In the presence of a queen, even a knight bows the knee

Author's note: I didn't know how to add a chapter before one that I have already and so I combined the Prologue with Chapter 1. Please enjoy.

Prologue:

Somewhere deep in Yilin Kingdom:

"DRINK IT. DRINK IT NOW."

Inside the barely lit room, the young man's captive was shoving a small glass bottle filled with a mysteriously dark fluid to the young man's lips.

The ill-fated young man could clearly hear the screeches carried by the wind flooding through the cold steel bars of the prison that he was in.

Apart from the countless people surrounding the young man, the place he was in was rather comfortable, it was really only the noises that really frightened him.

Moans that seemed to be coming from wolves and foxes and sounds that resembled hoots were also flowing through the gaps.

It was hard to miss the sounds. None of the sounds were particularly quiet and all of the sounds added to the ominous feeling that was starting to pool into his belly.

"I SAID DRINK IT," the older man said through gritted teeth forcing the knelt down young man to sink down even further.

The young man may have been a lot of things, but one thing he wasn't, was particularly stupid. There was no way that he was going to willingly take a sip of anything that came out of that bottle. Not when it had clearly gone wrong for so many others.

For the screeches, the moans and the hoots which no man on the planet would be comfortable in the presence of, were coming from other people that had taken the concoction.

So, forgive the younger man that he was feeling rather cowardly. The noises told of the problems he may have to face if he wasn't strong enough to fight against the chemicals in the concoction and not let the extra power destroy him from the inside out.

Even in the very room he was in, he could see some of the effect of the concoction and previous failed concoctions before it. Countless soldiers were scattered around the room with eyes that had lost their humanity and the younger man was sure, souls that had lost their purpose.

There was no peace in the kingdom of Nilin and he was quite sure, if the chosen one didn't make their much-needed appearance, that there would never be again.

"DRINK."

Cold steel suddenly found its way onto the younger man's neck. He shouldn't have been surprised; it was the natural progression of a threat to be made violent.

But he gasped nonetheless, making the decision that one way was better than the other.

The younger man snatched the bottle out of the man's hand.

"Don't you dare spill even one little drop," the man snarled quickly in warning.

The boy lifted up the glass seeming as if he was about to take a swig. He hesitated.

"...I can't," he whispered. "It is not right."

"YOU HAVE TO."

"...The system exists for a reason, if we break it any further then we will be destroyed by the other two kingdoms."

The burly man in front of the boy bit out a deadly grimace.

It was such a shame. The man could be charming. His charm in this very minute though was greatly misplaced. Apparently, he did not care for illusions when it came to his very own son.

"WE ARE LIKELY TO BE DESTROYED ANYWAY. NILIN AND XILIN ARE THREATENING TO LAUNCH ATTACKS ON US. BE A MAN AND DRINK."

The younger man's forehead crumpled as a few drops of spittle found their way unto his face.

"But father..."

"Either you become powerful, or you will fall from grace. Even if you are my own son, I can't have a weakling in my family."

The younger man wanted to point out that he was one of the most powerful men in Yillin kingdom naturally. With most other people being unnatural, he wasn't all that to shout about. But naturally, he had it down.

The son considered his father's words, he held out the glass and said, "You first?"

The steel knife on the son's throat was now rimmed with just a touch of red.

The son gulped and brought the glass bottle up to his mouth.

After a couple of seconds, he fell to the ground with a loud groan and started convulsing.

The young man hurriedly tossed threw the bottle to the other side of the room. The glass smashed and the rest of the concoction splattered on the floor. Hardly any of the liquid remained.

"You drank enough," the elder chuckled triumphantly.

He turned and started stalking out the room.

"One day, you will thank me for this," he said before completely leaving with his band of merry monsters.

Little did his father know, the young man hadn't given in, he just made it seem as if he had.

As all Yilins had, even the ones that now screeched, moaned and hooted, the young man had fire power. He had the ability to boil something, the concoction down.

He had taken the bottle out of his dad's hand in fear that his dad would feel the heating up of the bottle and known what he was up to. From there it had been easy enough. All he had to do was convulse as he had seen many others do before and put up a little fight so that his dad didn't suspect any funny business.

There was only one order of business left, after he escaped, he needed to find the chosen one.

Chapter 1: In the presence of a queen, even a knight bows the knee

Min Li had her head bowed to the floor.

It was extremely hot afternoon in Shan Li, the capital of Xilin, and Min Li had her head bowed to the floor.

Sweat was threatening to run down her brow and yet she still had to look at the floor.

Min Li had been in absolutely outstanding gowns before; gowns of the very best brocade made with the highest quality of gold thread, and yet she was here in a servant's gown having to look at the floor.

The horror, she thought.

The problem wasn't the dress.

No, she was quite happy with the dress. It was light pink and turquoise green, hanged gracefully, and quite reminded her of cherry blossoms which filled up the city of Shan Li in the spring.

The problem was also not with her being a servant girl, she didn't quite mind that. In fact, that was part of evil plan.

What Min Li did mind, was all the factors coming together to knock her out.

She had to look at the floor because she was a servant, which allowed the sweat that her brow was producing because it was too hot, to drip unto the lovely new dress she had just received. It was also the only real dress out of all the beautiful ones she had worn before that she could truly call her own.

For that reason, she had to greatly resist the urge to look up.

She didn't only want to look up to save her dress, but also because she liked to think of herself as a rebel by nature and a rebel by trade. The latter was unfortunately not the complete truth evident in that she had applied for this job to serve in the Xilin palace by her own will.

But a servant at the Xilin palace was the finest position anyone in the kingdom could have if they weren't fortunate enough to be born into a rich family. If a person wasn't rich themselves, they could simply serve the rich, which was better than nothing especially in the Xilin palace as the Xilin royal family were renowned for being nice.

That rumour is most definitely wrong for one of them, Min Li thought.

Thinking to take advantage of her head already being bowed, Min Li prayed for the servant role that she wanted. That was what they were all standing there for, all twenty of the new female servants, including Min Li's best friend, Lily; they were waiting to be assigned to a particular place in the palace.

Min Li categorically didn't want to be assigned anywhere but the Eastern palace. She didn't want to cook for the King and Queen, she also didn't want to be a minion for the head maid who was standing somewhere in front of her.

Rather she wanted to do something fun. Serving Fenhua, the crown prince, was not certain to be fun, but if she played her cards right, she could tour the Eastern place and get started on her evil plan.

The Eastern palace didn't have the grandeur that the King's palace boasted of. It wasn't decorated with all the countless extravagant presents from all four corners of the Earth like the King's palace was.

Rather, it had something more valuable to Min Li.

The Eastern palace could itself brag of a rather grand... library.

At first it sounds quite pitiful. But Min Li needed the very best library in all the kingdom as she wanted to access to the greatest scrolls and books which could help her muster up her own power. She still didn't know what power, but at this point she thought that any power would do.

She gulped at the thought, not all powers would do.

She really didn't want to have the power to wield fire, that's what people from Yilin kingdom did. Yilin were now at war with the other two kingdoms, Xilin and Nilin, and although Min Li liked to think of herself as a rebel, she really didn't want to be kicked out of one of the two peaceful kingdoms.

When Min Li had attended her first Xilin power ceremony when she was the ripe age of fifteen, all the other fifteen-year-olds had been able to wield their power of water. Min Li unfortunately had not been able to wield any sort of power.

Some had said that they had seen from her hand rise a speck of fire, which was even worse. From then she had been marginalised from nearly everyone in high society, and even her very best friend, the crown prince, seemed to have turned his back on her.

Some stopped associating with her on the simple basis that she was powerless. Others stopped associating with her because the crown prince had. A small number of people making up the Xilin conspiracy theorists had stopped associating with her in case she was the child that the prophecy had foretold.

Anyone who happened to be of the latter category, held some respect for her believing she could destroy them with a mere thought or even the stretch of a hand. She wished she could wield that amount of power, but the simple fact was she couldn't drown with water, choke with the removal of air, or roast with the power of fire even a small defenceless ant. Her power was non-existent.

Unless someone was unfortunate enough to be struck with the very worse of illnesses, then they always fitted the grain.

People from Yilin kingdom always wielded fire, people from Xilin kingdom always wielded water and people from Nilin kingdom always wielded air.

The royal family of the kingdoms wielded the strongest version of their power, usually called refined power. The other affluent families usually wielded strong power, but not refined. Then the working people, at the bottom of the pack, generally wielded a weaker version of the power. Accordingly, nepotism ruled in the kingdom. No one wanted to associate with her, an orphan, as she might just ruin their family lineage.

No one had ever seemed able to tell her any information about her biological family and so Min Li was forced to fend for herself, try to enter Eastern palace library and figure out what she wielded by herself.

Even if she couldn't manage to drag a power from the very depths of her poor soul, she would settle for learning martial arts from the very books which had produced one of the greatest martial artists in history.

As Min Li pondered on the crown prince, she wondered if being a man of many talents was fair. He didn't need martial arts. It was futile. He could cause water to materialise from nowhere and bend to his will.

Maybe I could figure out a way to best him if I learn martial arts, Min Li thought. There was a chance, slim but still there, that if she learned martial arts, what she couldn't do by a power, she could do with a sword.

Then and only then, no one would tease her for being powerless, and she could heroically travel the world saving people from uncontrollable evil. Min Li's goal even made her cringe, it sounded extremely corny. That made sense, she had thought it up when she was fifteen and it wasn't about to change.

There were only a few steps involved in her completing her master plan:

Number one, get into the Eastern palace.

Number two, improve her powers or martial arts to the point that she was able to be accepted in the Crown prince's army.

The crown prince happened to be the leader of the main line of military defence. Which was funnily enough exactly what she needed to travel around. Eventually the crown prince would have to really settle down in Xilin to fulfil his role as crown prince properly, and she would be free to travel the world without being under his watchful eye.

Min Li knew for sure that the stubborn man wouldn't let her into his army easily. However, she had already thought of what to do to circumvent his meddling which formed number three of her agenda.

Pout.

When times get tough, all a beautiful girl had to do was pout.

Not in front of the crown prince, she had thought this through, again he was stubborn... hard-headed... and obstinate when it came to her.

Rather she would pout prettily, well as prettily as she could manage without looking like she was sucking a lemon, in front of the only man with authority over Fenhua, his dad, the king.

The king and queen practically raised Min Li for most of her life.

She thought a bit more on the point and amended. They had practically raised Min Li for most of her life but only doing as much as king and queens do. They played with her for a bit every week, ate dinner often with Min Li and then left her and the crown prince to childminders and went about their own devices.

Even though this was the case, Min Li knew that they truly did love her. Meaning her evil plan to prettily pout would all come to fruition.

As she bowed her head, Min Li carried on thinking about how the plan was nearly in reach. She thought about how no one could stop it. She thought about how no one had authority over her. She thought about how no one could make her bend the knee-

From the corner of her eye, Min Li saw the other servant girls kowtow before a person before them.

The Queen had just stopped her dilly dallying through the gardens to stand in front of them.

Min Li also kowtowed. Though she was a rebel at heart and though no one had authority over her, she wasn't silly enough to want to spend a night in the dungeons or bowing before the queen's residence.