Once upon a time there was a queen.
She was named Lavender Rose Winnear, and she was gen. A spirit born to weave dreams, and she was known throughout her homeland of Nightopia as one of the greatest gens that had ever lived.
And she was so good and kind that she grew to be very beautiful too, her hair was deep plum, threaded with streamers of red, her gowns were all mixtures of plum and scarlet, her eyes deep violet pools with maroon pupils.
But then one day, as she flew through the meadows of dreamers, she came across a dreamer who was lucid. He asked her many, many questions about Nightopia, and seeing no harm, she told him everything she knew. He listened raptly to her and expressed a deep wish to become a gen himself. Winne considered this wish carefully and then took it to the council of chaos gods.
They agreed to grant this young man's wish and thus the first ever human gen was born.
Winne was charged with caring for his well being and so she did, so much so that eventually the two fell in love. Winne was delighted with this and in that time the dreams she wove were considered the best of her work.
But her young man was not content in Nightopia, and began to explore without her, research without her, and soon discovered the marens.
Marens, the Gen's counterparts, mean-spirited creatures who followed Gens to the world of dreamers and stole the precious gems known as Ideya, the very elements of human personality. Until then the gens had held the creatures off, they were disorganised and prone to attacking one another in pointless squabbles.
The young man saw all this and realised what could be done with the many powerful but unruly sprites. Secretly and slowly, he gained their trust. Soon all the maren answered to him, and he declared himself their king.
Many Gens feared for the future of the peace that had been maintained, this interfering human would surely be their downfall. But Winne stood by him, protesting that this way there could be balance between the two kingdoms, perhaps even greater peace than before. On the day King Zento Wizeman the first of Nightmare was crowned, so was she, Queen Lavender Rose Winnear the first.
It was not long after that the new queen discovered a delightful surprise.
She sang and twirled down the corridors, overwhelmed with happiness at the wonderful thing she had found out. She found her beloved husband in the library, studying as always.
"Darling," She cooed tenderly, hugging him around the neck, "translate this for me, Sono con il bambino."
The king gave a sigh, as he so often did these days, many members of the court were suspicious that he seemed so irritated by his queen. "Sono con… I am with… bambino…" he frowned, trying to remember, "Oh… child?" he tried.
Winne nodded gleefully, "Yeah!"
Wizeman raised an eyebrow at her, "Why are you so chirpy precisely?"
The queen stopped her delighted nodding and her eyes became saddened, "Um… because I'm going to have our baby?"
Of course after that moment nothing was denied the queen by the king, he lavished every moment of his time upon her, and for those nine months Winne thought she could never be happier. She felt that at last she had found the thing to make her beloved the man she had once known, and soon they would have a child.
When the day of the birth came the kingdom was treated to a celebration unlike any they had ever seen before. The King insisted upon the grandest party the dreaming world had ever seen.
He spent so long arranging all of this that he was somewhat late to the birth, and arrived a while after the even had passed. Still he came to the queen's room and upon seeing her laying wearily in her bed, sat beside her, kissing her forehead.
"I'm so proud of you, my darling." He whispered. "The kingdom will never ever forget this day, for it is the most perfect day there ever was."
Winne beamed in delight and rested her head against his, "You think so? And nothing could make it any better?"
Wizeman chuckled and kissed her once again, "Nothing, my love."
The beautiful queen giggled and nodded to her nurse, another gen female, whom beamed back and slowly pushed to the side of the bed a tiny cradle.
"Say Hello." Winne instructed her husband.
He leant forward and peered into the cradle to look upon the face of his first-born.
Only to find himself looking at not one, but two newborn babies.
Yes, the queen had bore twin boys, two princes for the king to be immensely proud of, one with hair the colour of lavender, the other with ruby-red locks.
Of course, their species were not certain, and would not be until the queen decided, such was the way with gens and marens, only a mother could choose which of the two creatures her child would be.
Their names, too, were uncertain for some time. The king told his wife she could name them whatever she saw fit, but by that time she was once again growing fearful for her husband.
He was becoming more devious, and Winne knew he was hiding something from her. For many days she tried to ignore it, but soon her natural curiosity won out and she investigated his desk.
There to her horror she found plans detailing where ideya were made and how, and telling marens how to use gen magic and weave not dreams, but nightmares.
More hurtfully, she found fake pedigrees, making it seem like the marens had always followed Wizeman's family. Another one detailed his children.
That one claimed that he had not one, but four wives. Some had already bore him more children, and they were all maren.
Weeping, she confronted the king and begged him to tell her it wasn't true. He protested that the marens needed the ideya to become strong, he begged her to understand the need for power. He mumbled meekly that none of the other wives he loved, and that their children would never be princes like hers.
That night she went first to his office and took the plans for where ideyas were made and how but could not find the ones on dream weaving.
Then, crying silently the whole time, she went to the royal nursery to look upon her two sons one last time. She knew their father would never let her keep them.
She watched them in their cradles, and decided then and there that while she could not curb the king's insanity, perhaps she could make certain that there was hope.
With that she took her lavender haired boy, whose ideya was red, but spirit was rebellious, and named him NiGHTS, a maren.
Then she took her red haired boy, already deeply intelligent and strong, and dubbed him Rose Raela, a gen.
She then fled the castle, knowing in her heart that she had done all she could. Her husband would know from the children's new names which had appeared magically on their cradles what had happened, and what they were. He would never name Gen as the heir to the throne. But NiGHTS would be rebellious, and too brave to stay as a king. When he fled, the only option would be Raela, and Raela would rule well, and keep things as they ought to be.
And so the queen of nightmares fled her own castle and returned to her true home, taking with her only the desperate hope that one day she might see her children once again.