A/N: Sorry it has been a while with this chapter. Been working on structural issues (when my job and everything haven't been keeping me crazy busy).

enjoy!

The sun had begun to set as Jadelyn stared out of her prison. Gripping the bars tightly, she wished for someone so brave as to rescue her.

Just then, the heavy wooden door burst open almost falling off its hinges. The dust settled at there stood Victoria sitting atop her noble steed.

"Is my princess alright?" asked Victoria.

The creamy-skinned young lady stood up and walked toward the equestrian in shining armor and sword.

"I am now," she smiled brightly. "Could this be my brave knight that I have dreamed of?"

Victoria smiled back and reached out to her and Jadelyn held out her hand. Right before their hands could touch, the ground gave out from under the princess and she held onto a rock as she hung over a fiery pit. The horse backed away, his survival instincts getting the better of him. Victorian quickly dismounted and fell on her belly to reach as deeply as she could into the hole to get a grip on Jadelyn.

Her screams made Victoria ignore her own pain from trying to strain more and more to reach. Finally, the rock became loose and the princess was sent tumbling in free fall. Victoria screamed at her love's impending demise.

But then Jadelyn's voice echoed from below.

"VICTORIA! HOW COULD YOU LET THEM TAKE ME!"

Victoria sat up, her vision temporarily obscured by her brown hair. She looked around in the strange bedroom.

"Where am I?"

"Safe," said a woman's voice.

She remembered that voice. It was yelling something shortly before she passed out. And that's as good as her memory served her; much of what occurred right before and after the stabbing was a blur.

A woman with olive skin not unlike Victoria's entered her view. Her face looked relieved but something in her eyes was telling that this woman had other things on her mind.

Victoria held her head, silently cursing herself for rising up from sleep so quickly. It left her with a wallop of a headache. Closing her eyes, she laid back down. The bed was soft and warm. It was a welcoming contrast to what had happened earlier. She turned to the stranger.

"Who are you?"

"That was the question I was dreading," she sighed. The woman with long hair sat down. It was dark brown but with a silver line on her left side. "I am not sure where to begin."

Victoria closed her eyes and breathed in and out slowly.

"Very well, let us start with a name."

"My name is...Geol...um...Trina, actually."

"Mine is Victoria."

Trina nodded, "It is a lovely name."

"Would you mind telling me what happened?" Victoria asked.

"You nearly died. That lout knew where to do the most damage."

Victoria began to remember a little bit clearer. There was this man from the forest; he had strange abilities. Then he took her and somehow transported into this house. She could never forget his face. She held her ear, recalling an extremely cold sensation prior to being teleported.

"Who was he?"

"His name is Noxymis. And the man is such an insect I am certain it was his name at birth." Trina noticed Victoria's fascination with her ear. "Oh, that. He seemed to pour some kind of elixir when you were not looking to better subjugate you."

Now it started to make sense. That was why Victoria couldn't more; she could hardly stand.

"Where is he now?"

"Gone," Trina replied.

"Where did he run off to?" Victoria sounding annoyed.

Trina sighed and started to pace the room. "I know not where. He has communicated with me before but has been clever enough to either visit my abode or not reveal his lair."

Victoria propped herself up with her arm.

"So there is nothing we can do?"

"Right now the thing to do is eat," Trina replied as she got a tray from the table across the room. "It has been a terrible night but you should be on your way to mending. But first you need your strength."

"Not hungry," Victoria said.

Trina put down the tray, making the teacup rattle. "I was not asking you a question." She then proceeded to take a knife and slice off a piece of bread. "Cattle are not in abundance so no butter but I make a very delectable marmalade if I say so."

The younger woman took a bite of the dark bread. It was good but her nose made her curious of the fruit spread Trina was mentioning. She took a spoon and scooped some of the golden preserves and spread it across her piece of bread and ate it with more gusto.

"Did I not tell you?" Trina quipped.

"Thank you," Victoria smiled.

"What are sisters for?" she said, with a hint of sadness.

"That is the other thing."

Trina cleared her throat and stared into her tea.

"Must be a long story," Victoria mused aloud.

"It is," Trina replied.

Princess Jadelyn woke up to the feeling of cold stone against her face. The room was dark with a small shaft of blue light coming from above. She got up and walked toward the light. Jadelyn attempted to look upward at where it came from. She shielded her eyes to keep it from blinding her.

It must be daylight.

She looked around, trying to keep her fear get out of control. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in her chambers and no0w she wakes up here in some kind of basement.

Or cell.

The clinking of chains made her breath hitch. She looked down to see her ankle manacled to a large, heavy chain of iron.

"Do not bother trying to try, my dear"

Jadelyn never heard this elderly woman's voice before. Out of the darkness, closer to the light source, stepped an old woman with big expressive eyes. She couldn't make out much in this deep void but her eyes were comforting.

"Who are you?" Jadelyn asked.

"I am not sure, dear. At my age remembering is difficult."

"Oh. Then I suppose you cannot tell me where we are now."

"I can," the old lady replied. "We are in the castle's holding cell."

"This is not Reinhart, is it?"

"No, my dear. This is the Kingdom of Rosym."

Jadelyn's eyes widened, "Truly?"

"I should know; the king was my son."

"King? He had me kidnapped?"

The elder backed away almost vanishing from Jadelyn's vision.

"I should say not," she replied. Her voice was as stern as possible. She said it as if it were an absolute. "My son would never do something so boorish."

"But ma'am, if you son is king, when how could you be down here with me?"

"Remember what I said a moment ago?"

"You mean when you said the king is your son?"

"No," the lady coughed. "I said he...was...my son."

Jadelyn put her hand over her mouth, understanding her subtle way of saying her son was dead.

"What happened?" Jadelyn asked.

"Darkness," she grimly stated in response. "A corrupt shadow befell our beloved land. I see the throne in my visions. Evil sits upon it."

The hall of Rosym castle is strewn with the recently deceased. They lay in piles of broken and bloodied all around the floor. What once were soldiers, guardians of the king and close friends were now reduced to corpses.

In the midst of this massacre, is a bejeweled throne.

And sitting in the chair of leadership is a thin man brandishing the powerful blue orb coerced from Geolia's hands.

He looked out onto the throne room, relishing his handiwork with a smirk holding back a gleeful laugh.

"Long. Live. The. King."