The throne sat there attached to the cold grounds neither reflecting the kingdoms might neither the heart of the ruler. The sad people of the world never had their gaze upon the cold surface of the throne but the power it symbolized. Yet very few men could build a throne from nothing and hence they fought their wars to inherit the built one. Men, Women, children and old ones all alike running before the candy before their eyes, all for the throne.
The Queen of Falls or so as she was called was sitting on one of the thrones symbolizing her power and status for the country. Her name but a derogatory term, named as a prank by an esteemed member of an ancient family as a if she was to be the queen and yet she became one. The members of the ancient family were rarely concerned with the throne as they believed more in might. Hence, they always preferred to be the ones who decided the ruler of the lands and the one for the throne.
One might ask, what is there to make an ordinary lady whose descent is from an ordinary noble family to be the queen of the kingdom of Renna. Even the ancient family needed resources and hence they sucked it from the populace, just like any predator or higher life form survives on the nourishment of those beneath it. The Queen of Falls provided better than other queens, she was sexier than most women and was fantasized by one of the elders of the ancient family of the royalty of the kingdom. Chastity never seemed much of the necessity when it came top power and much better things are to be thought of and yet chastity is of great importance to those of power.
Married or not, Marianne became the Queen. Though word in the noble circle speaks of her as a wayward and open woman maintaining relationship with multiple people the life and power, she held was enough to silence some altogether and silence all as the result. She was ruthless in her rule and as a result many provinces suffered. People died in numbers and others suffered. Some lost their humanity and were little bit less than animals, sold for a loaf of bread and to be enjoyed by the luck ones who had the resources. The people never knew who protected them and yet they loved their queen. They people never knew who harmed them and yet they raised their pickaxes against the pitiful lords.
The Kingdom was divided as different from others due to the presence of three ancient families. The continent and the planet had different ancient families; the families strong enough to destroy their foes along with themselves. Terrifying destructive ability to the outside marked the end of the ancient family and the potential to do so the beginning of one. The ancient families had their own territories and yet they fought among themselves by the way of mortals as their power was costly and hence came the rise of kingdoms and dukedoms and even a few empires. Yet the truth remained hard, the region with ancient family was always independent to itself and so was the power they held. Some ancient families had ancestors with great power like the royal family which was named Renna after their ancestor while some like Revarie family had items of power held by the current patriarch.
The Queen of Falls looked into the sunlight remembering the price she had had to pay for the current power. She would have been nothing with this power and yet was she here, nothing much having the power. She remembered seeing the sissy Trace from the Revarie family and was happy thinking once he came to power she could grasp him onto her side. One of her daughters might had done the trick and maybe she might have joined her daughter at times to make the duke satisfied.
She knew she was in a stubble with the death of the current duke. The country was weak even though she had the powerful matriarch Renna behind her, the amount of power to be fed back to the mortals were less. The power of the family was for the family after all and ancient family like that of Matriarch Renna could not fight forwards and all the power had been in the hands of the trained army. Unsurprisingly, the sad fact remained of the death of the idiotic Duke and she loathed the man. He thought himself to be a warrior and slept and ate with his soldiers. The fool saved the power of the family for his only son as the power of inheritance was said to grow stronger if not used for a generation.
Maybe the fool was right. Trace had become more daring and had claimed the sovereignty of the dukedom by the code of the ancient family and the federation of extraordinary power. The Kingdom was founded on the basis of those ruled and the laws allowed it. Maybe she did not have to suffer if she had not sent the godforsaken daughter Lindy to the bidding of claiming the attachment to the Kingdom of Renna and the agreement as per the Royal family. She would not have if she did not want to save her daughter Lindy from the clutched of one of the elders who wan intend on having her as her maid on the bedside. Now she could only sacrifice her for the greater good.
But she was indeed jealous of Trace. He being alone of the ancient family and still being from the ancient family meant he had unbridled authority even thought common nobles never knew beyond the Kingdom and its rulers in the front. She was always attached to power and she wanted it more than anything. She always wanted to be free and wanted power for so but the more she came closed to the power the more chained she became to the power. She never had a proper sleep but she always enjoyed the night. Fidelity in marriage was never an option for her and she had already chosen her husband as such. The glorious King, nothing more than a puppet to his wife and she too was nothing more than a puppet. A dispensable puppet.
Her plans needed time which she rarely had. Her resources were running down and the standard of living of the people were falling. Only the fourth and fifth dukedom without any ancient family seemed to be the better choice but one was purely unqualified for to be plotted against and sacked as they had very few resources and whatever they had was needed to be in defense against the neighboring kingdoms. The other had a relationship with the Revarie family by the marriage contract and she needed to be on the safe side of the patriarch of the Revarie family.
But she was sure the boy never had any feelings for that girl nor any girl. The thought of killing the girl and her family slowly in her spider net and forming a relationship with the duke through one of her daughters while slowing munching on the resources of the girl and her family was so tempting that she started breathing hard. Their kingdom had proper resources and so did their ancient family. Some ancient family, maintained rule over common populace for their faith while others for the special resources while many like the Revarie family and the Renna family did so because they just could. They needed contact with other families and needed to live and die, a mechanism of mutual existence and what else than gloriously living on the lives of mortals, collecting gold as though it was more than an ordinary metal and waging wars as though the territory actually mattered. The ancient family never made sense in any way yet at the present yet she could easily understand them. How could not they be elated by having control over life and death over others and playing with their lives on a string and chessboard. She enjoyed her powers and knew they enjoyed more than her and the resources needed was nothing was than coins for their game. The national strength was nothing more than a child to be taken out and fought with other children. The wise kings and queens nothing more than people they wanted to see, work hard and begging them for respite. And yet they like when someone jumped out of the chessboard by being not under the control of the string. They like it even more and sometimes would like to play with them more as was with her case. And yes, she was going to make them happy. She was going to use everything she had to make them happy.
She smiled and clapped her hands. One of the handmaidens, standing by her side, came to her side bowing her head towards the mouth of the lady she served to listen to the command as was required of her.
"Let the fiancée of the new duke be killed."
An ordinary statement! An ordinary command! It carried the heaviness of the future and the sadness of some people, yet it never mattered to the world. Nothing ever mattered to the world, as the world was always the world even without the existence of humans and even with the pathetic life of humans.
"The family will not like it, my queen."
The handmaiden did have a beautiful face and yet was there no emotion of having questioned the queen on her decisions. The queen was accustomed to it and did not give much thought to the matter.
"The family will like the hunt and the kingdom needs a shuffle." Said the Queen.
"The prestige of the Kingdom and the family cannot fall. The internal strife may weaken the kingdom."
"The Duke does not know the girl at all."
"The pride of ancient family can never stay unanswered after a challenge."
"His answer will be the answer of his family. I will bring him a better wife, more better women."
"And you expect him to thank you for some women. You should expect better than that. He will not be like his father. With inheritance of power comes strengthening and redirection of will. The Revaire family always hated politics."
"And so do most. But he will have something better as he will come for her death on his own accord."
"Are you planning to give him another dukedom or an army."
"I plan to create a war with neighboring countries with him as the vanguard. It is high time the continent reshuffled."
"But…"
"Let it be done." A voice came to the ears of the queen and the handmaiden. The matriarch of the ancient family had spoken. The behemoths of the family were going to rise. The queen knew her powers were going to expand.