When the queen was pregnant with her first child, the king sent for seers all over to see whether the child was a boy or girl. None could truly tell except one that told the queen that she would have twin girls. As the seer began to leave, he also foretold a great doom for the children, that one would both be killed before her eighteenth birthday and the other would go mad if any found out about them.
The queen was a smart lady and realized that the best thing to do would be to foster the two girls out and tell everyone that the child was still born. She was too softhearted, though, to separate the two so she sent both of them with a trusted friend and told him all little as possible to keep them safe.
The only problem was that the midwife that had help with the birth told one of the ladies that had told her son, Matthias. So when, an his afternoon ride, he saw a girl that looked just like a younger version of the queen, he decided to woe her and try to become the next king for he had never heard the prophecy.