August 22nd 4070 - 8 AM

The clock strikes 8 Am in the Alphonia mansion. Royal families are very structured and their days must start a specific way every day at a specific time. As we see the inside interior of the house with walls that glimmer as the sun beams onto them. We see statues, paintings, and family photos of all sorts as we then get a view into the 3rd-floor bedroom of a young girl. As this girl, who seems to be no older than 18 rests her head on her pillow, She soon gets woken up by her alarm clock near her bedside table. She slowly lifts her hand and slams it into the alarm clock with tons of force. She pulls her hand back in pain as she forgot what material her new clock was made out of after she broke her last one. The girl gets up and begins to rub her arm as she hears a knock on her bedroom door. She gets up still in pain and goes to open the door. When the large wooden door swings open, She sees her assistant, Winston. Winston is a quite tall, slender man with gray hair, Slowly starting to bald. He has the kind of hair of a man who's trying to keep their hair on their head as long as possible even though he's pushing 50. Winston's bloodline has been made for the Alphonia manor decades ago, being devoted to them after they were saved from poverty a few thousand years ago by the current head of the Alphonia family at that time. Ever since his bloodline has been watching over this family as their sword protectors.

"Madam, Please come now. It's time for your daily routine." The girl looks at her butler in his eyes and she smiles, telling him "Please Winston, You don't need to be so formal with me. When nobodies near us, just call me Eiko. It's a lot more simple than calling me Madam, Less awkward too." She laughs and Winston smiles. "Well, Miss Eiko, It's time for your daily routine. Please follow me." Eiko stands up and walks behind her personal assistant/butler. She has a gut feeling today is going to be a bad day, but she keeps her negative thoughts to herself like her father would always inform her to do.

This is Elanora Alphonia of the Alphonia Dynasty. But for simplicity's sake, we will just refer to her as Eiko from now on as she prefers to be called. She's a member of the royal Alphonia family, one of the 6 royal families of the Khourburg Dynasty, Eiko is in the most powerful family of those 6 due to her brother, Fafnir Alphonia being the emperor. There were 4 main kingdoms. The Kingdom of Skies Avolisia, The Kingdom of South Reptar, The Kingdom of the East Side Khourburg, and The Kingdom of the North, Spirefordge. All of these kingdoms are in one Big Landmark known as Eternia. For reference, consider Eternia Like the USA but if it only had 4 known states on it that took up the entire state. That's a pretty accurate representation of how huge Eternia is.

Eiko walks out of her room with Winston by her side. Eiko is a Girl who's around 17 years old. She has long silky Black hair, Bright Red eyes, and a Strange mark on her arm in the shape of a crescent. This was there from her birth, but she normally tells her parents guests it's a battle scar so she can seem cooler than she is. (Nobody ever believes her). Eiko heads to the bathroom and as she brushes her teeth, outside the door Winston stands and waits for her while informing Eiko of her entire schedule for the day. "You have a family breakfast at 8:00 Am, 2 hours of freetime then you must go deal with your political responsibilities as princess at 10:00 am, Then after about 5 hours of that you need to go to a Special Family Dinner between your family and the cavindine family to discuss important matters, then after that you have another Meeting to help out your father with his own personal affairs for the rest of the day then it's your bedtime at 10:00 Pm. So 2 hours of free time today, Lady. Eiko."

Eiko feels dead when she hears all of this but she's used to it by now, this has basically become the usual. 2 hours is the peak of the free time she's had since she became Seven years old. "Do you know what the meeting with the Cavindines is about?" Eiko asks as she continues to brush her teeth. She's a little hard to understand but Winston picks up most of what she's saying and replies "Not fully no Ma'am. All I know is that it's very important and shouldn't be missed." "Understood. Thanks, Winston." "Anytime madam". After Eiko finishes with her shower and does her hair and makeup. She heads downstairs and meets the rest of her family. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to refer to them by their shortened names/nicknames just like Eiko. Her father is Devard, Her mother is Vega, and her 3 brothers, are Saul (Younger Brother), Aki (Twin Brother), and Fafnir(His actual name and Oldest Brother). Fafnir is different from the rest of the family due to being the emperor of the Khourburg Dynasty and 1 of the 4 rulers of Eternia. Fafnir achieved this title by killing the last emperor with his insane strategy. Despite how he doesn't have much magic, He makes up for it by being extremely tactical and making his magic way more useful than most Fire magic users due despite lacking a lot of mana. The death of the previous king is what made Alphonia the top royal family. There are only 2 ways you can become emperor which is by Killing the old one or being a part of the Royal Family that's connected to the throne.

As Eiko walks through and looks at her family all sitting at the table she starts feeling uncomfortable quickly, as she realizes everyone in the room is staring at her. She's late to the family breakfast for the 3rd day in a row, this one is even more special since her brother Fafnir was able to appear. He's normally very busy with the duties of being emperor, so the fact he could show up today means something special must be happening today. She hasn't been able to hang out with Fafnir since he was around 16 and she was 8. That's the day he killed the king, they hung out in their spot in the forest one last time before he vanished. She didn't understand at the time, But she slowly understood why her brother stopped being around. "Sorry for my late arrival," Eiko says to her parents, somewhat ashamed. Her father doesn't say a word, but her mother quickly says "You're starting to have the decency of a commoner, Elanora." Eiko mumbles something insulting under her breath only her twin brother picks up, but he chooses not to say anything and she sits. Winston and the rest of his family bring in trays of food for the family to eat. The appetizers, Chocolate-Pomegranate Truffles with Caramelized White Chocolate Centers. The drinks, Elderberry and Juniper Infused Wine sprinkled with stardust, and the main meal, Braised Dragon Meat with Mushroom Sauce, Dragon meat sent from the corners of the Spirefordge Kingdom.

As the family begins to eat their extremely fancy breakfast in absolute silence, Eiko decides to break the silence and asks her older brother Fafnir, "How come you came home now of all days? Aren't you normally busy with Emperor duties?" Fafnir looks at Eiko and then turns to their mother, "Yeah, Aren't I normally busy with Emperor duties?" He says throwing some shade at Vega. "Well, today is a very important day for the family that may determine and affect all our futures." Eiko's younger brother Saul, who's more of the silent type, decides to murmur "W- What's the meeting with the Cavindines about..?" Both parents look at each other and their father begins to speak. "As you know, Eiko's 18th birthday is tomorrow. Me and your mother have been discussing some things with the Cavindines, and we decided, we're going to marry off Eiko to the Cavindine's son, Riley." The room is now pin-drop silent, this news even attracts the attention of Winston and the other maids in the corner of the room.

"What…?" Eiko says, She can't believe what her father just said. "You've gotta be fucking joking right?" For the first time in years, Eiko said a cuss word, This attracts the attention of her mother who doesn't see the big problem. "Watch your profanity." Eiko stands up from her chair and slams her hands on the table. "You guys can't be serious. This has to be a fucking joke right?" Eiko looks at her whole family trying to see what they have to say. Her siblings are silent and confused, Her father has a somewhat guilty expression but her mother is confused. "What? You sit around doing nothing all day, We've been planning to do this since you were first hitting puberty." Eiko looks at her dad, the one person she'd never expected to betray her like this but he just looks down, Shameful. "Me and your father got married at 16, You're lucky your father convinced me to let you wait till you were a legal adult or else you would have been out of my castle." Eiko begins to giggle, She still slightly thinks she's being pranked, but a part of her gut is telling her that they're being serious. Eiko begins to tear up and just runs back to her room, Not being able to continue eating after the news.

Fafnir sits there somewhat guilty for not saying anything but, He knew. He was a vital part of the deal so he couldn't just sit there and pretend he was shocked. He tried to fight for his sister at first but gave up despite being king, after being convinced by his father that it will mend the relationship between the family after Fafnir killed the head of the family to become king, making the kingdom even more secure if Eiko is the one to connect the 2 families. So he picked the many over the 1. That one was his sister. Fafnir stands up from the table and says "I'll go check on her. I've always been able to calm her down. Maybe she'll understand." He stands up and walks up the flight of stairs toward Eiko's room. He knocks on the door but it opens due to not being fully closed.

"Eiko?" Fafnir walks into his sister's bedroom and sees her sobbing, head in her hands. She feels like her life is over. "What is it, Fafnir?" Eiko says in a cold yet sorrowful tone. "I'm sorry." He says looking at his sister with genuine concern and sympathy lingering in his voice. "Sorry isn't going to give me my freedom back." She looks up at her brother, He can see the tears in her eyes and snot running down her nose. "I've always tried so hard to disconnect from this royalty stuff, and I was forced right back into it. No matter what I do, it feels like SOMEONE is out to ruin my life. I wanted to explore the world, get stronger, find true love, and just live out my life happily, and to me, that dream was gonna start tomorrow. But NOPE! Im forced right back into the same bullshit I was trying to escape." Fafnir pats his sister's back, "I understand how you feel, but you need to understand-" Eiko slaps her brother's hand off her back at these words. "Do you understand? You abandoned me. I've felt so alone since I was 8 that day you left. Forced to deal with Royalty, no time to be a child because oh, "You have a meeting today" or "Oh you have more work to do '' and it's YOUR fault. Life was never this difficult before you became king, You made my life harder and then LEFT me alone to deal with it. You had a chance to have a childhood, I didn't." Eiko regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, but it was already too late. She let out how she genuinely felt. Fafnir seems to realize how she actually feels and stands up, leaving the room without saying a word.

Eiko realizes her mistake, but her emotions get the best of her and she's too mad to apologize to her brother. She sits in her room for the next hour and a half, alone. Giving herself some time to mellow off. She knows that she's wasting her last bit of free time, But to her, Her life is damn near over anyway so it doesn't matter. She sits in her sorrow until Winston enters her room. "Lady Eiko… Are you doing alright?" He comes over and sits on her bed beside her. "No…" She says, curled up in a ball facing her wall. "I know it's hard to accept, But let's see if you can change their mind later today. You're a smart girl, you'll for sure be able to change their mind."

Eiko sits up, still hesitant. "I'm not sure... No matter how I try to convince them, My opinions normally get overshadowed. It's been like that my whole life." Winston holds Eiko's hand and looks at her "If not your mother, Maybe your father. That man loves you with all his heart and is just trying to look out for you, He just wants what might be best for your future. Please, hear him out and then try to convince him. I believe you can do it" These words somewhat speak to Eiko, but she's still mad.

"I mean… I guess I can try." She says looking down. "That's my girl. Even if you're still forced to get married, I'll always be there for you, whether you're right here with me, or halfway across the world." Eiko hugs Winston and gets teary eyed she might never see him again. "Thank you… Winston." "It was my pleasure to be here and see you grow, Lady Eiko." He reciprocates Eiko's hug and they sit there for a couple of minutes. Soon, Winston's watch rings and they have to break the hug. "It's time for you to get ready for the meeting with the Cavindine family." Eiko gets up, cleans herself up, switches out of her routine clothes, and wears something more elegant. She reapplies her makeup and heads over to the meeting room of the castle.

Once Eiko arrives with Winston following right behind her, they enter the main meeting room. Once there, they realize they're late again. The Cavindine family has already arrived. The mother of the family Diana, Her son Riley, and her 2 adopted children, Azra and Zerx. The 2 adopted kids seem to be here out of obligation to support their brother's marriage. Not seeming to have much interest in it. As Eiko enters the room with Winston behind her. Diana seems to be disgusted at Winston's very presence. "Please, take your pet out of the room, We're having a serious conversation and I don't want some common rabble listening in." Winston smiles "Nice to see you too, Diana." "Don't call me by my first name you vermin, I want him out of the meeting room at once!" The room falls silent as Eiko's siblings watch the conflict in silence. Soon, Eiko's father Devard speaks up. "Winston, Do you mind just going to assist Luna downstairs with dishes?" "As you wi-" But before Winston can comply or even finish his sentence, Eiko responds to him. "No. He's not going anywhere." Everyone looks at her in shock, for once, She's speaking up to her father.

Her mother interjects, "Eiko. Winston is going downstairs whether you like it or NOT." "No, he's not." Eiko looks back at her mother as she glares at her. If looks could kill, Eiko would have been dead as soon as she started talking. In all honesty, Eiko is scared of her parents. The punishments they would give are very traditional and damn near torture, But that's how they discipline their kids. Making them fear talking back, During Eiko and Aki's 10th birthday, Eiko got 1 more present than Aki did and he screamed at his parents. They forced Aki to run laps around the castle 30 times without stopping. Additionally, they never celebrated Aki's birthday on the same day as Eiko ever again, despite them being twins. They wait a month after Eiko's birthday to celebrate Aki's. This caused Aki to resent his sister a little, So they stopped playing together. He still loves her simply because they're siblings, But just lacks any fondness towards her. That's just the start of the punishments they would give to all their kids, So one of them daring to speak up is like blasphemy, something that hasn't really happened in a while.

"Eiko. He's leaving, Do not embarrass me in front of the guests." "Guests?" Eiko laughs. Before Eiko begins to say anything else, Winston interjects. "Eiko, please don't get yourself in trouble. I'll simply leave, I don't belong here." "What makes you think you don't belong here? You don't have as much money? What does being here change?" Winston doesn't really know how to react, So he doesn't respond. "If he leaves, I'm leaving and you can forget about the wedding." Eiko stands firm with her beliefs and before her mother yells back at her, Her father ends the conflict by simply stating "He can stay. As long as he doesn't interject in the conversation, We should have no issues, correct?" Diana rolls her eyes and agrees.

"So. The date of the marriage is tomorrow, We are simply here to discuss what the marriage will uphold." Fafnir says, The man can't bring himself to look Eiko in the eyes. Diana begins to speak "All my boy asks, is that Eiko, his loyal, treats him with the utmost respect. This marriage will bind our families and will be forgiveness for Fafnir slaughtering my husband to take control of what used to be ours." Aki begins to say "So, Is this whole marriage just a way to build a bridge between the 2 families for forgiveness?" "Correct" Riley, Eiko's "Future husband" begins to speak. He's a Gray haired boy with green eyes, Eiko somewhat finds him attractive but feels no love for him. "Fafnir is the cause of the death of my father and he's the one that caused conflict between the royal families. He's the reason that there was a divide between the royal families at Khourburg. When there are only 3 remaining kingdoms, and none of them are allies, You would at least expect Khourburg to stick together, Especially after what the damage he's caused."

"I came here to discuss a wedding, Not have my decisions be judged by people that can't move on from the past," Fafnir says, looking directly at Riley. "If this continues, I will have no hand in this wedding." "Hiding from the truth like always, your majesty," Riley says in a mocking tone and snickers to himself. "You killed my father and you're running from the consequences, You're the reason I grew up alone, and now that you're facing criticism you want to run? Pathetic. Is this who's ruling our kingdom? Is THIS who the future generation has to look up to?" Riley says, slamming his hands on the table. "If I'm being fully honest, I can't stand you or your family." The room goes silent as Riley finishes this sentence. "Well, I see why this meeting was REALLY held." Fafnir stands up and as he walks out of the room he begins to say "Never speak to me with such vulgarity again or I'll make sure you see your father sooner than you'd hope. I do everything I do for a reason. Just because you can't understand it doesn't mean I owe you an explanation, Rodent."

He walks out of the room. Diana says "What a brute. Can't accept the consequences of his actions." "Please stop speaking about my son in such a manner, He may have made mistakes but everybody makes mistakes. I understand some of his actions you can't forgive, but that's not what we're here to discuss. We're trying to build the bridge between the 2 families and you're separating it even further." As Eiko hears this it finally clicks in her head. "Wait. You're telling me, you're giving up my future and the rest of my life because you want to build a bond with this family we can't get along with???" Eiko sounds genuinely confused at this and her mother glares at her, giving her a sign to pipe down. "We can't even get along! Why are you sacrificing ME to basically make a contract with people that don't even like us??" Eiko's father is taken aback by his daughter's words but he subconsciously had this same thought in his gut.

"That daughter of yours has quite the mouth on her." Diana says regarding Eiko's outburst "Clearly didn't get disciplined enough as a child. Unfortunate." "Takes one to know one," Eiko mutters under her breath. "Excuse me?" "I said. It takes one to know one." Diana is clearly distraught when Eiko responds in such a violent tone of voice. "You might have to knock some sense into this future wife of yours, Riley." Diana laughs and looks at her son, who just smiles at her comment. This enrages Eiko's father, He stands up "If your son puts a HAND on my daughter, I will kill him." Diana smiles "Relax, I was joking. This whole family seems to be unable to take a joke."

"This meeting is over." Eiko's father stands up and orders Winston to escort the Cavindines to the main entrance. Diana, her son, and her adopted children who seem to not have any interest in participating, get up and are beginning their way out when Diana says "We can discuss this again, parents only. Give me a call." She smiles and leaves the room with Winston.

The family sits there in silence.

To break the silence, Vega orders Aki and Saul to go to their rooms. The siblings leave the room. As soon as everyone else is gone, Vega is LIVID. She screams at Eiko "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!" Eiko looks at her mother with sadness, fear, and hatred in her eyes all at once and says "You're selling me off for money. You don't care about the kingdom, You want to be richer than you already are." Vega is taken aback and screams at her daughter "WHERE DID THIS ATTITUDE COME FROM, I ONLY WANT THE BEST FOR YOU AND THIS IS HOW YOU ACT?!" Eiko has no response. She believes what she believes. She begins to tune out her mother and silently cries. She's turning 18 tomorrow. The day she's been looking forward to for her entire life ever since she was 8, and they ruined it. "I'll never be free from this, will I? Fafnir should've just died that day." Eiko regrets her words once again but she stands up and runs out of the room. She couldn't get punished, She was basically an adult, and there was no "punishment" that could be done. Eiko walks into her room and sits there.

August 22nd 4070 - 6:30 PM

8 hours later, Eiko wakes up by hearing a knock on her door. She walks over, lacking energy. Somewhat soulless. She sees Winston, who's finished with his daily chores. So he's using his free time to check on Eiko. "Lady Eiko, Your family wanted me to report to you that you're still getting married tomorrow." Eiko doesn't react, She nods and slowly closes the door but Winston puts his foot in between the door before it can close. "Don't risk your job for me." "Nobody is home besides Saul, He's out playing with some friends. Please Eiko, Let's talk." Winston walks into the room and sits at Eiko's desk as she falls back onto her bed. "I'm tired, Winston." "You cannot sleep your problems away Eiko. Please, Talk to me. It's your last day here so I want you to do something special." Eiko sits up and looks at Winston. "What can I do? I'm alone." "You can go to the one spot that used to make you happy as a kid," Winston says, this catches Eiko's attention and she responds "Stardust road?" Stardust Road is a river through a forest near the side of the castle Eiko's room was located on. It takes a little bit to find it, and that area is an old war ground from 2000 years ago where they used to test out artificial golems. If you make your way through at night, the river is in a way that's directly under the moonlight, illuminated by the night. Making it have this kind of stardust pattern. Eiko and Fafnir used to go there all the time at night to go see the phenomenon. Eiko would always tell the stories to Winston and the fun adventures she used to have with Fafnir.

"Are you sure?" Eiko sounds interested but confused, a little more life in her voice though. "Your family went to the Cavindine's Castle and Saul is out with some friends being watched by a few maids. The only one you have to worry about is Fafnir, and that's why I'm here." Winston uses his clone magic by using his energy mana, He takes Eiko's hand, and he perfectly clones her body but it's missing a face. "Now the clone only still exists here if I'm in the vicinity. So you'll be lucky enough to make it out on your own. Cover yourself and enjoy the sight, ok?" Eiko smiles at Winston and gives him a big genuine hug. "Thank you, Winston." "Anytime, Eiko. I see you like my own daughter, so your happiness comes before any job in the world." Eiko takes a random hoodie from her closet to stay hidden and sneaks out the window of her bedroom. Making a bed of ice to break her fall.

Eiko begins to make her way toward the forest. The memories of her and her brother playing around this part of the castle comes back to her and she smiles to herself, missing the simpler times. The one thing she thanks Fafnir for is revamping the castle instead of getting a new one, to keep the memories that they made here. As she begins to travel through the forest she ducks and weaves a lot of branches. This is the first time in forever she's been outside by herself. As she tries to navigate where she remembers the Stardust River being located, she realizes she's lost. She never went back here after Fafnir became Emperor so she has no idea where she's going.

Eiko, Trying to navigate toward the Stardust River, trips over something. It happened to be a switch. She feels the ground below her rumble as rocks and rubble that seem to be molded begin to reconnect. A giant mossy green and light brown golem is assembled. One of the test dummies from 2000 years ago, Due to being artificially made, could never actually decompose, just getting physically older and a little weaker. The big golem beast is still in an attacking mode, so it launches its fist towards Eiko's face. She swiftly dodges the attack but the back of the golem's hand slaps Eiko in her side towards the direction where she jumped.

Eiko has never felt so much force towards her body all at once in her life, It feels like her body is literally being torn apart as she's launched by the golem's backhand. Eiko's fragile body slams onto the ground, battered and bruised by this one simple attack. The golem walks toward Eiko and throws another punch, Eiko makes a wall of Ice protecting herself from this attack. "Get up Elanora…" She thinks to herself as she forces herself to jump backward, just in time to barely dodge the golems skull-crushing punch. Eiko prepares to launch a wave of ice at the golem but her subconscious doesn't let her. She begins to think about her future of being married to Riley, and her life basically being over. So, even though her brain is telling her to attack, her subconscious would rather die than go back home, she chooses not to attack.

The golem launches a wave of boulders at Eiko which she freezes over with her ice powers, still dodging the attacks, but she unfortunately gets slammed with one of the boulders. Her body falls to the ground limp. She's not used to fighting or even using her magic all that much. So her body is still not used to feeling so much damage. She falls over. Eiko begins to reflect and think if it was worth it, and if this was the life she wanted to live. Her body goes numb, she slowly begins to succumb to her injuries. The golem walks over to Eiko's limp body. It raises its fist, Swinging down ready to crush her body.

*CLINK*

A sword intercepts the fist right as it's about to connect. The person stands right in front of Eiko, back facing them. This person is in rags and from the angle where Eiko is looking seems to have a cape and a mask. With a hood covering the top of his head. "W-who…" Eiko barely manages to utter. The person glancing back at Eiko holding their position with the sword. Looking back at the girl on the verge of death. He decides to speak and says

"Think of me as like a guardian angel. A phantom of the night here to carry you to the afterlife." "Wh- Why?" Eiko barely manages to reply. "Why doesn't matter. All you need to know is-"

"I'm here to save you."