2. To love is nothing

I sighed as I woke up in my safe space. My bed. There is nothing better than waking up to see the sunlight seeping through your curtains and you're still in bed. It makes you not want to get out of bed and not face the harsh world. But as soon as I covered my head with my blankets, Louisa came bustling in and opened the curtains wide open then pulled the blankets from my face. I wanted to complain but then I saw her worried face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"The Queen has requested your presence." Louisa said worriedly and I frowned.

Ever since my father died a month ago, everything had gone haywire. Anna stopped speaking to me. We barely saw each other since the castle was so huge. I was worried that my father's death was not good on her or the baby she was carrying. I hadn't spoken to Phillip in two weeks. He claimed that I had gone mad and had told Malik that thinking he would not tell me. The last time I saw him we had argued about the pond of memories. He said that I had become obsessed with it and that I was not grieving over my father's death properly. But I knew I was not obsessed with it. Being there made me feel close to both of my parents. He didn't know what that felt like since both of his parents were alive.

"Princess you must hurry. Queen Anastacia does not tolerate anything these days. Other maids claim she has become cruel." She said as she got my dress out of my closet.

"What?" I said as I quickly took off my pajamas. "What do you mean by that?" Louisa was going to answer before there was a knock on the door. Louisa's brown eyes became huge before she composed herself and went to answer the door for me. After a minute she came back looking more worried. She didn't say a thing as she put the black dress that I had chosen back and got a newer more prettier one that could even pass as a normal ball gown instead of a mourning dress.

"Louisa...."

"Sorry your highness. This dress will have to do." She said as she help me put on my petticoat before putting on my dress. I didn't dare say a word in case someone was outside listening to us. Louisa never called me your highness unless something was wrong. It was always princess or Ilene. Once my dress was smoothed out, my curly hair was put in a proper bun and a tiara was put on my head, I headed to the throne room in a rush. I put on a small smile. Anna was probably going to announce that she had a baby. She was four months pregnant so I was pretty sure that she couldn't hide it no more. There's so much these huge dresses could do. I walked in the throne room and passed the royal advisor and the council members. I ignored their glares before I walked in front of Anna and curtsied and she did the same before I went to stand beside her.

I looked at her. There was something off about her. She looked rigid and cold as if she was there but she wasn't. Her skin which always looked warm was pale and her golden bronze hair almost looked as black as my hair. What bothered me the most was that she was not wearing black. She was wearing bright pink. Was she done mourning my father? Had she....I tried not to think about it too much. Pink was just a color. Nothing more. I sometimes liked wearing pink. It was not a big deal.

"Since everyone is here, I can finally share my announcement." Anna said cheerfully but it sounded fake. "I would like to announce my engagement to Emperor Attor of the Kakon Empire."

I felt my whole body jolt when she finished her sentence. I could not contain myself as anger quickly erupted inside me. All this time she had been avoiding me, she was courting another man! What was worse was that she was carrying my father's child, my future sibling. I could not understand how she was engaged to Emperor Attor. I had heard rumors from far and wide about the Emperor and the Kakon empire. They were not normal people! Attor was not even a normal name! The people there were cruel and bloodthirsty so I had heard. My father had told me that he had gone there for two days and he never wanted to step foot in the empire again. I turned to Anna and glared.

"How dare you!" I shouted at her. She did not look surprised by my outburst. "How dare you marry another man only a month after King Nicholas died! You haven't even announced that you are with child! You are bringing shame to the kingdom of Astraea! I will not allow this marriage."

"And what power do you have Princess Ilene? You are only just a princess, an immature one at that and that was why I wanted you to get married. You want to rule this kingdom yet you have no idea on the workings of the council. You have never even stepped foot out of the palace. You have never gone to see your people. I as Queen have no power. That is why I am to marry Emperor Attor. It will unite our lands to become stronger then no one would stand in our way." Anna was talking to me but the council members clapped at her words. Anna came closer to me and whispered," Plus the child is Attor's not Nicholas'." She gave me a malicious smile and that's when I couldn't stand there any longer.

I ran.

I tried not to cry as I ran to my place of comfort; the pond of memories. It made no sense. Who I saw in there was not the Anna I knew. She was caring and always guided me in the right direction. I guess she had been fooling all of us this whole time. She was the one who advised me not to leave the palace and my father had agreed. She was the one who insisted on finding a husband for me and my father had agreed, along with the council members. Once I reached my mother's garden, I couldn't control the tears. I sobbed as I went down slowly towards the entrance. I welcomed the sapphire colored water and the rainbow colored crystals. I stared at the water before sobbing again. She had cheated on my father without him knowing. Now he was dead. I had no future sibling and I didn't think I was to be Queen anytime soon.

It wasn't long before I heard footsteps walking into the cave. "Ilene?" I heard Malik call as his voice got closer to me. I heard him run up to me when he saw me, he came and grabbed my hands. "Are you okay? What happened?" He asked as he wiped my tears.

"It's Queen Anastacia." I said. I couldn't bear to say Anna. "She's betrayed me, and I think she wants to take over the kingdom."

"So it's true." Malik said solemnly. I looked at him, wondering what he meant. "I had been hearing rumors in the castle but I didn't want to say anything because rumors are just that. Rumors."

"It's okay. I do not know what to do now. She made me look like a fool in front of the council. I was supposed to rule this kingdom once I turned eighteen. My birthday is six months away and I have no clue on what I'm going to do." I said as I stood up and turned away from him. I had never been put in a situation like this. I had never had to struggle or even think about complicated stuff like this.

"Well we can try and figure this out. I know I'm just a stable boy, but I will try and help you as much as I can." Malik said with enthusiasm. I looked at him. He really did think I could do this. I walked up to him and hugged him which surprised him.

"You're more than just a stable boy to me Malik." I told him as I wrapped my arms around his neck. He hugged me back lightly as if he was scared to touch me. I smiled at him once the hug ended. At least I had Malik. I had calmed down but I still felt anxious. "I have no plan now but I'm going to have to do a little research. Queen Anastacia plans to marry Emperor Attor and to unite our lands."

"What?" Malik said. Now he looked stressed. "This is bad, really bad."

"What do you mean?" I asked. I watched Malik as he looked at the water as if he was searching for something. His eyebrows were knit together as his hazel eyes became intense. I wondered what he could have been thinking about. Did he know something I didn't? "Malik?"

"It's nothing." he said quickly but before I could question it, he smiled and looked at me. "I want to show you something."

"Okay?" I said as he took my hand and we started to leave the cave.

"It will cheer you up. But you can't wear this fancy dress. We're passing through town." Malik said and I nodded. I wasn't fond of huge dresses and petticoats anyway. I did wonder what he wanted to show me.

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I had never in my life walked through a forest. A forbidden one at that. I had put up many protests that this was dangerous and my father had forbidden me from entering the forest. No one in the kingdom did. But Malik had insisted that it was not dangerous and that today was going to be the best day of my life. The only reason I followed him was because I trusted him. The forest was quiet as we walked through it. The trees swayed slowly as the sunlight seeped through the branches. I thought the forest would be noisy and lively. It wasn't. It was like the animals were missing. But I didn't say anything. I followed him until he stopped and turned around to me and smiled. "Give me your hand."

I did what he asked and when I did we walked through something..... I wasn't sure what it was. It felt like we were forcing ourselves through a cramped space. Once we did, I gasped at the sight in front of me. This part of the forest was beautiful. The trees looked more magical and some of them were a dark shade of pink. They were short people walking around with pointy ears. Then they were unicorns, actual white horses with a horn on their heads. But before I could continue looking at the place in awe, some glowing light things came towards me and started hitting me. I tried to swipe them away as I looked for Malik. I was going to start panicking before I heard,

"Stop it! Princess Ilene is a welcomed guest." Malik said with such authority I had never heard him with. before. The lights stopped and when they came into view I gasped, they were so tiny. There was three of them. They all had skin the shade of cyan and hair white as snow. They wore brown dresses of different designs. They bowed to me and when they talked their voice was so squeaky.

"We are so sorry your highness."

"Please forgive us."

"We thought you were an intruder."

"It's okay." I said as I continued to stare at them. "I forgive you. But you really shouldn't be doing that unless you have confirmed the person is an intruder."

""Yes your highness." They all said then flew away. I looked at Malik.

"Sorry about that. Those were pixies. They are very mischievous creatures and love to cause trouble." He said casually.

"Oh okay." I said still surprised that they existed. "What is this place?"

"Welcome to the Enchanted forest." He said as we continued to walk around. I was surprised that Malik knew the pixies but he said that he had also discovered this place himself so he was kind of a celebrity since he was human. I met elves, fairies, fauns and griffins. I had admired unicorns from afar as Malik had told me that they did not like being bothered. We spent the whole day together as I learned the culture of the fairies. They were the most welcoming which I was grateful for. I still couldn't believe magic did exist! The fairies invited us for lunch which I couldn't say no to. I watch them grow to human size as they led Malik and I to a table.

"Thank you for bring me here." I told Malik. This was an incredible day and I hoped to come back here, hopefully if the guards didn't notice that I was missing. 'Lena' I heard a whisper call out my name. I looked around then looked at Malik.

"Do you hear that?"

"No." Malik said as he looked around. "What do you hear?"

I waited for a second and I frowned as I heard the voice again. "My father." I said as I stood up.

"Lena, I don't think....." he started but I didn't care what he had to say. My father was calling me. I could hear his voice.

"Lena." his voice was becoming more clear. I ran to the direction where I had heard his voice. I could hear Malik and others in the background but it didn't matter. I could hear my father! The more I ran to the voice, the more I realized how dark it was getting. I stopped. It was still daytime so why had it become dark all of sudden? "You're almost here. Follow my voice." I stopped running and decided to walk. It was becoming scary and I didn't hear Malik no more. There was no way I was in the enchanted forest. A glowing entity appeared in front of me and I froze. The entity started to change form to......my father.

I couldn't stop the tears as my father had appeared just the way I had last seen him. "Father, is it really you?" I asked.

"It is. It has taken me a lot of deals to make this possible. I had to tell you the prophesy since I didn't during my time in the land of the living." he said.

"What prophesy?" I asked, confused.

"I had the power of vision but I never told you. I had to keep it a secret since those in the castle are not to be trusted. In my vision, I saw myself dying by the hands of Anna. I saw the kingdom fall into ashes and burn but I saw a savior. You."

"Father, what are you saying? Anna killed you? The kingdom burning? I don't understand you." I told him and I saw him flickering.

"I know you don't and that is my fault for shielding you from so much and treating you like a child instead of like the woman you have grown to be. But do not forget this; you are the light of this kingdom. You are its savior. Only you can save it. Never forget, only when you are brave enough to explore the darkness will you discover the infinite power of your light." He said as he disappeared into nothing.

"No father, come back! I don't understand what you mean! Don't leave me! I don't know what to do without you. "I shouted as I got onto my knees and sobbed. He left me again. He left me again with nothing. He left me with Queen Anastacia. "FATHER, WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME AGAIN?!" I screamed before feeling myself shift to unconsciousness. I didn't care. I just wanted to sleep.....