1 The Curse

The curse was cast upon the Amari nobility way back in the day. No one remembered who cursed the kingdom and how they did it, but everyone knew that they were still paying the price of what their ancestors did many generations ago. Back then, the nobility only laughed it off. "What bosh!" they all said.

"A thousand cuts on whoever speaks about this atrocious thing," their King decreed.

"There is nothing to be afraid of. After all, it is only a hoax; can a woman even do anything? The people scoffed.

Oh, how wrong they were.

Little did they all know, their descendants would suffer from that grave mistake.

Years passed, the nobility noticed the constant change in their lives and became alarmed.

"How could it happen? How could it be like this?"

Everyone thought the same, but no one could voice their concerns as the topic was taboo. Even the then King thought the matter was alarming but didn't revoke his decree, due to pride. So, they let the issue go. They could only hope that it would pass and everything would go back to normal.

But, no.

Small trees grew and turned into shades to shelter people from the sun's scorching heat. Green leaves turned yellow and fell to the ground. Fashion changed yet again. Time went by, and another generation took over the kingdom. But the curse didn't go like the former generation.

They finally took action, but it was already late.

The curse fed from the inside, eating away, little by little, the very core of the once-prosperous kingdom. Well, it is still prosperous, but now rotten; lichen and moss already stuck to the kingdom's walls. No one can undo the curse.

The blue blood realized how grave the situation was. The people had tried everything that could be done to undo the curse, but with no proper knowledge and written records, they could only search in the dark — not knowing who or what to search for.

If you ask someone on the streets what the origin of the curse was, they would probably tell you that it happened during the dark times of Amari Kingdom, and it was something that's eating away the kingdom even now. If asked who did it, they would answer, "Talipandas." Talipandas. Ungrateful. Insolent. Lewd. Wench. Hypocrite.