Kingdom of Ice and Flame +

A piece of the Kingdom Series

Part I

Rose

It sat, outside my reach

Far off outside the borders of my kingdom

It sat, chaste and red

A thing, so beautiful

I cried frozen tears,

Melting from my ice heart

And freezing on my arctic skin.

The rose.

The one,

True beauty of the world.

And,

From the window of my castle,

I could not see its thorns.

Part 2

The mirror

There was no sunshine in my world

There was no warmth of the morning

There was no rebirth.

Perpetually frozen,

In time,

In fate,

In everything.

Left only with a mirror to the outside world

The only reminder things

Outside my kingdoms even existed

The mirror,

The one who should have comforted me

Was my chain,

Was my prison.

It plagued me with images

I could not leave my kingdom

My frozen heart would melt

My artic skin would puddle,

I would be no more

Yet I desired nothing but to leave.

A mirror made of liquid mettle,

That never froze.

The most alive thing in my world.

Part 3

The Droplet of Color

The world was monochrome blue

Frozen colors have no shine

There was only soft hints of what may be

hidden deep under the frost

deep under memories

deep under the possibility of a world outside ice

so dreamed the artic queen of color

so dreamed the frigid hand for warmth

and so,

one morning a rose with droplets of color

lay upon the pillow next to her,

as though it had always been there

it shown a bright red

the only color in a frozen world

Part 4

The Touch of Ice

I longed to touch the flame

I longed to be free of my icicle prison

I longed to touch something,

Someone… anyone

But I knew… there was no way

If I dared it

If I reached out to smooth over its surface

I would cage it like my self

I would destroy it

Not how I was…

Not how I am,

I could not…

I had to change…

I am changing…

One day,

My hands will be warm.

Part 5

The Knight

All the years passed

I did not age

Nothing aged

Nothing changed,

I sat looking out of my kingdom out to the boarding lands of flame

As I always had,

Watching,

Waiting for things to be different

Waiting for a knight to save me

Waiting in silence,

Waiting in pain

Wanting to have a champion…

To free me from this barren land

To take me far away

To rescue me from my self

To melt the ice

To bring back the things long left dormant

Long left under the snow

Under the shadows of forgotten dreams

But, all who tried all who dared

Stood frozen no more than 20 paces into my land.

I felt my hope grow colder,

And the snow began to fall.

Part 6

The Squire

He charged in swift, and hard

He ravaged through the snowy grave of so many others like him

And he, was not even a knight.

A mere squire.

A child, at best

Bumbling barely able to lift the sword of the fallen before him

And yet, he made it to the gates of the castle

He made it to the court room

He made it to my hand

He kneeled before me

Then the heavens shook

The walls fell

The world cracked and

I lost hold of him

I lost sight of him as I felt my self

mislaid from the only world I knew…

Part 7

The Gallows

The heavens split

The tossed me to a sea

The tossed me to the rage of an ocean

There I changed

There I altered

There I was no longer my self

No longer a queen

There I died

There I was reborn

There I stood trial for my sins

And there I was found guilty,

There I was brought to the gallows.

I died

Time passed in my watery grave

I laid forgotten many centuries, many kingdoms

Until his hands and her eyes and his touch

Until they rescued me…

All of them…

The king, the queen, the saint, the court

Until they breathed life into me

I am free now.

Part 8

Transcendence

There is no place like this

This is the place no one can go

This is the place in my heart

Not capable of ending

Not capable of containment

Not capable of explanation

There is no words to describe this

This freedom

This rebirth

This new muse

This new hope

This transcendence.