Eyes were trained on a kingdom which had once been on terribly rocky ground, one that had risen above it and prospered in a short span of time. What had once been minor territories and full of outcasts and banished people from lands far and near, grew into a collective group, and then rose into the Kingdom of Felshare. The land was farmed and began to grow increasingly populated as time passed. As a part of the Felshare bordered the sea, the possibility of shorter trade routes through lands that had once been difficult to traverse unscathed now became easily accessible. Some found it acceptable and profitable while others grew angry.

As that anger took hold, they fought for their place in the world. A war was brought to them in the early years, a war that they won at a cost. From then on, the mission of their kingdom was to bring peace, to acquire trade, to bring happiness to the citizens of their land and others.

And slowly, it began to happen. The thirteenth King, after getting sick and realizing his time was near, finally proposed a lasting peace treaty between its closest neighbor and most well-established Kingdom of Exelia, to which their King and Queen readily agreed. Neither wanted to end the peaceful times of trade and aid. They agreed for the sake of the future and their people.

Time passed. Events transpired that led to anger and confusion. The King of Felshare died. Peace remained, however shaky it was, between the two kingdoms. If war were to break out between the two over that matter that had stunned both of them, nobody would be able to determine which would lose more in the process. So, neither raised their weapons, just waited out the turbulent times.

Still, in that Kingdom of Felshare, not everything was as quiet as the true relationship between the kingdoms. The border regions remained in good condition. Trade was prosperous. The people, the citizens of the great kingdom, were truly gaining better lives as the days passed. The newest young King of Felshare, Owen, at just twenty-eight, had already brought them a continued promised future of health and peace. They were all happy to know the Kingdom, that their families and friends within it, were all in good hands.

That however, it did not quell the gossip that surrounded King Owen. For the place that was the least at peace, the place of constant disharmony and wariness, was the royal palace itself, where he lived, at the very center of the land. And it had been that way ever since he took the throne.

It wasn’t due to him as much as it was the Queen of the land, Ariana Velcone, a noble lady from a founding family, who had her eyes set on ruling from a young age. Some even believed the start of her rise to the throne to be much more sinister than simply taking the spotlight and pushing people out of her way. Thought to be one of her many schemes was the missing Princess of Exelia. She’d been betrothed to Owen, before he’d taken the throne. Just months before they would meet and be wed as a lasting sign of peace between the two kingdoms, she vanished without a trace. However, as there was no evidence, and the search for a body remained open, if at a serious disadvantage with the passage of time, nobody was ever called at fault for the tragedy.

Even so, Queen Ariana was not allowed in the room during the talks of peace between Felshare and Exelia, as the five princes of Exelia were beyond furious at the loss of their sister. And they knew exactly who they wanted to blame it on. Their fingers didn’t hesitate to point in the direction of someone with a crown atop their head.

Despite that, talks remained open for a lasting peace treaty. It wouldn’t do good to act in war on an innocent party… if there was one. Not to forget, Exelia’s much used trade route came directly through Felshare. And there was no way to connect Queen Ariana to the crime, nor anyone else, for that matter. And they’d grown to respect Owen as an honorable king, as much as they despised the wife he’d taken. They knew the cause was politics over love, so they never blamed Owen for his choice, as there hadn’t been much of one to begin with.

As the years of his reign passed, there grew a new cause for concern, and a toppling of monogamy in the convenient marriage between the King and Queen. Despite the best effort of doctors, or medicinal herbs, and any other method that had yet to be tried, there remained no heir to the throne. Mistresses were brought in from noble families, by the court who aided the King, in an effort to get at least one blood-related child to inherit the kingdom, even if that child was not biologically related to the Queen. Any child would do.

Owen allowed it, giving in to the demands of the court in his own weariness. He spent time with the ladies, treating them with the same kindness he showed the Queen and people of his land, as his marriage was not one of love. They had never pledged love to one another, and from Owen’s standpoint, it was merely duty. Duty to wed. Duty to sire a child… inescapable tiring duties that remained forever on his shoulders, making him sink to his knees from the weight after all these years.

Countless efforts were made, yet years continued to pass without fail, and not one of the ladies produced a child.

The only fact that remained in the majority of the eyes of the people was that their beloved King could not sire a child, as no woman he slept with had ever gotten pregnant. Not all believed this, though. Though few, and very well-hidden, rumors that the Queen herself wanted to be the only one to bear his child spread. Just as they would talk of her killing the Princess he’d been betrothed to, they would whisper that she gave the mistresses toxins in their tea to render any potential pregnancy into a miscarriage. They believed it another of her schemes, for she was infertile herself.

Those rumors, as unfounded as they were, sounded entirely believable to one person.

Though she kept out of the spotlight, raising her only child alone and far from the capital city, Emeria listened well to the news and rumors about King Owen, as she knew a secret truth the rest of the citizens of Felshare that reached far and wide never knew.

There wasn’t any problem with the Owen’s ability to sire children.

After all…

A young girl, all of nine years old and quite nearing ten, dashed in through the backdoor with a bright smile on her face as she took her mother’s hands in hers. She had green eyes and beamed with a smile that mirrored her father’s. Her red hair… was also not Emeria’s. This young girl wore all the colors of her father.

“Mother! You’re back!”

She drew the young girl into her arms, laughing and giving her a big hug before wiping a small dirt smudge off of her cheek with a smile she returned in full.

This little girl was Emeria’s everything. And she knew exactly who it was that had helped create her. There was only one man she’d ever allowed into her bed. Only one. And she’d only happened to only learn his real name and status after seeing him on the day of The Fourteenth King of Felshare’s Coronation Parade, as it was a parade made especially for him.

One day, she mused to herself, one day my dear child may want to see her father in person. They’d have to leave their small humble town and make the journey from the border of the land to the capital.

After all, through a chance encounter that she kept silent upon, the King himself had been the one to give Emeria her pride and joy that was now beaming up at her…

“Delilah.”