Prologue
Hello. I am Amethyst. When I think about it, it could mean a million different things to a million different people.
To me, I am a total of three things.
My mother's daughter. My mother was one of the highest ranking demons who opposed the tyrants known as the Kamikazi Clan. She was also the best paid mercenary and assassin.
My father's daughter. My father was also a high ranking demon but he was under the control of the Kamikazi Clan. I never learned how they met. They are the Demonic Plane's most mysterious pair. There were never that many Demons inside the Demonic Planes. Everyone knew everyone. This of course made them an oddity.
Amy to some, this last self is the me that I introduce. The Amethyst that isn't judged by the past and not owned by anyone.
I have been fighting in between these three me's for the last seventeen human years. They are constantly at war over which the real one is and which I want to live by.
Now there is another side to me: the apple of the prince's eye. The soon to be king of the Demonic Planes has taken to trying to win me into his bed.
I have enough enemies as it is what with my parents' past hanging over my shoulders. Now I have a new problem: reject the prince and risk the wrath of the crown; take the prince and face the anger of the mothers with eligible daughters.
What do I do? What can you do when both way you're wrong, and it's not even your fault?
Chapter One
"Hey, Amy! Where are you going?" Prince Urban ran after Amethyst, who was storming away from the scene trying her hardest not to cry.
"Away. What do you care? You only like to see me dance!" She shouted over her shoulder.
"I thought that you liked being a dancer!" He said catching up. He tried to grab her shoulder.
"Piss off! You know the difference!" She said with venom as she spun around. She didn't care if the rest of his pompous friends saw her crying.
"Come on, Amy! You know I'm not like that! I was making a joke! Come on, Amy, stop walking away!" Urban pleaded.
"No! It obviously wasn't a good joke then. I have things to do." With that she turned around and left headed home. Urban hung back with his friends.
She walked as quickly as she could, not caring about where she was headed. What gave them the right to make fun of her for whatever reason that they saw fit. This week was because she was being apprenticed to be a professional dancer, a craft that she was born into thanks to her mother's background.
She realized that she was headed towards the nest, the meeting place and even home for the dancers. They were the only group that seemed to like her well enough, although of course, they were no more than outcasts from the entirety of society.
She changed direction. One of the cruel jokes made by the prince's group had to do with hiding beneath the ceremonies and heathenism of the nest. She started in the direction of the house she now lived in, now that she had received the okay from the king to have a dwelling within the city walls.
She went inside trying to find a reason to dull her anger before she slept and was forced to return to the nest and perform the latest dance she had learned. It was nearing her eighteenth birthday, when she would formally take her vows as a dancer.
She threw herself down on her bed. She was agitated beyond imagining. She couldn't sleep like this or her dancing would suffer. That, she could not allow under any circumstances. She heaved a sigh, and rolled over to find a golden envelope. She picked it up and looked at it. It was an invitation to the ball that Prince Urban was holding.
Hey Amethyst!
This is an official invitation to join the Prince Urban at his right side to the annual Loss of Life festival. Do you agree or decline?
Send your answer by return of post please!
Urban Mobsidian
She looked at the note for a long minute.
This must have been sent before today. He wouldn't have had the balls to after what just happened. She had actually been thinking about going with him before he and his friends had to make fun of her.
She wrote the note quickly and politely declined, claiming illness. It was true enough. She stuffed it in the envelope. It instantly disappeared from the palm of her hand. She then rolled over onto her back. She had meant to close her eyes for a minute, but when she opened them again, it was dark out.
And someone was calling her name.
"Amethyst! Are you in there?" It was Prince Urban.
"What do you want?" She asked without moving. She didn't really want to talk to him but she would have to if she wanted to live. It was law that you had to answer the prince when beckoned.
"I want to apologize! I'm really sorry about what I said. It was something I knew you don't like to talk about. I'm really sorry," he repeated, as if it made any difference.
"I don't care. I have to leave."
"To the nest?" he asked.
"Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"Can I come? I have never been there before. "
"Probably well and good." Amethyst retorted. She walked past him to the nest. Anabel –her teacher- would be waiting for her.
"No! Please! Let me come with you! I promise I won't tell anyone that I was with you. Those other leeches are nothing to me. I only want you." Amy didn't say anything. She didn't want him… at all. He was nice but she couldn't have him.
"That's not the problem is it? All of the other guys said that you were too aloof for me. They say that you don't like others because of… well anyway they don't think that we would work together."
"Look buddy, I'm only humoring you because you're the prince. I'm not interested in anyone right now. I don't even want to be married."
"Because of the other girls? Don't argue. You know that's why you won't open up to anyone. It's because no matter what you have to give up whatever you have that someone else wants to avoid being killed in your sleep. "
Again she ignored him, this time because it was true. If she reacted to any looks her way, another girl could end up trying to fight her for them. She couldn't fight, not for her life, not anymore. She was always fighting just to breathe. She had to fight to not be executed for her mother's "treason" and her father's many crimes. She was allowed to live. She was alone but she was alive, which she figured would be enough.
"Please let me come?" Urban asked again.
"If you come peacefully and don't insult anyone you may come. If they say leave, you may want to leave," she said finally relenting. Hopefully he'll at the very least learn to appreciate the dancers and try not to look down upon them so badly. And so long as no one gossiped about this in the wrong place and extra precautions were taken, she would be fine.
"Thank you. I want to know more about my kingdom really. I think it will make me a better leader if I know what I was ruling over."
"Assuming you rule over us little prince." That was Marion. He was an older dancer. One of the few people in the nest that was polite to Amy. He was referring to the fact that although the nest is part of the kingdom, it had the exclusive right to place whatever laws they wanted to enforce and those that don't. It was a sovereign group within a kingdom.
"Marion," Amethyst said, not a little glad to see him.
"Anabel told me to get you. She was worried." He explained as he pulled her into a hug.
"I'm on my way right now."
"With the prince?" Marion raised an eyebrow.
"I wanted to see just what it is I'm dealing with." Urban piped up.
"He is your guest tonight?" It was phrased innocently, but there was a twisted double meaning to his words.
"No. He's coming to see the nest and that's it." she protested.
"And that he will." Marion agreed.
They continued to walk until they got to a large dome-shaped building. This was the nest. Amethyst walked through the doors and was instantly comforted by the smell of stale opium and the stiffling heat that made you feel asthough you were inside an oven. Prince Urban looked mildly uncomfortable in the heat.
"Prince Urban! What a positive suprise!" The female's voice came from the door and immediatly following the murmurs spread that for the first time in over a century, one of the royal house was inside the nest. The Female who had spoken was Anabel, a tall black haired woman who would be stunning if not for he snake's eyes.
"Amethyst, my dear. I was begining to think that you weren't comming!" Anabel continued. She kissed Marion in greeting.
"She was on her way... just slowly!" Marion joked. A murmur of laghter spread through the nesrt like a shockwave.
"Just..." Amethyst was at a loss for advise. "Try not to hurt anyone's feelings. We are known for our bad tempers for a reason." She whispered so that it wouldn't spread.
"I'll try" Urban whispered back.