Svetlana and her father headed towards the king's study. They weren't surprised to see the
king and his son, Wazir, waiting for them along with her partner. Svetlana gave one worried look
to her father before facing her audience.
"Svetlana." The king started, his face not betraying any emotion. "Your partner here says
you have something for us."
Svetlana nodded. "I have vital information, my king."
"Please, go ahead and tell us."
"Yes my Lord." She said, bowing slightly. "When I scoured through the halls of the
palace, I did well to keep my ears to the ground. I noticed some changes that weren't there the
first time I had gone to the castle when I went to get information for you."
Understanding what she meant, the king nodded his head, signalling her to continue.
"The first time I went there, the people all treated their king with awe, reverence and
happiness. Now, there is a sense of restlessness and fear in the castle. The people fear most
especially, their queen."
She waited for a beat, watching as the king's features frowned.
"Their King, on the other hand, isn't in control of his mind. His queen found a way to
control his mind. From the discussion I overheard between her and her brother, it seemed that
she first used her power on him when he came to ask her people for help to defeat his enemies."
The king banged both his hands on the table, the first sign of anger he had shown since
she arrived there. Wazir kept his face still, but his fury shone through his eyes.
"The idiot! He married the princess of Neba. He couldn't ask for help from his in-laws?"
They all remained silent, patiently waiting for him to finish stewing. The king took a
deep breath, schooled his features, and asked Svetlana to continue.
"The queen has reason to believe, that the power she has over the king is wearing off. She
fears that once he gains control of his mind, he would kick her out of the kingdom. The brother
assures her that her power cannot wear off from him. I surmised that he also knows where her
power comes from. He said that the only way the king can be fully free from her is for him to kill
her by himself. With the power over the king, he might suspect his wife, even come to dislike
her, but he wouldn't have the power to kill her."
Wazir looked at his father, a strange emotion crossing his face. They had thought of this.
They knew that there was a possibility that the killing of his sister was not carried out by the
King of Pres knowingly. But that doesn't change that he had a hand in it. That fact would be
harsh for them to let go of.
"The power to be able to control a whole nation," Wazir said, his expression thoughtful.
"This is very strange indeed. First of all, we are seeing people who harness imaginable
power, and now, we are hearing of people who have the power to control a whole nation. What's
going on?" his voice barely whispered as he uttered the last sentence.
"I have reason to believe, that the queen is part of the Allikans. It is their general after all,
who she calls brother."
The king stood up from his desk to pace.
"My king." Darukï stepped forward. "I think I may be of help to you."
The king looked at him curiously.
"How?"
"Because your highness, I am part of the Allikans."
The silence exploded all over the room. The king faced Darukï, frowning slightly.
"Svetlana, is this true?" the king asked, his sight still on her father. Svetlana immediately
went on her knees.
"I apologize for not telling you earlier, your highness." Darukï didn't kneel, but he bowed
his head. The king looked at them, curious.
"Why didn't you tell me of your association with them?" he asked, his voice still not
betraying any emotion.
"Your highness." Svetlana started. "You have always wondered why I helped you and
stood by your side all these years." Svetlana paused, silently gathering her thoughts.
"It was because my mission was just one thing; to find my father. I had planned, that once
I found my father, we both would leave this kingdom and go somewhere no one would find us.
But circumstances had us staying back." She paused, risking a glance at the king.
"We were both surprised when we saw two of our people attacking your kingdom. We
gave you their weaknesses– our weaknesses, hoping that would stop them. It weakened them,
and when used wisely by Wazir, even killed one of them. We decided to stay back and see if
there were going to be more of them. That was the only way we could pay our debt to you, by
helping you fight of your enemies."
"What's the back story between you and your people?" Wazir asked after a while.
"My people betrayed me," Darukï replied, his voice chipping like ice.
"I believe that the betrayal I faced, and what is going on in Pres, are connected."
"How?" the king asked, frowning slightly.
"Because the Queen of Pres and her brother are my younger siblings." He deadpanned.
The king's frown deepened.
"I am the eldest of four children," Darukï said, not waiting for the king to comment.
"My sister, the one who came after me, was selected to be the Chosen One. To the
Allikans, that is a very high position to a female, and most females aren't treated right in there.
But the truth was, while it's true that the Chosen one must be treated with awe and respect, she
still suffers, secretly."
"What do you mean?" Wazir asked, curious.
"The chosen ones come from a specific bloodline. Because their bloodline has attributes
that work well with our supreme being."
"A supreme being?" the king exclaimed, confused. "Who is that?"
Voice solemn, Darukï replied. "Deep within our town, in a hidden area surrounded by
forests, seats a cave. Lying in the cave is a being who is neither male nor female, as no one had
ever seen its face. The being is the one who provides us with our power, and it has been with us
for centuries."
"So you guys are given your powers, not born with it?" Wazir questioned, intrigued.
"No, my Lord," Darukï replied, shaking his head. "We have to reach a certain age, then
the Supreme Being will bestow upon us more powers."
"Do you have the same powers as those men who attacked us?" the king asked.
"No. I have powers, but not like the one those men have. The Supreme Being may have
upgraded the level of powers he gave his people since I left. Mine only works well in a
battlefield."
"So, why did they betray you?" the king asked, steering their discussion back to its
previous route.
"I had told you that the chosen one suffers despite the so-called respect people claim to
have for her. She was still in chains by the hands of the elders, who deemed fit to do as they
liked with her, while the Supreme Being turned a blind eye."
He looked each of them in the eye as he continued his narration.
"The Chosen one's blood has special properties. Anyone who drinks it becomes stronger
than before, giving up control towards his body. But by every drop of blood she spills, her life
span reduces drastically."
The king's eyes widened, suddenly understanding what he was trying to explain.
"They slowly killed her." He murmured. Darukï affirmed it, his posture stiff.
"I found out about it when I overheard the drunken tales of two elders. They didn't know
that I was behind them, hearing all they had said. They had planned to use the blood of the
chosen one, to command a female to bed with both of them."
"Wow," Wazir said drily. "Talk about priorities."
Darukï forced himself to continue, the sadness and anger now prominent in his voice. "It
was through them, I realized the consequences of the actions they had been carrying out on my
sister. My sister might not have lived to see the next coming years, and they didn't give a damn,
only cared about giving pleasure to their loins." He folded his fists as he felt the anger course
through him and then rose again.
"I decided to rescue her and take her far away from there. She was my younger sister,
someone who had looked up to me since she was given that position. It had always been her
dream to be the chosen one. In the end, it became her nightmare."
"My younger brother always found a problem with me. As I was the general then, he was
jealous and wanted my power. So he thought that the only way to receive it was to get rid of me.
The day I planned to rescue my sister, he found me and attacked me, living me in the road for
dead. The king of Pres found me and gave me a place to stay in his kingdom. I decided to live in
the middle of the forest of Pres and built a cabin for myself."
He pointed to his face. "This scar was caused by his attack. I can have it removed, but I
want it to be a reminder to me of what I had gone through."
All in the room remained quiet, processing all the information.
"To control that huge number of people in a kingdom," Svetlana's partner suddenly spoke
up. "One would need a huge amount of blood from her."
Darukï nodded his features grave. "They literally would have bled her dry."
"Can't she deny offering someone her blood?" The king questioned, strangely angry for
the treatment of the woman he had never met.
"No. She can never deny any who asks for her help, no matter what it is. Till this day, I
do not know why, but I suspect that the being might have used his powers on her, to make sure
she follows his rules."
"This is a lot to take in," Wazir said broodingly. "There are so many layers to it. So many
questions I have." He turned to face them.
"The Chosen one, is she still alive?" Wazir asked. Darukï shook his head slowly.
"She died while I was still in hiding." He replied, his voice sorrowful.
"Svetlana, please rise." The king said, running a hand through his tired face. Svetlana
rose, then bowed once more to the king.
"I also need to tell you, my Lord, the queen has reason to believe that the elders knew of
her actions, yet turned a blind eye to her."
"How? Why?"
"We do not know exactly how," Darukï started. "But anyone who seeks to have the blood
of the chosen one has to go through the elders first. They seem to know when someone bypasses
them to go visit the chosen one. And besides, not everyone knows of her power."
"So you mean to say, that the queen used her sister's blood powers for her sake, but the
elders who normally is against such actions, turned a blind eye to it? Why is that?" the king
asked.
"Because," Wazir replied, his eyes slowly lighting up with understanding. "They had
planned this all along. For years, they had planned all these. They already had a plan to take over
the kingdoms. But when they saw the opportunity in the form of the king of Pres knocking on
their door, they decided to take it, letting one of their females control him so when they need his
power, it would be easy for them to use him."
"I still don't understand why they had to attack the kingdom of Pres though." Svetlana's
partner stated. "If they had all this plan all along, why not simply walk up to the queen and
demand for her help?"
Understanding where her partner was going with this, Svetlana shook her head slowly.
"Maybe the elders who knew of it were dead. Maybe they decided not to tell Slovīc, to keep the
drama going. The elders do like drama, and any method used to showcase the strength of
Allikans is appreciated."
"Still," Darukï continued. "We do not know how their minds work. What I do know is
this, so far as the king and his people are still under the queen of Pres. No matter if they begin to
suspect her, they are not classified as part of the living, because the living has control of their
thoughts, while the dead do not, having no thought to think about at all."
"Find the close dead and bring to life, find the living and bring to death," Wazir
murmured. His eyes slowly widened as he began to understand the riddle.
"Find the close dead and bring to life! Find the living and bring to death. This is the only
way to ensure victory in the greater war!" he exclaimed, his eyes brightening. The king looked at
him expectantly while the rest of them in the room just faced them, confused.
"Someone told me that this riddle would be the only way for us to ensure a smoother
journey to victory. Just as Darukï said, someone who has control of his mind is no different from
those who had died. The king is the close dead because, even though he is breathing, he has no
control over his mind."
"Find the living and bring to dead." The king murmured, his eyes shining. "We are to kill
the queen of Pres."
"My Lord!" Darukï said immediately. "Please bear in mind, that only those who are under
the control of the queen can kill her. Anyone else, and those she controls would not be able to
regain power over their minds forever. The king would not be able to kill her. We have to think
deeply about how to make him do it."
Wazir turned over and faced him, his smile devious. "Who said we have to use the king?
You just said someone under the queen's control, right? The whole kingdom is under her control!
All we have to do is to motivate someone to do the job for us. And we do not have much time. A
few days would mark the end of two months. We need to be fast."
Darukï said the wall of fire ignited in his eyes. "The war has begun!"