Darkness had fallen upon the kingdom of Solanales. The blue moon shimmered with sorrow as it rose over the snow-kissed peaks of the western mountains, sullenly shedding its lunar light across the verdurous and plentiful land. Its pale beams streamed through the iron bars of an old neglected tower window, painting its glow over the erotically entwined bodies who were passionately writhing together within the crumbling walls. Breathy moans, gasps, and hot wet slaps filled the dreary and derelict place. For clad in only their secrecy, the prince was vehemently pounding into the servant girl who he loved.

"Oh, oh, Sephtis!" She wantonly cried in a fit of passion, while her inner walls clenched and spasmed around his considerably large cock. 

Her pale legs wrapped tightly around his hips as he pinned her back firmly against the wall. The rough cold stones and brittle withered vines indented painfully into her delicate skin, yet her fingers clawed at the nape of his neck in a desperate plea for more. His large hand threaded through the fiery locks of her hair, as he kissed up from the slender bow of her collarbone with feverish desire. 

"Aubrielle." He breathily whispered against the side of her cheek. His hot breath delightfully fanned her skin as he laboriously panted and growled near her ear, thrusting all the harder. 

Dead ivy leaves rustled upon the vines as his pace became more urgent and ardent. His lips fervently swallowed her wanton cries of bliss, while her legs trembled and wrapped around him all the tighter. Heat fluttered within her stomach, and like the crashing of the tide, she could not withhold the waves of pleasure which violently washed over her body and soul. Her amber eyes softly glowed with satisfaction, a trait she was forced to keep well hidden from most. The rhythm of their love grew sporadic and slow, with the prince strenuously panting into her mouth and softly biting at her lower lip as he emptied his seed inside of her. Her creamy bosom heaved against his chest while his long fingers pressed into her thighs to hold her up.

Prince Sephtis stared lovingly into the golden light of her eyes, utterly enchanted by the witch before him. He did not care about her servantly status nor the secrets of magic she kept. He intended to make her his queen. Her dainty hand trembled as she tenderly threaded it through his silky raven-black tresses, for although he was under her traitorous spell, her feelings for him were true. And she had recently learned of his fate.

"I love you." His deep voice softly murmured against the softness of her neck.

His bright emerald eyes closed whilst his lips gently played across her skin, blinding himself to the forlorn expression etched upon her lovely features. Crystalline tears began to cling to her soft full lashes, set agleam by the lazuline light of the lune. They glittered like diamonds as they gently fell from her tightly closed eyes, becoming nothing more than pitiful splotches of mud as they landed upon the dirt-covered stone floor.

Prince Sephtis grew suspicious of her silence and peered into the sorrow-kissed gaze of his lover. "You are weeping?" His brows furrowed with confusion and heartache, as he affectionately cupped her flushed and dewy cheek.

"Forgive me, Your Highness." Her lower lip trembled as she quickly wiped her tears away and began wiggling out of his arms.

Their bodies untangled, allowing his cock to slip from within her. It glistened in the moonlight with the evidence of their passion as he began redressing. "Must I remind you not to address me as such whilst we're alone?" Long dark hair cascaded over his pale shoulder while he shoved his manhood back within the confines of his tight umber trousers. At the youthful age of eighteen, the prince had the strong yet slender build of one still on the cusp of manhood.

Aubrielle fumbled to retrieve her discarded, rumpled-up purple dress from the filthy floor. She inwardly begged her tears to dry while hastily redressing. Yet the newfound sorrow within her soul relentlessly flowed like a never-ending river of grief. Her simple black servant flats pattered against the floor while she moved to gaze through the broken bars of the time-weathered window. Her glossy eyes peered up through the curtain of withered vines to dolorously stare at the moon and stars.

"Please, Aubrielle, why do these tears stain your beauteous face?" Sephtis asked with care while wrapping his arms around her slender frame from behind. His lips caressed up her cheek, kissing away her thin rivers of sadness. 

Aubrielle sucked in a shaky breath of the cool night air, dreading the words she would have to speak. "I did not ask you to meet me here so that we could make love."

"Yet once again I have been bewitched by your charms, and make love we did." Sephtis salaciously smirked against her hair before placing a kiss upon her head.

"Sephtis, please." She leaned away from his affections with an expression of anguish. "We can not be together. It is not within our fates."

Hurt and rejection panged through the prince's heart and panic swept over his soul. "No, that is not true! I have publically refused my betrothal to the princess of Dianthus, and have secretly begun writing new laws to liberate all witches! I vow to you that I shall never wed a princess, but a girl of common witch blood. My heart is yours, and we only need to hide our love for a little longer. Once I am king-"

"I had a vision." Her soft voice silenced the frantic words of the prince, something no other slave would ever dare to do. The prince stilled in apprehension, giving her every ounce of his undying attention. For he knew that it should be taken with the utmost seriousness whenever a witch had a vision. "The omniscient star goddess of cosmic creations came to me."

"What?" He all but hissed in fear while wrapping his arms tighter around her. "Are you sure it was her? Please tell me that she did not reveal an omen upon thy soul?"

Aubrielle forlornly glanced down, feeling her heart crumble with the memory. For it was not her soul that had been shadowed by an augury, but his. "Yes, I am sure. She floated within the endless dark amongst millions of glimmering worlds and stars. Her hair flowed and shimmered like silken rivers of starlight, while her translucent skin glowed both as pale as the peace lily and as dark as the midnight skies. And in her loneliness, she wept tears of starfire."

"Why was she lonely?" Sephtis murmured with curiosity.

"Because she is only ever feared or forgotten by her children." She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear as she gazed up to the twinkling heavens. "I watched in awe as the roots of sacred asphodel flowers drank in the tears pooled at her feet. And as their ivory buds blossomed with her sadness, shimmering worlds formed within their expanding lucent petals like pearls cradled in a shell. Then they gently floated up and away to take their places amongst the sparkling sea of cosmos, with trails of glittering stardust swirling throughout the darkness behind them." Her hand gently lifted to the window as she spoke, as though the ghosts of such worlds were floating before her.

"Yes, all life is born from pain. And all death is born from life." The prince shrugged. "But that does not mean we can not enjoy our lives together."

"No, but what she showed me does." More tears trickled from the witch's amber eyes. "She held her divine hands out and cupped them together before me, allowing the luminescent liquid of her starfire tears to swirl and pool within her palms. And within those tears, I saw you."

"Me?" His whispered voice sounded as fragile as the brittle vines framing the window, and rattled as they did in the breeze.

"She wanted me to relay a warning, Sephtis." She turned in his arms to peer up at him with a look of deep sorrow. "I have seen much death within your future. So much death. The kind of death which writhes like worms beyond burial and gnaws hideously at one's soul. You are doomed to become entangled within the veil which separates breath and grave..." Her fiery locks bounced over her shoulders as she woefully shook her head. "You are destined to be the great destroyer of all life."

Sephtis firmly grabbed her chin and sternly stared into her eyes with a look of anger. "I love these lips, but I loath the words they have just spewn." His thumb slowly caressed over her plump red lower lip. "My only destiny is to be the greatest king the kingdom of Solanales has ever seen, with you by my side!" He swiftly kissed her forehead. "Fuck the cosmic creator! That pretentious being of starlight who only brings about prophecies of woe! I will ensure that no dreaded fate shall befall us!"

Aubrielle sighed, knowing just how wrong the arrogant prince was. She knew that her unalterable fate was cruel and lonesome, yet his could be changed. "She wept so that the world may have hope." 

"What do you mean?"

"A single starfire tear fell from her eyes and glimmered down to our world. It is my last and greatest endeavor to relay that you must find and possess it. Only its light will be able to guide your damned and deathly soul out from the dark and lead the way to become the great king you were meant to be. Or you and our world will be forever lost."

Such words filled the prince with confusion and fury. "You speak of nothing true! These are nonsensical ramblings! Mere illusions of a witch's imagination!"

The ominous tolling of bells interrupted the prince's rage, sending shivers of fear creeping along their spines. The prince's eyes grew wide and wary. The bells only ever meant one thing. The castle was under attack. The vines rustled as he forcefully shoved them aside to better peer out the window. His bright green eyes bore down upon the old abandoned courtyard and the ghastly swamp just beyond its walls. The cursed swamp where the bodies of dead witches were left to rot. He found the area completely empty except for a plump owl perched upon one of the many gnarled boughs twisting over the crumbling walls. This didn't surprise him considering no one ever ventured out to this part of the castle unless to do secretive things. 

"They're probably attacking the east wing near the throne room." He peered down at his lover, fearing for her safety. "Stay here and hide if you see anyone coming. It is unlikely that an enemy would risk crossing through the deathly swamps only to attack the ghosts haunting the west wing, but remain on high alert nonetheless."

He held her close and leaned down to kiss her farewell with tender love and passion. It was the last time he would ever do so. With great haste, he wrapped his long dark cloak over his shoulders, threw his hood over his head, and then bravely paced toward the door. He knew that his family had business to attend to in the throne room, something he should have been present for, and he was suddenly fearing for their safety.

"Be careful, my prince." Aubrielle held her trembling hand out to him as he opened the dilapidated tower door with a terrible creak, revealing a set of dark spiral stairs leading to the grounds below. 

He smiled over his shoulder at her, taking in her teary amber eyes, love-tossed fiery tresses, and pale moon-kissed features. She was truly the most beautiful woman he'd ever beheld. "I will return for you. I promise." Trepidation gnawed at Aubrielle's soul as she watched him depart, fearing what she already knew was to come. 

The moon eerily illuminated the decrepit and overgrown courtyard, making the crooked shadow of the disintegrative tower stretch like a sickly omen to darken the prince's path. Quiescent leaves crushed beneath his expensive black leather boots, while he cautiously yet swiftly made his way across the neglected stones. Withered labyrinthine vines twisted and tangled their way around the many crumbling stone statues of olden gods, seemingly strangling the long-forgotten deities as they slowly turned to dust. 

He yanked open a rusty old iron gate, leading to the beauteous and thriving gardens. The smell of fire and smoke floated upon the wind, sinisterly mingling with the sweet scents of flowers and vegetation. Then a feminine scream sliced through the peaceful trickling sounds of the ornate fountains, guiding the prince's startled gaze to the main towers. 

Thick plumes of sapphire-blue smoke curled up from a few of the windows, while soldiers clad in pure white armor and solanalian guards brutally fought to the death upon the castle walls. Their swords violently clashed and clanked, melding with the manly grunts and clamorous shouts. He watched as the moonlight gleamed upon an enemy blade, staring in horror as it mercilessly sliced the head clean off one of his loyal guards with a radiant flash. The body lifelessly slumped out of sight, while the head fell beside the wall and disappeared into the darkness. 

Why did that scream sound so much like my mother? ...He anxiously thought while pulling down his hood, allowing the chilling wind to dance through his hair.