Twice Upon A Sword

***

"Mum! Mum! Tell me a story?" A 5-year-old princess Charlotte begged her mother one night as she was getting ready for bed, her twin brother already under the covers as he read a book.

"A story?" Queen Alexandria replied with raised brows.

"Yeah, please..." She continued to plead with sparkling eyes.

"Okay... but then after that, you go straight to bed, deal?" The young princess nodded her head rather energetically as she got comfortable in her large bed. Her mother followed in after her and began stroking her soft, brown locks of hair.

"Vincenzo, would you like to listen to a story too?" Alexandria asked her second oldest child. Although they were twins, Vincenzo was 2 hours older than his sister.

The said boy slowly nodded his head, putting his book away as he too, shuffled under the covers with his sister. His metallic eyes blinked tiredly but denied letting the sleep in and his short black hair sprawled around him as he itched his small, button nose.

"So, what story would you like to hear?" Their mother asked.

"The one about Ellie!" Charlotte suggested excitedly, clutching onto her stuffed bunny.

"Ellie? Do you mean Eleanora? The mage that helped the first King create our country?" Charlotte's nod of approval was answer enough and Alexa sighed, thinking back to the story she had read in the grand library about the said mage.

"It's a bit hazy... But okay," Charlotte squeaked happily, preparing herself and Alexa couldn't help but chuckle as she took a deep lungful of air before breathing out the words of the famous story.

"Once upon a time, a long, long time ago... there lived a young, beautiful girl called Eleanora. She looked like any other human being, born to human parents but she was far from an ordinary human... for she was a mage,"

"A mage with the power to make plants grow with a single click of her fingers, to make it rain with the wave of a hand and a single smile was able to tame the wildest of animals. It's said that her beauty was beyond words, she had fiery amber eyes and long, golden hair that travelled down to her ankles,"

Charlotte's imagination was cut off as her brother scoffed. "That's not possible, how can a person do all that?" He rolled his eyes.

"Now, now, Vince. Eleanora isn't human, she's a mage- so it is possible," With a roll of his eyes, he shut his mouth to let his mother continue with the story.

"Eleanora grew up thinking she was an ordinary human being. Her mother had passed away while giving birth to her and her father died in battle a year after her birth, she grew up in an orphanage loved by everyone there but one fateful encounter changed everything,"

"Andreas. The flying city of mages... It's said to be a beautiful, prosperous land filled with bright, colourful flowers and animals of all kinds wandering around. The mages were beginning to die out and only a few remained so every few years, mages would travel down to the human land with the hope that a mage had been born,"

"And then did they find Eleanora?"

"Yes, they did. She was adopted by the court's head mage and moved with him to Andreas where she underwent arduous training. Throughout the years, Eleanora continued to grow beautifully and grew stronger with each day that passed but she was the last mage,"

"So no more mages were born after that? Why?" Vince curiously asked.

"Up to this day, no one knows," Alexa whispered.

"The mages died out until there were only a few left and those few didn't have enough strength to keep an entire city afloat and so... Andreas began to fall,"

"What happened to the mages?"

"Many of them died while saving the humans at the bottom or others died after using too much of their power to keep the city afloat for extra time,"

"And Eleanora? What happened to her?" Alexa tried not to smile at her son who insisted that he wasn't interested but his questions begged to differ.

"Eleanora was 19 years of age at this point, the youngest mage in all of Andreas. In an attempt to save her, one of the other mages sealed her inside a sword and transported her away from all the destruction. Little did that mage know that what he just did to Eleanora was seen to be more of a curse than a gift."

"How?" Charlotte asked.

"The mage sealed a bit of Eleanora's life force into the sword so that she wouldn't be able to get away from it. The sword was an enchanted sword that became one with Eleanora and anyone to hold it by the hilt would become the owner,"

"As long as she was connected to the sword, Eleanora would be unable to die. She won't grow, she'll lose her freedom and be forced to do what the owner wishes... With the sword and Eleanora came two gifts for the wielder,"

"You know this, right?" Charlotte enthusiastically nodded her head.

"Number 1: The wielder has full control of the sword and the mage that resides in it and number 2: One wish... After the wielder states his wish, the contract will be completed and Eleanora will return to her slumber in the sword." The mother and daughter stated in sync.

"How will Eleanora become free?" Vince asked.

"The wielder must wish it... but no man is dumb enough to give up a wish for the freedom of a stranger," Alexa sighed as if saddened by the fact.

"Years went by like this, people discovered Eleanora and used her powers until the contracts had been completed and she was continuously put to sleep in the sword again and again until one day... a young man accidentally discovered her while he was out on an adventure,"

Charlotte giggled and even Vincenzo could be seen getting excited as this was the part of the story that they had both been waiting for.

"Atticus St Andres Octavius. This handsome young man looked to be an ordinary person, he was an ordinary person but his dream was very big. Upon waking Eleanora up, a contract had been made once more but this contract was different... for it contained a promise,"

"A promise?"

"Yes. As long as Eleanora would promise to help and protect Atticus, he promised to use his one wish to set her free from her curse,"

"What would happen when Eleanora is set free?"

"It's said that she would be free from the sword and she could continue living her life from the age of 19 up until the moment she dies,"

"What about her magic?"

"She'd still have it but she wouldn't be as strong as she was when she had the sword,"

"Oh, then... What was Atticus's dream?" Vince asked curiously.

"He wanted to create a Kingdom. A diverse Kingdom filled with people of all colours and races where harmony was long-lasting and not just a mere myth. Atticus was always made fun of for this but he didn't listen to any of their harsh words and continued to dream,"

"Eleanora and Atticus worked together to create a grand Kingdom. They travelled to the fallen ruins of Andreas together where not a single person lived. Andreas had fallen in a place where lands connected,"

"What does that mean?" Charlotte asked.

"In the north-east, there was a desert, in the south, there was an ocean, in the west there was a large forest and in the far east there were mountains as high as clouds,"

"Doesn't this all sound familiar?" Alexa smirked.

"It sounds just like our Kingdom," Charlotte answered with a cute giggle.

"It does. With her power, Eleanora was able to rebuild all the fallen ruins of Andreas and created the capital city of Lysandra, Lazarus. It took a long time but it was completed and while she did all that, Atticus and his few friends worked to bring citizens into the country. Over the years, people moved into the city, people of all colours with different talents and Atticus's dream was well on it's way to becoming a reality,"

"The people had crowned him the first King of Lysandra and they became an official Kingdom though they were still a small and weak kingdom. Years continued to pass and Lysandra extended its territory, created treaties with other Kingdoms, extended its army and built more cities which were being filled with people who decided to come to Lysandra,"

"However, Atticus was growing old and his dream was still only halfway complete, he wasn't ready to set Eleanora free and she couldn't do anything about it. She watched as Atticus married, had children and eventually died in battle..."

"If the wielder of the sword is to die then the contract is broken. Atticus was dead and Eleanora was sealed back into the sword and the sword was lost for all of eternity and up until today, the sword is still missing,"

"But legend states that Eleanora is still alive and sleeping in her sword, waiting for someone to come and free her from her prison," Alexa finished the story with a heavy breath.

"Do you believe any of this?" Vincenzo asked.

"Yes, I believe it," Charlotte answered with a laugh. "When I'm older, I'm going to go on an adventure, find Ellie and save her from her curse,"

"Well then you better stop eating so many sweets," He rolled his eyes, turning over and attempting to let the sleep take over.

"Mama! I can be an adventurer when I'm older, just like Atticus was, right?" Charlotte asked, pulling the ears of her bunny.

"You can be whatever you want, princess," Alexa smiled at her daughter.

"And what do you want to be when you're older, Vince?" Charlotte asked her twin.

"The King," He answered simply.

"But what about Silas? Doesn't he want to be King?"

"No, brother's going to be the head of the knights," Vince yawned with closed eyes.

"Okay, you two. I told you a story so now it's time to go to sleep," Alexa hummed, leaning down to kiss the twins goodnight.

"Goodnight, I love you," Alexa smiled at her children as she turned the lamp off and walked out of the room, turning her head over her shoulder to look at them one last time before leaving to go to her chambers where her husband, the current King of Lysandra was possibly already waiting.

That night, Vincenzo St Andres Octavius's dreams were filled with a beautiful mage who's long hair tumbled down to the ground and eyes sparkled like the sun.

Unlike his sister, he didn't believe the story of Eleanora to be true at all but he may just swallow those words of his in the next few years.