The Queen’s Responsibility
How’s it going? This page will provide you with more details on the fourth chronicle entry in the Hypnotic Destiny series, a story titled “The Queen’s Responsibility”, available now!
As I have stated before, stories within the series may not directly connect with each other, nor do they always follow a chronological order. If you are following a release date order, this is the fourth entry. Before I get into this story, below are links to the first three stories if you need to catch up.
Earlier Stories
How much would you endure to reach those you love?
How would you balance your own survival with that of your family?
How will an injured knight survive a monstrous encounter far away from his fellow soldiers?
The Queen’s Responsibility
Now, we get to the featured story, The Queen’s Responsibility. While the events in this story aren’t directly connected to the three previously mentioned stories, The Queen’s Responsibility serves as a prequel to the first main entry in the Hypnotic Destiny series, The Knight’s Redemption.
Would you accept responsibility, even if you know it will kill you?
About The Queen’s Responsibility
This story revolves around the concept of responsibility, and how people react to it differently. It’s one thing to shoulder the burden when you know a happy ending will occur, but what if you don’t know? Even worse, what if you know it won’t end well?
The Queen’s Responsibility follows two women. The first, Aurora, the Queen of Pariol, who hates the title she bears and the attention she receives, wishing she could throw the crown away and live as a commoner.
However, the kingdom is threatened by ghoul attacks, and she could be the only one who can solve the problem because of a magic she possesses. Will she take on the burden, knowing that it will kill her?
The second woman the story follows years later is Lucia, a young girl from Pariol, who hates everything the queen stands for. Praise and attention come freely, while sufferers get ignored. Will resentment drive Lucia to an action she may regret?
How will the two women handle what the queen represents?
Will they fight, or will they flee?
And how are their lives connected?
Get The Book!
Newsletter
Join my newsletter to receive writing updats sent directly to your email and receive a free short story featuring one of the side characters of The Kingdom’s Destruction, Bear.
Excerpt from The Queen’s Responsibility
“Responsibility sucks, especially when you know it will kill you.”
Aurora stood alone in a dark cave, her nostrils filled with the scent of a wet rag left in a confined room for weeks. She wished someone accompanied her, anyone, but she needed to complete this mission by herself. Alone.
The sound of a groan up ahead prompted Aurora to slip her rod out from inside her cloak. Made of white oak, she had possessed her staff since she turned sixteen, a gift from her late mother who had left the planet of Sortious, leaving behind a two-year-old girl.
Aurora aimed the end of her rod, which housed a clear crystal orb, toward the noise. The sphere lit up, illuminating the space in front of her to reveal a four-foot-tall creature made of mud.
A ghoul.
The creatures appeared as if a sculptor had spent weeks carving dark brown clay to create a short humanoid figure. However, no one would label these monsters as works of art. Over the last few years, ghouls had terrorized Pariol Kingdom and its citizens, with no explanation of the cause behind the attacks. Until now.
Aurora scanned the area with her light but there were no other ghouls except the one, so she planned to allow the critter to draw close to save her energy. Within seconds, the ghoul complied and charged forward.
With the lit orb leading the way, Aurora thrust her rod. It slammed into the mud beast and the glow transferred from the crystal to the creature, spreading until engulfing it whole. Then the light vanished along with the short monster.
Aurora paused and drew a deep breath to regain some of her energy. If one ghoul drained her, she doubted her ability to destroy an army of them by herself.
Thoughts of various people, good and bad, flashed through Aurora’s mind as she trekked deeper into the cave. William, Nathaniel, Axecrusher, Raymond, Maxine, and Jason had all affected Aurora’s life one way or another, leading her to this moment. How would their lives change if she did not survive after accomplishing her task? If she did not succeed at all?
More groans up ahead alerted Aurora and she readied her weapon. Three ghouls climbed out of a hole in the ground. An up-close approach would not work here. Instead, she slammed the bottom end of her rod into the stone floor and a wave of light shot out in all directions. The monsters disintegrated once the illumination touched their bodies.
Aurora dropped to one knee, unable to muster the strength to keep her on her feet. Needing time to regulate her hyperventilating breath, she crawled to a rock and sat up against the hard surface.
…
Aurora regained enough of her energy and peered down the hole into darkness. She directed her rod inside the opening, and a flash of light filled the room below, revealing a path. Before she dropped down, she reminisced about the last time she had jumped into an unknown situation.
…
A growl from below distracted Aurora from her memory, prompting her to shoot a beam of light at the approaching creature. The ghoul dissolved into the abyss. Before jumping down, she inhaled to fill her lungs with the dank air and exhaled the full breath.
Aurora continued deeper into the cave away from those she loved, the ones she felt responsible for, to do something only she could do.
A shrill screech sounded, followed by multiple growls. The noise meant Aurora was drawing closer. However, that also indicated she would encounter more ghouls the nearer she got. This time five charged into the room.
Aurora pointed her rod toward the floor. A ball of light shot out and split into three, each one expanding to take the form of a spirit. Three beings from the ethereal world wielding bows hovered between Aurora and the monsters.
Glowing arrows flashed across the room. They connected with their intended targets, destroying the creatures upon impact. While the archers wiped out the ghouls, Aurora crouched behind a rock to recover her energy.
When the silence returned, Aurora sent the spirits back to their rightful home and pressed on.
Aurora entered a cavernous opening, too large to exist within the cave she had just journeyed through. Flares shot out of her rod to gauge the vastness of the opening. However, in every direction, the light depleted before striking anything.
I’m here.
Deep inside the cavern sat one object on the floor: a dark purple crystal. The gem glowed in a similar manner to the orb on Aurora’s rod.
The crystal shrieked a piercing tone and a violet flash filled the room for an instant. When the light dissipated, Aurora found herself surrounded by ghouls, too many to count.
Aurora’s mind brought her back before this all started. “How did I get into this mess?”
Get The Book!
