CHAPTER 1

*Wake up. Just wake up.

Her eyes fluttered open. Every muscle ached within the woman's body. Muscles hurt that she didn't even know existed until that very moment. She wanted to move. She needed to move.

*Move dammit body. MOVE.

Her foot dropped onto the floor as she managed to maneuver her right leg over the edge of the bed. The left soon followed. She sat up groaning as her body adjusted to the new position it was now in. She glanced across the room to where the bathroom was and groaned louder. Sunlight was seeping through the silky curtains next to her bed. It had to be somewhere between nine and ten in the morning.

Shuffling her feet, she made it to the bathroom, drew a hot bath, undressed, and slid in. Her skin screamed at her because of the intense heat, but her muscles thanked her immensely. Closing her eyes, she let her mind wander.

"It's been too long…" she muttered aloud to herself. She hadn't undergone training like the day prior since she was a child. The long hours, the repeated movements, the countless bruises; she missed none of it. It was back to her life of being a groomed princess.

Lina had not always had to endure this routine. When she was a child, she did. After her father passed away, leaving her mother and older brother to run the kingdom, she had slowly been forgotten. She could avoid going to lessons, skip training days, and spend time reading fairy tales and legends of old. She could swim freely in the stream near the castle and explore various caves in the nearby forest. She thirsted for adventure.

Countless times, though, her brother brushed her off in order to act as the "man of the house". In reality she knew he had no idea what he was doing. He listened to his mother and pretended to know about the politics that surrounded the throne that would one day be his.

She sat in the bath until she pruned. Deciding that getting food would be a good idea, she slowly climbed out of the tub, grabbed a robe off of the wall hook, and made her way to the dining hall. Marble floors felt cool on her newly warmed feet. Her footsteps echoed throughout the hall. Windows let the morning sun light up the way. Line pushed open the large, dark doors that led to an even larger dining hall.

The long table that normally played host to great feasts had just one plate on it. It was the usual routine for the servants to leave a plate for Lina when she didn't arrive at breakfast. At the point she made it to her plate, though, lunch preparation had begun.

"Late morning today, Miss Sparrow?" a server asked as she sat down and started to eat some bacon.

"You have no idea."

*Bacon. Eggs. Toast. Repeat.

*Right swing. Left swing. Block. Right kick. Left kick. Repeat.

Routine. Every meal, every set of moves her brother gave her to practice; it was all too routine. She set down her fork and stared at her half eaten breakfast. Unsatisfied, Lina stood up and walked back down the hall to her room. She collapsed onto the bed, her muscles still stinging with pain.

"You're never going to learn to defend yourself if you attend all of your trainings this late," a familiar voice reminded. Lina looked behind her to see her mother sitting in her reading chair next to the bookshelf her father had made her when she was a child.

"But mother—" she started to reply, but the queen's hand was already up to cease Lina's response.

"Get ready for training. Your brother is already waiting for you at the field." She rose out of the arm chair and glided swiftly yet elegantly towards the door.

As the door closed, Lina rolled her eyes, shoved her face into her pillow, and released a muffled scream. Gathering her thoughts, she finally changed into her training gear and went to meet her brother.

The sun was blinding and hot. She could make out the outline of her brother as Lina squinted across the field.

"You're late," he barked.

"You're annoying," she replied. Without missing a beat, the man started to lunge at Lina with his sword. Every movement, Lina countered with ease. He picked up speed.

*Uh-oh.

He was too fast. Quicker than she realized, her sword was flying to her left and she was being shoved to her right, a blade soon at her throat as she lay on the ground.

"Still sleeping I see."

"Luke, let me up!" she complained. Luke placed his foot on her chest, sword still at her throat.

"You need to move faster," he scolded as he let his sister up from the ground.

Lina stood up and dusted herself off before jogging to retrieve her sword. She looked at it gleaming in the sunlight. Her father had made her that sword. The day she turned 100 was the day she got to finally wield it as her own.

"As a goddess and a princess you need to understand how important these skills are. I'm here for a reason, Lina. You should listen to me more often," Luke lectured.

"And that's what you said yesterday. I'm sure you're going to say it tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. Can we just get to practicing?" Lina hadn't meant for the words to come out the way that they did. She soon regretted them.

Lunge after lunge Luke kept at her relentlessly until he felt she had enough. By the time they finished, the sun was starting to dip below the trees and the cool air was starting to settle upon them.

"We're finished for today," Luke abruptly said, starting to walk away from his sister. He was annoyed that she wouldn't take her position as princess as seriously as he took his duties as prince. She would have to run the kingdom should anything happen to him or his mother. He wanted to protect her as much as he could so that she could be safe. He swore to his father that he would.

Lina jogged to catch up to her brother. "I'm sorry."

He glanced over to her. "You'd better be."

She could hear him smirking. "I'll see you at dinner."

Showered and refreshed, Lina went to join her mother and brother at the table for dinner. There was just enough food for them and enough silence to make anyone go insane. These were normal dinners for them. Before her father passed away, the dining hall used to be full of laughter, jokes, and hearty conversation. That room didn't know the meaning of silence unless there was no one there to keep it company.

"How did the session go today?" Lina's mother asked.

"It was great," Lina replied.

"I would hardly call it great." Lina glared at her brother from across the table.

"And why is that?" Their mother hadn't even looked up from her food to take in the facial exchange going on between the siblings."

"Because she's being lazy."

"I am not!" Lina's face started to get red with anger as she slammed her knife into the table next to her plate.

Her mother looked up, shooting daggers in Lina's direction.

"I'm finished," Lina said, pushing herself away from the table and walking quickly back to her room. She slammed the door shut and locked herself away from the rest of the world.

Lina leaned her forehead against the door, her hands on either side in tight, clenched fists. She wanted to scream. She wanted to run away and avoid her family at all costs. She hated this life.

Grabbing a thick book off of the table next to the door, Lina made her way to the large armchair her mother sat in that morning. She curled up, found a new story to indulge in, and read. She lost herself in a world that wasn't her own, slowly falling into a deep slumber.

~Wake up. Just wake up.

This wasn't a familiar voice.

~You insolent creature! If you value your life, WAKE UP.

Her eyes shot open. It was still dark out. She looked around the room. No one else was there. She placed the book down on the floor and slowly climbed out of her chair.

"Hello?" she asked the empty room.

~Grab whatever weapon you can and wait there.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded. No reply.

Lina assumed she was extremely tired (possibly losing her mind) and proceeded to climb onto her nice, soft bed.

As soon as her head hit the pillow, it happened again.

~Did you not hear the warning I just delivered? Grab. A. Weapon.

Her heart was pounding through her ears now. Lina rushed over to the blade her father had made her and strapped the belt to her body. She stared at the door, expecting someone to come bursting in at any moment.

Nothing.

"This is ridiculous." Trying to reason herself out of whatever she thought was happening wasn't inside her, not that crazy voice, told her that she needed to step out of her room. Something wasn't right.

She crept out into the hallway, her hand on the handle of her sword as she looked around. The wind outside was causing trees to sway, their leaves rustling. The moonlight cast shadows around the hall that had once been so warm and inviting that morning.

*I need to find Luke

~No you need to stay in your room. Have you no sense of following directions?

Lina broke into a sprint in the opposite direction of the dining hall. She pushed through two pairs of large doors and stood outside of Luke's room. That's all she managed to do. She stopped and stared at where the door used to be.

There was smoke lingering at the edges of the door, which had been blown off of its hinges. She tried to look inside, adrenaline pumping through her veins.

~Don't look for him. Go back to your room. It's too late for your brother.

The man in her head had been right so far; she listened to his directions. She started to jog towards her room until she saw something that made her heart drop to her stomach. Luke was on the ground, a pool of blood around his body in the hall. His sword had been shattered and his face had a shocked look etched upon it. He was between her and her only exit.

BANG

A loud crash sent a numbing feeling through Lina's skull as she fell to the ground. A bright flash of colored light followed. She squinted as she looked towards her brother again. A woman stood over his body, but it wasn't her mother's. It was a younger woman with tall creatures flanking her at both sides. They looked towards Lina when they heard the crash.

Lina looked up and saw three men above her who were now looking at her brother, but she couldn't make out their faces. Her eyes were still adjusting from the flash earlier. She saw that one looked down at her.

~Foolish child.

Just as suddenly as the first crash came, another one started. Another brilliant flash of light enveloped the three men and Lina.

Without any warning, she felt her mind slipping away.

"Daddy," she whimpered, then she blacked out.