Two lonely queens

“The beast is inevitable. And I am that beast. I am the dragon. I am death.”

Once upon a time, there was a land which had two queens. But all the people in the land thought there was only one. The one who they all knew, they all loved. She was the perfect example of what a person of their land looked, acted and felt like. She was gentle, patient and caring. She was the one person everyone looked up to. Yet even when walking through the crowds of people who adored her, she felt alone. Everyone knew her, but she did not know anyone.

Within the castle, hidden from all the people, even the queen herself, lived another queen. She was the exact opposite of the first queen. She was rude and vicious, only out to do what she wanted, not what the land needed. Her wrath and power had the ability to destroy the entire land, tear through the border, which separated life from death and bring the uttermost destruction to all that existed that was to exist and ever had existed.

So she was bound to a chair, in the highest room of the highest tower. From that chair she could see all the land. She could see the other queen passing by their people, shaking their hands and ensuring their safety and comfort. The bound queen had no choice to watch as her anger and wrath grew as fast as poisonous ivy. She was sick of spending days in a chair. She was sick of never seeing anyone. The only person she ever saw was this one knight. But he was so numb as the blank walls which surrounded her, that she could almost not ascertain that he was a person. It was as if he was submerged within the walls. She gathered he would kill her if she could ever escape the chair. But the chair was impossible to break free of. So she was bound to watch and hate and watch and hate, but nothing more.

One night, the first queen had a nasty dream. She dreamed of a dragon, who was going to kill her people. She didn’t imagine it had a meaning and went back to sleep. Yet the next night, she had the exact same dream. She started to feel restless and stayed awake for the rest of the night. The third night, she had the very same dream again. This time she was certain the dream meant to warn her of a coming danger. So she called out for her servants, who consulted her. All night several wise men came by to interpret the dream. Yet neither of their explanations were right. With the rising of the sun, she was too tired to stay awake yet too restless to sleep. It was at that moment that she noticed a knight standing in her chamber. It was as if he had been invisible all that time. The knight spoke:

“Within this castle there is a queen. She holds power no one has ever seen. There will be no problem with the beast. If you don’t have an answer, consider this at least.”

Suddenly, the queen was certain this was the answer to her dream. So she followed the knight and climbed the 300 stairs. At the end of it, the knight halted and showed her through. There was an empty chamber with towering white walls. One big window let in all the light of day. All of her land was visible. In the middle of the chamber was a chair. It was empty. It resembled a throne. Suddenly she realized: I am meant to be alone.