AN: This story is in dire need of a complete rewrite! I did actually start rewriting the whole thing a few years ago, but never got around to writing any new chapters, which is why I never posted those rewritten chapters.

Please be patient with me, I do seriously want to get around to finishing this story at some point, I still have a lot of ideas for it. And please don't be too hard on what is posted here at the moment – I started this story over a decade ago, when I was freaking 12. My writing has improved since then, I swear.

I've also noticed that ff dot net deleted all the line breaks in the story (starting with the next chapter), which makes it awful to read of course. I apologize for that (and blame ff dot net ;P)!


The truth is not always what it seems to be. This story is a tale of what might really have happened during the time of the Silver Millennium. For every kingdom, however grand it may be, harbours darkness and shadows.


"The Fiction We Live" Prologue

by Greta


Her eyes shot open, as another wave of pain washed over her body. She could feel the façade of strength she had been keeping up crumbling.

Raising her propped up body a little she watched a few women bustling around her bedroom, worry etched into all of their faces. Clamping her teeth together she tried to ignore the pain a small movement like she had just made caused.

"… Armina …" she whispered, trying to sound like the Queen she was, clear and strong.

Even though it had been whispered so quietly that it had barely been a whisper, everybody in the room heard it. A young woman rushed forwards and started dabbing the silver-haired woman's forehead with a cool cloth.

"Why … why's there so much pain?"

Armina gulped, trying to hide the sadness from her face. She tried looking warmly at the woman lying weakly in the huge canopy bed in front of her. "It's alright, Serenity. That's birth," she whispered, tenderly brushing her cool hand over the Queen's fevered one.

"I'm not dumb. This isn't normal," she managed to gasp, her sentences kept short because of the pain flooding her body. "You know so as well."

Armina gave no answer.

But that was enough for her. She knew now that this couldn't be good. Closing her eyes, she let her head drop backwards. She wanted to hit something, scream and cry. How cruel of destiny to leave her too weak for doing so.

Curling her hand into a fist, she opened her eyes again, and looked outside the window across of her.

It had started to rain.

"A deathbirth?"

"Yes."


She didn't hear the soft creaking of the door as it opened slowly, letting a small beam of light break through the darkness she was sitting in. She had dragged herself from her bed, the pain every step sent through her body horrific. She sat upon a soft chair, her bleak eyes staring out of the window.

"You – you called for me, Serenity?" a female voice whispered through the room, slowly coming up to her side. Upon seeing the Queen, she gasped before saying quietly: "You should be lying down. Th- This has weakened you tremendously."

Shrugging her shoulders, she continued fixing her eyes on the swaying branches outside, the wind nothing compared to the howl of her soul. She sat in silence, her body not moving.

The Queen's young advisor sighed, her blue eyes fixed on the floor, her eyes tracing the carpet's pattern. She felt for the Queen, this loss being the most horrible yet. She felt for her, knowing what it was to be a mother, as the gift had been made to her not very long ago.

"I want you to bring me to the Room."

Armina's head snapped up, her eyes wide. There was only one room the Queen could mean. The Room of Prayer, the very heart of the Moon Palace.

This meant nothing good.

"Why?" the Queen asked coldly, kneeling on the cool marble floor.

Silence answered her.

"Answer me!" she cried, her rage and sadness making her arch her back and her eyes fill with pain. She looked accusingly around her at the nine heavily cloaked people in the room with her. They were standing in a half circle around her, keeping silent.

She was kneeling on the floor of the Room of Prayer, the only room of the palace the Queen alone was allowed inside. In the centre of the dome-like room stood a large crystal pillar, a crystal shining at its base.

Tears of frustration welled in her eyes, her fingers closing into fists. How she hated being here. She wanted to scream and rage, hit and bite, rant hysterically. But she knew she had no power over them. They would speak to her only once they were ready to do so.

"It was not our doing, Selene."

Her head snapped up, her eyes narrowed. "I don't believe you. If it wasn't destiny or fate or another one of you, what was?" she whispered angrily, her voice almost a hiss.

"Things do happen without our doing, Selene."

"They do not!" she screamed, bringing her fists down on the hard ground beneath her legs, her silver hair falling over her shoulders. Tears dropped to the ground. "They have never happened without you before! Why now? Why?"

Only silence answered her. She hated them. They had only brought sorrow upon her all her life. These nine beings had controlled every turn in her life, always saying it was to be that way or another. She had accepted it until now, always taking the consequences, crying bitterly or screaming angrily while doing so.

But not anymore. She wouldn't take it this time.

Straightening her back proudly, she let her eyes roam over each mysterious cloaked body.

"Then I will make the sacrifice," she whispered, her body shaking, her chin raised proudly. She could feel their surprise, their shock, even though none of them moved. "I will make the sacrifice," she repeated quietly, her eyes defiant.

"You are aware of the consequences?"

"I am."

"And you are sure?"

"I am."

"This is your final choice?"

"It is." Her last words were not met with another question. They stood silently, staring at her.

"Then so it may be." They raised their arms high above their heads in unison, revealing pale limbs, chanting strange words in the ancient language of the moon as one.

Letting her head drop backwards, her eyes grazed the ceiling far above her head, a heat rising in her body. She could feel their words affect her deep inside her, a hot trail making its way through her body. Her breath quickening, she felt no remorse for her choice. From this day on, she would be Selene no more. She would only be Serenity, her mysterious powers no more, her magic pathetic to what it had been as a goddess.

But she was to be a mother.

She was ready to sacrifice what her ancestors had bestowed upon her.


Tiny eyes opened, blue eyes blinking, scared of the big world they saw, dark and unwelcoming.

Alone. She felt so utterly alone.

And a scream, a scream marking the beginning of her tiny life left her lungs.