Part One

Minji watched from around the edge of the dark blue satin curtain, her young heart tearing to pieces. The woman who had always loved her unconditionally, no matter how many times she had disappointed her, was packing her remaining belongings to leave. Deep down, the twelve year old girl knew that she hadn't done anything to cause her mother to want to leave the kingdom behind, but that didn't stop the guilt from creeping into her mind. There was nothing she could do to make her mother want to stay in a country that she wasn't happy in, let alone a loveless marriage. Nevertheless, the pain was still just as real and it was tearing her apart from the inside. 

Watching her mother buckle the strap on her last bag, Minji took that moment to approach her. Running her sweaty palms down the sides of her dark red satin dress, she made her way to her mother's side, touching her lightly on the arm. When she turned to meet her eyes, Minji could see how tired she was. Her mother shook her head, her face holding a neutral expression. 

"I can't stay here, Minji. It's for the better that I leave this place and go back to my homeland," her mother spoke softly, but Minji could hear a break in her voice that showed that this was a final decision. "You can't go with me, since I need you to stay here and make things right in the future...as Silverlight's next queen. You will be a great ruler someday and hopefully marry a good king who will rule fairly by your side," she said, glancing toward the door. "I cannot remain in this kingdom, though. You'll understand someday," the petite queen added, wiping a tear away from Minji's cheek. "Goodbye, my angel princess. I will love you until the end of my days." 

Minji nodded, stepping back from her mother without a word. She felt betrayed, even if this might be the right move for her mother. It wasn't the right thing for her. Glacing at her mother as she picked up her bags, dropping them through the open portal that was swirling in front of her. She smiled at the soon-to-be former queen as she steppd into the portal that left Silverlight. Minji knew that would be the last time she would see her mother, but it didn't make the feeling any lighter. 

Over the next year, Minji's father changed in a way she had never imagined, becoming a harsh king who would make decisions on a whim and without much heart behind them. Once a fair and honest king, he now rejected the needs and monthly audience to hear the concerns of concerns that may have come up. The king stood firm in the belief that his word was law and as time passed, he began to revel in the newfound power he held over the land. Minji could see the difference in her father's eyes, though, as the became cold and uncaring.

She didn't become wary of him until the next year, when she was fourteen years old. That was the year everything truly changed. In that year, two weeks after her birthday, her father had an unexpected visitor from the commoners. The older man had gone before the king, begging for mercy after his son had accidentally injured one of the palace guards in an attempt to get some food. The haggard old man trembled as he knelt before King Siwon, pleading for his son's life. 

King Siwon looked at the parchment in his hand, reading it silently. "This letter says that your son was trying to take food that was not his own, correct?" 

The old man hung his head in shame, nodding. "Yes, Your Majesty. He and his family hungry, and that was the only thing he could find to eat. We do not have the money to pay for it, so he..."

"Your Majesty..." the older man began to speak, but was silenced by the wave of a hand.

"I said you are dismissed." Turning to the royal guards, King Siwon spoke firmly. "Take this man to his son, and if he wishes to hold to his claim of innocence, he will share in his son's punishment. The guards nodded, bowing halfway. Taking the old man by the arm, they led him to his son.

In time, the two men were tried as thieves and placed in the same cell. Minji knew of this, and took note of the fact that her father, the king, let these two men stay in prison for the remainders of their lives. That turned out to not be very long, as the guards stopped taking them food or water, letting the two men starve to death. From that day forward, Minji began documenting everything that her father did, keeping it all in a journal that she then buried in the garden. No one would ever look there, so the crimes against the king were safe. She also noticed that there had been an even bigger change in her father, the man becoming prideful and cruel, without much thought to how the common people lived in filth and how they were now afraid to approach him with even the simplest of requests. No one dared to go before the king, and Minji found that she didn't want to be anywhere near him, either. 

In the middle of her sixteenth year, Minji's luck ran out when she was called into the throne room by the king...a man she no longer considered to be her father, but just King Siwon. Looking through her closets with the help of her handmaiden, Siyeon, she talked to her as they found the perfect dress and got her ready to see the king. 

"I don't know why he wants to see me, but you know that I don't want to see him," she smiled at her slightly shorter friend, trying not to let her annoyance carry through to the other girl. She winced as her maid pulled the undergarment tight and tied the laces before reaching for the dress. 

"Yeah...I don't know. It's not like he actually cares to see you," Siyeon replied dryly, the words cutting Minji more deeply than she had thought they would. She knew that her father would never be back, so now had lost both of her parents. The teenager often wondered what things would have been like if her mother had decided to stay in the kingdom, instead of escaping the pressures of it all. She knew that it might not have made much of a difference, since her father would have shown his cruel side later on anyway, regardless of if her mother had been around or not. In a way, she envied her mother for getting out, but also hating the fact that she had been left to endure the pain of seeing what he would become. 

Pulling herself out of her reverie, she smiled back at her friend again. "I know," she replied quietly, no longer caring if the hurt in her voice came through. "I just want to get this over with and go about my day." Looking down at the beautiful dark gre