2016 – Day 2

Start writing a story that...

Step 1: includes the words: kingdom  witchcraft  charm

Step 2: add this word: river

Step 3: add a character who: betrays another character

Step 4: add a character who: has a plan
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The Three-Mountain Kingdom—so named for the three immense peaks that surrounded a valley in which the kingdom's subjects lived—was ruled by witchcraft. It hadn't always been this way, and in fact it had only been 25 years since charms replaced edicts as the primary means of keeping subjects in check.

Prior to these years, a centuries-long monarchy had ruled over the kingdom. The kings and queens were always supported by a witch or warlock who was served their ruler by casting spells against enemies and using magical vision to prevent attack by any outsiders. They did not do this out of personal regard for the ruler, although some may have felt a kinship due to the historical alliance between the monarchs and those with magical powers. They were bound to this duty. From as far back as any records could show, spells had been cast by each magical generation on the next to bind them to servitude to their monarch. The kingdom's leaders knew just enough about the weaknesses of babies born to those with magic to force their parents into casting the spell. And when the kingdom's ruler was decent, there was little reason to push against the expected servitude. After all, a senior magical advisor to a king or queen was still an exalted position and left little for one to complain about. But when the ruler was vicious or war-hungry, only those witches and warlocks who were equally bloodthirsty could bear to do the royal's bidding.

It was the exceedingly long reign of King Frederick, a nasty young boy who grew into a horrific young man and became king upon his father's early demise (one still questioned by many), that the witches and warlocks began to seek a way out of their indentured servitude. Little by little they tested the limits of their bond to the king, which had prevented them from doing him or his kingdom any harm. One young warlock stole away to just beyond the borders of the kingdom, past the mountains and the river that snaked through them, to see if he had free will outside of the king's domain. But any spells he cast to try to bring an unbeatable enemy to King Frederick's door instead caused the young warlock bodily harm and he barely survived his own magic.

An older witch with experience casting the strongest spells—ones that had defeated enemy armies before a single life was lost in battle—attempted to betray her bond to the king by casting spells over the servants who cared for his family. With incantations powerful enough to break the strongest individual's will, she bade the cook's assistant to mix up the arsenic and the salt and instructed the women who prepared the king's bath to spill water so that he may slip and fall upon the hard floors where he could break his neck or fracture his skull. But these spells too were ineffective against the king, and instead caused the witch pains in her stomach that were so severe, she crumpled to the floor, falling with such force that she cracked her skull and died before any help could be reached.

The solution came to a young witch who traveled with the king and his soldiers as he visited vanquished kingdoms to enforce his hold over them. One night after they arrived at the Blue Forest Kingdom, she dreamt that the kingdom's defeated ruler was plotting against King Frederick. The next morning, she learned that the king had been invited to a banquet in his honor, an event where she was certain the act of revenge would take place. Although she was bound to protect the king, she formulated a plan to withhold information as long as she could before she was compelled to tell the king what she had seen in her vision. She sent a message that she was ill and stayed in her room until the banquet that night. Her body ached from the secret she held inside, but no amount of discomfort could push her to leave her room.

That night, as she dressed for the banquet, she hid a small knife in her gown's belt. She said nothing as she joined the king's attendants, which was a sign to him that all was well. Upon entering the hall, she felt the impending danger and knew she would be unable to stop herself from telling the king what awaited him when the doors behind them closed. Turning toward the wall where no one might see, she grabbed the knife and cut off her tongue. No magic compelled her and no magic was used, and the bonding spell could do nothing when she passed out from shock of the pain borne of her own actions. It wasn't immediately evident what had happened to her when others saw her fall, but by the time they had gathered her up and noticed the river of blood pouring from her mouth, it was too late. The kingdom's guards had surrounded the outnumbered visiting party, and after a bloody skirmish, King Frederich and all who attended him were dead.