The Sad Queen

* Earlier that day *

The man in black took Keila's body straight to Severus's underground torture room at the same gambling house Sullivan frequents, as ordered by the henchman.

Keila, placed on a wooden chair, opened her eyes but was met with darkness as her face had been covered in a black hood, she shut and squeezed her eyes, gradually regaining consciousness, she simultaneously felt a stinging pain at the back of her head from the knockout.

Not hearing voices, she started panicking "ehhn..where eh...where am i?".

The henchman standing right before her signaled the one of the two men behind her to remove the hood.

Keila was still panicking; making muffling sounds when they removed the black hood.

She slowly opened her eyes, squinting.

She wildly glanced around, fear evident in her eyes "where..where am I?, who...a–are you, where is this place?, what do you want with me?" Her voice quivering, throwing too many questions in the air.

Severus's henchman named Damon, in a calm demeanor looked the panicking Keila straight in the eyes "tsktsktsk, be at ease woman, I only need to know something and if you give me what I want, you'll reunite with your family before dawn".

"what could a lowborn like me possibly know that you might want to know?".

"Good question!" Damon complimented her while clapping. "You know what?, I commend your spirit, I really do, so I'll just hit the nail on the head".

In a sudden shift of countenance Damon asked "our Queen" rolling around his index finger "the Queen of Sibiah, She has a child, right?"

At that moment Keila's eyes widened in total shock.

....

"Wake up!, wake up!", "it's time for the training", a man tapped Lucian back to conciousness.

He opened his eyes, sat up and furrowed his brows as if pondering something. He looked at the prospective servants rushing outside for the training and he followed suit.

They had already changed into the training attire. They all lined up in rows and columns on a rectangular cobblestone ground measuring 900 square meters, ready to commence the training.

"We are about to commence the training now, I'll advise each and every one of you to comport yourselves, your attention is also paramount because we wouldn't want you making any mistakes on that day".

"After this training, you'll all be tested and failure to perform well on what you have been trained for will lead to your dismissal, understood!?"

"Understood sire", all acknowledging in unison.

"Good, we shall commence".

★★★★★

After the dismissal of an unusually peaceful court meeting, the Queen signaled Lord Malkin to tarry.

"Any progress or report?"

"None at the moment, Your Majesty", Lord Malkin answered respectfully and continued "I'm trying my best to identify the source of his powers so as to know how to tackle him if or when he returns".

"Hmm...very well then." The Queen acknowledged him.

"How about the young Princess?", The Archwizard inquired.

"She's very well", the Queen responded, her smile slipping.

After discussing for a while, the Queen dismissed Lord Malkin. She then made her way back to her chambers.

• The Queen's Chambers •

The discussion she had with Lord Malkin today brought back some memories.Seated alone on her royal seat in her chambers, those long buried feelings she had for Felix came rushing back like a flood, overwhelming her with a torrent of emotions".

Although she had been unbothered by the prospect of marrying a consort, she hadn't even thought about that but sooner or later the topic about a heir would soon be raised and from the heir to a male consort because without a male consort, a heir can't even be produced.

She started reminiscing about the time she had with her beloved, Felix. About how gentle he had been, how playful, how caring and how loving he had been.

Thinking about those things, tears shimmered in her eyes, she tried to fight back the tears but could not hold it as it rolled down her face when she slowly shut her eyes, showing her sadness.

She wished both her and Felix had met under different circumstances maybe the outcome of things would have been different. She also felt a pang of guilt about Felix's exiling, If she hadn't made advances towards him then, maybe he wouldn't have been exiled.

She wondered how Lord Malkin would have felt and still feels about his son exiling, Queen Marissa felt sorry but there was nothing she could do at this point. She had been silently searching for Felix all these years but all her efforts had been futile.

She really missed Felix, even if they can not get back together, she atleast wanted him to be back in Sibiah, to be with his father and also be introduced to his beautiful daughter.

'My dear Felix, where are you?', she sniffled as she wiped her own tears with a royal linen.

.....

Few hours into the training Lucian began scanning the area just to get a little familiar, for easy navigation when he resumes his quest – his main reason for being in the palace in the first place.

Apparently some men will be assisting the women in the kitchen, while some will be serving the food delicacies meticulously prepared for the royal guests. Some of the women will be cooking while some will be beside the royalties serving them sweet wine.

"You!", Lucian looked to the direction of the voice pondering if his cover has been blown, "No, you!". Lucian looked back , !sighs!, the trainer was talking to a prospective servant behind Lucian "what are you doing?, first rule in serving: you do not make eye contact with a royal , ever!, as that can be considered disrespectful and it's punishable if you're unlucky, second rule: bow well – shows your high regard for the royal".

"Now go again"

"Aye Sire"

The trainer carried on with his general training, he just moved around and corrected people doing things wrongly.

"Now we move to the next phase of the training".

• Velvetwind Vale •

On an open field, the two siblings were sparring, Elara wielded a whip, not an ordinary one but one with enough magical force that could kill an ordinary human or even someone with magical abilities but poor defence. She also possessed the power of teleportation and a little speed – she's faster than a normal human being.

Lorian on the other hand, stood firm, possessed the ability to create a magical barrier that could deflect and withstand anything but for a short time because with every powerful strike, the barrier gets weaker. He possess superhuman speed.

He also possessed two sharp rotational blades that he rarely ever used.

Elara ran forward, jumped into the air and teleported behind her brother immediately swinging her whip towards him, Lorian being a playful brother does not really expend too much energy when sparring with his sister.

Possessing a superhuman speed gave him an edge – a super fast reaction time, as he backflipped and landed on his feet. Elara continued with her offence. She swinged her whip once again towards Lorian, seeing the whip coming, he bent backwards evading the strike".

A little furious that her brother was not taking the sparring seriously, she increased the intensity of her power. After evading the strike Lorian ran twenty-five feet forward with speed and faced his sister whose back was turned against him.

She looked back with a pretty serious face and charged towards him swiftly, still ten feet away, she teleported behind him again striking with force but this time Lorian stood still, creating a magical barrier. She continuously teleported all whilst striking the barrier again and again.

Lorian just stood there, unfazed by all her strikes because obviously he was protected by the barrier. Her strikes were not strong enough to weaken the barrier.

Elara felt cheated but relentlessly carried on with the teleportation and strikes. She paused all of a sudden, contemplating on her next course of action, !sighs!, 'all my efforts to weaken this barrier has been futile, wait!, should I use this power?, would he catch on or fall for it?, either ways I have to try it first".

The power is a common one in Velvetwind, it's illusion magic, they could create a mirage about anything they could think about. Only people with good control of their power could successfully do that particular magic.

Still standing inside the barrier and not paying too much attention to what's going on in his surroundings, Elara discreetly created an illusive image of beautiful Luna, smiling and waving at her brother.

Forgotten for a moment that he was sparring and that that kind of magic exists, Lucian got carried away, smiling and waving back to illusive image of Luna when his magical barrier lifted. As he took two steps forward, in a twinkle of an eye, Luna's image vanished, taking Lorian aback.

He glanced around, wondering how that was possible, even though she possess the ability to open portals, he was sure she couldn't have opened one that fast.

In the middle of his pondering, he felt something at the back of his neck. Looking back, he saw his sister smiling, at that moment, it dawned on him that he had been smartly played by his younger sister.

He laughed, commending her "Ha!, fair play little sister, fair play" patting her on the head. Elara shifted her head back, intended to keep a dull face but her face betrayed her intentions, she could not help but blush.

.....

"I have been walking back and forth getting no where, or has this compass lost its true north?"