Chapter 1: prologue

"I shouldn't even be in here!" Bernard said while inside the treasure room of King Thomas. When he first got there, he was lost while getting back home from the village, desperate and hungry and even poor, to where he would dare go off and steal from the King's treasure room. King Thomas had been rumored to be a powerful sorcerer and a very malevolent and black-hearted king, and would kill someone without a second thought if someone were to even look at him, but Bernard wasn't even worried as much about him as getting something that would help him in the future. The treasure room had been filled with many jewels, gold coins, treasure chests, rare tapestries, and many rare things that the King would hoard all for himself and no one else would ever have it, but him, no matter whom it would have been. As Bernard was searching the place, he found a treasure chest full of jewels, necklaces, golden coins and goblets, and decided to take it in order to provide for his pregnant wife. "I hope the King doesn't see me and kills me while taking this." He muttered to himself going through the corridors carefully without having anything fall out of the chest while escaping the place. He got out of there without any complications and was maybe halfway across the dirt road towards his home when he collapsed and pulled out his piece of bread and cheese, munching on it with hopes of having his strength back enough to head for his home where she would be awaiting him. "How I managed to get out of there without any complications with neither him nor the guards I shall never know, but I thank the lord that he guided me through this act of desperation, which I hope he will forgive me for." Bernard said while putting his food back into the pouch and carried the chest again, hopefully without having it fall down onto the road while getting back there and the King noticing and ending up having to hunt him down. He eventually went back to his cottage, where his wife was awaiting him. "Bernard, my dear….where have you been, and what is that you are carrying?" she asked helping him with putting the chest down. "Elizabeth, my wife, I took something from the king that could help us with having a comfortable life, one of King Thomas' treasures!" Bernard explained opening the chest and showing her the many rare treasures inside the chest. She had her hands over her mouth in surprise. "My love, how did you manage to get this from him without anyone noticing?" she asked in astonishment. "It wasn't easy, but now we have a way for us to not be poor anymore, we could have a comfortable life for all of us, for our child, Elizabeth!" he exclaimed putting his hand on her stomach, feeling the warmth of their firstborn child. She was uneasy about what he had done, but if it meant giving their child a better life than theirs, then she would have supported him in every step of the way until the last drop of blood was spilt from her body giving their child a better life than what they had.

King Thomas had noticed that something was slightly off after coming back to his castle to rest for the night. He was cold-hearted, remorseless, wicked, no one could look at him without freezing on the spot and having him rip their heart out with his magic. His servants quivered with fear as he passed by them, hurrying to finish their tasks before having anymore to last through the night. He went to his treasure room to make sure everything was in order and nothing was missing, until he went to an empty area and noticed that one of his treasure chests had been taken from him. "WHERE IS IT, WHERE IS MY TREASURE CHEST!?" he roared, enraged that one of this things were taken from him. "M-My king, we d-don't k-k-know—" the guard babbled before being lifted into the air with Thomas' magic. "What do you mean you don't know!? Who could have possibly slipped by your line of sight and taken one of my treasures!?" he screamed enraged by their babbling. He threw them back towards the door, storming out of the room, and slamming the doors behind him with a deafening 'BOOM!' before ordering a servant to draw his bath before he would be fully stripped down until he was as naked as a peacock. While he was in his washing room, he contemplated on who would have taken his treasure chest, it wouldn't be his servants or guards whatsoever, his subjects, they couldn't be in his castle without the guards standing watch. After he was done, he went to his vanity clad in his robes, examining himself, his ginger curls, beard and goatee still beautiful even when wet. "Mirror, mirror on the wall, show me he who would dare take my treasure from the treasure hall." He chanted before lights appeared and it showed him a scene where a man was showing his wife some of the things from his treasure chest, marveling at the many rare items that were in there. "That poor commoner is the one who took my chest!? Outrageous!" he shouted in outrage. "My wife, once we sell these things, we can even live in a mansion, our baby will have a better life than what we have now." He said to her. "Yes, we can…I was thinking, if we have a girl, we could name her 'Alana', and if we had a boy, he would be named 'Robert', don't you think?" the woman asked. Her husband smiled, pleased with the names. Thomas smiled wickedly to himself, shaking his head at the man. "If you should have a daughter, she will be my bride, thief, make no mistake about that." He said before the image faded away and he slept in his sheets, resting another night away, hoping that he would be able to have the girl should she be born and of age.

Indeed the man and his wife had a girl and named her Alana, but sadly the woman died after she was born and Bernard was left to take care of their child, raising her while having his mansion, wanting her to be taken care of should something happen to him later in her life. Nineteen winters passed before Alana herself would be a grown woman and worthy of marriage, having her auburn wavy hair and hazel eyes, full lips that would scorn the red rose and lovely innocence that would captivate all who had seen her pass by, unaware of her fate at the hands of both her father and the King, who she had never met nor heard of, and many hoped they both wouldn't cross paths in the near future, but soon, it would end up happening….without anyone expecting it.