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Science Fiction Fantasy Drama

In this world like any of the others in revolution around the star of Elysia, there is unrest.

The God Queen, in pursuit of infamy, had taken to conquering neighboring planets.

She had taken so well in fact that there were no worlds left with true liberty from her demands.

She was a tyrant, and by most metrics a brute, but against the odds she has lost her standing.

It was a long and bloody battle, as bloody as vapor can be, but they had finally won out against her.

And like any other leader overthrown from their prestige, the God Queen no longer stands at all.

But the work isn’t over, there’s still corruption in the hearts of the conquered, nations upon nations overtaken by her greed.

Peace once contrived in obedience to her, now fractured, manhandled by puppet governments in lieu of strong leaders.

And among the ones in need of restructuring, was the God Queen’s Capital world of Cressida, the world taken only in the last sun-turn, would be having some growing pains. 

What was left of a monarchy, was scattered, along with loyalists that couldn’t afford to torch the tiny world with their masters still upon it.

And with the shielding reconfigured, the Alesya Frondeur needed only to root out those old powers.

She was the daughter of the God Queen, and she, like the monsters in their employ, could not be trusted.

She, like her mother before her, could be dispatched just as easily.

Which was why they were trying to convince her of their plight. 

It wasn’t easy, among those Loyalists and Courtiers few were in pure servility to the God Queen, and without her presence they were searching for her successor.

Which was all their luck, as they had maintained her arrest.

They were in a bunker once under the Queen’s banner, stripped on the interior of her more egregious instruments, even if the Girl had mind to escape it was a maze of the keeper’s convenience.

Still it was a credit to their intelligence that she’d been secured at all.

The girl had been held up in the Schloss-Ianthe, an obscure palace in the deep south, but was moved after an incident involving a guard at the location.

The loaded offence of binding her in a local with such history wouldn’t have been worth another.

So in a sequestered and unnamed bunker, they were placed against her.

One could hope for success, one less body between them and true order.

But as a sense sparing creature bolted through the door, such faith was dampened.

Her teeth bared like any beast, she caught a guards throat.

It wouldn’t have been a cleverer thing to steal from them, as there was no arming against such things.

Though it was common practice to only keep those of thick hide anywhere near her door.

She snarled curses through her throat, as the guard moved to pull her from his neck.

The Auxiliary sent a spark through her in the struggle, though there would be no time to bind her, as she recovered.

The guard free from her teeth was tended to by a nurse, without much fanfare.

And with little prompting, looking up at the interloper.

“Who is it you’ve opened my door for?”, the Princess asked, in that old velvetine tongue.

“Izdihar Joia, the Envoy”

“Izdihar? God that man couldn’t even raise a fuss properly.”

“I could say the same of you, Dearest Princess.” the Envoy said, over familiar, “Such sharp teeth, but you still couldn’t crack it.”

“What and leave him with nothing? I would be doing a disservice to my position if I wasn’t so generous.” she said demure.

This was what the Envoy was set to work with, a haughty maladjusted creature, a bare reflection of the monolithic God Queen, trapped in one single cell of a puzzle path bunker.

The track to revolution was never one without grime.

Having recovered partly from her hasty ordeal.

“I thought I’d made myself clear, I won’t be imposed upon any longer.”

“Oh I didn’t mean to impose,”

“You live to impose upon me, you were sent to impose upon me.”, she complained.

“And what you say is always true. Isn’t it?”

It wasn’t a fine rarity around Elysia, that her eyes were unreadable. 

Generations between the Cressida and the Gytha had assured it, but Joia was fluent and aware of the body's veracity. 

The princess feared nothing, for she didn’t believe in it, but she did miss the God Queen.

Joia would cut sometimes at the girl’s grief, never accidently, for there were no accidents between the God Queen and Alesya Frondeur.

“I will not have you here.” the princess said, “I’ll have no pity when you die.”

“That is to be expected, princess.” Joia agreed, and retorted, “but it would still be so, were we loyal to you.”

“I won’t have this nonsense.”

“Did you think we rose for nothing?

“She was a Fair Queen, she knew the order of things, and kept it so.” 

“Oh yes, as you do, with teeth and dishonesty.”

“You have no place to judge,”

“If she wanted us to remain peaceful, she wouldn't have been ceaseless.”

It was nowhere near a soft moment, she was prickly, half in cloistered madness.

She was grieving, for the Faith, for her position, but she was lonely in it.

There was no one left.

“I know you think you're the last patriot, but you are just the child of a mother,” Joia said, “like anyone else, you needn’t share her sins. If you give them up.”

She jumped ready to catch the Envoy’s neck, with her thumb on Joia’s throat, she said “I already pay for her sins, I will not be chastised by peasants and traitors.”

Joia would’ve flinched if the princess held with any pressure.

“And we will not be ruled. people can always rebuild, Princess,” Joia said, “but there's hardly a point if the king will only tear it down.” 

Joia kept eye contact with the Princess, the daughter of the God Queen, who could not be trusted.

She looked away first.

“I can’t even look at you can I?”, she thought aloud.

“This is our world, and we are changing it. You will have to accept the world if you want to leave it.”

April 10, 2021 02:44

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2 comments

Kathleen `Woods
02:03 Jan 02, 2022

Discovery key, world-building in common. "Ginevran Hospitality" https://blog.reedsy.com/short-story/ps91yo/ "Why do anything, Ceri? You'll only dance in Elysia one day." https://blog.reedsy.com/short-story/x1jb7y/ "Paola get's her life now" https://blog.reedsy.com/short-story/bkn6gl/

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Kathleen `Woods
23:53 Apr 11, 2021

I've realized that that I wrote the after-story of a space opera but managed not to describe any of the aliens. Did I at least imply anything? I wish there was an emoji option because this wasn't actually very negative for me. :)

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