde of the Abomination, Ulag?! No, you couldn’t possibly want that?”

As I watched her face change from elated to a scowl I let out a boisterous laugh. “Are you sure that’s the one? I’m sure I’ve already told you more times than I can count!” I said while tickling her sides.

In between wheezing laughter and prying my hands off her sides, “You know it’s my favorite, Daddy!”

Quickly snatching a coin off the desk in what passes for our kitchen, I motion for her to come sit on my lap. Putting my hands around her I hold up the coin. “Do you remember why we put her on our coins, even when she doesn’t want it?”

“Without Queen Sophia, Mommy and Daddy would still have to pay lots of Texas to the mean men with lots of money?”

Trying to stifle a quick laugh, I responded. “That’s close enough! Ok so where to begin…” Trailing off into thought I couldn’t help but enjoy the look of unbridled joy on my young one’s face.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“It was the year 955, so almost 200 years ago. Our kingdom, and many others, fought each other over silly things like where one country ended and another began. Over who should be in charge and where people should be allowed to live. They fought and fought and fought, while people like us paid for it. They taxed us and made us fight for them. It had been going on for so long that it seemed like it may never end.”

“Well that’s just silly!” My adorable daughter threw in her own commentary.

“Silly indeed, but do you know what happened while all the silly humans were fighting each other?” I paused for dramatic effect… “There was nobody left to fight the monsters! So in the dark corners of the world monsters fought each other and grew strong. The grew bold with their strength and eventually started to attack human towns. They had never done anything like that before, do you know what changed?”

“Ulag the Abomination!” She said as she triumphantly raised her fist in the air and growled in the most menacing voice a five year old could muster.”

“That’s right my brilliant child! Ulag the Abomination was something that shouldn’t have ever been allowed to happen. He started off as a goblin, evolved in a specialized orc species, before finally he became a royal ogre. Something no one had seen before. No matter what the humans sent against him our resistance was crushed. When things seemed to be at their dimmest, and all hope was lost, the human kingdoms overcame their hatred and performed a ritual that summoned five mighty heroes from another world!”

“WOOOAAAHHHH! I wuv the five heroes.”

Indeed she did, I’d told their story almost as much as Sophia’s. “Mary the brave, Tol the calm, Michael the wise, Lena the steady, and Victor the kind. Together, they trained the human’s how to fight and led us in victory against Ulag. Or so we thought, but soon after Ulag was defeated the five heroes mysteriously vanished, and after 80 years of peace Ulag returned with a new horde!”

This part was always Shel’s favorite, and quite honestly mine too. “This time though, when Ulag showed up and attacked the first town town, we were ready. The brave princess Sophia, leading an army trained specifically to fight monsters, met the horde on the Summer Fields. She was at the front of the fighting, glowing with heat and pushing her outnumbered soldiers to  fight with all they had. They still say that when she fights it is as if the Sun itself resides inside her, and if you fight willingly on her side then you can’t feel tired or scared. When the battle ended, She stood at the center of the fighting and raised her sword into the air with powerful yell. On her sw….” I never made it to the end.

“And on her sword was the head of Ulag the Abomination!” Shel smiled up at me with a look that clearly indicated smugness. “Daddy I want to visit the shrine….”

Visiting the shrine to the Sun Princess that resided on the Summer Fields was something of a right of passage for young women in Alessia. “We’ve talked about this sweetie, we will go when you’re ten just like everyone else.”

That was clearly not what she wanted to hear, but the joy of hearing her favorite story was overwhelming her annoyance at the lack of getting her way. Flipping over the coin that I still had in my hand, I felt the circular grain of the vines that lined the outer edge of the back of the coin.

“Do you remember what I told you about the vines on this coin, Shel?” I asked.

She scrunched up her face as if in deep thought. “The are for Queen Sophia’s teacher? Master Vic?”

Ruffling her hair in appreciation of her good memory. “That’s right! Nobody is quite sure who he is, and for some reason he doesn’t get any fancy stories, but just like I’m telling you, I want you to remember to tell your kids about him. He taught the princess everything she knows and before their final fight against Ulag some say that he even sacrificed himself to assure her victory. Just stories told amongst old folks like me, but I believe they’re true.”

I smiled down at the little girl as she nodded to me very seriously. “Now off to bed, it’s way past your bedtime!” I sent her off with one last tickle.

….Just stories huh...I’m sorry Vic, I wish we could tell everyone the truth. The truth that Sophia’s story truly is only one half of the coin.