Beyond Eternity

DAY 11, AFTERNOON

Entry 39

Everyone is fighting now, somehow, word got out about the artifact's identity, the court has gone cold, the people who worked together now look at each other with cold stares. I'm not sure who revealed its identity and for what reason, all I know is that it is the cause of all this conflict. As the queen, I have to do something, but here is where I'm weak, politics, I'd have a higher chance of wrestling and defeating a shark underwater than convincing everyone to stop this fight.

Entry 42

I am currently in grief, two deaths happened today, the commander in charge of the ramparts and... My very own daughter, my little princess. It happened one after the other.

“So that princess from the other journal was also her daughter. I see.”

Entry 45

The citizens are starting to tire of us, they are beginning to revolt, as is with the guards, they have all stopped obeying our command on their own accord, by now, its seems a few more people know of what the artifact truly is and seek it. It’s no surprise, the mere existence of something like that can greatly appeal to man's greed, I myself feel its pull.

Entry 46

The castle isn't safe anymore, but now I know who spread the news of the artifact's identity, mana confessed to me, she said that they were threatened by several people, mostly the princes, princesses and the other nobles to destroy all they love if they did not tell them what the artifact is. Now the puzzle fits. My trusting people of such knowledge was the cause of our downfall, that knowledge was only meant for the kings and queens of the kingdom, as their duty is to protect it. I trusted people enough that I shared that information, little did I know, that was my vulnerability, Mana, Alisa, Jillian and Lyn never meant to betray me, but they were put in situations with their very lives and families at stake. When Mana came to me, she was battered and bruised, according to her, it was due to denying them the first few times. According to her, the reason some knew that they had the knowledge of the kingdom's artifact was because they often talked about it amongst themselves and me which attracted more eavesdroppers all the time, no matter how secretive and careful they were in their words, it was found out. That was the price I had to pay for even telling them, because of me, they are suffering, it is true that the artifact can cause great destruction.

Entry 50

I confessed to the king about all this one morning, although he was saddened and disappointed, he found it in himself to forgive.

I may have been forgiven, but the consequences of my actions are not lost, the conflict is now worse than before, deaths happen almost daily, Victusene is in tatters, the people are either scattered, confused, oppressed or fighting back, as is with the knights. That day, the king gave several orders to cease their actions, he did all that he could, announcing a death penalty, lifetime consequences such as imprisonment, he used his power as king to calm his court... But it was far too late when he acted, nobody listened anymore, only the first prince, my firstborn and the most loyal of the guards and servants still sided with us, and soon enough, we too were in battle.

Entry 51

I write this as I am in hiding, I am thankful for my physical strength due to how I lived in the past that I could hold my own in combat, even his majesty, who has aged, still hasn't lost his youthful energy. But just us with a few guards and servants cannot defeat a chaotic people all against each other and we know this, I know of the artifact's location, I and his majesty planned to destroy it once and for all, that the kingdom will not crumble from the inside.

Our small faction left the castle and ran towards the prison, we ran through its tunnels with our lamps, with his majesty on the lead and the first prince right behind him. The plan was to find the artifact ourselves and destroy it that none may have it, and later show everyone that they might stop. It looks like every other inmate had already escaped just like what was reported recently.

“Which means from here on, this story fits in after the prisoner’s journal writings.” Lucas thought to himself.

We winded through the twisting tunnels and was led to an empty cell, his majesty said that this was modeled to look like a cell to avoid suspicion, but no person was actually imprisoned within here before.

“The Elixir was hidden within the prison all along…? That’s definitely not safe.”

As we entered the cell, the king moved a stone button masquerading as one of the bricks, and just as he did, other bricks began to protrude, although they were far too subtle for myself to notice, his majesty knew what he was doing of course and pushed more bricks, pulling others and leaving the rest to be. Eventually, the wall itself split and revealed another room. Within this room lay a sealed metal box, he then placed his crown atop it where it fit in a ring shaped pattern, then asked me to hand over my crown, I did, and as the two crowns were placed atop the box, both were twisted by his majesty on opposite directions, and soon enough, we saw it, a vial with chains that make it seem like it could be worn as a necklace. The king held the vial, then IT happened.

From where I stood, I saw my dear child pierce his sword through his father from behind, he took the vial from him and ran off, slicing away at the guards and servants who were too stunned at that moment. Even my four dear friends were either dead or dying, I couldn't stand that sight and froze for a while, but I was snapped back to reality as I saw the last standing servant took chase of my son. I too ran, hoping to stop him. The girl, whose name was Claudia if-

“Claudia?!” said a shocked Lucas as he now kept reading intently.

-I remember correctly, was one of the younger servants, didn't talk much, though performed her duties to the letter. She pursued my son and disappeared into the distance with him.

I left the dungeon myself, but I shan't write what I saw, what happened next, I will end my entries for this journal here, let it not be known what happened after unless Claudia says otherwise...

“That's it?!” shouted Lucas, after slowly calming down, he said to himself “Well no matter, Claudia will indeed tell me the rest.”

“Yes, that's it” said Claudia who had sneaked up behind Lucas.

“Whoa, when did you arrive?!” The frightened Lucas said.

“Just now actually.” replied Claudia, “So I guess you're now ready to hear me out right?”

“More than ever in fact!” answered Lucas, “C'mon, spill the beans!”

“So impatient.” She said. “Well then, would it be fine it I started at the very beginning?”

“Of course.” Lucas replied.

Claudia, clearing her throat, prepared to speak once more.

“Okay, rather than going straight from where the queen’s story stopped, I'll talk about my own past first.”

“Mmhhmm.” Replied the expectant Lucas.

 “See, I was a quiet kid, our family owned a cattle farm, so I had already been used to being with animals at an early age.”

“Well that made your whole animal taming thing easier had it not?” Lucas remarked.

“Indeed it did,” said Claudia “I had some friends, we played tag, hide and seek, we did what we wanted basically, growing up, I was taken to the castle to become one of the queen's servants, I didn't find the work hard, the queen was very generous, she was always friendly with all of us, though I my personality made it so I wouldn't talk to her much, unlike—”

“Alisa, Mana, Jillian and Lyn right?” Lucas said.

“Correct,” replied Claudia “Which is why my name was vaguely remembered by the queen when she wrote the journal.”

“Now then, I was there to see the kingdom crumble as you may have already realized. During the time I first entered the court was just less than a year before all the infighting began, like what the queen said, at first there were rumors, then tension slowly crept within the castle, then deaths, starting with a few, then growing in number as the days go by. The servants including myself were directly involved, as the sons and daughters of the king along with the nobles went against each other, not only were we caught in it, we were also forced to side with those we served, in my case, the queen herself. It was horrible really, having to see my fellow servants raise weapons against their friends whom they worked with, all because they had no choice but to obey their masters.”

“And if they refused?” asked Lucas.

“The penalty varies, but in most cases, when the servant refuses or fails what is commanded of him or her, their families are either killed or sold into s*****y, other times, their secrets and their past were used against them, whatever the reason, they knew they couldn't decline. On some occasions, I was there personally to witness death happen, though I was never spotted when I did.” She replied.

“And you didn't tell the queen about any of this?” asked Lucas, looking skeptical.

“I could've, but even if I did, do you think the queen will just up and believe a servant girl who says her son killed this man?”

“Fair enough.”

“So yeah, because of my encounters, I knew that the first prince is also among the people after the artifact, I watched in hiding when Mana was being pressed for information, the threats to her that the queen had mentioned wasn't everything. Apart from threatening her family's safety and getting beat up, she was violated, tortured with various tools, skinned and burned. I suspect that the queen couldn't bring herself to write all that down. If you have to ask, it happened at an old abandoned house far from the rest of the village. I assume the same had happened to the other three girls as they all had similar wounds.”

For a moment, Claudia waited for some kind of response from Lucas, but he only kept silent, so she decided to continue.

“I had always been the observer type so to speak, just like how I decided to watch you, I watched how things went, my silent nature helped much with that, as people tend to drop their guard around me, not noticing or minding that I'm there.”

“Just like the chef...” said Lucas.

“Yes, just like the chef.” Replied Claudia.