Chapter One - The Story of Mom and Dad
Long ago, in the ancient world of Ralus, there was a war of high magnitude. This war went on for 10 years, between the Demons of the Dire Lands, the Mages of the sky kingdom, and the earth-dwelling Humans. Many have died during this bloody war, and countless others suffered greatly. Even the rulers of all three realms bore the sadness of their subjects. It had seemed that all was lost for the people, especially the human population…
Tired of the senseless fighting between themselves, the High Council of the Mages made a decision to join forces with the humans below, in order to stop the pillaging of the Demons. The lords of each of the six sub-kingdoms in Kariad –the name of the human realms- agreed to fight alongside the mages, and thus, finally do away with the savage Demon kingdom. Cirrus, the kingdom of the mages, would lead the aerial fights in the sky, while Kariad's troops would storm the enemy bases below. As soon as word got down to the earth, demons opposing the war took this opportunity to sign treaties with the lords of the human lands. This disabled the troops from attacking them. Malris of the Dire Lands got wind of this and immediately donned them as rebels and traitors of their birthrights.
Placed under the protection of Emperor Gazen, these rebels would serve the humans it repay their debts. Mai, queen of the mages disapproved of this practice. She warned that these 'former enemies' would betray the emperor and wipe out the kingdom from within. The emperor knew this, and ordered the captains to keep close eyes on their settlements. In case of a sudden uprising, his forces would be there to kill the source of the problem. Mai, depressed ever since the death of her only son Sirius, now subsides within the halls of her castle.
How these wars begin, was all thanks to Sirius and the mysterious maiden Aya. Prince Sirius was of high rank, noble and full of good upbringing. Aya had appeared ominously in the slums of Merkava, one of the cities in Cirrus. Sirius had gone into the slums to help out the victims of a previous skirmish, when he spotted a young woman lying unconscious in the gutter. Thinking that she needed medical attention, he took her to the local hospitable. The doctors couldn't take care of her because she had no records in their files. Sirius thought that she was an outsider, so he then brought her to the master nurses of Merkava. Again, they told him that there were no previous records of her visits.
Frustrated and concerned about the well being of this woman, he finally took her back to the castle in Sora. His mother saw what he was about to do, and protested about the presence of peasants in her home. Sirius then explained to her about the situation, and he brought her to the master physicians. They too told him that they knew nothing of her, but seeing the anger of the prince, they worked to revive the woman. Their efforts were successful, and the lady slowly came to.
During the night, Queen Mai paid a visit to the woman, and as soon as she came near her, she sensed her demon lineage almost instantly. She ran out of the room and ordered the palace guards to throw her out. Luckily, Sirius was just outside the barriers and saw them roughly pushing her the ground. He ran over to her broken form and carried her to a local housing. The owner and his customers stared at the prince as he took he upstairs to a vacant room. The woman was laid down on the bed as Sirius questioned her about what happened. She told what had occurred, and also about what she heard from the queen. The woman then told him about her being half-demon, half human, and unable to live a normal life because of her genes.
Amazed at this, Sirius interrogated the woman about her life, her known family members, and how she ended up at the slums. The woman then told him her name, which was simply Aya. She had been beaten and raped by a gang of anti-halflings, and was left for dead in the gutter. If it weren't for Sirius, she would have died that day. Aya wanted to repay him for his help, but Sirius refused. He wanted her to live a normal life, free from abuse, crime, and death threats. So he invited her to live at the palace in Sora, the capital of Cirrus.
A year passed, and Aya had fell in love with Sirius. He had loved her as well, but never had the time to say it. Aya on the other hand, had never loved anyone, so those feelings were completely new to her. So she finally had the chance to tell him while he was alone in his quarters. Ironically, Sirius was thinking of ways to tell her how much he loved her too. She finds the courage to pour out her feelings for him, and they make love right there. 9 months later, Queen Mai pronounced the birth of their daughter Millenia.
The next week, Sirius is called by his mother to lead the warriors into combat with a band of demons in the Netherlands. Since no one owned the Netherlands, it was the site of many horrible and frequent battles. Aya knew the danger of him dying in battle, so he tried to stop him from going. "Think of the baby!" she had said as he was preparing for a rough fight. At that moment, he stopped. Thinking of the baby gave him quite a scare, because if he were to die, their week old child would be fatherless and not know the wonders of having a loving father. Then he made up his mind and told the captain of the guard to go in his place. Having to live your life without knowing anything about your father was all too real in Sirius' mind. When Aya heard the news, she was overjoyed, and she even ordered the cooks to make a feast in his favor. Being the loving parent that she is, she let their daughter Millenia eat first.
Less than a year later, Aya and Sirius had gone to the place where she was found to celebrate their anniversary. Aya had just gone to lay flowers in the gutter where she had been found when Sirius had to confess something that had been biting at his heart for the past 4 months. He got on his knees and told her everything that had happened behind her back. He came clean to her about him cheating on her with one of the noblewomen, and that his mother wanted him to marry her instead of "filthy half-breed trash like Aya", as she had said earlier. Taken aback, Aya ran from him into the streets. Sirius tried to give chase, but he proved too slow compared to her. Later, he returned to the palace with a broken heart, and he sought the comfort of his daughter. He asked a maid to bring her to him, but the maid had told him that the baby wasn't in the palace at all.
Unable to believe those words, Sirius searched the grounds for any clues to her disappearance. It was until evening that he finally got something from a old guard that had stood watch during the day. He had said that a woman at the request of the girl's mother took the baby away. Sirius slumped to the ground and realized how much pain that he had caused her. He worried about Aya, and the safety of her and their little infant. "How could I be so stupid!" yelled at himself. Now, he would never see his future wife or their child ever again.
Meanwhile, Aya was struggling to come to a decision to either stay in the clouds, or go down below to start a new life. She was frustrated with the choices, because either one had bad results. If he were to really leave Cirrus and go to the earth, she couldn't live in the Dire Lands. And the humans would never accept a half demon. But if she stayed here, she'd have a better life. But, she'd have to live with the heart-wrenching thought that Sirius would break Aya's trust and cheat on her again. Also, she would be in constant dispute with his mother over who he should marry. Plus she had to think about Millenia and her welfare, since her grandmother wanted to 'purify' her palace and get rid of them. It was hard, but Aya chose to stay in the mage realm, although the grief and guilt would be too heavy a burden to her to bear. She thought that it would be best for her daughter to live in the land of her birth. She could also get to know her lineage, but Aya had to keep her royal blood a secret.
Years went by, and Millenia grew up in the suburbs of Zephyr, the third city in Cirrus. She went by never knowing what a real father was, since Aya had gone through many unloving boyfriends. She never married though, since she had a little thought in her head that Sirius would come back to her. Millenia had always wondered why she never did, and whom was she waiting for. She even tried asking her mother who her father was, but Aya would only blush for a few seconds, then fume at the thought of him. Millenia remembered that sometimes, her mom would cry in the middle of the night when she was sleeping. Maybe she was dreaming about something that hurt her a long time ago, a thought that crossed the young girl's mind frequently.
But one day, she went walking in the streets to a open-air market. She had bought some fish for her and her mother to eat when a man with long dark hair and steel gray eyes came up to her and asked her who she was. Remembering what her mother told her about strangers, Millenia ran from the man back to her house. She hoped that the man didn't follow her, because she took the long way to home. But unfortunately, she saw the man waiting at her front door. Millenia screamed for her mother's help when the man started to walk towards her. Aya came racing out of the house with shotgun in her hands, and then she pointed it at the man's turned head. Millenia saw the man smile at her, and slowly turned around to face her mother. Hoping that Aya would shoot the man on the spot, she braced herself for the blood splatter that could happen.
But to her surprise, her mother didn't do anything. Wondering what was wrong, she looked up at her mother and saw a look of complete astonishment. She was staring at the man right in the eyes, as though she had known him before. The man then turned back to Millenia and introduced himself as Sirius, the sole heir of the throne in Sora. Aya then fell to her knees and cried. Crying until her eyes were completely red. Millenia had never saw her mother cry so much, and so hard in all her life. Then, Sirius walked up to Aya and held her tight. He told her that he was so sorry for hurting her so much, and that he still loved her after all these years. Aya then proceeded to punch him in the face, saying that he forgot all about her and their daughter. After hearing Aya call her Sirius' daughter, an insight stuck Millenia: she was the long lost daughter of the prince, whom had everyone searching for her and her mother for nearly a decade. Mixed feelings rushed through her mind as Aya and Sirius hugged.
'Why didn't she tell me that I was royalty?' Millenia thought, 'She was supposed to be my mother, and she goes and keeps something THIS important from me!'
Being the daughter of the crown prince wasn't easy for her. There were so many rules and regulations that she had to follow, it's no wonder that Aya fled the palace. Millenia was ordered by her grandmother to be tutored by the royal scholar on how to be a good princess every day. She also had to dress like a princes, walk like one, talk like one, eat like one, and even act like one. How was she supposed to play in the mud wearing such a fancy dress! Miserable and fed up, Millenia complained to her mother about how she was tired of being restricted to doing, saying, and eating certain things. Aya worried about this, and told her to talk to her father about the situation. Millenia was still not used to talking to that man, but she did and told him about how much she hated being treated like a little kid. Sirius saw this problem, and arranged her schedule so it fit with her own needs.
Being a princess was one hard thing, but being a big sister was even harder for Millenia. Before long after her arrival, her mother had given birth to another little girl whom she named Alexandria. Sirius was once again overjoyed at the birth of another child. But by then, people were starting to wonder whether or not he was going to marry her, or even keep her and the girls in the palace for that matter. Certainly, his mother was not pleased at what her son did. She was opposed to bringing Aya and their bastard child back into the palace grounds, but she was furious when they had another child out of wedlock. Not hoping that the news of the new baby would reach the public, Sirius told everyone who knew not to say a word about it outside of the grounds. If they did, then they would have their tongues cut out, as well as those who they told it to. While everyone was paying special attention to the newborn, Millenia grew to be seriously jealous. She knew that babies needed a lot of attention, but the older siblings -especially her- needed just as much attention too. But because Alexandria was her sister, Millenia took special care of her when everyone else was too busy to do so.
Sadly, All of their happiness was sadly short-lived. A huge skirmish had started between the same rebel demons and the mages again. Now, it was certain that Sirius was going to fight in this mini-war, since the captain of the guard was fighting in it as well. He had no choice but to go into it, even though he did not want to leave his family behind. Aya did not beg him to stay, for she too had knew that it was inevitable for him to go. Of course, Millenia had knew nothing of this, because the people in the palace were afraid that her knowing that her father could die would cause her incurable grief. So, as her father and the troops were being lead to the airships that were to take them to the Netherlands, Millenia hid and watched. She wondered where he was going, and why he was leaving them so soon. Aya didn't want to bear the pain of seeing her love go to war to die, so she took the liberty to leave the city with her children for a while. But before she did, she got to visit and talk with Sirius one last time.
When the warriors returned with victory over the demons, a wave of sadness went through the people. Sirius and his troops fought bravely, but someone had came up from behind and chopped his head clean off. An eyewitness told the queen the grim news, and about who was it that killed the prince. The soldier had said that it was the evil Faulknir, commander of King Malris' troops who had murdered Sirius. But before he killed the prince, he had told his men that a thoroughbred mage of high degree shouldn't mate with trash such as half-demon humans like Aya. Queen Mai, after hearing these words, felt so disgraced for her dead son. She too had told him that he should not have had a baby with the woman, but to instead keep the bloodline pure. Mai suddenly thought about Aya and how sad she'll be when she hears about the death of her only love. So she sent for messengers to go find her and bring her back to the palace. But the messengers returned without anyone, saying that the townspeople told them that she had been long gone. Mai felt even more distressed at the loss of her whole family, and she suddenly wished for her 'Joey' to come back to her.
Aya felt that it was best if she left her children with her only know family member, her half-brother Alucard. Even though he was known as the Vampire Prince, he had a human form that no one could see through, except family. It was his only ticket to freedom from the Vampire rule, and Aya saw it as a perfect way to keep her children from the officials back at the palace from finding out. So, without notifying any of her neighbors, she left Cirrus and headed for Lamina in the human realm of Kariad. The only way out of Cirrus was by teleporting, and guards from Sora would be there on the look out for her and her children. So Aya charmed her eldest daughter's hair to be blood red, since it was an unnatural color for mage hair. She dressed herself as a visiting human and hid Alexandria in a basket. It was lucky for her that the security at the teleportation spot in Zephyr was lax that day, so she could easily slip by unnoticed.
Upon reaching the vicinity in Lamina, a guard had noticed that she was carrying a heavy basket. She was asked to hand over the basket that baby Alexandria was in. Aya then told then that it was just food from her visit to her friends. The personnel let it slide and allowed her to pass over the border. Just as Aya went in search of a pay phone, she spotted her half brother waiting for her by a car. Not wanting to waste time, she told her child to get into the car. Then she told Alucard all about her situation and told him to "take care of my girls while I'm gone…" She then kissed her daughters and ran off into the distance.
Millenia had neverseen her mother leave her for so long. It was especially hard on her because she and her little sister were without anyone that they knew. Her uncle was a complete stranger to her, but Alexandria was able to adapt to this sudden change. A couple years went by, and her anguish for her missing mother grew into spite, so she decided to change her name to just Millie. For her sister's safety, she also changed her name to Alex. Millie thought that it would be best to hide their real identity just as their uncle was doing. She and her sister grew up without knowing what in the world had happened to their dear father. No one had told them, and whenever they asked, it was only the same reply: "You'll know when your mother comes back." Neither sister knew that their lives would be changed due to the introduction of a brand new face. A face that would eventually change the world of Ralus for better, or for worse…