Betwixt & Between ; Chapter I
Once upon a time, there was a kingdom of Darkness. None of the inhabitants feared the constant Darkness because even though they lived in an eternal night-time, they had their moon. A bright like that always shone above the kingdom, always showing the citizens of the kingdom which path to take, or rather, it tried to show them. It was still up to the citizens to decide if they would take the path in the woods that might lead to monsters or the path through the city where it was a grantee to run into rogues. Still, even with these dangerous paths of possibilities there wasn't much of a need for the majority of the population to fret.
All the citizens of the world knew that in the absolute center, where the moonlight found it was the hardest to reach, was the stronghold of the kingdom's elite. For you see, this stronghold was actually a school for the next generations of the kingdoms aristocrats. A school for young princes and princesses who wished to try their hand at ruling a portion of their own Dark Kingdom.
But the parents of these future rulers had little time to raise their children to become proper young ladies and gentleman. For this, the school was created.
In the beginning, there were only six princes to tend to. Their ages all varied, and occasionally they would quarrel, but they all strove for the same goal. They were all princes of noble intentions and they wished to better serve their kingdom. Together, they spent many a day studying their enemies to protect their country from foreign attacks. At the same time they each examined the faults of their own people so that they might be able to protect the population from itself. The six princes spent their years at the Academy researching, learning much but never enough to satisfy themselves. When it came time for them to graduate, they were reluctant. None of the men wanted to abandon their research that they had strove so hard to obtain. So, they forfeited their right to rule.
... Or so they thought ....
Prince Alexander, the most ambitious of the six princes, never gave up his throne. He claimed to have but he arranged it so that he would be able to rule in secret from within the confines of the Academy and his comrades remained none the wiser. None believed it possible that their dear friend had begun to stray from their intended plans that they preached.
And so, in order to keep the image that all the princes had in fact forfeited their governing rights, Prince Alexander call in all their cousins from other lands to come and attend the Academy just as the princes had. Most of their cousins were young and hopeful of inheriting a throne and glory, while some were just sent by their own parents whom would rather them be finished at the Academy. Thus the teaching of the new princes and two princesses began.
Each and every one of them took their time and pride in mastering something they loved doing be it marksmanship, classical music or other competitive acts of good nature. Each prince or princess became in tune with their new line of practice, pleasing the old princes who now knew the safety of their beloved kingdom might rest in good hands. Prince Alexander saw to it that all of these hopefuls had just as good of an education as the original princes and himself once had. He was a kind soul and his cousins all quickly took to him, electing him their unofficial leader to appease him for giving up his throne.
Alexander took to his new role splendidly. He guided his cousins through their studies, helping them with strengthening their faults and honing in on their natural abilities. Together, they formed a powerful aristocratic order, one that would very well make the enemies of their kingdom cower and quake.
Their united force was so great that rather than dispute roles and who would take the throne as King and who would rule as a Countess or Earl—as no one knew that Alexander had already secured his role as king from the safety of the Academy—they came up with an unheard of solution. Everyone was to an equal role in Kingdom, and everyone was going to have their own territory to claim. And in the end, it worked out like so;
Prince Alexander would reside in the Academy, overseeing the innermost city and leader of the aristocratic group. Of his five friends and fellow researchers, prince Zane took to the mountains, where he could touch the sky and loose himself in the wind; the adventurous prince, whose skills could only be rivaled by Artemis herself, took to the old ruins where monsters flocked and he could master that which was not visible; and the eldest prince, buried himself in the basements of the Academy, never quite announcing what land he had claimed. And for the new arrivals, what they all settled on varied but the most noticeable were the lands of just a few. Lord Darryl, who built his tower by the sea; Lord Arnold, who sought after the dangers that came with brimstone and ash; and the youngest Lord who ventured deep off into enemy territory. The youngest Lord, thought a heretic during his missing months, returned victorious with a new plot of land he hoarded for himself. The land he had taken for himself held something his people had never seen—a bright sun, selfishly focusing on his own new Kingdom. A Light that would burn himself out before his time….
