1 Prologue

We were royals. We were seers. We were king and queens alike. We fought, we killed, we loved, we threw morals out the window for our nation, but we never lied. It was why we ruled for centuries past.

I am Althea Ruby Narií, I am a royal. I am not a seer. I do not fight, I have not killed, I have not loved, I have not lost my morals. But I am a liar.

All hail Althea of the house of Narií. All hail Althea the liar.

Althea

I stand at the foot of the gallows and eye the steps as a man a with thick beard nudges me forward hard enough to make me stumble. I now have several new scrapes and cuts on my knees. There was a time where they wouldn't dare treat me like this, when just the mention of my name made men tremble with fear. I had become drunk on that power. I had lived without care until I saw this.

I was hiding away my power to escape the responsibilities of a lady of narií. But when I had foreseen this, this moment right here. The day I ran out of tomorrows, the day were the skys would bleed red and blue at dawn, where the air was damp and cold. I predicted the whispers of the crowd, the chains on my frost bitten hands and legs, I predicted how deep they would cut into skin.

I had been right.

With my death Narií would seal it's fate as well as kill the only person with power to stop it.

Fools.

We were and still are a family of fools.

A man in a tattered brown shirt and a long coat escorted me from where I lay trembling on the floor to the top of the gallows. I don't look at his face as he takes me to my death. I stumble over bits of grain on the pale floor and when we come to a stop I look over at the people and their hands balled in tight fists in the air. They pulled out their pitchforks illuminated only by the torches in their hands. "Kill her!!" They screamed "Hang the perjurer!!!" "Hang her!!"

"Yes" i mumble and it seems to catch the attention of the crowd. This time I talk louder to conceal any emotion in my voice "I can't wait to look down at you and laugh when you realize how wrong you are"

This time I look up to see him. He is looking down at me with a frown so bitter, I can see him visibly swallow back the words he wants to say.

He sees it. He sees the truth in my words.

This time I smile. This time I laugh in the face of their ignorance.

" I hope Narií BURNS"