Prologue

The Prophecy of Ages

As it is, Queen Fantine realises that this mess all started before Euphrasie was even born. And Fantine knows the fault is entirely her own.

It was a stormy night when the stranger arrived, and the King and Queen of Montreuil-sur-Mer are not, nor were they then, unkind people, so naturally they took him in. He thanked them many times for their kindness and promised he would be gone in the morning when the weather had cleared.

But as it turned out, the weather did not clear. If possible, it only worsened, and so the stranger stayed at the castle for longer than anticipated. He told the King and Queen that his name was Madeleine. Victor Madeleine. He had only just arrived to town in search of a way to start his life over. He told them of the story of his sister and her son who had starved to death, and he'd had nothing left in his old village, so he journeyed across the land, looking for a new purpose, a new home. But on his way to Montreuil-sur-Mer town, he had been forced to flee from a band of thieves, and his escape led him to the castle.

Queen Fantine found the man very interesting, and she would often speak with him in the library when her husband, King Félix, was busy doing whatever required the attention of a King. The Queen, who had very few friends outside her staff of Ladies-in-waiting, confided in Monsieur Madeleine how she and the King had not been able to produce an heir. That they were so desperate for a child that they did not care whether they sired a boy or a girl. Monsieur Madeleine told her that he, on his journey, had heard of a Sorceress, who may be able to help them.

The Queen, naturally, was overjoyed by this, and she send for the Sorceress immediately. But no one was willing to journey out in such a hurricane, the worst witnessed by the Kingdom in five hundred years, they said. So the Queen took it upon herself and picked out the seven bravest of her husband's Knights, and these Knights would come to form a brotherhood called the Knights of the Musain.

The Knights of the Musain then made their way, led by Monsieur Madeleine, into the Forest of Secrets, a place said to drive even the sanest of men mad. Madeleine, however, knew of a way to avoid insanity, and he handed out five leaves from a tree in the outskirts of the Forest to each Knight and asked them to eat them. The Knights did as told without questioning the Monsieur. They were also asked not to look at their surroundings but put their entire focus on either Madeleine or their feet. This way they would not be tempted to wander into the unknown. One Knight, however, Sir Joly, studied the Forest thoroughly and discreetly, and he memorized the path they took, and he would pass this knowledge on to his son when the time came.

Madeleine lead the group of Knights to a large tree. It appeared dead, but the Monsieur still found it highly interesting, and with good reason. He pulled out a pocket knife and started scratching something into the bark.

Suddenly, the forest floor moved beneath them, and a hidden staircase was revealed. Madeleine walked down it first, quickly followed by the Knights. They were met by the sight of a beautiful woman, who called herself Musichetta.

Madeleine seemed to know her, despite having told the Queen he had only heard stories of her, and he made the Knights of the Musain swear not to speak of what was about to be revealed. That Madeleine had seen the Sorceress before, to persuade her to help his sister and her son.

But Sorceress Musichetta claimed that she could not help him then. However, she would help now, when the stake was not giving life to someone who was sure to die, but rather help life climb to the world, and she gave Madeleine a vial containing a liquid that would help the Queen carry a child. The Tholomyés regents were to drink a drop - no more, no less! - each and then pour the rest of the liquid on their bed - or really just any spot where they planned to conceive this child, said the Sorceress with the hint of a smirk.

Madeleine and the Knights thanked her, and then made their way back to the castle. They passed on the information of the liquid to the regent couple, and within a month, the Royal Doctor could happily proclaim that the Queen was, indeed, pregnant. It was around this time that the storm started fading away. The King and Queen therefore had to stall their happiness at the news in order to deal with the aftermath.

A month after that, King Félix was forced to go to war. Apparently the Kingdom overseas, ruled by a nasty and vicious Duke, saw it as their right to know how the Tholomyés had finally conceived a child when it was known that they had tried and failed many times, and when the King of Montreuil-sur-Mer had refused to tell - it perhaps was not best to shout about going to a Sorceress for help, as not everyone in France and neighboring countries looked kindly at Magic Users - the Duke had taken it as a hostile move, and he claimed war. King Félix left his pregnant wife and a Kingdom that was only just starting to heal, and he never came back.

Monsieur Madeleine, who had been planning to leave the castle after the clearing of the storm, comforted the Queen, and she asked him to stay at the castle. He had grown quite fond of her, and therefore stayed with her. As eight months passed, they had grown very close.

The day the Princess was born, word came from Musichetta. It was carried to Queen Fantine by Sir Joly, the only one in the court, besides Monsieur Madeleine, who knew the way to the Sorceress. He brought with him a scroll, and the Queen read it with a mixture of confusion and horror, and she shared it with Madeleine.

The scroll described a prophecy, one that claimed a darkness was heading for Montreuil-sur-Mer, that it would come for the Princess Euphrasie when least expected. That she would need to be hidden, and when the time came, she and a Seer would banish the darkness for good.

The Queen did not know what to think. The rational side of her told her that it was ridiculous, that sightings or a Seer had stopped over two hundred years ago, that it had become such a legend that people didn't even bother to falsely report to either be one or have seen one anymore. The other side, however, the one that knew she had only given birth to her daughter because of magic, feared for her child and her Kingdom.

Madeleine calmed her, told her that there was no need to make rushed decisions, and that she should take her time to decide on what to do. This time stretched to three years, during which Madeleine became a like a father figure to the Princess, and on the third birthday of Euphrasie, the darkness came in form of a man named Bamatabois, the cruel Duke who had claimed the life of King Félix. By this time, the Queen had nearly forgotten about Musichetta's warning, and as such the darkness truly did come most unexpectedly.

Bamatabois told he wished to marry the widowed Queen, and when she refused, he declared war on her Kingdom once again.

Queen Fantine's army, though they fought valiantly, was outnumbered by that of Duke Bamatabois, and the Duke took over the Kingdom of the Queen. A darkness - a literal darkness - soon befell the Kingdom, and the Queen realised that her daughter was slowly losing her memory.

Queen Fantine had made her decision, and she pleaded for Madeleine to take the child and hide her far away. Reluctantly, Madeleine left her, giving her a long anticipated kiss before disappearing into the night.

Yes, Fantine thinks now. It was her own fault, and it remains her fault to this day. She does not regret letting in Victor that night, a man who later revealed his name to be Jean Valjean. She only regrets that she didn't hide Euphrasie when she was first warned of what was to come. It was foolish and selfish of her.

Fantine has not been able to push Bamatabois out, even over a decade later, and her people live under his tyranny. He hasn't killed her, not yet, undoubtedly still wishing to marry her. So he resides in her castle, proposing to her on a daily basis, and on a daily basis she manipulates him, making him promise not to harm her people.

She spends all hours of every day for fourteen years pondering on different ways to finally drive Bamatabois from her Kingdom, so when an opportunity knocks on the gates of the castle - quite literally, might I add - she takes it gladly.

Over the years, Fantine has forgotten about the betrothal between Euphrasie and King Gillenormand of Calvaire's great-grand-nephew, Theodule, an agreement made many years ago. But now that she is reminded, she sees this possible arrangement as her only way out, a way to strengthen her forces. The King does not know of Euphrasie's disappearance, since Fantine hoped to have her daughter back before the marriage, and so she hires her Knights, the next generation of the Knights of the Musain, to find her daughter and bring her home.

This is the time our story starts, but not the place.

And from here, pretty much everything goes downhill.