If you want to get to the top, you need to climb the ladder, and sometimes you have to push a few people off along the way. The only way to get where you want to be is to do everything you have to do, and sometimes a little more. People don’t see what they have until it’s gone, and that will make it easy for you to take it away.

Do not hesitate. The world isn’t soft, or fluffy, or kind. It is hard, and rushed and it’s survival of the fittest if you want to be at the top. Learn your lessons before you need them, psych your enemies before they realize and plan betrayal before you get what you want. Remember, it will always pay off to stay ahead of the game and know what you need before getting what you want.

If you make alliances, secure their resources before you promise them your own. Never get too close to anyone, unless they want exactly what you want and will give you everything you need, willingly. Being smart might help you, but if you are slow everything is lost.

Sometimes you can avoid all of this. Seduce your way to the top with promised riches and glory. But how often do you hear those stories? Stories of a monarch who made friends and was kind to all. How often do they stay on the throne? How often do their soft hearts command their people to put down their weapons and plans to overthrow the crown?

If you want to rule the world, you must be firm and unyielding; cunning and methodical, and above all, deceptive and straightforward. You get what you earn and what you earn is what you get.

When my mother realized this, she knew what she had to do. What she needed to get under her power and what she needed in the palm of her hand. People want someone strong to lead the way, and she was that.

The only problem with her was that she was only hard, and cold and her heart didn’t hold love, at least not until years after she began to rule. But, not too long after she realized that, she also knew how to fix it. Love is a fickle thing, for it only comes when you have something or someone to love. But, thanks to quick planning and a few tricks she had up her sleeve, she found -made- someone for her to love.

I started from the bottom, so did my sister and my mother. We all knew what we wanted and how to get it. Our land is the most beautiful of them all because of it. Just remember, in the end, queens come first.