Obsidian Monarchy

Breath. The echoes from her dream still rang through her mind. Seraphina rested on her disheveled bed, listening to the sound of her heart pounding. The young woman knew that her time to inherit the throne was approaching as the current Monarch neared the end. However, the suddenness of it all shook her. Like her predecessors, she was shown a vision of the last moments of the previous Monarch. Seraphina was grateful that she had already laid down to rest, as the vision would have caused her to scream if she were awake. Now, with her heart calmed, she had a short time to understand what she was shown before others likely found her. In the vision, Jordan, the now predecessor Monarch, was sitting in the back of an SUV. Her raven hair cascaded down, and she was clearly in pain, holding her stomach. Seraphina was unable to look closer at the wound, gripped by the intense stare that Jordan directed at her. Floating in the sky in her nightdress, Seraphina looked down at her friend. Though ten years her senior, they had been bonded since the moment Jordan took her place as the Monarch. Each Monarch could find their successor as soon as they performed the resurrection ceremony. Tears rolled down Seraphina's face as a screech filled the air, and she looked around. They were in a warehouse covered in darkness, Jordan’s Guardians were in the distance firing off shots of magic, and a horde of monsters that Seraphina didn’t recognize attacked. Quinn, the head of the Guard and Jordan’s right-hand man, ran to her. Realizing what was going to happen, he grabbed the back of her head and pushed his forehead into hers. 'I will do everything in my power to serve your heir,' he said, his green eyes drinking in the last moments with his intended. Her dark brown eyes softened through the pain; she reached up with one shaking hand to touch his face while she smiled softly. 'I will always be here.' Now looking past him, Jordan locked eyes with Seraphina again, saying her final living words that would haunt and frustrate her for many months. 'Protect the queen.' Just like that, the vision was gone. Seraphina was back in her room looking up at the darkness. A gentle hum filled the room around her; when Jordan found her, she was fifteen. The older woman had just turned twenty-five and loved the curiosity that the girl had. They spent hours locked in a room talking about everything, and the most important thing was what to expect when taking over as Monarch. The hum that now surrounded her was the energy passed down from each Monarch, the way the history of their tribe was passed down for thousands of years. From this point on, the spirits of the past would come to her and guide her. Though she would rarely see them, she would have some sort of clear communication and sometimes intuition given to her. The one resounding thought that came to her now, it was the clearest understanding she would likely ever know. There was no way in hell she would marry Adrian Hunt. Though the man was handsome, and they had been bound for the last decade, she knew with every fiber of her being that if she married that man, she would not be Monarch long. Her job now was to change the course of history, recording and setting it on its right path. Energy surged through her body; it was the early hours of the morning, but she stood and got dressed. She wore a simple dress that rested softly against her tanned skin, cool in the night air. It was midsummer, a gentle breeze shuffled her soft blue curtains. After putting on her doeskin shoes, Seraphina walked to the window that overlooked her small village. Though she was the Monarch, she was definitely not the ruler of this land. That role rested firmly on the Hunt family’s shoulders; the young Seraphina Vance was a child born out of wedlock and without the consent of the regency. The woman was an unnatural creature blessed by the spirits; she had spent the first ten years of her life living in the forest around the village of Haven. Abandoned by her birth mother when she was born, she was taken in by the fae and raised as their own. It wasn’t until her adopted mother felt that she needed to learn to be with her own kind that she was taken in by the village baker. It was the last house on the edge of the village, the place she looked at now as she rested her soul before the inevitable truth came out. The bells began tolling across the dead of night; below her, she watched as the glowing lights of Illuni brightened her home. The small floating creatures were friends to the people of the village, often viewed as house pets. Down the stone hallway, loud footsteps could be heard. The Hunt family likely heard of the situation and came to gather her. Collecting the last of her thoughts, willing her emotions to settle, Seraphina waited for the messenger to unlock her door. While waiting, she glanced at her room again. It was lightly furnished per her taste. She preferred to have little belongings; it was easier to be controlled when having more things that she loved. The sound of a heavy dead-bolt lifting directed her attention to the steel door. Despite having access to other universes that had higher levels of technology, the Hunts elected to keep most of their holdings the same. Most buildings in the village were wood and stone. However, many of those buildings also had modern amenities like running water and proper sewage. Magic was becoming accessible to many here, so most had heated water as well. A grinding of metal from the hinges told her that it was time. The sound was quickly followed by a dim light. A small purple Illuni floated above the shoulder of the guard that came to collect her. “Lady Seraphina, the madam calls for you in the Gold Hall.” Standing up straight, Seraphina gently waved him to go. “I will follow you.” Holding her head high and shoulders relaxed, the young woman walked toward her first confrontation.