Synopsis: Emerin: The Curse of Harades

Nearby villagers spoke often of the girl in the tower. They wondered at how she can stand life in a desolate prison, with no promise of escape except a legend older than time itself. Yet so few knew the Tower of Edl that the years passed with no sighting of a saviour. The girl watched the world for a sign of the one to break her from her pointless existence. She cared nothing for the clause in the jailing magic which insisted upon marriage between Rescuer and Lady. She read about it in the few fairytales propped haphazardly on the single shelf, and though it was described as something wonderful, she only saw obligation. And so she was desperate to find a chink in the armour of the curse.

Meanwhile, in the city of Beinwist, the pleasant serenity of the people over the past years begun to falter. The townsmen looked to their king, but beyond his assuring smile, there lay the worries of a troubled land. They deluded themselves into believing him, but the leader was not as youthful as he once was. The cracks were beginning to open, in the kingdom’s hour of need. Villages from miles around were abuzz with rumours of strange happenings and the erratic behaviour of loved ones. The diseases of times past ran through the veins of their simple lives, throwing them down and placing more hope on a tired king.

As so this was the way for twenty-three years and forty-nine days. On the next, though neither truly realised it, their lives were destined to collide as a young traveller, from a village close to the tower, reached Beinwist. Word of the imprisoned maiden spread across the city. Upon hearing the news, the king discovered the means to find his only son married after years of unsuccessful attempts. He ordered the prince to save the lady from her unfortunate abode and return with her to the city. Within days, the prince set off for the Tower of Edl, his father watching him leave with smug contentment.

The Lady remained in miserable ignorance, as the prince rode through the forests and towns. Along the way, he met a nobleman who saved him from a dangerous situation which would have undoubtedly sealed his fate. The man himself was on the way to Beinwist to earn his right to serve as a knight, but the prince asked him to halt his mission and journey with him to rescue the girl. Therefore, when the girl glanced hopelessly out of the window at daybreak a few days later, she was met with two saviours instead of one. She watched them come closer, and listened to their footsteps on the stairs. The prince held out his hand to her, and she accepted. She was free.

Stepping out of the tower, enchantment over it and her broken, the young woman could not see the dangers that would await her. She knew nothing of illness, of misfortune other than her own, finished hardship. She had no idea, riding through the woods, that what she had seen out of her tiny window was nothing more than a tarnished, unreal picture of perfection, concealing the secrets that would destroy the kingdom’s heart irreparably.