━Ꮺ silunor »—————— ☀ ——————« this is a short story for @hot-mocha 's writing comp which won first place in the category of new years. note that this is science fiction and there is a brief mention of blood. i have continued to develop this story into something more, a lot of things are different though. p̶r̶o̶n̶u̶n̶c̶i̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶g̶u̶i̶d̶e̶ Ⅰ. silunor "see-loo-nor" Ⅱ. mirinera "mere-ee-nare-uh" Ⅲ. ielenor "aye-luh-nor" Ⅳ. erenia "air-reign-ee-uh" Ⅴ. erenora "air-uh-nor-uh" Ⅵ. reginis "reg-een-iss" The clocks struck zero and the year of 16478 has begun. A great ceremony would be held, as it had been every year for thousands of years. The new queen of Silunor would be elected, and I was one of the candidates. And so it was that we were to walk on to the great floor of the Arena, there were three rock pillars, for the three candidates. Mirinera stood in front of the first, Ielenor in front of the second, and I, Erenia in front of the third. Three nights of the royal guard stepped forward, handing us each daggers. We were each to sacrifice a drop of blood to Silunor, as an oath of loyalty to the people. A blood oath was not the kind you could break, for if you did, you would die a most horrible death. And so, when the clock struck one, we all cut ourselves on our right wrist, letting one drop of blood trickle onto the hot surface. We each removed are hand and began the oath in unison, I am loyal to Silunor and Silunor alone. I am not loyal to myself, my needs, or my indulgent feelings towards others, matters, and ideas. I am completely honest with my people, and will not lie or deceive my people. I will not be corrupted by anyone or anything, and I shall always put my people first. And so it was done, a very dangerous thing to do. And now, my secret could not be kept, for it was then I would die a most horrible death. I never wanted to be queen or even candidate for this reason, but the heir of the previous queen is always a candidate for queen. I thought about this as the nobility took their vote. I doubted I would be chosen. I was the daughter of the previous queen, who all people of Silunor had learned to hate. She had been selfish and she had not spent her time as queen helping the people, but rather ignoring them. Mirinera was another heir of a previous queen, she was known to be extremely clever, but also unpredictable. She also was known for her immense hate of the Desert People, who she would probably do much about. Whereas, I would do all I could to avoid any scandal with them, it was much too dangerous to go anywhere past our borders with the Desert, I feared… nevermind. Ielenor was known for being kind and uplifting, good at talking and being diplomatic. It was likely that she would make peace with the Desert People, she came from a humbler family of nobility. I on the other hand was simply known for being the daughter of Queen Erenora. That’s it, not known for any qualities or strong opinions, or anything but my mother. The great council of nobility had decided, Lord Reginis spoke, “The Great Noble Council has come to its decision. Of the three candidates, Princess Mirinera, Lady Ielenor and Princess Erenia, the best noblewoman to take the throne of Silunor, is Princess Erenia!” I could not believe it, in fact I did not believe something was wrong. The council had been corrupted, and by who I was not sure. I did not want to be queen but now my fate has been sealed, and I am left with a great kingdom falling to its end by the corruption of nobility, and I don’t even know how to be queen.
