1 The Prophecy!

Andrea was a beautiful and peaceful empire where people were living in harmony. A great King ruled there. Under his capabilities, Andrea was flourishing.

Beautiful buildings and temples made up of marble stones were a specialty in Andrea. It was the most dominant country in the business sector among the other Indian provinces due to the resources of marble stones in large quantity here. Traders were able to earn well and live well here. The lives of the citizens of Astrea were peaceful.

A beautiful young woman, wearing a blue saree with lots of valuable jewelry on her, was walking in the streets of Kundan, the capital of Andrea. This elegant-looking woman was none other than the Queen of Andrea.

She was a well-known, respectable figure for the entire country. She was beautiful, intelligent, and someone who cares for her people. Her four maids, along with several servants, were following behind her. The people around them had their heads bowed, and their hands joined in respect for her.

On every Tuesday, the Queen of Andrea visited the Temple to worship Lord Shiva. Today was no different.

The Queen, dressed in embroidered Saree and golden ornaments, was exuding an imperial charm. When the entourage arrived at the Temple, they saw a line of beggars awaiting alms. Usually, there are not so many of them, but everyone knew of the Queen's visit to the Temple on Tuesdays, so they were there especially today.

Out of them, one beggar, in particular, was looking in a worse state. The Queen took pity on him and slipped the gold bangles on her wrists into his hands.

Naturally, this scene did not escape the eyes of gathered people.

A chant of "Long live our Queen! Long live Andrea!" resounded the streets.

There have been many similar incidents in the past. These incidents had commented on the faith of the citizens in the Royal Family. People adored the Royal Family. They thought the Royal Family gave priority to the needs of their subjects.

One day in the Royal Court of Andrea,

A serious discussion was going on. Ministers and royal court members were sitting in their seats. They were nodding and speaking when they have their turns. Right now, everyone was carefully listening to the reports of the year given by the Finance Minister.

Suddenly, in the middle of the court, purple light shone, and a female figure wearing a purple cloak emerged.

"What is the reason behind this insincerity, Dhriti ?" the King asked. He knew if the Head Witch personally appeared, then it must be important.

" Your Highness, Dhriti apologizes for her rudeness, but this matter is urgent for the entire Andrea," Dhriti, the Head Witch of the empire, answered.

The King thought for some time before ordering, "The court is dismissed for today. We will proceed from where we left tomorrow."

"As you say, Your Highness, Pranam*," said the court members while bowing to the King.

After everyone left, the King ordered the Witch, "Speak!"

"My King, our heirloom which we were protecting for centuries has shown some changes lately," Dhriti answered.

The King's brows furrowed. He knew nothing good would come out if it is what he is expecting.

Dhriti continued, "We witches tried examining it."

"It's a prophecy" She sighed.

Witches were one of the oldest creatures since the formation of this world. Every empire gives special privileges to witches, and in return witches pledge their loyalty to protect the Kingdom with the help of their powers.

The heirloom of the Andrea empire was kept under the watch of several witches since ancient times as they were the most capable of keeping magical equipment safe.

"Summon the royal family under this King's order," the King ordered his servants, and several servants ran out of the court to obey it.

Every Royal, present in the Palace, was asked to be present in the court within few moments.

Receiving the King's order, every family member in the Palace ran towards the court as they can feel, this out-of-the-ordinary order, has a serious reason behind it. So no one wanted to delay, as angering the King at such a time would be very easy, and they didn't want it to happen.

Kids were uninvited. As the eldest prince, Yuvraj was only 11 yr old, the eldest princess Kaira was 8, while Shivanshi and Dhruv were only 5 and 2 yrs old.

Within 15 minutes, the court was filled with royals.

"We pay respects to Your Majesty. Pranam,*" they all said together.

"Today, I gathered you all here to discuss something important about the survival of this empire."

He continued, " Our family heirloom, which was dormant for centuries, has shown some movements recently."

Everyone gasped at this.

"As per our rules laid down by our ancestors, I request you all to be the witness of what's going to happen and help in finding a solution." he chanted.

"Dhriti summon the heirloom."

"Yes, Your Highness!" Dhriti did what she was asked to do. She chanted some spells, and soon a wooden block-like structure with antique designs on the corners and some ancient jumbled words carved beautifully on its center appeared.

Dhriti brought the heirloom to the King with a silver knife in her other hand.

"Your Highness!" she offered the knife to him.

The King took the spell-bound silver knife from Dhriti and used it to drop few drops of blood on the heirloom from his hand.

The heirloom shone. Everybody present in the room was holding breath, waiting to see what is going to happen next.

The previous ancient jumbled words present on the block started getting unjumbled, and soon shining sentences were appearing on the block.

As the sentences kept on appearing, the Head Witch, Dhriti's eyes, started to widen.

The texts appearing on the block were ancient, so no one in the court except for the witch, Dhriti, could understand it. They could only stare at Dhriti's face for a moment and at the wooden block on the next moment.

After some time, the glow of the heirloom disappeared, and it came back to its previous form. Dhriti too calmed her expression and said with an expressionless face.

"Not good, Your Majesty."

"Explain," the King asked while pretending to look stern as always, but he was actually freaking out from inside.

Every King in the world hates what? Becoming powerless. The same goes with the King of Andrea. He wanted to enjoy his power as long as he could. But this prophecy, which was awaited for centuries, only appeared during his rule in Andrea. He was afraid what if it said something about him losing control over Andrea. He could only inwardly pray for his thoughts to be wrong.

But the one you fear the most will eventually happen someday, and today was the turn of his fear to come true.

"It states that chaos is soon going to happen in the world, it will turn the world upside down, the world will learn new definitions of power at that time. But....." She couldn't decide whether to say it or not.

Everybody else was waiting for her to complete.

"Say it." ordered the King, now worry was evident on his face.

"but...the royals of Astrea will be the first one to die in this battle of powers."

Everyone gasped at this and was terrified to bones by this piece of information.

".....and according to the prophecy, the one to cause this chaos is.....is going to be...."

"our third princess ....Shivanshi," she finally said.

Everyone present there included the King, and the Queen was too shocked by Dhriti's words.

The King and the Queen had four children. Among the King's children, Shivanshi was the third child. She was a cute, loving, and beautiful girl. Whoever sees her can't stop loving her. She was a very well-behaved and obedient child too. It was one of the reasons why every elder in the family showers love upon her. Due to this sudden revelation, everyone was startled.

Then finally, the King broke the silence and said, "We don't need to panic as I believe we still have time. Let's solve this difficulty together."

And then again, the silence took charge. Among the crowd, a female said, "We shall banish the Third Princess."