CHAPTER II

1471, The Seven Nations, Halton, The Palace of Jabs

Alexa ran into her chamber and locked it shut. She held her tears for longer than they could take. She ran towards the sink and washed her tears away.

“No, Alexa. Queens don’t shed. Queens don’t shed tears,” she repeated with shaky hands.

The chamber was cloaked in darkness. She could see not a thing. Alexa splashed more water on her face, using it to cover up the tears dropping from her eyes.

She breathed heavily. Her mind was filled with negativity. She couldn’t clear her mind out to think of a solution. It was impossible.

She looked around her enormous chamber and caught a glimmer. She ran towards the ray of hope and met with… a mirror.

Why was there a mirror there? She broke all the mirrors. Alexa never wanted to see a mirror but there was one here. She screamed. 

Alexa removed her heels and threw it towards the mirror. The heels bounced back. She was shocked. 'What sorcery is this?' She wondered, unable to lift a word from her lips.

“Alexa, what happened now?”

Alexa shook her head like the insane people she had seen in her village. “No! Stay away from me!”

“Look into the mirror, Alexa.”

Alexa turned to the mirror with brightly opened eyes. “Jade?”

“That’s Queen Jade to you.”

She stepped closer to it. “Is it really you, mother?”

“I don’t know why you always run from me. You did that as a child and you’re still doing it now?”

Alexa scoffed, at herself. “Am I not a child?”

It was true. The crown was forced on her head when she was just thirteen. All her elder brothers and sisters were killed along with their parents.

As she was the next in line to the throne, they made her Queen of Halton. Alexa had other dreams. She never wanted to be Queen. She wanted to run across the seven nations and sail the seven seas.

She was an adventurer. Alexa didn’t want to be kept inside a palace all her life. She could do nothing now. For a royal member, the kingdom comes first.

Her mother shook her head. “Don’t you ever say that? You’ve been ruling for four years, haven’t you?” Alexa said not a word and crashed to the floor. “Oh, my baby.” Her mother came out of the mirror and sat beside her precious gem. “You were always my favorite, Alexa.”

“What do I do, mother?”

Her mother placed her finger on her blueberry pasted lips. “Blue was always your favorite color, wasn’t it?” Her mother was a calm but ruthless Queen. Alexa tried so hard to be like Jade but she never listened to the teachings her teachers gave her. She was always daydreaming about the outside world. “Remember how you said you loved the sky, because it was blue.” Alexa couldn’t bring a smile from her face. “Darling, tell me all your worries.”

She took a deep breath and mustered the bravery to talk without stammering. “Months ago, a plague spread around the seven nations. Everyone was on lockdown. Each nation was distributed with resources. The resources could only carry the citizens, the royals or the soldiers.” She paused to wipe her cheeks. “I chose to share the rations among the citizens and royals. You always said that the citizens come first.”

Her mother nodded. “A wise choice. Continue.”

“Our rivals, Kiteirah, kept the rations for their soldiers. I never understood that this was King Yamma’s work. He caused the plague and spread it everywhere. He knew I would protect my citizens and let my soldiers die. Our security is weak. Most of our soldiers are dead and he has declared war in Halton. He wants to destroy us.” She gagged. “I don’t know what to do.”

“You can cry on my shoulders, Alexa.”

Alexa looked up to her mother with surprise, still trying to hold the tears. “But you always say Queens never shed.”

“I was wrong. Crying is humane. We are human, aren’t we?”

Alexa did so and it felt like a burden had been carried off her head. 

Her brain was free and she was ready to think again. “What do I do, mother?”

“When God doesn’t make an option, we look at another direction.”

Her mother stood, Alexa stood after her. 

Late Queen Jade stretched her hands forward and made an inaudible incantation. Alexa was always taught to not disturb anyone since she was the youngest annoying sibling everyone knew her as.

She did the same here.

White light emitted from her mother’s eyes. The chamber quaked. The white light released itself from her mother’s bondage and came out in the form of a big white sun.

When Alexa looked around her, she could see things she never knew were in her room. This was her mother’s room, and her grandmother’s room and her great-grandmother’s room… This room had been used for Queens for many ages.

Everyone in the royal family knew how to perform magic. Alexa was never given the chance to learn. She didn’t think she’d ever learn it.

Her mother sauntered to the north-west corner of her room. She picked something and moved to Alexa’s side.

Her mother dropped it on the drawer. Alexa moved closer to her mother and the box. Jade evaporated into mist and entered back into the mirror. Her mother’s image was reformed in the mirror once again.

Alexa placed her eyes on the box. It was a silver box with a golden dragon stamp on it. There was a golden keyhole that was the open way for the box.

“Where is the key?”

“If you remember your tenth birthday well, you will know where the key is.”

Alexa removed a golden hairpin from her long black hair. 

It caused her hair to fall into her face. “This?”

Her mother nodded. She steadily moved the hairpin closer to the keyhole. When it reached a point, the pin molded itself into a key. Alexa was puzzled.

“You know what to do, don’t you?”

Alexa used the key to unlock the box. The box opened itself and released red smoke. She coughed. Once the smoke cleared out, she gazed into the box and removed the content.

In her hand, she held a golden statue of something so scary. It was a human… except it had two horns on its head, a spiky tail, scarily sharp teeth and it held something that looked like a four thong fork.

“What is this?”

“Listen to what I have to say, honey. He will soon come and when he comes, the first thing that will come to his mind is to kill you…”

“What?! W-why will he want to kill me?! Who is he?!”

Her mother sighed. “Listen, Alexa. You don’t have to say anything until he asks for a deal. He can read your mind and because of this, he won’t kill you. Tell him you want his help to win a war. He will help you, in exchange you’ll have to do three things in return. Once you do all this, he’ll help you and the war will be over.”

“But mother… who is this man?!”

“Do you remember that horror story I read for you before the night I died. Read it again and your question will be…”

Her mother faded off the face of the mirror. “Mother? Mother?! Queen Jade?! Please mother?!” 

When Alexa got no result, she broke the mirror into pieces. She remembered everything her mother told her.

Alexa opened a wardrobe and scattered all the items in it on the floor. When she became Queen, she took all her treasured possessions from her old room to the Queen quarters and kept it in this wardrobe.

She was searching for something. She placed her hand on a cold children’s book. It was the one.

She kept the book well because this was the last thing she saw her mother touch before she died. The cover of the book was a fierce monster. It was the same golden statue in her other hand. 

She opened it and immediately, all the memories of the horror book came to her…