After her adventure fighting Lord Tellurine and the warriors of Muu, the Queen was glad to be back at the castle. Unfortunately life had gone on while she was away, and paper work was stacked a mile high.
"Why the King cant deal with all the paperwork I dont know.." she thought to herself as the paper mountain threatened to topple over. "Stuff it I'm going to leave it for awhile."
As the Queen walked away the mountain gave into gravity and tumbled into a mass of paper on the floor. "I'll pick it up later...." and she walked out towards the Royal Spa. As she swept into the Spa for the works (body scrub, manicure, pedicure, wax, facial etc) something was bugging her. Some of those letters just didnt look "right". She couldnt put her finger on it, but there was something wrong. As she relaxed on the massage table she realised what the problem was.....one of those letters was not addressed. It was in a blank envelope. As soon as the massuer had finshed kneading out the knots, the Queen grabbed her teddy bear robe and dashed back to the side room where all the correspondence was handled.
"Now where was it......" she said to herself, starting to scratch through the piles of paper that the servants had replaced on her desk.
"Where is what your majesty?" a serving girl replied, startling the Queen and making her jump.
"The blank envelope, not addressed but sealed....where did you put it?"
"In the unknown corresspondance pile Ma'm. By the way, a message has arrived from Naeko's house. He has returned."
"Oh good,,," the queen replied absent mindedly as she found the envelope which had been taunting her under a pile of "Please can you support us..." mail.
As the Queen examined the envelope she was taken back, taken back to a time when she wasnt Queen of Arconia, when she wasnt even royalty. It was like a bolt from the past. Not a good bolt either. The envelope was plain parchment, cream in colour and long. It was sealed with red wax which carried the imprint of a single finger, small and delicate.
The Queen decided that she needed to think this over before opening the envelope, so placed it in her pocket and walked back to her dressing chamber. Bolting the door, she again looked at the envelope. Turning it over in her hands, admiring the crisp edges and smelling its almost mystical musty smell.
"Well I'm not going to get anywhere put just looking at it," she said out loud to the bird sitting on the window still, "I may as well open it." The bird just tilted its head to the side and fixed the Queen with one beady blue eye.
Cautiously the Queen slit the flap on the envelope, taking care not to break the seal. Inside was a piece of parchment,the same colour and size as the envelope, but well worn. It had many creases in it, as if it had be folded and refolded many times. There were only 4 words on the parchment, written in a bold flowing script the Queen had not seen in many years.
"THE SECRET IS OUT"
The shock caused the paper to flutter from her hands, and fall to rest at her feet.
"NO.." she screamed....."NO!!!!!!!!!!!"
Lady Rosaline had been absent mindedly walking the halls when she heard the queens scream. Luckly she was right outside her own door so she ran in, grabed her sword then ran as fast as she could to the queens room. She slid to a halt in front of the queens dressing chamber and tried the door. It was locked. "My Queen what is it?! Are you alright?!" She knocked on the door harder than she had intended. She removed ehr hand from the door and placed it on her sword. She quickly started to think of another way in.
Lady Moon heard the scream, but just did not care. Not anymore. Upon her return to the castle, she locked herself in her chamber and allowed no one entry. Meekal knocked, then Willow...from the King himself to the lowest servant, they all received the same demand.
"Go away!"
Did they not understand? She just wanted to be alone. She had no need for any of them. Moon thought that writing would help ease her melancholy, but the moment the quill touched the parchment, the words flew from her brain. So she sat, staring out the window for days at a time. Her sword, so often used, lay at rest in its scabbard, far across the room. Not even the news that Naekos had returned could evoke a response. Nay, it seemed to make things worse.
The not-so-great wizard Oddeldoodle heard the scream also. It spooked him and he quickly performed an invisibility spell. In an instant the lower half of him disappeared.
Around the corner came the rotund Brother Emmanuel, who didn't hear the scream over his sloppy pudding eating. He took one look at Oddeldoodle and fainted, pudding coating the floor and walls.
Oddeldoodle took a glance in a hallway mirror and noticed his top half was still visible. "Oops. How embarrassing." A couple of royal guards who had heard the tremendous thud came around the corner and stared at the unbelievable scene. Oddeldoodle's cheeks went bright red. "I wish I were invisible."
The Queen was in shock....she didnt hear Rosaline knocking, or the guards running, or even Emmanuels screams from Oddels botched spell.
Her hands were shaking as she retrieved the dropped parchment. It couldnt be, not now, not after so many years.....
Yet the signs were all there. The writing, the unmarked seal, even the type of paper was right. The Queen shook her head....
"NO!....Its NOT happening, NOT NOW!" she said out aloud to herself.
Lady Rosaline stopped pounding on the queens door realizing it was no good. She saw the knights running down the hall toward her. She asked the head guard. "Where is there another way in?" The guard wasn't that nice. "I can't tell anyone but the king and queen about the sectret passegways." He replied stubornly. Lady Rodaline was niether in the mood or didn't have time for this. She grabed the knight by the breast plate of his armer and threw him aginst the wall holding him there. "Look! The queen is in her room screaming bloody murder, and somethings that I couldn't quite make out. She could be egtting killed or robbed or something of the sort. And your telling me that you. .can't tell. .anyone but the queen and king. . where the secret passegways are. .WHEN THE QUEEN HERSELF COULD BE IN DANGER!" Lady Rosaline took a few breaths to calm herself down. "Now show me the passagways or I shall tell the king that what ever happens to the queen was your fault. Got it?" The knight gulped then nodded. "Good lets go. You two stay here and gaurd the door. The rest of you come with us." As her and the gaurds hurried down the halls Lady Rosaline thought to herself. 'I really need to control my anger.' 'but how stupid can you get?!' She shook her head and consentrated on where they were going.
Lady Rosaline was Still walking down the hall with the not so wise gaurd when she heard the comotion from the pub through an open window. She swiftly stepped to it and looked down into the streets. She saw everyone pouring out of the pub, into their houses, and reappear with their swords. She watched a servant come running into the catle. As she backed away she ran into the gaurd. "You men continue into the queens chambers. If she questions you tell her Lady Rosaline told you to come to make sure of her safely. Have you of your men stay at least near her door until I get back. I will go down and see what all the comotion is about. Got it?" The gaurd nodded dumbly again. With that Rosaline turned on her heals and swiftly went down the steps to the great hall.
It took her a few minutes to find the servent that she had see, but she finally spoted him running down the hall. "Wait! What Is going on out there?!" The servent stoped, bowed and caught his breath. .sort of. "The King. . ." "What about the king? Is her hurt or in danger?" The servent nodded. "Hurt?" Nod "In danger?" nod again. Lady Rosaline cursed under her breath. "Catch your breath and tell me everything." After the servent finished Rosaline thanked him, and quickly ran out running into Angel. "So where's the fire?" Angel pointed in the direction of where everyone was riding. Rosaline grabed her horse and joined the closest group going out.
The Queen had stopped screaming by this time, but she was still shaking. A large commotion down by the pub caused her to glance out of her window. What seemed like the whole kingdom was pouring out of the town into the North Forest. All armed and looking worried.
She looked again, there was Rosaline on her horse galloping like her life depended on it. Moontic wielding a CLAYMORE??? and looking like she had grabbed breeches and put the on over her nightdress and accompanied by Naekos. There was Steve stumbling after the others (he had obviously had a little too much to drink at the bitter end), and in the distance she could see Jo, Serena and Angel scouring the edge of the North woods. Something was wrong. The Queen knew she should go and find out, but figured if it was important someone would come to find her.
There were no unfamiliar soliders on the outskirts of town, so the city wasnt under attack. Suddenly a dichordant noise assailed the Queens ears. Tearing her gaze away from the chaos she saw meekal, Kliff and Bob serenading Moontics window.
The sight of those three gave the Queen her first smile in hours.
As the Queen moved away from the window a bright light broke the gloom of the evening. Turning, the Queen looked out, and saw the palace illuminated, along with the Forest and in the far distance the Kings encampment. There seemed to be alot of people hurring around in close proximity of the large purple 3 roomed tent the King generally took with him on these "Back to Nature" expeditions.
"Its a bit of an overreaction if all Arcon wants to do is LOOK for something...." the Queen muttered as she pulled her shutters too. "I really must talk to him about such things."
As she turned, the parchment once again caught her eye. What WAS she going to do about this?
She sat down at her desk and pulled out a new Quill, ink and parchement. The page however stayed blank. She didnt know WHAT to write, WHO to write to, or even WHERE to address the envelope. She just sat and stared and wondered WHY after all these years, that secrect had come back to haunt her. The one she had so carefully forgotten to mention to Arcon when he proposed, the one which she had hidden in the back dusty corners of her mind while dealing with being a Queen.
She wrote a list on the paper....
- 1. Why me?
2. Where are they?
3. Ask if there has been any strangers in town, and if so where they were from.
4. Dont let anyone know.
She folded the paper, and slipped it into the drawer of her desk. She took the parchement with the letter, refolded it along the creases, and slipped it back into its envelope. She folded the envelope over and over, and stuffed it into her corset, close to her heart, where NO ONE would be able to read it.
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