Prologue Youthful Bonds #2
King Daodyn: (stoically observing the battlefield) Their bloodline was cursed. It was inevitable that they would have destroyed us all! You know nothing of black magic. Perhaps if you had any desire other than my wife, you would have sensed the evil that was gathering here as I did.
A noise in the rubble draws the attention of the victors. A child emerges from the ruins, the sole survivor of a fierce battle. Daodyn moves to attack.
Battle Mage: My King! A survivor! Do I move to attack?
Queen Adara: (The amulet at her neck is glowing) Stop! He is but a child! I order you, step back!
Adara goes to the dirty and injured child, healing his wound.
King Aryus: (observing the child curiously) How is it, this child, has survived this destruction?
King Daodyn: (eyes narrowed) It is he, the young prince, though last, he may be. Adara, step away. This child cannot live, Prince Xarashi he is called. He is the son of King Erendril, the youngest of them all.
Queen Adara: (moving between Daodyn and the child) No, he will live. The battle is won. Dark prince or not, he needs to rest, so we’ll give him a cot, and see he is dressed.
King Daodyn: Your power, I know, that it lays bare your dear soul, but my Queen, doth remember, that it will take quite a toll, to see this destruction.
I suggest you take leave, for I can see the seduction.
The black magic within him, you know not its power, I saw them, in battle, I saw them devour.
Grown men and young men, they fell down to decay, but then they rose up, their flesh freshly flayed.
Queen Adara: You gave the lives of our men for this proof.
To show the Realm this magic that would bring us to doom!
All I see here is proof of our fear. We assuaged our own worries with their cries and their tears.
This crime, this slaughter, will demand a price to be paid, and we will all pay it, until the end of our days.
Adara tries to lead the boy away from Aryus and Daodyn, but Daodyn cuts the boy down.
King Daodyn: (calling to Adara) You will come to understand this. He has not a heart. But a soul full of darkness, that will leave a dark mark. Aryus, my brother, bend her to your will. That child, the last, must stay down and be still.
King Aryus: I will not change her mind. For a slaughter we committed. The child is forsaken, and death would be swifter. But wrong she is not, enough is enough. You drew up this plot, and you got what you got. Do not call upon me, for brothers we’re not.
Adara mourns the child and Aryus exits left stage.
The scene fades to darkness, illuminating the narrator.
Narrator: And so the Realm moves on from the destruction of a city and celebrates the hero, King Daodyn of Venustas for eradicating such evil from their land.
King Aryus shuts himself away, the horrors of war having changed him forever.
Queen Adara gave birth to another in the usual way, his hair like the night, but his brother’s fair as day.
A third one was named shortly after the war.
Prince Xarashi, he was, of Venustas, not the Moors.
He was raised with true love, that he thought were just lies.
Until he learned the truth, then cut all those ties.
To all in the Realm, well those who survived, this event was known as The Battle of Stillwater Tides.
Act III: The Fall of the Great City
Scene 1: In Time
Scene opens to drawing room of Queen Adara who sits alone looking thoughtful.
Narrator: Years have gone by, and with time, love can fade.
King Aryus and Queen Adara’s love had been lost in the war of shadows and shade.
King Daodyn had won but lost himself along the way.
Queen Adara raised their children, softening Daodyn’s heart, and this ended the King and Queen’s strife.
From then on, they grew close, uniting for their people, finding their common ground, and upending all evil.
This love for their people that they had found, and warmed cold hearts, by which they became bound.
Enter King Aryus stage left.
Queen Adara: Aryus…
King Aryus: My love… it has been far too long. I saw him today…
Adara looks away in shame.
King Aryus: He has grown up. He is…
Queen Adara: Daodyn has always claimed him.
King Aryus: Yes, but he is mine.
Queen Adara: (looking out the window) By nature, he is, but he is a son of the Saints.
Know you he does not, and now it’s too late.
Our relationship has changed, Daodyn’s and mine.
I’ve come to love him, you see, for he has become kind.
He’s changed, and we’ve learned of the things that we share.
I care for you still, but it feels most unfair.
King Aryus: You cannot mean this, these things that you say. He’s never been yours, not then, not today. He’s lost in his own cruel, wicked ways. Tell me you’ve not succumbed to his words so smooth and hollow. For he is the maker of this fate that we follow.
Queen Adara: I do, and I know he has not always been true.
I swear he has changed, and he repents his prior ways.
For my people, I must stay, for my children, I must rule, and for my soul, I must bear, this harsh truth unto you.
Our love, though it real, has since long passed.
That is where it will stay, in our hearts, where it will last.
King Aryus: These words, they are his, for I cannot hear what you say. My Queen, my love, she was never this way. Our love, it was strong, it would never fade, your mind he has tainted, in darkness it frays.
Queen Adara: You’re wrong, it is I. I do not wish to hurt you so. But it is time, King Aryus, for you to go home.
King Aryus: (his eyes dark and in shadow) With these words I will leave, but know in your heart, that soon you’ll be free, and your mind not so dark.
Aryus exits stage left. Adara left in her room with a concerned expression.
Narrator: Queen Adara tore through her own heart that day. But her conscience controlled her, and there was nothing more she could say.
The scene fades to dark.
Scene 2: Of Light and Dark
The scene opens to Daodyn pacing in a meeting chamber with Adara staring out a window with a worried expression.
Narrator: Two years have passed since Aryus’ warning to return for his Queen.
Shortly after Queen Adara ended their affair, one of her sons went missing.
After years of searching for her adopted son, Queen Adara is faced with growing speculation that her son, Prince Xarashi, is plotting against her.
Word from their allies insinuates a plot is brewing.
Queen Adara: Are you sure it was him?
King Daodyn: It was Derrick himself who confirmed the information. Prince Xarashi was seen with Aryus in Raven Falls. I know you are reluctant to hear it, but it has happened. They have turned against us.
Queen Adara: (lost in deep pain) I denied him… he was… not accepting of this, and what we’ve become. If the rumors are true… and they have achieved the forbidden power…
King Daodyn: …then we must prepare for war, with every minute and every hour.
Queen Adara: I feared this day would come, it is my fault, my mess.
King Daodyn: No, my Queen, it was I who did not see the forest for the trees.
Narrator: King Daodyn and Queen Adara have finally come to understand their roles in the Realm as leaders and the power in their unification.
Elsewhere, in Raven Falls, the young survivor of the conflict from years passed aligns himself with the King of the Falls.
A forbidden magic, blood magic, has returned to the Realm.
It is clear that Adara’s newfound allegiance to the Venustian King has turned her former lover against her.
The scene fades to dark.
Scene 3: The Chamber of Sacrifice
Scene opens to a torch lit chamber where an altar sits at the center of a platform surrounded by four columns.
Narrator: Queen Adara’s worst fear has come true.
Raven Falls has launched an attack on Venustas in the night.
The power of King Aryus and Prince Xarashi along with their intimate familiarity with the city and its defenses has nearly brought the entirety of Venustas to its knees.
Adara, crippled by her inner turmoil for her role in this horrific event coming to fruition, cannot face Aryus in battle.
Her everi is dormant, her god-like power she wields with the Amulet of the Saints is frozen.
She becomes cornered by Aryus within her chamber.
King Aryus: Finally, we meet, after your imprisonment here.
So many have I lost, well beyond my worst fears.
Their lives have been spent, so you may be by my side.
No more lies, nor deceit, only the turn of the tide.
Away we must go, lest he fool you once more, for if you deny me again, this city will no longer have shores.
Beneath the sea it will fall, drowned in its blood and its sorrow, along with its Queen, who withdrew from the morrow.
Queen Adara: (backing away from Aryus towards the altar) Then to the sea I will go, if that spares me of guilt, for this you have done, to all we have built.
Never have I seen a day as heinous as this one, forsaken your soul is to come to this kingdom.
Whatever I loved in the days long since passed, have been taken by blood magic that you yourself have cast. Gone is your mind, your soul and your wisdom, and left is your heartache, your sin and your sickness!
Do you see what you’ve done, what lies out there?
We’ve seen this hell once, yet you don’t care.
No longer are you the man I once knew. He is gone, and with it, my life is now through.
King Aryus: (in solemn fury) I came here for you.
Cut through flesh for you. To save you from this that you did not choose.
Yet, alas, you don’t see, what I’ll do so you’re free, and consider it worth it, so your life isn’t forfeit.
But your mind, he has stolen and tainted with poison.
To give up our love and leave it so gruesome.
Your betrayal cuts deep, the wound raw and unhealing.
Perhaps your blood will be sweet and grant me the feeling.
A feeling I yearn for; one you gave fully yielding.
Aryus attacks Adara, drinking her blood, and resting her against the altar. He looked at her after what he has done and kisses her tenderly on the lips.
King Aryus: My love, my life, forgive me in time.
Your blood is now mine, but with you I am not.
My passion, my fury—it was for you that I fought.
Now I have nothing, as I look upon your fair form.
In my heart, there is nothing but this raging storm.
How is it true that I look upon thee, and not a flicker, or a sign, of life do I see?
Can my eyes be tainted, has Daodyn finally gotten to me?
Has his trickery sunk in, and I’m no longer alone?
It was the madness that caused this, that he doth condone.
He was responsible for her death, him alone.
Aryus exits stage left.
Narrator: In the grip of blood magic, Aryus waged war, blinded by rage and power, killing the one thing he truly cared about. Unable to face his own contribution to her death, he fixates on Daodyn.
Daodyn enters stage right.
King Daodyn: Adara, my Queen, let me heal your weak form.
Queen Adara: (near death) You can’t, please listen, there isn’t much time. We must seal this cursed city, before any more might die. Beyond our borders, the Realm must come as well, but save them we will, from what Aryus brought to dwell.
Adara takes Daodyn’s hand, and their hands begin to glow.
Narrator: The Queen uses the last of her energy to seal the blood mage army that Aryus created and brought to the city. Beyond the Realm and any remaining traces of blood mages are trapped within her curse, containing the dangerous magic that has been unleashed. This is Adara’s final act as Queen.
King Daodyn: Adara, my light, my Queen, and my guide.
You gave me a life, though I never tried.
You found something inside me that no one else saw; you made me see it, here at the end of it all.
I’ll avenge you, one day, when I awaken once more.
I’ll find him, I’ll slay him, then I’ll return to these shores.
Narrator: In her final moments, Adara cast the city of Venustas into an eternal slumber, then used the last of her power to channel her everi through the amulet to seal the Realm, along with the evil that had consumed it, far from the world it belonged to.
King Daodyn watches as her light dims and Queen Adara becomes still. He mourns her, holding her in agony.