(short story)

“Daughter, is it you? Are you really alive?!” the gray-haired king rose from the throne and spread arms to embrace his long-lost daughter.

“If you come one step closer to me, this dagger will end up in your body,” the girl with ashen hair did not move.

“Tara, what are you saying?!” the prince moved away from his sister in surprise. “This is your father! All these years we thought you were dead!”

“Oh, you were not mistaken in this,” a crooked smile appeared on Tara’s face.

“In the sense of?! Here you are, standing, breathing,” the prince examined the girl from head to toe.

“My heart always knew that my sweet daughter was alive,” tears appeared in the king’s eyes.

“Really?” the girl raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess, you started to be very concerned about my life from the moment you killed my mother in front of me?”

“What? Tara, are you in your right mind?” the prince stepped towards his sister.

“Or maybe when you put me up for auction among the lords?” Tara did not pay attention to her brother, looking only at the one who called himself her father. “Oh, or when you decided to sell me to the dark one, because he promised you loyalty in the war in exchange for such a beautiful material for experiments?”

With each word, the king’s face lost an affectionate expression, and his eyes also magically dried up.

“Father?” said the prince quietly when the pause was prolonged.

“And why did you come back then, daughter? I haven’t heard from you for so many years. Do you come to kill me?” the king sat down on the throne with a sarcastic smile.

“Well, what about you, receiving the curse of the kings because of your murder? It does not interest me,” Tara examined her dagger with a smile.

“You…” the prince shifted his shocked gaze from his sister to his father. “Dad.. Did you really do all this?”

“It was a necessity. You, as the future king, should know this,” the man simply waved his son away.

“You killed the mother, sold Tara! And all these years, you arranged days of mourning for them, telling the people how you suffer!” the prince still could not fully believe in all the above, but anger gradually filled his eyes.

Tara put the hand on her brother’s shoulder so that he wouldn’t rush at their father.

“Don’t spoil the show for me, please,” asked the girl.

The king opened his mouth to say something, but at that second, a new personality appeared in the middle of the hall, a translucent spirit that had formed and moved towards the king.

“Traitor to the throne – kill,” spoke the spirit briefly and cut off the king’s head with a light movement. In complete silence, the head rolled down the steps with frightened eyes. The first step, the second, the third … and then it rolled to Tara’s feet.

“That’s all,” the girl smiled with satisfaction and turned to her brother. “He did not consider one point. I was born a good sorceress, while the experiments of that dark one further increased my power, and our crown has long been passed down to the most powerful sorcerers of our kin. Before falling into the hands of the guards, I managed to penetrate the vault and consolidate my status as queen. It was enough for the father to openly confirm his actions, so that the guardian spirit would officially recognize him as a traitor to the family and punish him”.

“My queen…” the still confused prince began to lower himself.

“No, no, no, don’t even hope.” Tara smiled, stopping her brother. “Get up. I, Tariel Aidan, officially renounce the spirit crown. None of my descendants will be able to imitate her.”

The guardian spirit, still standing next to the headless body, swam up to them.

“You have been heard, Tariel Aidan,” the spirit returned to the prince. In his hands the crown shone with an otherworldly delirium. “Congratulations to the new king!” with these words, the crown fell on the prince’s head.

“Long live the king,” Tara knelt down.

The crown slowly dissolved in the air, along with the guardian spirit, leaving only the brother and sister in the hall again.

“And now, your majesty, I need a little help with the show.” Tara’s eyes were full of magic.

In a few days, incredible news spread through the kingdom – a sorceress took on the appearance of a lost princess and managed to kill the king, but the prince caught her and burned in the main square of the capital at noon.

“Despite all the facts, Princess Tariel is dead, just like my father,” the new king officially announced. “Know this so that no one else can mislead you!”

Two people watched all this from the hill.

“Well, grey-haired girl, where do we go next?” Drow`s purple eyes laughed.

“Forward and only forward,” Tara jumped on her horse and went to meet the new adventures that were waiting beyond the horizon.