Queen vs Charming-Lite

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Queen vs Charming-Lite

*

Every story craved a villain — the twist, the hook, the thorn in the hero's side. Heroes? Predictable happily-ever-afters! Villains? Delightful uncertainties. 

Would they be deliciously crispy, dramatically sacrificed, or, well, just plain…

Dead? Oh, the variety!

A thunderous explosion rattled the windows, shattering Eydis's musings. Draped in midnight silks, the young queen surveyed the wreckage with detached amusement.

"Maybe," she murmured, "I'm the twist."

Perhaps conquering the realm would have to wait. The "Virtuous" Saintess and her himbo sidekick, Prince Charming-Lite had clearly gotten wind of her plans.

Father had drilled her in ruling, politics, and even the dreaded budgeting (shudder). None of it, apparently, prepared her for the ultimate weapon: the power of... loooooooooove?

Eydis winced as another groan echoed through the chamber, this time accompanied by the satisfying crunch of plaster. A near miss. Looks like she wasn't just the villainess; she was also the target practice.

"Another budgetary nightmare," Eydis sighed, eyeing the impending rain of plaster. Was she not the main character of her own story? The more she contemplated this existential crisis, the worse her headache throbbed.

The heavy oak door splintered inwards, revealing the said hero who seemed to have tumbled out of a romance novel cover - all shimmering flowing silver hair, eyes, and probably even socks.

"Surrender!" Damien boomed, echoing off the ravaged marble. "Your reign of chaos ends NOW!"

"Charming-Lite, must you punctuate every word with a war cry? My migraines are acting up enough as it is," Eydis sighed, rubbing her temples. "Let's cut to the inevitable fight scene, shall we?"

Damien, the knight with the forgettable last name (much like her own, a troubling realisation), sputtered in confusion. His predictable script seemed to have jammed. He raised his sword, caught between bracing for a witty quip or a bolt of dark magic.

"Your timing could use some work," Eydis remarked, surveying the debris. "This redecorating was growing on me. Saved me an appointment with a demolition crew, at least." Her voice dripped with sarcasm, but the tremor in her hand betrayed her feelings. 

The once-opulent chamber, a silent witness to her childhood dreams, was now a battlefield. A pang, sharp and unexpected, pierced her chest. Ignore it. Stick to the script.

Wait?!

As the realisation dawned, an unsettling ripple tore through the air—a tremor that felt suspiciously unrelated to the chaos. However, pondering plot holes would have to wait. Villain monologues don't speak themselves, and she had a reputation to uphold… or demolish, depending on your perspective.

"A necessary evil!" Damien's voice tight with a repressed emotion that went beyond righteous anger. Despair glinted in his eyes for a brief moment, quickly replaced by steely resolve. "Return her to me!"

Eydis's brow furrowed in confusion. "Her?" she drawled, the sweetness in her voice now laced with indifference. "The Saintess, you say? How is it I'm supposed to return someone I barely remember capturing? Where is this paragon of virtue, anyway?"

"Don't play coy!" Fury contorted Damien's features. He lunged forward, the holy symbol on his breastplate pulsing with a white-hot intensity. "You know exactly what you've done! You've unleashed a darkness this world has never seen, snuffed out the purest light in the land!"

Eydis sidestepped his attack with ease, her fingers weaving a silent spell. Inky tendrils of darkness erupted from her fingertips, hissing as they lunged towards Damien. He met them head-on, his blade glowing with a radiant light that pushed the shadows back. 

"Spare me the religious ramblings, Sir D," Eydis called over the din. "Darkness isn't just an absence of light. It's like silence, not the absence of sound, but a frequency outside humans' hearing."

A flick of her wrist unleashed a writhing serpent of dark magic that whipped towards Damien's face. He barely dodged, the magic leaving a sizzling scorch mark on his cheek. 

She smirked. "Most humans, anyway."

"Nonsense!" Damien's voice cracked, renewing his attack with a flurry of slashes. His movements, however, were tinged with a desperate urgency, a glimpse of something more personal fueling his assault. Was it just righteous anger, or was there a tremor of something more? A sliver of doubt wormed its way into her mind.

The knight's holy blade met Eydis's shadowy tendrils in a deafening clash. Light warred with darkness, the very stones beneath their feet groaning in protest. A crack, sharp and sudden, split the floor, revealing an inky abyss. 

Whispers, alien and chilling, echoed from within. Eydis's eyes widened as the vortex surged upward, swallowing her and Damien whole. His scream vanished into the consuming darkness.

Silence. Absolute, deafening silence.

New? This was beyond new.

A voice, ethereal and laced with a profound sadness, echoed on the edge of her mind. It wasn't the comforting hush of Mythshollow's twilight, but a chilling emptiness that gnawed at the edges of her consciousness. The voice… it sounded vaguely familiar…

'There are more to you than this, Eydis!' the voice pleaded, its sorrow tinged with a flicker of urgency. 'Remember your purpose!'

Eydis scoffed. Remember? Her memory was a fortress, every victory, every betrayal etched in its ironclad walls. There was nothing she could forget. 

Purpose? Tales whispered by flickering candlelight spoke of vibrant meadows bathed in sunlight and glaciers that scraped the sky. Fueled by this strange curiosity, Eydis embarked on a relentless campaign of conquest. Each victory expanded her empire, each fallen kingdom adding another shard to her obsidian crown.

Yet, one puzzle remained: the Saintess. Everyone knew the stories - a radiant warrior of light, the supposed bane of her existence. But for Eydis, the Saintess was a frustrating void.

A blank space.

Did she… forget something important? Someone important?

Disoriented and nauseous, she plunged into the abyss. Time seemed to lose all meaning, a swirling vortex of darkness and despair. Then, with a jolt that stole her breath, she was ripped from the darkness. Blinding white light assaulted her vision, forcing her eyelids shut. Blinking back tears, she braced herself for the inferno that surely awaited her. 

Instead, the first thing that stung her nose wasn't brimstone, but the curiously mundane scent of... cleaning products?

Dripping down her face?!

The second was the voice, shrill and grating against the throbbing symphony in her head. "Maybe next time you'll think twice before keeping your homework all to yourself, you four-eyed freak!"

Eydis, for one, agreed. Four eyes did seem a tad excessive. But was this tirade meant for her?

Blearily blinking, she found the world a blurry watercolour nightmare. Her hand instinctively flew to her neck. Still a head, good. Not yet a disembodied spirit condemned to an eternity of listening to... this. 

The high-pitched whine continued. Eydis had had enough.

"Did you know…" she rasped, her voice a touch higher than usual. "That chronic nastiness can take a toll on you? Both inside and out?" She squinted at the blurry shapes hovering above her, a mischievous glint sparking in her (hopefully) soon-to-be-focused eyes. 

"Something to consider, given the state of your complexion."

The bully sputtered, a strangled sound that resembled a particularly disgruntled goose. Eydis preferred a good face reading to deciphering human sound effects. This lack of sight was proving to be a royal pain.

A sharp kick to Eydis's ribs jolted her back to the unwelcome reality. The bully loomed above her, cackling like a particularly unhinged hyena on helium. Ah, yes, she was most definitely alive. Unfortunately, shockingly vulnerable. 

"Wonderful," she muttered. "Ow."

The bully's face, as far as Eydis could tell, contorted in confusion. "Wha- what are you even talking about?" she shrieked. "Why do you talk back?"

Before Eydis could respond, another voice chimed in, an obvious lackey with the nasal whine of entitlement. "Ugh, Tiffany, let's not waste time with the nerd."

"Is a little verbal sparring out of style these days? A shame, that was one of my finer skills." Eydis murmured under her breath, "amongst others." Her hand brushed against something cold and smooth. A pair of spectacles? Four-eyed? Ah.

Fascinating.

Eydis snatched the spectacles and slapped them on her face. The world around her sharpened into a startling clarity. The ashen grey sky she'd grown accustomed to vanished, replaced by a vibrant blue expanse. A gaggle of teenagers, their faces a variety of expressions, stood before her, clad in matching uniforms — green blazers and mid-thigh tartan skirts.

Her own body, she realised with a jolt, was encased in one of the itchy blazers, paired with a skirt that fell a few inches too short for her tastes. A tentative touch confirmed her worst fear — her hair, usually cascading down her back in dark, lustrous waves, was now a tangled brown mess in a ponytail. 

Nothing about this felt right—not this world, not this body.

She attempted to rise, her limbs protesting in a chorus of aches. Her hand brushed against something coarse - grass? This wasn't the cold, polished stone of her palace floor. Where was Damien? Where was the inevitable battle?

A harsh voice cut through her confusion. "Where do you think you're going, freak?" the blonde spat.

"Does this 'freak' have a name?" Eydis turned, a steely glint in her eyes.

Tiffany sputtered, then gritted her teeth. "What game are you playing, Eydis?"

A slow, knowing smile spread across Eydis's face, revealing a playful hint of her canine teeth. "Eydis, huh?" she purred. "Things have just gotten far more interesting."

On cue, a scream pierced through their conversation, she glanced at another group of teenagers, following their eyesight, her eyes widened in surprise.

The sky ripped open.

It wasn't a clean tear, but a jagged gash, like someone had clawed their way through reality itself. A monstrous eye, the size of a mountain, bulged through the opening. Its pupil, a sickly pink, pulsed with an unnatural light that cast the world in a grotesque, distorted hue. An unsettling intelligence gleamed within it, scrutinising, dissecting, analysing.

Judging by the wide-eyed terror on the faces around her, this wasn't normal. Not for them, at least. Instinct took over. Eydis raised her hand, the familiar tingle of magic gathering at her fingertips. But... nothing. No tendrils of darkness responded. Just…

Emptiness.

A bead of sweat traced a traitorous path down her temple. Fear, a serpent she'd long since strangled into submission, coiled uncomfortably in her gut. This wasn't right. They had taken everything from her - her throne, her power, her world, even her body.

Devoid of magic, the only thing certain was uncertainty. Eydis stood frozen, a solitary silhouette against the tide of panicked bodies. She had no idea where to go, what to do. For a moment, she felt the enormity of it all threatening to crush her.

But then, a voice. It was one she knew best - her own. She straightened. A primal instinct, older than reason, roared to life within her. Survival. She would claw her way back to her power, reclaim her birthright: magic, darkness, the very essence of who she was.

Eydis, Queen of Shadows, wouldn't go down without a fight. She would find a way to tap back into her power, to unravel the mysteries of this bizarre place. She would make them pay.