I wrote this for the fun of it and thought some of you might like it :)

Let's call this chapter 1

“I have something to tell you, but you won’t like it.”

A grandma hobbled into the throne room. She looked like a gardener grandma; flowered bonnet, long gray skirt, green petticoat. Her cane thumped the marble ground, the only sound but breathing in that hollow stone hall.

“Did you request entry?” The queen asked. She waved her hand in the dripping silvery dress, sparkling like moondust in the darkest night. Her pointed nose did not like the faint grassy stench of the old woman.

“How else would I get in?”

“What is your message. Be quick.”

“Quick?” The old woman leaned on her stick and chuckled. “Do you have somewhere to be? Are you late to you late to your date with the poor and sick? Is your husband dying of the plague?”

“Beware, old woman, your head is on the line,” Aelric, the prince, sat beside his mother in the same moondust black.

“Of course,” the old woman replied.

“Then give us your message, woman,” Aelric said.

“I prophesy from time to time, as your father would know, dear Aelric, though it seems others have forgotten,” she glared at the queen, “and in the past my inferences have been favorable. But now I have one sentence for you-”

“My, you are a slow one.” The queen’s eyes flickered.

“Slower with your interruptions.”

The queen stood up. “One more sarcastic comment and you shall never deliver your message, nor any message again.”

“I mean no ill will, your highness. My message is this:” the old woman pulled a crumpled half-sheet of parchment from her petal-filled basket and cleared her throat. “Hear, o king, what I will say. Your kingdom Rivenstone has been too long at odds with Eldoria. Here is the command…”

The queen rolled her eyes.

“...The two must come together in peace, or they shall be destroyed in discord.”

“How will you prove this?”

“Have I ever been wrong?” The grandma dumped her basket of white petals on the floor and left. Aelric wondered why the queen did not incarcerate her for her impudent words.

“What will you do, my queen?” Aelric asked his mother.

“Nothing.” The queen rose.

“But she said we’ll be destroyed.”

“She is a loon.”

“Yes, my queen,”

The queen left the throne room, the thin train of her black dress looking gray and twinkling. But Aelric stayed behind. Afraid to touch the petals in case of some poison or trickery, he looked on from his seat. “Guard, what is that gold piece there? And give me the parchment.”

The guard gave the parchment to the black-haired prince and handed him a golden leaf. Aelric looked at the golden signet, thin as a real leaf but undoubtedly real gold. The gold felt green. It wasn’t green; it felt green. Aelrich tucked it in the pocket of his black coat.

"I have something to tell you, and you won't like it."

The grandma hobbled into the throne room, looking like she belonged there, her cane patting against the tall grass. Birds flew overhead, and the sunlight tossed sunbeams across the king's kindly, wrinkled face and golden crown.

"What is your message, my lady?" The king asked.

The old woman bowed and pulled out her parchment. "My message is this: your kingdom Eldoria and the kingdom Rivenstone have been at odds too long. Here is the command..."

The princess burst into the room, her head adorned with white lilies to match her dress white with innocence. Her dark skin made the white dress like the brightest star in the night.

"Give us a moment, Zelia."

Zelia bowed. "Of course, but may I stay?"

The king looked at the old woman. "My message is not secret," she said.

"Continue your message, dear lady."

"Here is the command: the two must come together in peace, or they shall be destroyed in discord."

"Is there any explanation you can offer us, or any presentation you are waiting to give?"

The old woman bowed and presented her basket to the gray-bearded king. The petals were black. "Here is a signet, your majesty."

She pulled the silver signet from her olive petticoat pocket. It was shaped like a dagger.

The king looked at the signet, at his daughter Zelia, then at the old woman. "I cannot do this."

"But you must."