Act 1
Scene 2
(It's pitch black everywhere, except for a very dim spotlight shining on Aurora. Aurora is alone and unconscious on stage left. Her wrists have shackles on them that are chained to the floor. There are unlit torches all around her and a basket on up-right stage. Then there is a voice coming from somewhere on stage.)
Hyra: Wake up, my princess. Wake up.
Aurora: Where am I? (Aurora starts to sit up.) Durum? I just had the worst nightmare in my life. (Aurora opens her eyes and looks to offstage left.) Durum? Durum, where are you? (Aurora looks down and sees that she has chains on her.) What the- Durum, this is not funny! (She frantically tries to get them off. Suddenly the torches are on at full blaze. Aurora turns to Hyra who is on center stage still pointing at the torches. She has no weapons. The spotlight turns off and Hyra lowers her hands. Aurora stands up.)
Hyra: You screamed so much for your dear prince that you lost your memory? How hilarious! (Aurora starts to run at Hyra.)
Aurora: You twisted WITCH! (The slack in the chains runs out when she's face to face with Hyra. The force of the chains pulls her back down to the floor. Hyra starts laughing and looks down at her.)
Hyra: Please, do not yell around me. You gave us all a headache when we were bringing you over here to Brier Oak. I'm amazed that you did not wake Sir William. I had to cast a spell on you to shut you up. After all of your ear-piercing shrieks, I'm surprised that you have any vocal cords left to yell with. Unlike Durum.
Aurora: Why did you kill the only man who ever loved me? WHY? (Aurora stands up face to face with Hyra.)
Hyra: WHY do you keep asking me that? (Hyra starts to circle Aurora.) You know the answer. You just won't admit it. In my opinion, you are better off without him. (Hyra stops in front of Aurora again.)
Aurora: He did not hurt you! I knew him! He would never do a thing like that! Neither would his father!
Hyra: Who do you think would have known those devils better? A cousin or an ignorant, young wife?
Aurora: What could they have possibly done to you?
Hyra: They destroyed what made me the princess of Brier Oak!
Aurora: Nothing can possibly destroy who a princess is! What made you a princess?
Hyra: My face. (Hyra turns her back on Aurora and walks to stage right.)
Aurora: Your face? They destroyed your face? (Hyra nods.) Your looks do not make you a princess. Even if it did, you are talking nonsense. Your face is fine.
Hyra: You have just given my father a great compliment.
Aurora: How?
Hyra: My father worked for many years on it.
Aurora: On what?
Hyra: All Durum and his father spared were my hair, and the five senses. Then I could feel the scars, taste the smell of destroyed flesh, see my hideousness, and hear the people's screams when they see me! (Hyra puts her face in her hands as if she were about to cry.)
Aurora: There is nothing wrong with your face! (Hyra turns around and points at her face.)
Hyra: This is a mask!!!
Aurora: That is impossible.
Hyra: Oh, really? (Hyra strides over to Aurora so they're face to face again.) If that is not possible, then tell me how this is! (Hyra pulls off the mask and shows a horrifying face. Hyra has cuts and third degree burns all over her face. The right half of her lips seems to have been torn off. Her right cheekbone is sticking out of the skin. Aurora gasps and starts to back up. Hyra follows.) The club, the blade, the flame. They are the ones that did this to me by the hands of Durum and his father themselves! (Hyra and Aurora stop.) Possible enough? (They stand in silence for a while. Hyra puts the mask back on.) Now do you understand why I killed Durum?
Aurora: You are a sorceress, so why don't you heal yourself? (Hyra turns and walks away to stage right.)
Hyra: They tortured me so much that I got amnesia. I forgot everything that I was taught over the years.
Aurora: Who taught you how to fight? (Aurora walks to center stage.)
Hyra: My mother was a sorceress. She taught me magic since I was able to talk. She taught me everything. She taught me how to heal wounds. Whenever I hurt myself, I was always able to heal it in an instant. I treated the wounded in my uncle's soldiers after a battle. I only wish I could have seen what he would do to me in the future.
Aurora: You are wrong about him!
Hyra: (Hyra turns to Aurora.) Because of him, I cannot heal my wounds! Much less anyone else's! I forgot how to do it! Bits and pieces of my memories are coming back now and then, but it will probably take the rest of my life to recall everything. I cannot remember how my mother died. I remember when she did, the Wizard came to me and I taught her so many things that I learned from my beloved mother. She learned half of what I knew when I was captured by Durum and his father. When she heard that I was captured, she thought that she learned all there was to know. She soon started teaching Little Wiz and learned different spells on her own. She did very well without much of my lessons. I am very proud of my only apprentice. I cannot remember being captured or tortured, but I trust my father when he tells me what happened. When I regained consciousness, the general of my father's army began teaching me how to fight and the Wizard taught me what I taught her so many years ago. Ha! It is a silly thing that I was once her almighty master and she was my apprentice. After what happened, we switched places for a while. Most of the magic I got back on my own and used them while the general was teaching me how to fight, so it did not take very long at all to get where I am now. The foreign general started teaching me martial arts, then archery, then swords, and finally my specialty: sais. When my father thought I was ready, he told me to get revenge, to take back what was rightfully our's. Just before I overthrew Durum's father, he told Durum to leave and build an army to take the kingdom away from my father, the rightful king. I have one thing to thank Durum and his father for, for doing this to me. Because of them, I am more powerful now than I ever was before.
Aurora: All of that training and toil, just so you can get revenge on an innocent man and his father?
Hyra: (Hyra walks to Aurora.) Why don't who admit that they are guilty?
Aurora: Because I know that they did not do it!
Hyra: What my face is underneath this mask is the prove that they did! You have seen it for yourself! You know that they did it!
Aurora: You do not remember who did this to you or even how your mother died.
Hyra: What are you implying?
Aurora: Your old apprentice could have done it. Or even your father, who just lied to you about Durum and his father to use you! (Hyra slaps Aurora across the face with the back of her hand.)
Hyra: Don't you dare say such things about my father! He is more innocent than you! (It is silent for a few seconds until Hyra breaks into an evil smile. Hyra grabs Aurora's chin and starts stroking her face.) You think that I am a crazy witch. I know that you do. Maybe this face would want to find out what it is like to be mutilated, destroyed, and transformed into a terrible beast. (Hyra turns and walks to offstage right.) Yara-ma! Saruka mi hieda Aurora! (Several guards come from stage right and walk over to Aurora. They unhook the chains from the ground and start pulling them to offstage left.)
Aurora: Let go of me! (Aurora starts kicking the guards down. Hyra picks up the basket and walks to Aurora. She opens the basket and pulls out a long black snake. She starts whispering something to it. As Aurora tries to run away into offstage right, Hyra thrusts the snake into her face. Aurora stops immediately.)
Hyra: Naughty, naughty Aurora. Try to run and the asp will attack. (The asp strikes at Aurora and starts hissing. Aurora backs up and the guards grab her chains again and start dragging her to offstage left.) Cooperate and this will go a lot faster. I look forward to seeing you again in your new state. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
Aurora: Noooo! Noooooo! Let go! Don't do this to me! Noooo! (Hyra's laughing and Aurora's pleas echo as the lights dim and go out.)
