Fourteen winters had indeed passed for Lili, and the Fall had come again. The sun was shining somewhat warmly upon the land, leaves of trees had sprouted once more, livestock happily ate the growing green grass, overall greenery and life was everywhere and many many flowers were all around as well. Nature was blooming, the year was 914 A,S and life in Albion was starting to look good and getting better and better by the day.
But it most definitely hadn't been like this for long. Lili was no expert on these things, but if she remembered correctly the period that they were going through right now, was something called a little ice age.
You see, for a long time before this all, the weather had been quite warm. Life in the north, life in Europe had been good and food somewhat plentiful. But somewhere in the year 910 A,S, the weather had changed. It had suddenly started getting a lot colder and along with the cold came the rains.
Due to this a lot of death and suffering came in the form of famines and diseases. For two years the cold and the rain came, but finally in the year 913 it all began to change for the better. The constant rains ceased coming down like the years before, the weather got a bit warmer again, droughts were averted and crops were finally planted.
Although thanks to most of the seed grain being lost the years before the harvests of 913 hadn't been plentiful at all. Also to add to this problem many people were already dead now, which meant that many farms were vacant and fields were left completely unplanted. And even most of the livestock had died, either through human hands or simply because of malnutrition.
While this was bad in itself, there was also the war that made everything much worse for Albion. Normally hunting and fishing could have saved most from starvation and death. But due to the people being hunted by the Feral Lycans in their own lands. Many were killed while out hunting, ambushed on roads or simply slaughtered in their small helpless villages. Due to this many became scared of leaving the safety of the walled cities and larger towns. And so people crowded around these places, all starved and diseases began to spread. Like so the situation worsened even more.
Only through primitive fishing methods at sea, small exports of grain from the southern kingdoms, and partially Lilis potatoes were some of the people saved from certain death.
People planted potatoes in whatever free plots of land they could find within the walled cities and towns. Although some brave individuals still ventured outside the walls and some of them never returned, which while sad it did relieve the burden on others.
Another huge problem was the fact that the Feral Lycans turned people into Zombified versions of their beastly selves. This in turn created large fast moving and always hungry packs of these beasts all around. And over time these packs grew in numbers and with that their targets also grew. They attacked smaller towns and many people died and fear spread all around.
Things in Albion were not good to say the least. The western part of the kingdom was almost completely lost and the Eastern regions suffered greatly as well, just like the central lands of Albion.
The only exception to this all was the isle of Wight and the city of Arthuria that connected the mainland of Albion to the island. There Arthuria acted as a shield as Camelot acted as a beacon of hope to all. The two white cities even found ways to grow and prosper amidst it all.
And so people from across Albion and even some from across the channel came to the island in great numbers. The islands population grew by the thousands. It grew so fast that in the winter of 913 thousands of people were left homeless, jobless and out in the cold.
Seeing this the Queen was quick to ban all immigration to Albion. Although some still came hidden away on merchant ships and so hard restrictions on all traffic to Albion were made.
Doing this the Queen knowingly or unknowingly almost completely isolated Albion from the rest of the world. And with this, trade slowly started to lessen with Europe, which hurt Lilis business. This Lili had of course after some time come to notice. Although she didn't think much of it at first.
Mostly spending time within the castle, in the underground and only sometimes visiting her Ins to perform check ups or sing, Lili was quite unknowing to the rest of the world. But as two of her Inns were now located in the city of Arthuria, she couldn't help but notice the shabby tents along the road there.
It had started early in the year 913, but slowly more and more shabby tents began popping up on the roadsides. Riding in her carriage from Camelot to Arthuria she could see many weak looking, thin and starving people along the way and that's when she started to take action.
At first she tried to organise her girls and knights to hand out food, cotton clothes and tents for the people. She also secretly healed people.
She would dress in all black like a ninja with her mom and secretly at night go around healing the people most in need and whoever she could.
But the amount of people in need was too great, it was way too much for her and her sisters to handle alone. And as the months had gone by the amount of people in need had only gotten greater, plus the weather was getting colder.
Lili also feared that her acts of kindness had gone too far, she couldn't hide her secrets anymore and the people really needed help. So in the spring of 913 she revealed her secret base and powers fully to the Queen and princesses. She did this to try and convince the Queen to see reason in her ways, in her ideas and technologies.
Although as she showed the Queen her powers, the Queen was not impressed. The Queen merely seemed relieved as she smiled and happily said. "So you finally decided to trust me then? You know I was really starting to fear that you would never open yourself up to me, but I'm glad that you did. Thank you Lili for trusting me, you will not regret this I swear."
Apparently the Queen had already suspected her of having such powers and was merely waiting for her to come out and admit it all herself. To Lili this was quite a shock as it made her efforts of hiding it all seem dumb. She felt so embarrassed of it all, had her fears of being caught been totally unfounded all along.
Although the Queen did give her a word of warning of not showing off her powers too much. Just like the princesses had once warned her also. So maybe her caution was still good in the end.
And so Lili decided to only show the three royals the underground and no-one else. She didn't allow them to bring their personal knights or anyone else with them as they headed to the purely female dominated underground.
The place was now basically a haven for single women and girls from all around. And the sisters as they called themselves wanted to keep it that way as did Lili. After all men seemed quite scary now and she didn't trust them fully. Most of the sisters were really young, small and weak physically so to bring any men, or god forbid big groups of men to the underground would only be a threat to them all. This she and the sisters feared, and rightfully so as many of them had suffered greatly in the hands of men.
Although there were a few exceptions to this. Namely Jack, Chad, John and the baker and his two sons, but none of them were of course allowed to live in the underground, so there was that.
And so with only Sir John, Jack and Chad as their bodyguards they agreed to venture into the underground. Needless to say the princesses and Queen were absolutely stunned by all that they saw there.
No more was the underground some cold, metallic, dark and colourless place. Or well most of it still was, but the small parts Lili showed the three weren't at all.
Now many of the hallways were covered with black soil, vines on the walls and moss. The black soil in itself was covered with mushrooms, flowers, moss and all sorts of herbs and plants that grew there. Light stones were implanted into the hallways ceilings to bring light and warmth to the place. Fish swam in the waters of the underground where plankton now also grew.
Some cute little rabbits hopped around the hallways, blinking their big eyes as they ate the plants there, while the sisters went around gathering herbs, fishing and moving supplies around. Also some lightly armoured women patrolled and guarded the underground with crossbows and swords.
Wooden walls with palisades had been raised in the greenhouse to protect the passage ways into it. Now only wooden gates could be used to get inside and these gates were of course also guarded as were the hallways by the sisters.
And behind the wooden walls there now was a vast area of green that was full of life with huge varieties of plants and different trees. On the grassy fields cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and even angry goats could be found there living in peace.
And there around the laboratory that once stood in darkness alone was now a small town of a few beautiful two story wooden houses, and many cotton tents. And all around there were skimpily dressed, fair skinned, healthy and beautiful women to be found.
While for an outside viewer like the Queen, it seemed like a strange, and quite indecent of a sight, it really wasn't. Or well it was, but the underground was quite warm and full of only women. So Lili didn't see anything wrong with it, plus the girls seemed to like the freedom and comfort of it all.
Although Lili knew that this was also partially because of her own actions. As whenever she came to the underground to train the girls in things like martial arts, stretching, normal strength building exercises or swimming for instance. She would usually teach them while wearing quite revealing clothing or nothing at all.
She did it to show off what exercise worked what muscle, it was hot and they were all women so why not she thought. They didn't seem to mind her nakedness at all. Plus her body as it grew had started to come kind of sensitive, especially on certain times of the month. And so she didn't like things rubbing too much against her skin as it made her feel strange.
Speaking of which the underground in fact now had quite a large exercise area with a gym that Lili had set up in the undergrounds old kitchen. There Lili placed all sorts of exercise machines and things that she could come up with and have made. And so the girls were also all quite fit with a good amount of muscles and curves.
But despite all these things it was the world tree as the sisters called it that had the greatest impact on the Princesses and especially the Queen.
The massive tree branches spread all over the high ceiling of the greenhouse. Its branches held countless large leaves, and a few soccer ball sized golden apples.
And as they had gotten closer the tree had used it's vines to pluck one of its fruits off and gently move it to the ground. Where then the sisters gathered in large numbers to receive it. And as they did they formed a path for the Queen and she was given the chance to eat of the golden apple.
In the underground it had become tradition that whenever a new member was brought to them by Lili, or if one was born from amongst them. Then they would make them eat of the trees fruit. To them it was a sign of trust as the tree only gave to those that were good, and it was also a way to ensure the longevity and health of their new members. As the trees fruit was not only tasty, but it held a great healing and de-aging effect within it.
And so as the Queen came to the fruit and bit into it all cheered and even the angel ball came to cheer the queen on. The ball merely flashed it's white light around as the princesses then did the same as well.
Like so the tree quickly saw small changes within themselves. Their skin became fair and smooth, their hair glowed and seemed to become a pure gold colour almost. Even their eyes shined brighter than ever before. Although to Eadlins dismay she did lose the roughness in her hands completely as they became soft and smooth, but definitely quite perfect looking girlish hands.
With the fruit then eaten, the three royals suddenly fell to their knees and began praying. They began to thank the tree, god and Lili for showing them it all. For showing them paradise on earth.
Hearing their prayer Lili felt that they might have been right to pray and maybe she should do it too. After all everything that she had done, the people she had gotten to help, everything she had seen and built here were such amazing things to her that she found it hard to explain them all as there seemed to be no logical way to do so. Maybe it was all thanks to god, maybe this was god's doing, his plan and her destiny.
Then the Queen turned to her and asked something that she hadn't expected at all. "I was right, wasn't I? You are an angel, a messenger of god come down to heaven to help us all."
Shocked Lili knew not what to say, as she stammered out a. "What, no no, I just."
But before she could say more the Queen spoke again. "Yes, indeed that proves it. For no true messenger of god would ever claim to be as such, just as you do. And yet you give us all this, this paradise, this tree of life and a glimpse of Eden, and yet you ask nothing in return from us. You are a messenger of God Lili, you might still not know it or understand it as you are still young, but I just know it to be so. Thank you Lili, thank God."
Were the Queens words right? Lili honestly didn't know. The tree although did definitely seem divine with its healing and youth giving fruits. Thinking of it more It truly did seem like the garden of Eden was here as was the tree of life.
Well the Queen definitely seemed certain of this being Eden, and the princesses and everyone else seemed to agree. The Queen even started speaking of things Lili had never heard of. She said that New Jerusalem and the lands of Judea were considered here to be the center of the world and the holy land. But now the Queen began to claim that it was not so. She began saying that it is Albion that is the holiest of all lands and the center of the world. And the sisters listening to this seemed to totally agree.
Suddenly after this event there seemed to have been an awakening of some kind of a religious fervor within the Queen. She began keeping a respectful distance to Lili as did the princesses and there seemed to now be a new found respect in them towards her, which was so weird.
Needless to say Lili managed to get the Queen on her side. She even got her to start organising emergency food and housing for all. She even got the Queen to start seeing potatoes as a must plant type of an plant, her revolutionary technologies were now taken seriously, her advanced methods of preserving food as well and hygiene became a major thing of importance as well.
Lili even opened up a new store brand called Lilis Little Care and Hygiene. There she began selling all things related to hygiene and some things related to beauty and smelling good. After all she was a person who knew things about plants and as such it was easy to make a few perfumes, washing products like soap and even toothbrushes made of chicken bones and horse hair.
And although all this seemed super positive, there also rose problems. The Queen now sought to keep her totally locked away in the capital, forbid her from telling anyone or showing anyone her magic and the Kingdom began turning into isolationism. The Queen didn't share Lilis secrets to anyone, even the dukes were mostly kept in the dark about her inventions. And most of all the Queen forbid her from selling any of her products or anything overseas.
Lili tried to protest against this, but the Queen didn't listen. She was now fully intent on keeping all Lilis advancements, technologies and even the knowledge of her existence as a secret from the rest of the world. The Queen reasoned that if anyone outside of the kingdom was to know of this, then the Kingdom at large would be in danger of invasion.
This seemed quite extreme in Lilis opinion, but she was no politician and could only trust the Queens words on this. And so Albion basically turned dark and into a complete mystery to the rest of the world.
After that the year seemed to have gone by in a flash. There was so much for her to do, namely she was set to write down loads of instructions on everything. Many blueprints of excellent designs were made as well. She even got permission to travel around the island of Wight personally instructing the illiterate peasants on how certain things were planted, when they were to be planted and such basic things.
Thanks to this all, the island of Wight finally started implementing the four crop rotation, barley, wheat, clover and turnips, plus as a fifth there were the potatoes that were also being planted.
On the Island people were even being handed scythes instead of Sickles now, which increased productivity nicely. The agricultural revolution was coming into fruition right before Lilis own eyes and it was really exciting. Although the Queens secrecy had caused the rest of the kingdom to fall far behind.
But Lili felt satisfied with this, for the progress the kingdom was doing now was more than she or anyone could have ever asked for. Sure she would have loved to share her knowledge to all corners of the earth and to help as many as possible with it if she could. But thinking of it honestly it did sound like a bit much for her to do at the moment. Besides didn't that one man in that movie say something like. "Have patience child, your time will come in time, and so will new things and opportunities come with that time as well. So think, listen and wait and eventually your time will come for you to take your own." Or well Lili didn't really know what that movie said, but the point here was not to rush into things and instead wait and plan.
And as she planned things, she also got a chance to debate the Queen on the ethics of slavery. Well that debate she did lose, but at least she got to say something and learn other things.
Most of all she learned that the Queen was kind of scary as she seems to hold this idea of peace through strength. And that there cannot be good in the land without some evil.
She did explain that slavery was never meant to be an forever lasting thing in Christian lands. All slaves were to be given a certain brand that was to represent their crime and attached to that crime there was a price. A price that a slave could buy away with work to whoever owned that slave. And so never was anyone meant to keep a slave for life, as people deserving of such a punishment were simply hanged or killed in other ways.
Although the Queen said this, Lili knew that this system was extremely flawed. She knew that some slave merchants never sold their slaves permanently to anyone. And by doing this the slaves never got to work off their sentences and merely were used as cheap or expensive prostitutes.
Plus like in her case she was never given a specific price and was merely promised freedom at some point. For her to then only be sold off to a slave merchant.
According to the Queen these things were illegal, but the problem was that nobody believed a slaves word and usually no records were kept. And so nothing could ever really be proven. However Lili did manage to find a compromise with the Queen, and that was to create a law that forbid the selling of slaves from Albion outside the kingdom. Like this Lili could possibly free everyone in due time, or well at least free the people deserving of freedom. And with this the talk of slavery came to an end for the time being which Lili felt satisfied about.
So time had passed quickly and the year changed to 914. But then one day while the Queen gathered within the small council room with Wilfred, Edgar and Grandma Linn she heard two shocking things being said there. It was when she had been about to rudely enter the room again on her own when she heard them say the results of the famine.
According to them things had stabilised in the winter of 913, but the two dukedoms and Albion as a whole had still suffered greatly. An estimated 20 to 28 percent of Albion's population was gone now thanks to it all. From an estimated pre famine population of 300 thousand, Albion had lost somewhere from 60 to 90 thousand people in three years.
The famine and diseases as a consequence of it had in itself killed almost 20 percent of the population. But everything was made that much worse because of the Feral Lycans war on Albion. And it was not even over yet, no-one knew how many more were still to die from it all.
Hearing these things Lili could feel her little heart breaking. All the while as she had been living in a life of great luxury and comfort, others had been dying in such large vast numbers and she had been too blind to see any of it.
She wanted to scream and cry, she wanted to run out there and quickly do more. How could she ever forgive herself for not realising any of this. But what could she do exactly, she didn't know. Using her powers as she had been doing she was already stretching herself to her limits. She could only create so much light stones at a time and so the food production of Eden was limited. She couldn't feed the whole country, she could hardly help the islands population as it was.
Even after everything she had done so far, all those magical things that no normal human could do, she still felt so powerless, so weak. She desperately wanted to do more and see this country grow into a state where such things could never again happen.
She figured that if she could create a place called Eden, a paradise below the earth. Then surely she could do that above ground as well, she could, no she would do it. She would create a better world unlike anything before, she would create a Kingdom of plenty, a kingdom of conscience, a kingdom one could only describe as heaven. A place where all were free, all had a home to call their own, food within their bellies, chance to have families as large as one desired and a purpose to not just see ones self thrive, but to see all within that kingdom thrive together.
People already looked to her for guidance, they saw her as some kind of a saviour, a role model of sorts, and a teacher to them all. The sisters saw her like so, so maybe she could make everyone listen to her like so, and all would see reason in this vision of hers and it would be then made into reality.
Now this idea seemed to be like a dream, but as long as she believed it then others might as well. And in time all would see it and all would hopefully be able to live within that dream of hers.
Now she just needed to become someone strong, she needed to become someone that could inspire, bring hope and guide all to this great dream of hers. She wanted this, she needed to do this, not for herself, but for all others. For their health, happiness and freedom.
But as she thought of this the conversation had gone on and another thing that caught Lilis ear was said by the Queen. "Edgar, do send my apologies to Duke Lionheart and your sister, but I've decided to ask my husband to have Lili married to my son as his main wife."
Gasps were heard as the Queen said this, Lili felt her heart suddenly skip a beat, her heart began beating like crazy. She didn't know how she felt about this, how should she feel about this, the thought of it scared her, she didn't want this. Then Edgar was heard protesting this as he said. "What? You can't do this! My father will never stand for this!"
To this the Queen quickly added by saying. "Now now Edgar, of course I'm not intent on breaking the betrothal, just yet that is. I'm merely making a suggestion here. After all Lili has shown great promise as you all know, unlike your sister who hasn't even shown her face to me, not even once. So have your sister come to me in person to show that she's someone worthy of my son's hand in marriage, or else I will see my son married to Lili. But right now as things stand, I simply just cannot imagine anyone better to be with my son than that sweet little girl."
Now Lili was really afraid and then fell into a panic. The Queen and princesses had been so kind to her, so sweet, they were like family and she treated them as such. She didn't want to disappoint them or upset them, but this thing she just couldn't do.
It simply just wasn't possible, she could never fall in love with a man. There just was no way. A friend she could be, but to let a man so close, to let him touch her, to take her, to have her surrender not just her body but her heart to a man. There just was no way, she couldn't ever do that. It didn't feel real, it didn't feel possible and so it would just turn into a disaster.
Would the prince even like her anyway, why would he? He didn't know her and she didn't know him. And what if he was cruel towards her? From what she had heard the man was obsessed with war and conflict. From a very young age he had supposedly been fighting and killing things. The man was obviously going to be a violent person, not gentle at all.
Queens son or not, she couldn't give herself to such a man. She couldn't leave herself so vulnerable in front of him, no, she couldn't trust him like that, never. If ever she was going to be with someone and give them her first then it needed to be someone reliable, strong, but yet gentle. Someone like, well like Art. He was all those things and so much more and the thought of it didn't feel wrong, but embarrassing nonetheless.
No, not even with him, no, surely no, right? She just couldn't, could she? Lost and confused Lili ran and ran. She didn't want to deny the Queens wish and yet she couldn't accept it either, what was she to do?
After that Lili spent most of her free time and sleeping time in the underground. She avoided the royal family, she avoided everyone except her mom. Her mom was so sweet and understanding to her, to her she could say or speak of anything and it gave her comfort, just like her work. And work she did and it was basically all she did, her education had become less and worked more.
Now she found herself working and singing in the Inn during most evenings and nights. To her it gave peace as it also seemed to do to the people as well. And so she worked and worked, made light stones, studied and made more plans for many things.
Hiding in the paradise of Eden she found peace and quiet there. It was a great place of meditation that was filled with the laughter and giggles of girls and the soothing voices of the farm animals. To her it was like heaven and she loved the place.
But in the spring of 914 as the month of May began to close a big change came. Some days after her strange dream news came.The Feral Lycans had suddenly started retreating to the north west.
At first it seemed suspicious, but as days went by and no more attacks came, it truly did seem that the war was over. People breathed a sigh of relief, cheered and then the celebrations began. Day and night they celebrated and life was good.
The army was said to be returning soon as well and plans for a grand victory celebration had already begun. Excitement was in the air, as people waited for their valiant heroes to return and to see their loved King and Prince come as well.
But not all were excited, namely Lili was definitely not. Sitting within her room she felt anxious, she felt like a little rabbit just waiting to be devoured by a bloodthirsty big bad wolf.
The Queen hadn't talked to her at all about any marriages, but she knew what was coming. She had heard their conversation and she was not ready at all for it.