Eris Gadison, Noah Knight, and Marianna Collie were walking from their school on a sunny afternoon in Momo. They walked for an hour as they crossed the Momo-Koko city line, and arrived in Koko, close to home.

“Oh, boy! I can’t wait until we get out of school!” Marianna squeals happily.

“Yeah.” Noah responds unenthusiastically. “We’ll be out for two months and then we have to come back and do it all over again.”

“Yes, but that’s our last year, Noah. And when we finish our senior year, we’ll finally graduate afterwards! Think about that.”

During Marianna and Noah’s conversation, Eris stayed quiet during that time in thought. Marianna and Noah start to look at her, becoming concerned.

“Eris. What’s wrong?” Marianna asks.

“I’ve just been… thinking about things.” Eris replies.

“About what?” Noah asks.

“About what we’re going to do after we graduate. There aren’t that many jobs here in Koko, and we’d have to go to Momo or Bura to find decent jobs and hope we can keep them.”

“Well… I understand your concern for the future, Eris.” Marianna answers. “But understand this: bad things never last. I’m sure there will be something for our little corner of Elienta will come up.”

Noah scoffs at her statement. “Sorry, Mari, but you make it sound like we have to wait for “our majesty” to change her mind. I swear… if there was a way to knock her off the throne, I would do it. That would be the day.”

“Also, how the woman gained the throne is questionable.” Eris adds.

“Yeah. Very questionable.”

“True. There are some rumors about that subject.” Marianna comments.

“What rumors, Mari?” Noah asks.

“Well, just one really. The rumor is that she and her followers killed the current queen, her brother, and her safekeeps and took over Nora, and the temples in Haliae, Pamola, Oreads, Satori, and Alpine.”

Noah scoffs. “Please. The safekeeps that the last queen had would have taken the current ones out to dry. The former ones were much more powerful and humble…”

.   .

As they were walking for almost an hour, Eris sees a woman in rags sitting on the street corner with two small children she held on to. Saddened by the sight, Eris stops walking with Marianna and Noah and walks toward the woman. The woman and the children look up at Eris as she gave the woman some money from her coin pouch. As the woman saw the amount of money Eris gave her, she became elated.

“Oh! Thank you, my dear. Thank you so much.” The woman praises.

“No need to thank me, Ma’am.” Eris replies. “I don’t want you and your children to starve. You don’t deserve it, Ma’am.”

“Bless your heart, dear. You have a good afternoon.”

“Thank you, Miss. You, too.”

After speaking, Eris walks back to Marianna and Noah. They look at Eris with Marianna smiling at her while Noah raises a brow.

“You are a very caring person, Eris.” Marianna praises.

“Oh… no. Well...” Eris replies modestly. “I just don’t like to see people struggle and go hungry.”

“No. Marianna’s right.” Noah counters. “You’ve always been a very caring person when we were kids. That’s how the last queen was. Caring.”

“Thanks, Noah. Speaking of caring, people here all had jobs under her rule, and no one was homeless.”

“Yeah, but now, we have a witch on the throne. Her bandits keep causing so much trouble in the land. People being harassed and assaulted by them among far worse things. Along with that, Koko has become the poorest city within two years. Two years! Just horrible…”

“I truly understand where you two are coming from,” Marianna responds. “But like I said: Bad things don’t last. They never last, Noah.”

“By Alpha!” Noah speaks annoyedly. “That’s easier said than done, Mari. Easier said than done.”

They finish talking as the three reach their home which is three stories tall made of brick surrounded by a garden full of different flowers. Noah opens the ebony door letting Eris and Marianna go inside and he followed after.

.   .   .

Now at nighttime, Eris, Marianna, and Noah were in the living room doing their homework. Eris finishes her homework and goes back into her thoughts again. Marianna sees the look on her face.

“Eris. What’s wrong?” She asks, catching Noah’s attention to Eris.

“Do you guys… think of our parents?” Eris asks. “How they taught us how the world is and how we should be good to one another?”

“Yeah. ‘Love thy neighbor’, stuff like that.” Noah responds. “Why?”

“Why can’t people be like that as a whole? It sounds so simple.”

“It’s wishful thinking to think that, unfortunately. People are taught and raised differently. People will do something stupid, vain, or evil and never have second thoughts about it. Barely, people can find common ground. That’s how most humans and elves are.”

“Along with that,” Marianna adds. “There are people who aren’t on stable ground who will fall through cracks and stay in that pattern or move and climb out of the situation. Most stay in that pattern other than climb out.”

“Right. So… why?” She asks.

“Why what?” Noah repeats.

“Why our parents? Mine, your mother, Noah, and your father, Mari. Their letters they sent to that queen because of their concerns. That was her excuse for those bandits to come all the way here… and kill them in front of us! Why did it have to go that way?”

Hearing Eris’ words, Noah and Marianna begin tearing up as they remembered their parents.

“Eris…” Noah speaks in a breaking voice. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my mother. I hate the mess that we’re in and I want to do something about it, but…”

“But what?”

“We wouldn’t know where to start or how to do it. We don’t know a solution, either.” Marianna replies as she wipes away her tears.

Feeling her anger and helplessness rise, Eris could not calm herself. She stands up from her seat with Noah and Marianna looking at her.

“I’m going to go to the lake to regain my thoughts. I’ll see you two later.”

Eris moves past them and goes to the front door and opens it.

“Eris!” Marianna calls out before Eris leaves. “Even though everything feels out of place for us, and we’re lost in the dark, there is still hope. And like I said earlier--”

“Bad things never last… I know.” Eris interrupts. “As of right now, I don’t want to hear that anymore. That’s starting to get old.”

Eris leaves out of the house leaving Noah and Marianna to continue with their homework.

.   .   .   .   .

Within several minutes from her house, Eris arrives at Cailo Lake. She decides to sit down at the lake’s edge and looks to see fireflies flying and glowing around with their light reflecting off the lake along with the moonlight. Eris was deeply thinking about her friends, her late parents, and her uncertain future. Thinking about all of these thoughts drives Eris to tears and she weeps quietly. In her despair, she looks up to the starlit sky. As she feels the cool breeze of the wind, she closes her eyes and puts her hands together.

“Dear Alpha.” She speaks. “I’m not sure if you’ll hear me, but I come before you, pleading for guidance. I beg of you to please heal the wellness of Elienta and help the people that live in it. We need you. But for me personally, I need you. I need your help and your strength. I need you to show me what needs to be done. In whatever kind of way, give me a sign of how to liberate this land from the tyranny we face. Whatever you decide, I will take it in stride, in your name. Thank you…”

After her prayer, Eris hears a feminine voice humming what sounds like a lullaby, soothing to her ears. She opens her eyes and looks around where the humming was coming from, but she sees no one nearby. As the humming ceased, Eris starts to feel a burning sensation on her arms, chest, stomach, back, and pelvis. It becomes extremely painful to where she shouts in pain and lays in a fetal position. She rolls up her sleeves and sees sizzling burn marks on her arms, then looks inside her shirt and sees her chest becoming marked.

“What is this? What is going on?” Eris asks herself in pain.

As the burning sensation slowly ceased, the marks on her body became detailed in shape and turning black. The marks on her arms were symmetrical, scaring her. “What are the marks?”

Eris then remembers the story her mother told her:

A young woman with a heart will be worthy of becoming the next Queen of Elem and will have the markings indicating her status.

Remembering this, Eris denies the story as she shakes her head. “No, no, no. This can’t be happening. That’s impossible.”

Eris tried to rub the marks off of her arms, but they were sensitive to the touch making her yelp in pain.

“That hurts… Okay. I need to get home. I need to talk to Mari and Noah about this.”

She then slowly gets up and starts to walk from Cailo Lake back to her house.