The Tale of the Sleeping Prince

Queen Areneas (the Second) of Mariamne took a deep breath before recounting the tale of Prince Xeophilius, father of the strongest Oracle to have ever lived to Oracle Tabitha Tanner upon the latter’s request…

“The Royal Family of Avala is directly related to my family by blood; my niece is in fact, the current reigning Queen. Things were not always as rosy between me and my brother’s family especially with my headstrong niece. She would often come to Mariamne simply to pick a fight with me…”

“On one fated day, we had a particularly nasty fight and in the throws of it, an intruder appeared in our midst and teleported us several centuries into the past- in particular, to the era of our family’s Matriarch,”

“My niece and I really did not know why the intruder sent us back to that time period but it became clear in later years that he had meant for us to change the course of history as we knew it. At that time, Prince Xeophilius was madly in love with our family Matriarch, Sage Areneas. However, as well known, Areneas shared a Protector’s bond with Prince Xander, his older half brother…”

“Feeling dejected and growing desperate, Prince Xeophilius consorted with a dark sorceress by the name of Claudia and she gave him a dark object to use against Areneas that would cause her to lose the child in her womb she had borne out of love for Xander. In exchange for the innocent’s life, Claudia assured the Prince of Areneas’ love being twisted into his favor and promised that Areneas would soon bear a love child for Xeophilius…”

“Prince Xeophilius did in fact use the dark object against Areneas but by Gaia’s light, it’s intended purpose was averted although both mother and child were gravely wounded and nearly lost their lives in the aftermath. The Prince was captured and executed for treason, a decision that deeply wounded the heart of his half brother, Xander. This, my lady, is how the original Alpha Timeline, without our intervention, ended…”

“However, my niece and I intervened before Prince Xeophilius had a chance to use the dark object. We were guided by a shared vision of the future to come which would see Xeophilius’ life saved as his brother had intended and chose to spare his life. I tricked Xeophilius into believing I was Areneas (as I bear an uncanny resemblance to her) and when his guard was down, I put him to sleep with a kiss…”

“My niece and I then preserved his body magically. We also changed the course of the history of the Moon faeries who were meant to be enslaved by dark Mystai- led by Emperor Brodus’ mother, Nasreen by forewarning them of the future to come… Our actions saved many lives but also erased several possible existences across the Beta Timelines such as those belonging to the Night Wolves who existed solely in the due course of history; the enslavement of Moon faeries,”

“When we got back, we realized what we had done. We had created the Original Beta Timeline from which all other Beta Timelines sprung from. My niece and I retained all memories of the Alpha Timeline we had previously belonged to as well as new memories formed from the Beta Timeline, taking the place of our doppelgangers in the new Timeline…”

“When we returned here, we found the Prince Xeophilius was still under the Sleep enchantment I had put him under for all those years. A prophesy concerning him revealed that his true love would awaken him when the time was ripe but my niece and I were weary of him waking up and finding that Sage Areneas had been long mated to his brother and all the events that had transpired after that. We feared the grudge he’d surely have against our family and whatever actions he’d take to exert his revenge chilled us to the core…”

“However, his tale was one with enough allure to draw many romantics to it. The Tale of the Sleeping Prince awaiting his true love’s awakening did in fact become a tourist attraction and Mariamne thrived due to this fact but became increasingly reassured when none who claimed to be the fated long lost love of the Prince turned out to be whom they claimed they were. However, as fate would have it, his true love did arrive from the Continent of Hope, Africa in the person of a beautiful and powerful half witch, half dryad Kenyan woman named Kiara,”

“From the moment she stepped foot in Mariamne, strange things began to occur. Xeophilius’ heart pounded all across Mariamne as if it was the country’s very pulse, echoing in every corner, heard by virtually everyone in the country at the time. The faint thumping continually grew stronger and louder the closer Kiara came to her love. However, the surprises did not stop there…”

“Kiara brought along with her, her maternal Uncle, the most powerful seer in the East African region. It turns out that Lord Jahi the Wise just so happened to be the very traveler who sent us all the way back to ancient times to save the Sleeping Prince in the first place!”

“Lord Jahi confessed to everything claiming that he had had a vision of Zuri and further, he had seen the doomed future his niece would have had to endure had time followed its due course. Upon learning that it was his visions and manipulations that led my niece and I to save Xeophilius in the first place, I immediately had him apprehended and that was where ther bad blood began…”

“I instructed the Royal Guard not to allow Kiara anywhere near Prince Xeophilius and ordered for her immediate exile from Mariamne. She and her party tried everything and used every bit of magic they could to try and get to the Prince but it was all in vain, of course…”

“They grew ever so desperate and eventually even brought Shamans to me who informed me that the spirits of my grandparents were ill at rest because of my decision to keep Kiara and Xeophilius apart. I reluctantly allowed Kiara to see Xeophilius and made her promise to take him with her.”

“She stated that she would indeed take her Prince with her and they would never look back if I also released her Uncle from prison. I denied her request and instructed the Royal Guard to see to it that she was never allowed upon Mariamne soil ever again,”

“Inevitably, denying her access to the Prince began to have adverse effects on Mariamne itself. Terrible Earthquakes and tremors rocked the country and were too much to handle even for our most powerful casters. When a tsunami was imminent, I had no choice but to honor Kiara’s request. Her Uncle was released and she was allowed access to Prince Xeophilius.”

“Upon entering his bedchamber, the Prince finally opened his eyes and beheld his true love. Had I not been so scared out of my mind, perhaps I might have appreciated the emotional scene more but at the time, I was frightened by seeing him wide awake,”

“Xeophilius was of course confused at first as he looked between me and Kiara. He first mistook me for my grandmother but then quickly realized who I was. I expected he would exert his revenge then and braced myself but he surprised me by focusing solely on Kiara once he was assured that I was not Sage Areneas. They departed quickly and did not return until shortly after Zuri was born…”

“Kiara explained that Mariamne was the last place she wanted to be but she had received a vision that her daughter had to be dedicated to the service of Gaia at the Temple of Mariamne. After much deliberation, we granted her request and both she and Prince Xeophilius were allowed into the country with armed escorts watching their every move throughout their supposed mission…”

“Once the ceremony was through, a Laurel Tree sprung from the ground right in the middle of the Temple. A prophesy foretold of the immense power Zuri would hold and the importance of her being raised as a daughter of Mariamne. Kiara was opposed to Zuri having anything to do with Mariamne and kept her daughter as far away from the country as she possibly could for as long as she could…”

“We would later learn that Zuri was fated to be the Oracle of this world, an unprecedented event that no one could have foretold considering that she is almost entirely dryad. Her Protector was a son of Mariamne as well, a fact she battled with for the longest time even going as far as to reject his swearing of allegiance to her and her cause as is his destiny…”

“It goes without saying that by the time she claimed the power of Oracle, Zuri hated Mariamne and of course hated my family for everything we had done…”

“And thus concludes the tale of the Beta Timeline and one of the Sleeping Prince,” the Queen stated.

THE END.

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