<em>Dark times had befallen the Kingdom, the Queen had been missing for some time and most have given up hope of retrieving the Lady Maeryn back to Tirasfell. Lord Fosten had been resolved that he would find his Queen,  as he rules their Kingdom with an iron fist. Festivals have stopped and their people grow fearful and restless with the unending struggles they face. Bordering forces seeing Tirasfell's weakness slip closer breaking treaties and alliances put into play years earlier as word spreads of the Warrior Kings missing Queen.</em><br/><br/><hr/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://i47.tinypic.com/359idsp.jpg)</div><em>Whispers and rattling filled the womans head as she crouched in her dark cell. The smell of rotting flesh and mildew overwhelmed her sense of smell as other vermin and people lay scattered dead or dying. It had been months that she had been here, and her spirit and her hopes still remained that her King would find her. She had rested her complete trust in a man and though she wanted to believe that he still looked for her, her mind was dwindling away with thoughts that he had given up. Lambent green eyes narrowed with fury and hate and she jerked once more against the chains that bound her wrist to the cold stone wall. <br/><br/>They had kept her alive, to use eventually as a bargaining piece. Of this she was certain, her captors digusting behaviour thus far had been bearable. A weaker soul would have been broken by now, she was sure. Her eyes closed and she hung her head resting it against the bloodstained wall and swallowing back the sob that she would not let her captors hear. Her soul had taken almost all it could, as she fought to retain what had made her human. How easily it would be to slip back into the monster she had once been. To kill or be killed and to have no mercy...but she had changed, for her kingdom. She had become their monarch, their Queen and left the battleground so their King could take the honor of that glory. <br/><br/>She looked down at her now threadbare tattered robes, wishing it had been armor that they had captured her in. Wishing she had been wearing more than the simple dagger that had easily been dispatched. A snarl crept from her throat as she jerked her chains again, left to her own destructive thoughts...like an animal. Hating that Lord Fosten had yet to come rescue her. <br/><br/>She had been sold, by one of her very own. The whispers of the gaurds that watched her cell had made sure she overheard as much. What they wanted her to think was that it was her King. A man she chose as confidant yet had yet to accept as her equal. Her heart would not allow her to give herself that fully to anyone. Had Gerald been the one to betray her so that he could take Tirasfell? She knew that he did not deal with Orcs and Barbarians. The old barbarian hag that had chained her to the wall had spoke demon names in her curses. A name she had heard before, Dan'eshg, a name her Lore Master the chief advisor she trusted so well had spoken to her shortly before her capture. <br/><br/>Her head jerked up as the realisation of betrayal hit her full on. A cry erupted bringing on snickers from her captive gaurds. She could not believe that she had been fooled..it all had to be fake. Perhaps another, but not her Lore Master...<br/><br/>She knew she was far north, in barbarian and orc territory because the chill was nonending and she had been in captivity for months. Long enough for a seasonal change, yet no change had been felt. If King Fosten travelled far enough he would gain the answers he sought. In the next village there was a girl in the tavern who served the evening meal that knew of an Orc that bragged that he had access to Maeryn any time he pleased. That he had watched the Warrior Queen bleed her wrists on iron chains. An Orc who had made a deal with Tirasfell's chief advisor..<br/><br/>Unbeknownst to both Tirasfell's monarchy, was that they had been duped by the very being that they had both trusted. While Gerald searched for the waning soul of the Queen. The Lore Master would set into motion a hopeful plan that would kill the loyal King, and destroy the Queen indefinitely.<br/><br/><br/>And so the story begins...</em>