Once, there was a king. He was happily married, with an infant child. He ruled over a city by the name of Sirendas. The king of Sirendas was a very noble man. He dedicated his time to helping the poor and finding ways to make the city better. He was never about materialistic things. That made him greatly honored.
The king was born into his lifestyle, but he never really appreciated the way he lived. He felt it was unfair that someone should rule over everyone. After years of not enjoying the idea of royalty, he decided to live among his people, like an average citizen. Before he could do that, he had to go see the secret prophet.
Only a select few ever got a chance to meet the prophet, because she only told her son where she was, and she made him promise her to only tell where she was to the people he trusted. Unlike regular humans, the prophet, Aidileen, was granted by the gods an extended life time to read the fortunes of the needy and grant out wishes to the ones who needed it. When the king went to see Aidileen, he was turned down. She believed he didn’t deserve to receive a wish. Yet, the king had pleaded to her and promised to show her that he was truly in need of a favor from her. She finally, believed him, when he showed her his nobility and saw his true nature of the wish.
“Zachariah, king of Sirendas, I grant you the chance to live as a normal member of your kingdom.”
She placed a special pendant around his neck, and it changed him from his face to his clothing. Right in front of her eyes, he went from riches to rags.
“I must warn you though, Zachary. Be careful, first, it may change you if you are not careful. Second, you must never let this pendant get into the wrong hands, or it will destroy yours and their destiny.” He promised to be aware of himself and to keep the pendant safe. He thanked her and continued on his journey to experience a normal life.
Although he told his wife what he was going to do, she did not know how long he was going to be gone. Constantly missing him, she couldn’t take the pain of living without him. So, she went to the witch doctor. He gave her a sedative that would make her sleep for five years. The only way to wake her early was to place a mixture of many different spices by her bed and burn them. Doctor was the only one who had the recipe.
While she slept, Zachariah went around the villages, not just of his kingdom, but of many others as well. He found ways to turn the cities into restored civilizations. He helped elders of the lands, gave away gold to the poor and clothed and fed them.
He couldn’t help but become praised because of his wonderful deeds. One day while working in a grub house, he met a young, poor lady. She was very beautiful, but she wore dirty, ragged clothes. She came up to him, asking for a bowl of soup. As he gave it to her, he slipped out, “Why do you live down here? You are too beautiful to live in such a wretched place. May I ask for your name?”
Smirking slightly, she said, “I could ask you the same question. You are quite handsome, and hold yourself up really well. My name is Lilliana, but you can call me Lilly. If I could get out of here I would, but sadly, I cannot leave my mother alone. After my father passed, she hasn’t been the same.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. Well, I hope you have a wonderful day, Lilliana,” he said,” I’m Zachariah, by the way.”
“Thank you Zachariah. Maybe I will see you around another time. Farewell.” She walked away to one of the smaller tables and sat down next to an older blind woman, who was her mother. Instead of eating the soup, she gave it to her mother, and it made the king smile.
The next few days after they first met, he kept thinking about her. He knew it was wrong. He knew what would happen to him if he was unfaithful to his wife, especially because of how loyal she was to him. It was like there was a spell on him that kept his mind busy with thoughts of Lilly. He wondered if the goddess of love had tempted him with a beautiful woman to see if he would stay devoted to his wife. That was exactly what it was.
The goddess put a spell on the necklace to protect the woman and to make sure the men would stay by their wives’ sides and could not be tempted by beautiful woman. Zachariah was very vulnerable, and he couldn’t stop the feelings for her. He demanded to see her.
He searched the city slums looking for her, but he could not find her. After searching for five days, he finally found her. When he walked up to her and introduced himself, she seemed to not be able to recognize him. He was hurt. He had daydreamed about her for the past week, and she couldn’t even remember who he was. He introduced himself, again hoping she would remember. She was hesitant at first, but then surely, she recognized him. He saw her the next day, but he had to introduce himself to her again, but she remembered faster that time, replaying back to when they first met.
Something about her enthralled him. She was very respectful, genuine, and caring. Slowly he lost his sense of control, and gave in to his lust he held inside for her. He forgot about his wife and his child, and was drowned by his fake identity. He missed the relationship of love, but he knew it was his job to help the poor. He began to use his powers for all the wrong reasons.
After a couple weeks of his love affair, he confessed to her he was the king of Sirendas, and had a magnificent wife. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t handle the emotions he had for her. She was horrified and repulsed by the fact that Zachariah would lie to her like that. She went away and left the king to down in his sorrows. Soon, the emotions overwhelmed him and he realized the fact she left was for the best.
He wanted to leave her something. He took of the pendant given by Aidileen, placing a note beside it that said: I still care for you. Take this as a token of my love. I’m sorry. –Z
When he slid off the necklace you could see his old self come back. He left her place disappointed with himself and went back to live his old life.
Lilliana had only one person she could talk about her issues with, but since they hadn’t spoken since their father had died, she was scared to approach her. Lilliana had a twin sister, Briella. When they were little, they were the best of friends, and no one could tear them apart. Once, their father died, Briella begun to blame Lilly for his death, because she was there when it happened. Briella left to the city of the slums, and became bitter to anyone and anything.
Reluctant to hear what her sister might say, Lilliana nonetheless went to the city of the slums to confide in her sister. Briella had become a miserable maid, but when her sister came, she acted if she had never blamed Lilliana for his death.
“Sister! Oh, how I’ve missed you. Come in! Let me make you a cup of tea. I’m surprised you came to visit. How has life been?”
“That’s actually what I came down here to talk to you about. You are the only one I can pour my heart out to. I need my sister,” Lilliana replied.
Smiling, Briella said, “Tell me all your troubles, dear. I am here. Don’t worry I will take care of everything.”
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So, Lilliana spilt her sorrows upon her sister, but Briella had planned to use it all against her. Little did Lilly know, Briella had already known about Zachariah, because she was the one whom he had met the second day he had talked to her. She had a vicious plan to go to Sirendas and ruin everything for her sister. Briella wanted her to know exactly how it felt to lose the single most important person in her life.
Zachariah returned back to his castle after six months of being gone. He did not know about the potion put over his wife, so he came running up and down the halls screaming about her being dead. One of his servants had told him about what she had done, and in order to wake her up, he had to get to the awakening recipe to wake her up.
The doctor was a stubborn old man, who would not give the king the potion to wake his wife without a fight. He believed that in order to awaken her, Zachariah must give him five hundred gold coins and answer a riddle.
“Solve this riddle, and then I will give you the recipe. A lonely wanderer, wounded with iron, I am smitten with war-blades, sated with strife,
Worn with the sword-edge; I have seen many battles, Much hazardous fighting, oft without hope
Of comforts or help in the carnage of war Ere I perish and fall in the fighting of men.
The leavings of hammers, the handiwork of smiths, Batter and bite me, hard-edged and sharp;
the brunt of the battle I am doomed to endure. In all the folk-stead no leech could I find
with worth or simple to heal my wounds; but day and night with the deadly blows
the marks of the war-blades double and deepen”
“That is a tough one. May I get back to you on that?” the king said.
“Yes you sure can. Good luck. It is a hard one.”
Zachariah sat long and hard thinking about what the answer could be. It took a couple weeks for him to solve it, but he believed he had the answer. He returned back to the old doctor’s shop with five hundred coins and the answer to the riddle.
“Armor. It has to be armor,” said the king.
“Ha-ha. You are wrong. It is shield, you dumb king. I now have your 500 coins, and I will not give them back. Because you thought so long and hard about the riddle, I will give you the recipe, for 200 extra coins.”
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“Here you go. Now give me the recipe.” The king was angry, but he was happy he could now awaken his wife. He headed back to his castle.
Briella had devised a plan to banish the king and her sister from Sirendas. Everyone would hate them. She hated her sister for forgetting about her dad. She needed to be punished. Briella suggested to Lilly that she could stay with Briella for a while as she readjusted her life and got situated. While Lilliana slept, Briella left her house in the slums and went to her sister’s house outside Sirendas. She went there to find more information about her sister’s love affair.
When she finally was at Lilliana’s house, she discovered the note and the pendant the king had left for her. Because her sister explained who her lover was, she knew it was the king. She knew what the pendant could do. She placed it around her neck, and she wished to turn into the queen. Magically, there the “new” queen stood. She put a cloak over her head and headed to the castle.
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She knew what she had to do. Briella walked up to the guards as the queen, and they were stunned, because they thought the queen was still sleeping from the spell. Flustered, they still allowed her into the palace.
At the time of Briella’s entrance, Zachariah was had started the burn the spice of the recipe he had received from the doctor. He placed it next to his sleeping wish, waiting for her to wake from her sleep. He didn’t know how long it would take for her to come around. He had grown tired and went to bed.
Briella walked into the castle and searched each room to find the queen. She heard about how the queen was put to sleep for five years. She knew she would be able to hide the queen and tell the king the potion only lasted for a much shorter time that what the doctor that said.
She finally found the queen, but to her surprise, the queen wasn’t sleeping. She was drowsy from her sleep and was out of it. Briella had an idea to tie her up and hide her while she took over the kingdom. She went into the master bedroom to find the king sleeping. She woke him up, and he started bawling with joy of see his wife. She knew she could pull off being the queen.
The next day, Zachariah and the queen had to make a very important speech to the kingdom about how the city will now work. Zachariah announced his return as king and told the city it will now have less social stratification. He handed out money to the poor that were deserving of it, and offered jobs to the middle class citizens.
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Briella used this against the king and while he was handing out money during the day, she would sneak into houses of the poor and take all their money. It began chaos throughout the city, which made Briella happy. She destroyed the king’s reputation.
Lilly had awakened at her sister’s house. She was surprised not to find her sister, sitting by the hearth and dosing off. She searched around the house. Although, it was in the slums, it was neatly kept. She reached her sister’s desk, where she found Briella’s diary. She knew it was wrong to open it up, but she hadn’t heard much about her sister, since the day she left. She wanted to see what had been going on. She slowly opened up the journal to discover pictures of herself with ram’s horns on her head. She was shocked of what her sister would do to herself, but then she realized that wasn’t Briella; that was her.
She began to read through the diary, and saw what awful things Briella was saying. She questioned her sister’s morals and was upset her sister wanted to get revenge on her. She turned to the last page that was written in and saw it was of last night. It read: I’m going to Lilliana’s house to find any more information about her. I know about Zachariah, because he thought I was her. Their lives deserve to be ruined, so I will go to Sirendas and destroy the king’s marriage. He and Lilliana will be exiled from the city, possibly the country. Lilliana doesn’t deserve to be loved. She watched our father die, so I will watch her suffer for eternity.
Lilliana was stunned by the amount of hatred her sister had toward her, and she knew she must do something to stop her madness. She had no time to think. She went to her house to see if there was any evidence left behind from her sister. She made it to her house, and found a letter from Zachariah, but his message made no sense. There was nothing that he left for her, and she suddenly realized Briella had taken it. Lilly had a small hint of what it was. Zachariah had told her about the secret pendant right before she ran away crying from him. She knew she had to stop the madness her sister had caused. She borrowed someone’s horse and galloped toward Sirendas.
It took two days to reach the city limits, but when she made it to the edge of Sirendas, she already saw the destruction that had taken place. There were men running around the streets, breaking into shops and stealing the goods. She clutched onto her bag, and ran to through the town; weaving her way between the crowds of thieves and drunken fights.
She had to find a way to sneak into the palace without being seen. She planned to wait until it was dark and climb the wall. There was a huge problem though, because chaos took over the city, more guards were protecting the castle. Lilliana was witty and strong enough to trick a guard into the trap she had set up. She hurriedly changed into the armor, and proceeded in through the front protective door of the building.
She raced down each corridor, looking for a clue of where her sister might be. There was a faint and muffled scream, and she slowed down to find where the sound was coming from. She stood in front of a wall, but she definitely heard the yell clearer now and she knew someone was behind it. She shouted at the wall, “Hello? I’m here to help! Where are you?”
The person replied in a weak voice, “I’m the queen. Now get me out of here. Some crazy lunatic trapped me behind this Gods-forsaken wall. You need to smash through it! Hurry!”
Lilliana took off the armor and found an axe she would use to break past the wall. It takes her several blows to break through the wall. The queen looked at her and shrieked, “You crazy bitch! I’ve been in here for 3 days. I’ve going to get my guards on you. You took my husband!”
Lilliana started to apologize, but she was absolutely confused on why she was called a crazy bitch. She had just saved her life. Something was funny about it, but then she realized the queen had mistaken her for her sister. She had to slowly calm down the queen, and explain to her about her crazy sister, who wanted to seek revenge on Lilliana. She told her about the pendant and that it transforms the possesser into a new person or the person they want to become, but she could not get up the courage to tell her about her husband’s affair. Lilly felt at the moment, it was best she kept it from her.
Together, they went searching for Briella, unsure of how Briella would appear. The queen had a clue on where they might be, because around that time of night they would most likely be in bed. It was hard for Lilliana to hear, but she had to persevere. They came near the room, and slowly opened the door to the bedroom chamber, to find Briella (as the queen) and Zachariah making love. The queen gasped in shock, and ran strikingly towards Briella. She began calling her repulsive names.
Zachariah was in shock. Who had he just been making love with? He scans to the room. He saw two embodiments of his wife, who were fighting, and then he turns to see Lilliana standing far in the background. He began to get out of his bed, still naked, and tries to stop the fight that has broken out.
“She trapped me in the wall, and left me there to die. Her sister came along and saved me. See that pendant around her neck? She’s a false image of me,” said Zachariah’s wife.
“Well at least I’m not a whore like my sister. Didn’t you know, she has been sleeping around with your king of a husband for the past six months while he was gone in the slums? You should have expected this. They are both horrible people. They deserve to die. My sister watched our father die. She deserves to be executed for being so disrespectful.”
The queen was in such horror, she sentence both of the girls to execution. Zachariah had tried to convince her to spare the life of Lilliana, because it was his fault she had fallen for her. She had none of it. He had also try to tell her the reason for the event with Lilliana was, because he missed the queen’s love, which got her even more frustrated. She exiled the king, and knew the kingdom would understand. It was against the law for a man to cheat on his wife if they belonged to higher society.
He left, and the queen withdrew herself from being the queen, but left the castle to her son. She couldn’t handle the pain of the affair, and the expulsion of her husband. She jumped into the river. For many years after, Zachariah was known as the coward of men, and was never heard of again. Their son grew up to become a great king, and promised to the gods and to his mother he would never mistreat his wife. He lived long and had a wonderful family.