The Lost Evil Powerless Princess

The Lost Powerless Princesses

Backstory

Violet lies in bed in her palace chambers. She is recovering from her cold. She was seriously ill when she arrived at the palace in the first place. The physicians weren’t sure that she was going to make it. However, she is much better now. She isn’t entirely better yet. However, it is miraculous that she made it this far. She should have died several times before the sickness even got serious.

Violet lived on an island all alone for as long as she could remember. Then one day, a large ship arrived on the shore. Only one person left the vessel—Queen Liss. She wore a dark purple cape flapping in the wind. The Queen walked straight to Violet and said, “I’ve searched four years for you. Come with me.” Violet didn’t understand. Violet had never met a human or heard one speak.

Since Violet didn’t follow Queen Liss, the Queen took her by the hand and pulled her back with her into the ship. Violet spent the next few weeks on that ship in fear. The waters were rough. The ship would crash through wave after wave. And why did it have to be so windy? Violet tried to stay below deck, but she kept getting seasick. This is why Violet on the deck when the storm came.

Violet had thought the ocean and wind were already as bad as they could be, but when the clouds became dark and painful whipping of water falling from the sky came with the accompaniment of lightning and thunder, Violet discovered that wind and waves were getting worse than she had imagined possible.

Waves would crash over the deck of the ship. Sailors tied themself to their posts to avoid being thrown into the depths. Violet saw one young sailor wrapping a rope around his wrist to prevent him from losing his grip. A surge of water washed over the side of the ship, throwing the poor to the opposite side of the ship. He got back up and looked at his arm. It became clear why his rope trick didn’t work when he saw that his hand was missing. He looked back at where he had tied the rope. Sure enough, his hand up to his wrist flapping in the wind at the end of the rope.

Violet didn’t see too much more of the gruesome scene because the sailor returned to the rail where he had tied his wrist by a rope. A sudden lurch in the boat sent him overboard, hanging onto his dismembered hand still tied to the rope. The rope keeping him from falling into the ocean, broke from the stress. The sailor and his hand were never seen again.

Another bulge of water crashed over the deck and tried to drag Violet away. Violet lost her balance and fell. The water dragged her toward the side of the ship. She thought she was going to die. A firm hand grabbed her arm. It was Queen Liss. She stood straight and tall. She barely seemed bothered by the frigid, howling wind and the hungry ocean. Violet was flapping in the wind and waves like a flag, held to the Queen Liss by her like a flagpole.

Queen Liss pulled Violet back onto her feet and walked her below deck where she couldn’t be thrown overboard. Violet couldn’t get dry. The crew were continuously bailing water out. It was so cold. Violet was going numb. She stayed in a hammock most of the day. Queen Liss would have had her take the bed in captain’s quarters but the mattress had been soaked.

Violet woke up when Queen Liss picked her up. Violet’s chin leaned on the Queen’s shoulder. The boat still rocked back and forth slightly. Much less than it did in the storm. A plank acted as a ramp connecting the ship to the dock. Queen Liss’s face was paler than it had been before. She coughed into white handkerchief. Queen Liss was sick, and Violet wasn’t feeling too good either.

Violet heard shouting coming from the dock. Queen Liss set Violet down. Violet was still on the boat. They were just about to cross the plank to the dock. Why did they stop? Queen Liss faces the shouting voice coming from the dock and says, “Come to welcome me home?”

Violet looked over the railing of the ship to see a man wearing metal plate armor, a large sword that he had to carry in two hands because of its size and he wore a helmet with a faceplate. The knight in full metal armor shouted at Queen Liss, “Villain, I’ll certainly bring you home to whatever wretched hole you crawled out of.”

Queen Liss leaned backwards and put the back of her left hand on her forehead, palm open facing outwards, as if she would faint. “Unruly Knight, how kind, sportsmanlike and chivalrous of you to come at me, armored with blade in hand to come against a defenseless old woman who is tired from a long journey overseas and who is frail and weak from sickness,” Queen Liss said, coughing.

“You dare judge me for using underhanded tactics?” the knight growled, “I was right to expect nothing less than a hypocrite.” The Queen feigned feeling offended. She said “You’ve got me all wrong, dear knight. I don’t judge you for attacking me at my weakest. I think that you’ve made a smart choice. Sportsmanship and honor are all about fighting fair, but you’d only get a fair fight if you attacked me while I was in a state of weakness.  ”

The knight started walking towards Queen Liss, guantled hands on his sword. Queen Liss stumbled toward the knight, coughing into her handkerchief. The knight swings his sword at the Queen in a horizontal slash from his right to his left. The Queen keeled forward, catching herself before she hit the ground, in a sudden fit of violent coughing, bowing so deeply that she ducked under the knight’s blade.

Queen Liss straightened back up and stepped to the side as the knight tried a vertical strike starting from overhead downward. “Oh dear, this battle is tiring me,” Queen Liss said as she leaned back, dodging another blow. She held the back of her left hand to her forehead as she said, “I fear I might faint. Be gentleman and catch me.” Queen Liss stumbled forward into the knight. The knight stepped aside instead of catching her. Queen Liss was about to fall but grabbed the knight in between his neck and his shoulders from behind him to steady herself.

Queen Liss coughed and covered it with her white handkerchief. The knight spun around, trying to escape her grip. Queen Liss ran to keep behind him. Then she held the handkerchief around the bottom of the knight’s face, reaching it with her hand under the faceplate. The knight gave a muffled shout. The knight threw himself backward to the ground. Queen Liss side-stepped the fall to avoid going down with him. Then she lifted his faceplate and held the handkerchief against his face.

The knight tried to bite at hre hand. “Biting are we?” Queen Liss asked, “Then I’ll give you something to choke on.” Queen Liss forced her handkerchief into his mouth. The knight started gagging. While the knight was preoccupied with trying to get the handkerchief out of his mouth, the Queen took his sword. With a single swing, she sliced off his head. The sailors on the ship gasped as Violet took in the scene. Queen Liss pulled her handkerchief out of the knight’s mouth. It came out red.

The Queen looked at the sailors. “Stop staring. I know what you’re thinking,” she said, “But the world is full of violence. My child was going to see violence no matter what I did. I’d rather I be the one to introduce it to her.” The sailors just nodded.

The Queen took Violet in a carriage with a physician. The physician and the Queen talked for a long time, but Violet was tired and scared. She couldn’t even hear their words. Everything seemed so dark and so cold. She was in dry clothes now. She was wearing a fur coat, but she was still cold.

The carriage arrived at a palace with pointed towers and rooftops. The Queen took her inside and led her to a bedroom. Even in bed, covered with blankets, Violet still felt cold. The Queen felt Violet’s forehead with the back of her hand. It reminded Violet of how the Queen pretended to be faint when fighting the knight. It scared her.

Violet couldn’t tell how much time passed. She was asleep most of the time and would wake up thirsty with her body aching. Whether awake or asleep, she relived the terrors she experienced on the stormy waters and the frightening violence of the Queen. A sailor lost his hand and then his life. Waves nearly washed Violet away. And it was so cold. She was still so cold. But colder still were the eyes of the Queen. She had a face void of emotion. She brutally killed the knight and couldn’t care less. Violet remembered how the handkerchief came out red. Violet remembered how the Queen was sick and coughed.

Were they hallucinations from her fever? Why wouldn’t these nightmares leave her alone? Violet was trapped in her bed, surrounded by terrors. Her bed was a boat under assault by the hungry ocean. Every silhouette of nurse, maid or doctor was the Queen striking down a knight. Her blankets writhed as wind tossed waves. Yet she was powerless to do anything against this. It was so scary.

Just as Violet thought she would slip away completely a firm hand held hers. It held her there, keeping her from being engulfed by the nightmares, like an anchor keeping a boat from straying into the sea. Violet eventually got better. She still isn’t fully recovered, but she isn’t unconscious most of the day anymore. She has learned that the person that held her hand while she was asleep was Queen Liss.

It is late in the morning. Violet woke up late because she is sick. This is a good sign. She doesn’t usually wake up before noon. She must be close to being recovered. A maid traveling through the hall glances in her open doorway and sees that she is awake. The maid scurries off. The Queen enters and says “It is good to see you awake, Violet.”

Violet doesn’t answer. She doesn’t understand words yet. She keeps hearing the word “Violet,” but she has no idea what it means. Queen Liss is holding a tray of food and a cup of water. The maid that noticed that Violet was awake is standing by the side of the doorway looking uncomfortable. The maid is uneasy about her Queen performing  menial tasks of feeding Violet in person.

Violet is scared of the Queen. Queen Liss killed that knight. What if she comes after her as well? VHowever, Violet is also very hungry. She allows the Queen to spoon feed her. Violet is having trouble tasting anything. She can’t tell what she is eating. It is mushy and plain. The Queen picks up the glass of water. When Violet sees it, she starts to cry. “I know you don’t water, Violet,” the Queen says, “But you have to have fluids to get better.”

Violet is scared of the water. It brings back bad memories. Cold wind. A bloody hand dangling from a rope. A man sinking beneath the waves. But Violet is so thirsty. She accepts the cup and drinks the water, trying not to think of her experience aboard the ship. She can’t help it. As soon as she feels the water on her lips, she is back on the deck of the ship feeling the wind whip a spray of water against her face.

It’s a nightmare. She can’t escape it. She spends what seems like an eternity being thrown from the ship.