Chapter 45: The Hope I
Princess Aurelia of Vardalen was killed.
Princess Aurelia Savellyn of Vardalen was murdered by no one other than King Alexander Mistichestor of Rechena, in his bedroom, nonetheless.
Some say she deserved her death because she tried to seduce and poison the king; some said she had good intentions but King Alexander's sanity left him long ago, so Princess Aurelia was just one of his conquests gone wrong.
Those rumors didn't go past the guards of Rechena's capital city. Aurelia didn't need them to, because when morning came, her father was also killed by her murderer who then burned her castle to the ground, the same castle which he swore to protect when they were younger.
It didn't matter to her that her country was burned to the ground, and the people at the Monastery of Magic were living in fear of their new king, because Princess Aurelia got what she wanted: King Alexander walked right into her trap, and the people will no longer suffer, what's broken will be resorted to their original state, and dead people will rise to walk the Earth again. Thus, anyone who died in war, accidentally killed or murdered will be alive again.
The only down side of this?
It's a time reversal spell, crafted by the demon Silvester himself. Not that Princess Aurelia doubts the demon's skill, but reversing the entire world back in time meant she has to live the life of a twelve year old Princess again, that time of life when she was young and naive, under the influence of her father's saccharin words.
She remembered she was turning twenty two in a few months before the Reverse, and now she's twelve again.
Princess Aurelia and the demon Silvester didn't agree on a set date or time, but she did request that it must be before Xiao Lan met her death. The princess wanted to fix what was broken, what she ruined...
So she started by luring Abbot Raxithak of the Monastery of Magic into the underground lake underneath his office where the demon Silvester hid for centuries. As soon as Raxithak left Alexander's side, Aurelia came to him in disguise of helping him coop with what happened and giving him advice.
She told herself that it was for the greater good when she drowned him.
Princess Aurelia wouldn't be able to drown him in the first place if Raxithak didn't let himself be drowned.
She cried when the young Abbot didn't fight back. He didn't even scream for help, just let her mana hold him underwater, alone in the deep dark depth of the lake until his last breath left him.
The princess learned to utilize her mana from Xiao Lan Devinsky, the second Secretary Devinsky of the Monastery of Magic. The person who comforted Aurelia like a sister, and the princess returned her love with jealousy and poison. Xiao Lan trusted Princess Aurelia with her biggest secret, yet out of jealousy, the princess dropped a hint for Alexander and Raxithak to follow the woman to the temple where her demon resided. Aurelia was snapped out of daze when Alexander, a mere prince back then, delivered the news that Xiao was dead and her body stolen by her demon into the shadowzone.
The demon Mistichestor loved Xiao. He never said he loved her, but from the little interactions they had, the princess noticed that the demon Mistichestor always put Xiao's wellbeing first. Their love was something out of a novel, a fairytale her father would read to the princess when he tucked her into bed. Aurelia grew up learning that creatures of the shadows are monsters, they don't feel, they only kill and do things in their favor. So when a plague ran rampant through Vardalen and Aurelia asked Xiao for help, Xiao asked for guidance from a demon who asked for nothing in return but her affection. Being stuck in the Silverin Temple didn't stop the demon Mistichestor from playing a big part in stopping the plague, and the King of Vardalen credited everything to Xiao Lan and Raxithak while Xiao continued to keep her demon lover a secret. Aurelia thought that love between a creature of darkness and a person walking the path of light and magic was impossible, but the demon Mistichestor was proving her wrong, and after all, Raxithak is a living proof that intimacy between a human and a demon isn't a dead end.
After Alexander finished his news with a stoney face, the Princess of Vardalen was in shock, mostly because she's still processing the fact that she only wanted to stir some drama and put dirt on Xiao's name, but it ended up killing Xiao.
Aurelia didn't tell Alexander and Raxithak that. Without Xiao, things went downhill very quickly. Abbot Raxithak Silvester wanted revenge on the demon Mistichestor, Prince Alexander helped. Prince Alexander wanted to kill his entire family, Abbot Raxithak helped. Two years after Xiao's death, Raxithak was unstable and Alexander was straight up insane and on his way to become king, even when his path was paved with blood.
Savellyn of Vardalen expressed concern about Alexander's behavior the day he was crowned, but the new king of Rechena threatened Aurelia's father instead. After all, the Kingdom of Vardalen as a whole wouldn't be standing if her neighbor Rechena didn't step in to help with the plague.
Aurelia knew her old friend was far gone when King Alexander killed an elder knight to get his point across. If Alexander had no problem using his newfound power to physically hold Knight Orlan's heart, then what's stopping him from doing the same to King Savellyn?
Thus, Aurelia turned to the second demon she knew: the Demon Silvester who had been hiding underneath the Abbot's office for centuries. Raxithak is well educated about his family, and his mother never kept his father a secret from him. The demon Silvester was also an Abbot of the Monastery once...
Anyways, when she sought him, the first thing he said was: "Kill my son."