Chapter I: Otherworlder
Beyond
She solemnly sat on the ornately decorated chair, attentively watching the bed in front of her and the corpse that lay in it, patiently waiting for it to finally come to life.
It was a night filled with tranquility and the king's chamber was only lit by the low burning fire of the fireplace. Cheyeon's thumb traced the engravings on the wooden hilt of her treasured dagger. She had failed to unravel their meaning despite the countless times she had studied them. They were ancient. Too ancient even for her, a 103-year-old elf. That didn’t matter though. All that mattered was that she felt the energy that hummed within the dagger. A power she believed could break any enchantments.
The king's corpse was put in an old room located at the top of the castle's west tower. The room was humble in size and lack the luxuries that a king commonly possesses but it served a purpose, to keep the unrisen King safe.
All her life she has been trained, educated, and polished for this moment. Her pointed ears pricked, listening to the creatures that lurk near the castle grounds. Some of the sounds were familiar, such as the irritating soft tinkling that the garden fairies make when they talk, the distant howl of a lone wolf, the footsteps of wary guards, the rustling leaves of the forest canopy, and the moans and creeks of the foundations of a ruin that have been once a magnificent castle.
It was not these familiar noises that Chaeyeon listened for but the unfamiliar ones. Because the unfamiliar noises probably came from the assassins sent for her, the dead woman she was guarding. The King. One foreign noise was detected but it was too far from the castle to do any immediate harm. Chaeyeon allowed herself to relax a little. Why guard a corpse or why send an assasin for a dead woman? Because this corpse will breath life before the morrow comes.
Directing her focus to the dead woman in front of her, Chaeyeon could only hear the crackle of the fire and the thud of her heartbeats. She studied the lying figure. Despite the fact that the woman was not of this world the people must revere her for she was chosen by the gods to rule the land. Though dead, the otherworlder held so much power over the living, but in its current state it looked frail and vulnerable. Chaeyeon shook her head and reminded herself that they all look like that only at first. There's a great possibility that behind the vulnerability masks a tyrant ruler.
In her concentration, Chaeyeon forgot the passing of time. The night was over. Twilight came. The fire had died and what’s left was the soft glow of embers. The first morning light poured through the cracks of the shutters and fell across her hands.
Chaeyeon’s memory conjured the image of the Reaper on the night that it had brought the otherworlder in the castle. It carried the body to the tower and gently laid it on the bed. The Reaper’s voice echoed through the halls in that still night when it left its message. With the rising sun, a new king shall be brought to life. And then the Reaper was gone.
The sun was rising. Soon she will wake.
She. The rightful King of the Blue South.
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