High atop a rugged cliff overlooking the mountains. A rather ethereal castle was laid. Possessing turrets so high that they looked like they were far above the clouds. Dark red flowers spilled from the dark stone walls in beautiful patterns, giving it an alluring yet frightening appeal. In the west side of the castle, at the very edge stayed a rather bored princess.
"...And that's how His Majesty, Emperor Magnus saved the realm," Fleur said looking nostalgic, meanwhile her only audience couldn't care less.
"Princess Ophelia? Princess Ophelia?" She called as the princess looked out the window clearly not paying attention.
"Yes?" Ophelia asked as if she hadn't been zoning out during the entire class.
"Did you hear a single thing I said?" Her governess asked.
"No I did not...but you keep on telling me the same old story at this point I can recite it in my sleep!"Ophelia said throwing up her hands in frustration.
"I don't say it that often," Fleur defended and the princess raised an eyebrow as if to say, 'really?'
"Anyways if that's all, I'll leave,"Ophelia said getting ready to leave.
"There's still 3 minutes left your highness!" Fleur said as Ophelia got up.
"Bye,"the princess said and walked out.
"Princess!"Her teacher called after her three times.
Ophelia met her guard; Sage, down the hall.
"Let's go, that class bored me out of my mind,"She said and he chuckled.
"Well we could do something more... eventful your Highness," Sage said suggestively as he put his hands around her waist drawing her closer.
"Really? and what's that?" she asked playing dumb with her hands on his chest.
"Well I could show you," he said leaning in, her mismatched eyes staring into his deep crimson ones. He kissed her and she smiled as they pulled away.
"Any whooo," She drawled, looking everywhere but at him, causing him to chuckle.
"I want to go to the courtyard and watch them train,"She announced happily, and Sage wasn't sure if she actually did or just wanted to escape his hands, frankly because she is not the most touchy person.
"You want to go and watch shirtless guards train?" He asked with a raised brow.
"First of all, they don't all train shirtless, Secondly, you know I love watching them spar, helps me hone my craft," She said simply and he nodded slowly.
"And if I remember clearly you were always training shirtless,"She remembered looking up as if in thought of the days she was in the royal army.
She met him about 6 years ago when she had just turned eighteen and was serving in the royal army, because it was compulsory for future monarchs to serve to prove their capability in defending the kingdom.
"If I didn't know any better I would say you wanted to seduce me," Ophelia stated.
"Maybe I did, but it worked either way, didn't it?" Sage said slyly, lowering his head even more to look at her, causing his dark hair to fall in front of his face.
"I will not answer that, let's go,"She shook her head, took her hands from his chest and then snapped her fingers.
They appeared in the courtyard, "Perks of being a hybrid," she smirked, she happened to be half Pheonix half dragon, hence her dual colored eyes- one red, one purple eye - she was 'special' as her parents loved to say.
She walked to the part of the courtyard where they were training, some of the Phoenix born flying in the air and some on the ground working on they're flame throwing with targets and the others sparing, while the General of the royal nights barked orders.
The moment they saw her the ones in the sky came down and they all bowed, "Greetings, Your Highness,"they chorused and she acknowledged them with a nod, then they went back to training.
She stood watching them, then a guard she has never seen before approached her.
"Your highness,"he said.
"Yes?"she asked eyeing him curiously, he was quite tall and equally as muscular. He had dark red eyes not as dark as hers but still quite dark, so he was obviously of noble birth, she then remembered her was one of the duke's of their kingdom's son's, although she didn't quite know his name. His chestnut brown hair fell in waves around his face making him look rather rugged.
"Your highness I heard from my fellow guards that you are impeccable at swordplay, so I wanted to ask if you would grant me the honour to spar with you," he said almost too quickly and Sage shot him a glare. She assumed he must have heard those of them who she had served with.
"Confident aren't we?" She said eyeing him even more curiously.
"Sure why not,"she agreed.
"Thank you, your highness," he said with a surprising amount of gratitude.
They made their way to the middle of the courtyard and all other guards including the General watched with awe. Even though he was not the first one of them she had sparred with.
"I need a sword," she said all of them offered their swords to her, but she ended up taking Sage's sword.
"Ready Rookie?"She said gauging the sword in her hand considering manifesting her sword instead, but she decided against mainly because Sage's sword was pretty.
"Of course your highness," he said smirking as though sure if his win.
"Then begin,"the general yelled.
"To the death," she said just before he lunged at her and she dodged. She saw the look on his face and smiled. When you declare a battle is to the death, people tend to put in their best and rookie was no different.
She brought her sword up and swung, purposely missing him, but getting close enough to scare him. The clash of steel echoed through the training grounds as they began their duel.
Swords clanked with each other and she was happy she did not wear a dress today, it would have gotten in the way and she was enjoying the fight. Instead she was wearing navy blue trousers and a light blue, almost white button down top. Her hair was in a manageable brain that stopped at her waist.
Ophelia moved with grace and precision, her movements fluid and calculated. She parried the rookie's strikes effortlessly, each one met with a counterattack that kept him on his toes, trying to anticipate what she would do next.
Her opponent fought with passion, his every strike become more and more aggressive, so much so that you could feel his anger through ever movement of his sword.
The question was what was he angry about? The fact Ophelia looked unbothered or the fact he was not winning.
As the duel continued, Ophelia noticed the rookie knight becoming more fatigued, his movements growing sloppy, that is one of the consequences of fighting with so much aggression. It tires you out. That was something he obviously had to learn.
She felt it was about time for the fight to end, so she feinted to the left before swiftly changing direction and delivering a precise strike to his shoulder with the hilt of the sword causing the sword to drop from his hand and fall to the ground with a clank.
She grabbed his hand, and twisted it behind his back.
"Better luck next time, rookie," she said with a victorious smirk,as she held the tip of the sword to his neck, her tone teasing. Cheers erupted from the guards and she smiled as she helped rookie up.
"General," She called.
"Yes your majesty," He replied.
"I like this one, seems passionate," she said and the general nodded.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Luca," He replied.
"Well Luca, I look forward to sparring with you again,". She smiled and he nodded, his dark red eyes shining with determination.
Suddenly clapping sounded and all the guards bowed.
She turned around and saw her father, and then she bowed.
"Your Majesty," they greeted, including her.
"Good work, princess," he said smiling at her.
"Thank you your majesty," she thanked.
"Shall we spar?"her father asked and her face fell, she was good at sword play but not as good as her father.
"Well your majesty as tempting as the offer sounds, I do not think I could hold a candle to you and your time is of course very precious," she tried to make an excuse.
"Sure princess, I have something to discuss with you anyways," he said remembering the reason he came.
"Of course your majesty," she said waking off with him, she tossed Sage his sword which he unsurprisingly caught, and he followed a good fifteen feet behind.
Once they got into the palace, and he started speaking.
"The emperor has called for a meeting with every kingdoms' royalty to be held the day after tomorrow,"He announced.
"Why such an impromptu meeting?"she questioned, thinking that it must be a matter of high importance.
"That's the thing, none of us are aware of the reason for the meeting,"He stated and she looked at him.
"Well either we are all about to die or the gods have started raining riches upon our realm,''she muttered and her father chuckled as they arrived at the front door of his study.
"Ophelia I don't think we are all going to die,"he said opening the door and they entered meanwhile Sage stood outside the door.
Her father sat on the chair behind the table and she dropped on the armchair at the side.
"You can never be too sure of that, Arien,"a voice called from the corner of the room and I didn't need to turn to know who it was. There was only one man in the Kingdom that called her father by his first name, he also happened to be the Royal chancellor.
"Do you always have to be so morbid, Valen," Arien shot him a glance.
"It's not morbid, it's realistic," Ophelia chipped in.
"Exactly,". Valen said in reply to his goddaughter.
Valen and Arien have been friends since they were children. The funny thing is that Valen was not a noble but he was born with dark red eyes. They met during one of Arien's many escapades out of the palace, at a time where the emperor had just saved the land from the shadows. He was wandering around and saw a pair of red eyes staring at him. As the overly curious child that he was, he walked up to the boy, shook his hands and tormented him for weeks until he finally agreed to be friends with him.
After Arien ascended the throne, he made Valen the Royal chancellor, and after Ophelia was born, he was made her godfather.
"Anyways, you are coming with us; your mother and me that is," Arien declared.
"Sure,"she said, getting up.
"Now if you'll excuse me your majesty, I want to get in some sword practice," she stated and they both nodded at her.
"Have fun," her godfather called from behind after she opened the door.
"I will," she said looking over her shoulder.