Hair of crimson red swirled like thick molten lava, cascading in waves and spread through the tarnished pewter and silver throne room. In one hand she held the engraved golden blade of Galbrand, still shining brightly in the dim room as its sharp point balanced on the blackened throne’s swirling arm. Her other hand, white and glowing, was held, palm upward, pleading as it rested on her lap. As expected, she wore the ancient Halmore armor still, shining as if newly polished in the decaying chair of tarnished silver vines. Upon her head was a once grand but now rusted and deteriorated crown, tall and sharp upon her radiating red hair. The air was thick, misted with a rotten magic, making it difficult to breathe - and when I stared at the floor beneath me, I noticed the unmistakable waving movement of millions of tiny insects, swirling like fogged breath around my every step.

But no, this was not what caused me to stop in my tracks. It was the pale glowing face of the Cursed Queen, face cemented in eternal agony like a death mask. Her beauty was haunting, profound, and struck me more than I could have ever anticipated. Even Lumo seemed affected by the lachrymose sight, stopping stiff in his tracks beside me.

I looked to Lumo for direction when I was finally able to pull my eyes away from her, unsure of what to do next. Although she did not stir when we opened the heavy doors to her chamber, by the legend’s lore, she was still alive somewhere in her porcelain shell of a body. The curse’s grasp held her here, to wither in mind only, as she waited for a visitor who would never come. I took a hesitant step forward, trying to get a better look, when I spotted it.

Around her pale, glowing neck, was the cursed amulet - a golden necklace with a silver rose pendant. There was a black veining stain upon the queen’s neck where it lay, curse festering still into her translucent skin.

It was Lumo who moved first, taking wide dancing steps to avoid her waves of hair pooling at our feet. Once he was in front of her, he took a deep bow of respect. I followed his lead and did the same.

“Dearest Queen of Castle Locus, it is an honor to be in your presence,” Lumo said.

As I turned my face upwards from my deep bow, I looked at her face, and watched as her crystal blue eyes turned from the ceiling in slow, unsettling fashion. Her body then followed her gaze stiffly, like an automaton, turning to face us.

I watched, uneasy, as the Cursed Queen raised her gilded sword towards us, pointing the sharp golden blade directly at Lumo’s chest.

“I… Do… Not… Know… You…” she breathed, and a mist of small flies swirled from her open mouth.

I let out an involuntary shiver, and Lumo pushed me behind him with a stiff sweep of his arm, hiding me away from the blade.

“Dear Queen, we mean no harm. We have heard of your beauty from across the land and wanted to see it for ourselves. Please pardon our intrusion,” Lumo bowed again, taking a slight step backwards to avoid the point of the sword.

“Dear… Queen…?” She breathed.

It was then that the Cursed Queen slowly put her hand on the chair arm, stiffly pushing herself upwards to stand. She lifted her head back, staring down with a newfound fury, high above him upon the raised throne.

“You.. Don’t… Even.. Know… My… Name,” she shrieked between clouds of flies.

Lumo pushed me further back behind him, using both hands this time, as her sword lifted towards him once again, almost touching him this time.

I moved backwards, almost stumbling over her thick waves of hair, when I noticed a shadow in my periphery. The entire wall behind us was now lined in rows by armored ghasts, memories of knights whose names were long forgotten. Yet here they stood behind us, visage ready to protect their queen.

Lumo looked behind his shoulder to me.

“Do you know her name?” he whispered, frantic.

I shook my head.

No.

As legendary as she was, never once had I heard her name. She was “The Cursed Queen” or “Queen of Castle Locus” but no, never any mention of her actual name. I made a mental search of everything I had ever read about her, every single mention in all of my library of texts. Nothing.

The unnamed queen then took slow, methodical steps down her silver stairs, sword still and pointing in her outstretched arm.

“Leave…” she groaned, “I… am… not… a jester… nor… oddity…”

She swiped her sword in front of her, punctuating every word with newfound fury.

“I… am... a … QUEEN!”

It was then that she lunged forward with a sudden intensity towards Lumo, sending his cloak fluttering to the side to dodge the swipe of her sword. The shadowed memories behind us then began to move, rushing towards us with swirling smoke pikes and swords to protect their monarch.

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I ran backwards until my back hit the heavy stone wall. Lumo stood in front of me, hands outwards towards the oncoming guards. The guards suddenly stopped, dozens of weapons pointed at Lumo, circling us. We were surrounded.

It was then that the Cursed Queen began to rise behind them, hands outstretched and to the side, glowing with magic light and waves of hair rippling through the room. She was floating above the shadowed guards, propelled by an invisible ancient and powerful magic. I found myself trembling against the wall, filled with the same familiar terror as before. The curse was sending shattering waves through the room, newly awakened from an era long slumber. As powerful as Lumo was, I did not see any way that we could escape this unscathed.

But just as I was about to surrender myself to the inevitable embrace of death when Lumo suddenly turned to me.

“Mira, I need you to close your eyes,” said Lumo, voice low but panicked.

“What?”

“Please, just trust me - I need to try something.”

I then watched as he raised a hand to his mask, looking anxiously behind, waiting for me to shut my eyes. I nodded, then covered my eyes with both hands, waiting.

There was silence around me, other than the low hum of insects swirling through the room as I waited for certain calamity. Suddenly, I heard the soft sound of the Cursed Queen’s armored feet hitting the ground.

“My… Love….” the Queen spoke, “It is you… You’re finally back.”

It took an incredible amount of effort to not rip my hands from my face at that moment.

You’re finally back?

Was Lumo her long lost lover? Is that why he did not want me to see his face beneath the mask?

“Yes… It is I, my beautiful Queen,” responded Lumo, slowly, “I am finally back.”

There was a certain hesitancy in Lumo’s voice that caused me to smile, and whatever worries I may have temporarily had quickly disappeared.

“I have… waited… so long for you… my beloved…” she spoke in shaking excitement.

“Yes… and now I am back,” Lumo responded, voice unnaturally low, “So may we stop all this madness?”

As charming as Lumo was, he didn’t make for a convincing actor, but I did my best to stifle my laugh.

“Beloved… Who - Who is she?” the Cursed Queen spoke, “Another woman… in my… chambers?”

My smile quickly faded beneath my hands.

“Ah, she is no one, dear. Just a servant -”

Unfortunately, the Queen did not seem to buy this excuse, as I heard the heavy footsteps of armored feet hit the stone floor as she made her way towards me. I tried to slow my breath but with each step, I felt my heart grow faster, panicking.

Then, to my horror, I felt the sickly insect breath of the Cursed Queen, hot on my hands. Tiny tickles of insect legs crawled between my fingers and I stifled yet another scream, trying to disappear within the wall against my back. I tensed even further when I heard the metal scrape of what could only be the ancient blade, sliding against the floor and upwards.

“Mira - now! The necklace!” Lumo suddenly shouted.

I opened my eyes, pulling my hands from my face in surprise to see the haunted silver eyes of the Queen in front of me, porcelain face grimacing with an uncanny fury. I shot a look over her shoulder to see Lumo standing there, covering his own face within the crook of his arm.

Without thinking, I shot my arm forward, grasping the chain of the cursed amulet around her neck and pulling off with as much force as I could manage. The wretched amulet burned, searing the palm of my hand, but I refused to let it go.

There was a chime that rang in the air as the thin chain finally gave, breaking against the back of her neck. Tiny sparkles of silver shone like stars, falling to pieces as time seemed to stop around us. I watched as the nameless Queen desperately grasped at her neck, but as she clawed, searching for the necklace, pieces of her own flesh seemed to scrape away like bits of rotten fruit.

I watched in horror as time finally caught up with the Cursed Queen. Her perfect, marble statuette face began to suddenly sink inwards upon itself, turning a ghastly purple, then brown, then gray beneath her thinning fingers. The red hair that surrounded us turned white, beginning with the roots, and crackling with dryness across the floor in a wicked tangle. I watched as she slumped to the floor, cradling herself, as her skin slowly sunk into the rest of her body, like wet parchment beneath the onyx armor shell.

With a final hiss, the last of the black winged bugs escaped her body where she now lay, motionless. The rest of the room seemed to lay still too. No more shadowed knights pointing their weapons at us. Even the tiny bugs that carpeted the stone floor seemed to be leaving, flowing like black smoke out of the room through a crack under the door.

“Let it go.”

“What?”

I looked to my hand where Lumo was pointing. I was still holding the cursed amulet’s chain tightly within my fist. I let it go, opening my fingers in shock. I looked at my palm to see the damage and a thick line of red-bare flesh seared where I held the cursed necklace, a painful line etched in my palm.

Lumo took my palm in his hand, holding it closer to his face to assess the damage. In the calamity of the Cursed Queen’s demise, he had found time to put his mask back upon his face.

“How bad is it?” I asked.

“Could be worse. We’ll need to clean it up a bit once we get outside,” said Lumo with a frown.

I looked down at the ground where the crumpled armor lay, Cursed Queen’s body now a thick pile of dust.

“I’m… not so sure I want that armor anymore,” I cringed.

“Oh, come now. Just needs a little shake and you’ll be fine,” Lumo smiled, cocking his head to the side.

“And what about the sword… Do we leave it?” I asked. “I can’t use a sword to save my life.”

“Ah, but I can,” Lumo chuckled as he kicked the blade off the ground, catching it with his hand with ease. “Perfect.”