He Abandoned Her, Then Lost His Mind

I am the princess of this realm, and also the forgotten daughter of a former queen who was stripped of all her titles. The king claimed that since the queen had not borne him a son to be his heir, he would set her aside and take another woman as his new queen. Weeping, she told him that if she lost her place as queen, the entity that controlled her, the System, would erase her very existence. But the king only believed she was lying to manipulate him. On the day the new queen was crowned, my mother lay still in the royal chambers of the queen's tower, and fell into an endless sleep. I stayed by her side, never leaving her cold body, until I too wasted away and died there. ***** I am the only royal princess left in this kingdom. This very morning, the king formally revoked my mother's status as queen, and locked the two of us away in the queen's private tower. The maids whispered behind their hands that he meant to name another woman to take her place. I saw my mother kneeling in the chapel, speaking softly to empty air, as if talking to someone no one else could see. "Please… Ismene cannot bear to lose her mother. Give me just a little more time…" She thought I was only five years old and could not understand, so she did not try to hide it from me. But I understood everything. There was a terrible thing called the System, and it wanted to take her away from me. I told myself over and over, the king has locked us in here. We cannot leave. That System will never be able to take her. In the quiet chapel, my mother turned and saw me standing in the doorway. Her eyes slowly filled with tears. I pulled my small hands away from the c***k in the door, stepped out, and stuck my tongue out at her to make her smile. But she could not smile at all. She hurried over, knelt down, and wrapped her arms tight around me. Her embrace was warm, like a wool blanket left out in the spring sun all afternoon. Suddenly something warm fell on my cheek. For a moment I wondered if rain was leaking through the roof, until I looked up and saw that it was her tears. I wrapped my arms around her waist and squeezed her fingers as hard as I could with my small hands. "When Ismene grows up, I will protect you, Mother. I will never let anything hurt you." When I am big enough, I will chase that cruel System away forever. When I said this, she held me so tight I could barely breathe. But the faint scent of roses clinging to her clothes was my favorite smell in all the world. Just then, heavy footsteps echoed outside. The king strode toward us, dressed in velvet robes stitched with gold. I ran toward him, beaming. "Father!" We had missed him so much, every single day. I thought my mother would be so happy to see him. I ran too fast, slipped, and fell straight down, right in his path. He was standing only a step away, yet he did not even glance at me. He stepped over my body and walked straight to her. The hem of his fine velvet robe brushed across my hand. The fabric was rough, and it stung my skin. My mother rushed over at once, lifted me gently, and asked in a trembling voice if I was hurt. Seeing her red, swollen eyes made my own throat ache until I could not hold back my tears. That is what pain is. I thought tears would not stop coming. We were both hurting so deeply, but the king's face remained calm and cold, without a flicker of feeling. I wiped the tears from her cheek with my small hand. "Mother, I am not hurt. Please do not cry." She looked at me for a long time, her eyes swimming with love and sorrow that would never fade. Then she turned sharply, and sank to her knees before him. "I beg you, please delay the coronation of the new queen, just a little while longer." The king's face turned dark with anger. "Elara Montrose, will you never stop these lies? That if I take another wife, you will vanish from this world? How many times must I hear this same tale?" At five years old, I began to understand what it all meant. The System had told her, the moment he crowned another woman queen, it would come for her. It broke my heart to see her bowing so low, begging him for mercy. She had told me once that where she came from, all people were equal, no one bowed to anyone else, least of all a wife to her husband. 'Why then was she kneeling at his feet now?' "Mother… do not beg him," I said, pulling at her sleeves, trying to make her stand up. But she would not move. I was too small to pull her away. Just then, a woman walked through the door. She wore a gown stitched all over with jewels, bright and gaudy, like a peacock spreading its feathers. When the king looked at her, his eyes softened in a way I had never seen before. I stared at them, wide-eyed. Once, he had looked at my mother with that same gentle gaze. The woman glanced down at my mother on her knees, and a cold, mocking smile touched her lips. "Sister, do not be angry. From this day forward, I am the king's wife, and the queen of this realm. You may spend the rest of your days quietly here in this tower." As she spoke, all color drained from my mother's face. My own heart felt as if it were being crushed in a fist, tight and aching. I could not bear to see her suffer. When the woman opened her mouth to speak again, I ran forward and pushed her hard. "You wicked woman! Do not speak to her like that!" But before I could step back, the king struck me away with one sharp motion. I fell hard onto the stone floor. Sharp chips of rock cut into my palm, and fire shot up my arm from the wound. The king glared down at me, his voice sharp with rage. "You ill-mannered child! How dare you lay hands on your new queen?" I paid no mind to the pain in my hand. I shouted back at him, "She is not my mother!" He raised his hand to strike me, but my mother threw herself between us in an instant. "Ismene is your own daughter!" Her words only made him angrier. "You know full well the truth of how this child came to be." I did not understand what he meant. I only saw my mother's face turn as pale as snow.