A New Home : Aralore

[Soleil]

"Aut viam inveniam aut faciam"
I will either find a way or make one.

. Q u e e n . Alexandria struggled for months as the Order of Saelis showed they had no faith in a woman ruling the kingdom of Avalendor. They sent suitors to meet with her, in hope she would choose one to marry before her next birthday. When she hadn't they began forcing the idea of marriage upon her. They threatened her many times: that if she refused to agree to a marriage, they would call a war forth upon Avalendor. Alexandria knew that was not what she wanted. With her kingdom so new, she did not want to corrupt her land with a war and lose all of her people just because of a selfish act of refusing a marriage that had nothing to do with love. 

. H e r . people offered a countless number of times to fight for her, to help her put an end to all of this, but she felt torn. She had faith in her citizens, but was afraid to lose the Order. She had learned that for over forty years, Avalendor was part of Saelis. Her grandfather was the one that brought the kingdom into the Order in hopes that if ever in need, the Order would offer aid in any war or troubles that came across the kingdom. Alexandria assumed that if Avalendor had been part of the Order for so long, that she could not go against them; that her grandfather and her father had worked so hard at keeping the alliance with them, and she did not want to break it. If she did, she knew that there would be many other kingdoms turning against her as they too were part of the Saelis Order. 

. S h e . held back her angst and went along with what Saelis wanted her to do. She met with all the suitors, agreed to the marriages that came and went until finally, one decided to remain and signed allegiance to the queen of Avalendor. He gave word to her that the two of them would work together to make Avalendor a wonderful place. Hesitant to trust him, Alexandria accepted the marriage proposal and wedding plans had begun to be made. 

. O u t . of fear, her citizens began to leave the kingdom, not wanting to be commanded by a different ruler that did not know the true ways of Avalendor. Alexandria found herself having doubts about her decision as she watched her people leave. Had she had made the wrong one? It saddened her that they did not have faith in her. She was throwing her own life and happiness away, for them. 

. D a y s . before the marriage, Alexandria had a dream about her kingdom falling under the rule of her soon to be husband. He was controlling everyone, and even her. She watched as she was abused and her citizens killed for small things that a simple scolding would have been enough punishment. She saw herself tied to a post and flames drawing closer to her, as her citizens stood around crying and shouting for her life. She would be put to death, and leave her citizens to suffer the rule of the new king, one that mirrored King Ashton.
  She later learned the dream had been a premonition spell that a prophet woman, known to be a dark witch of the kingdom, had secretly placed on her in order to get her to see what would happen to Avalendor if she did not put a stop to it all.

. W h e n . she woke, it was still dark, and all of her kingdom was asleep. She needed to find an answer. She needed some solution to get her out of all of this corruption that was placing itself upon her Avalendor. There was one place Alexandria often went to when she needed guidance. It was the next best thing to having her father, the king, alive to tell her what to do. She rushed to what was once his hidden office. Some of his most secret possessions and documents she had found hiding in book shelves and inside pages of books. She spent the remainder of the night, and into the early morning, taking every book off of the shelves, skimming through them for an answer, a clue, anything to help her get out of the mess. She was completely desperate. 

. B y . the time the sun rose, she was exhausted. She hadn't found anything that would save Avalendor. She sat on the cold stone floor crying, feeling completely defeated. Never in her life had she imagined herself a queen having to deal with politics and troubles like these. 

. T h e n ., out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the edge of a small rug had been lifted by a book she threw earlier. It slightly revealed a crack in the smooth floor. Her eyebrows furrowed as she slowly moved to the rug, pushing books out of her way. She slowly lifted the rest of the rug from the floor, exposing what looked to be a loose tile. Her fingertips slipped between the crack and carefully lifted the stone from the floor. Dust lifted, sending a smoky cloud around her. She coughed and brushed it all away with her arm, looking hopelessly beneath the tile where there appeared to be a rather large hole. Her candle was lowered to see what would have probably been hiding for over twenty years. She found what looked to be a leather bound book with loose pages stuffed inside of it. The book was lifted and set down on the floor next to her. She felt around for anything else that might have been hidden and pulled out a silver box, and then a larger wooden one. She wondered if these would be the things that she had been looking for--answers. She hoped they were. 

. S o m e h o w . she felt that the book would be what she wanted to look through first. The cover was opened and she read the first page. The Journal of Elliot Eveleigh. Her eyes widened and she quickly turned to the next page.
Alexandria let herself become lost in the pages and allowed herself to lose track of the time. She kept herself hidden in the secret study, allowing herself to be alone, without worrying about being interrupted by another. The whole day, she spent reading through the entire journal. 

. H e r . father had made plans to pull Avalendor out of the Order of Saelis. They had been trying to overpower him and take control of his kingdom. They threatened him with a war if he did pull out of the Order.

. A l e x a n d r i a . finally knew the reasons why all of this had started. Saelis had killed off Avalendor the first time, sending Ashton to do the dirty work, and now they were planning on doing it again. For what though? He had not mentioned anywhere in his journal why they were trying to take over the kingdom. They obviously wanted something, and now they were after her, which means they still hadn't found whatever it was. 

. S h e . opened the silver box and found a small key with a note that read "A key to freedom".

. T h e . wooden box held documents, maps, plans and everything to let Alexandria know what her father had planned for--what she needed to do.
She found a map that led her to a door which would bring her to the large room she had never even seen before, an underground room that resided underneath most of the castle. The key unlocked the door and the cobwebs were pushed aside as she entered the room. The torches that hung on the wall were lit, and there it was. A very large sailing ship. Large enough to hold all of her people comfortably for as long as it would take to sail to this new land. 

. W o r k . needed to be done now. The queen got together her military commanders, informing them of what needed to be done. She spent the next few days gathering up her citizens and giving them rooms within the castle for safety for the days before the journey. It was planned that they would leave at night, in the dark so they would go unnoticed. 

. A n d . so they sailed away. In hopes for freedom, and for a new and safer home . . .The trip was long and harsh, but soon they found their new land. Alexandria would not call this land a kingdom, but rather an Isle. The Isle of Aralore is what she renamed the land. The citizens worked hard for the next few months to rebuild once again. They built houses and restored the castle that had been built many years before, and left abandoned. Together, they made Aralore stand, never giving up and always fighting for the same common goal. Their freedom.