Footsteps approached slowly and the door creaked when it opened to a crack. It was enough to create a small beam of light in the otherwise dark room. I felt the cold marble floor beneath me as I continued to stare ahead to the bed covered in darkness. The bed I had found my father on. 

Fear reeked through the small opening and someone gulped before clearing their throat softly. "Excuse me Your Majesty, I didn't want to interrupt you but the Generals have called for an emergency meeting. They haven't seen you since-"

It was true. I had stayed in my father's room up until now. I hadn't slept or eaten, I didn't even drink anything and I didn't want to. I sat on the cold floor the whole night, still wearing my armor, and watched them move my father's body and take other evidence away. The new detective was handed the casefile and asked me some questions when I was finally able to say 'yes' or 'no'. When he and the team were done they said their condolences and left the room to me. I just sat, staring into nothing, getting more furious with every passing second.

Because even though I had no clue about which kingdom was responsible, one thing became very clear to me the longer I thought about it.

Jorden knew.

I yanked open the door and the young man behind it stumbled back, nearly tripping over his own feet. My bloodshot eyes eyed him up and down. It was the guard who had ratted me out to Valerio a while back.

"I have something more important to do."

"Shouldn't you-"

"No."

If one more person suggested I freshen up I was going to blow their fucking brains out.

I stepped out of the room, noticing guards were lined up along the halls. They saluted me and my eyes fell on the black armbands they were wearing, probably out of mourning for my father and the fallen guards. It felt strange seeing men who used to mock me now respect me like that. I guessed they didn't really have a choice in the matter and most likely wouldn't have done it if they had one. 

Continuing my way to the throne room across the courtyard, I noticed maids, guards and other humans who were already interrogated hurrying in and out of the room in order to get it ready for the coronation later today. Werewolves and vampires seemed to be absent this morning, waiting to be interrogated in their chambers, not allowed to leave them by the new detective.

Useless decorations such as garlands and banners with the kingdom's royal coat of arms, flower pieces and twinkling lights hung in the form of a crown, and other utter shit was displayed all around. The coat of arms was the only thing remotely worth looking at. The shield was black with a red and silver bend. In the middle a silver dragon was visible. Supporting the shield were two black dragons and on top of it a silver knight's helmet was present. Intertwining red and silver flames blazed around it. Beneath it the motto was written in Tengwar script.

Only a handful of people knew its meaning nowadays, the language was created thousands of centuries ago after all. Most people who had taken the time to learn it were long dead by now and hadn't taught it to their children as learning it was more of a hobby and not a kingdom wide requirement. Nevertheless I didn't need to use my powers to understand it because of one simple fact.

I was a Tolkien fan.

"In the blood of our enemies we shall bathe, indeed." I sighed.

It was a shame that with the beginning of the war, the creation of art completely imploded. And even though the walls went up and peace somewhat returned, art never did. Along with everything else, except for weapons and defenses, its development came to a halt. True artists like Tolkien, Taylor Swift and the Beatles had died long ago, and no new artists ever rose to try and leave their mark on the world. Humans simply had other priorities and turned into stiff, grey versions of themselves.

Actual books, DVDs, CDs and paintings were reserved for the absolute richest or the collectors. The rest of the kingdom had to rely on radio, cable tv, Wattpad and pictures of paintings on the internet, which all were limited to only a few selections. My father was quite the collector so he managed to build up a rather large collection of books and DVDs. He knew a lot about art and passed it on to me. Now that he was gone, the last good thing had left this world, leaving it to be a bitter place. The thought of art now only added to my rage as there was no joy in admiring it if I couldn't share it with him.

"Everyone out." I commanded, my tone leaving absolutely no room for negotiation.

Everyone instantly dropped their things, bowed and quickly made their way out of here. When there was nobody else in the room I shut the doors and sealed them off with a flick of my wrists. No one had to watch the next part because it wasn't going to be pretty.

"JORDEN!" My voice boomed through the room.

Not one second later, the bastard appeared with his emotionless expression. A pillar including a vase immediately flew in his direction and it hit him hard, causing an earthquake here and probably some other natural disasters elsewhere. He fell to the floor and rolled over. A chandelier came crashing down right above him and he disappeared into dust. It shattered on the marble floor and Jorden appeared next to it, holding up his hands in surrender.

I was going to add some markings of my own to that face.

An angry breath left my lips and I was extremely close to annihilating the entire planet. I wanted to end him so badly, break every bone in his body and rip him apart, fill him up and choke him with the very dirt that was his, but I couldn't. Dead men tell no tales and I wanted answers.

Fuming in anger, I slowly approached him. "You stand there on your pedestal, all-knowing and oh so cryptic, watching me go through hell and back to see if I live up to what you had in mind. You knew this would happen, yet you didn't say a fucking thing. Because let me guess, it was fixed in time?"

"Yes. You wouldn't have participated in the conquest if you knew, resulting in a completely different outcome and more problems. There was no other way." His expression softened the longer he talked.

"I know you know who did it, but naturally you're not going to tell me." I scoffed, ignoring the pity radiating from him.

"I'm sorry, I can't. You need to figure it out on your own to reach your full potential and growth." 

I raised my eyebrows. "Great. And how am I supposed to do that, huh?"

"With practice. You can do it yourself or I can train you in your dreams. Teach you to get everything out of your powers, you can control more than you know. You just have to put your mind to it."

I failed to see how that would be relevant for the investigation, but apparently there was something bigger going on.

"I don't think I want help from a planet such as yourself." I seethed. "Genetic mutations, strange creatures, wars, overpopulation, starvation, discrimination, evil. It all grew under your watch and you let it. Why?"

He took a step back as I approached him further. "When I came into existence, I created some basics for survival and vowed not to intervene to let nature run its course, otherwise it would exhaust my resources. It has evolved, but mostly corrupted far beyond my powers. I cannot intervene, not anymore, but you can. You're free from limits. I used most of my remaining powers to create you, to create balance."

"So you created me to fix what you can't? What does that have to do with these kingdoms?" I rolled my eyes.

He sighed. "Unfortunately, this is just the start. I'm afraid the things yet to come after this small adventure will be much, much harder."

I was done with this. I knew there was a bigger motive behind it. He created me as a stupid puppet to do his bidding simply because he couldn't do it himself. How sorry it was for him, that he couldn't control my strings.

"What am I, Jorden?" I asked firmly, knowing very well I wasn't human, werewolf or vampire, but he had to have a name for it.

The least he could do because he created me to fix his own mistakes is telling me what I was. I deserved to know.

He narrowed his eyes. "Deep, deep down you know it already. It will rise to the surface soon."

"Unbelievable." I seethed as I closed the distance between us, trapping him in a corner. I grabbed him by the neck, and the ground shook heavily beneath our feet. New black markings burned into his face as I pinned him against the wall.

"You ruined me. You ruined everything I loved. And now you can watch as I set your world on fire."

I let him go and left him alone on the ground. With a delicate movement I swept the rubble to a corner. The doors opened and I was met by many confused people with widened eyes, who immediately went back to work once I gave them a look. 

The all too familiar scent of sweat and too much cologne smacked me in the face when the doors to the war room where opened.

The smell of disappointment.

A gigantic black wooden table with the kingdom's map carved in it had replaced the war table I destroyed. The familiar twelve chairs surrounded it, and the generals had taken their seats already along with the new, old, white detective who was sitting in my father's chair. They were arguing and clearly annoyed because an earthquake had messed up the room and I arrived later than they had wanted me to.

"Get out of the chair." 

"I'm sorry what?" The detective asked taken aback while everyone snapped their attention to me.

"English, motherfucker, do you speak it? Get out of the fucking chair." I snapped, while walking over to my go-to thirteenth chair in the corner.

I picked it up, walked over to the war table and kicked the King's chair out of the way and placed mine at the head of the table. Everyone whispered to one another while I placed my father's chair next to mine and sat down.

"My father's seat will stay empty as a reminder that every single person in this room fucked up while I was gone." I motioned to the cast aside King's seat. "You can take that one, Mr.?"

"Scaevitas, Ma'am." He explained hesitantly while he sat down.

Hemlock pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I can't believe we're going to let her take the throne. Look at her, Nuin, she's a walking disaster. She has no manners and zero experience. We should have a vote in her decisions, at least we have experience through our work for the king."

"Sure, if you consider constant failure experience." I frowned.

He gritted his teeth. "You're going to fail."

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." I grimaced without any emotion in my eyes while I sat back in my chair

"I hope you join your father soon." He spat out.

Most generals looked away and bit their lips. Others however, thought it was incredibly funny, joking about someone who died literally yesterday. One general in particular, laughed quite loud. His laughter turned into coughing which in turn transformed into choking. Blood ran to his head and his eyes bulged out, he desperately held onto his neck, looking at the others for help, not knowing why he was choking on air. Seconds later he dropped face down on the table as dead as a doornail.

This tragic event happened to occur right across from Hemlock, who looked quite traumatized. Slowly, the remaining generals turned their heads to me with their eyes widened in shock. 

"Let me make one thing clear. I know you. I can feel you." I began. "You're some of the worst humans I've ever met. You talk shit about other beings all the time while having not one redeeming quality yourselves. You lack leadership skills. In fact you lack any skills at all, you've proven that time and time again. You are worthless generals and you actually don't deserve to sit here with your privileges. Don't think you don't deserve death, because you do. Let this be a reminder that I can kill you easily, because you are the absolute prime example of replaceable."

"You're going to die for this, girl." Hemlock seethed.

I grabbed onto my armrests and leaned forward with an enraged grin. "You can give it everything you have and I will sit back, smile and withstand it with ease. So come on, I dare you. Do it. Nuke me for all I care. I will only laugh as I watch you destroy yourself while doing it."

He stayed silent this time. They all did. This was going great so far. 

I rolled my eyes. "Now Nuin, can we get on with why you summoned me here before someone else mysteriously chokes?"

Foxglove stared at me for a minute, before realizing I was talking to him and he had to speak. "Uh-um right. First up, you have our sincere condolences for the loss of your father and the dog, it being left behind in the conquest was an honest mistake on our part. Secondly, we wanted to introduce Mr. Scaevitas who has taken over the investigation. He has been busy interrogating everyone who was in the castle when the disaster struck last night and he will continue after this meeting."

Ignoring that pathetic attempt of an apology, especially after calling Sauron 'the dog', my gaze roamed over Mr. Scaevitas and I rested my head on the palm of my hand. That was the back up? He could've been named Hemlock 2.0 and I would've immediately believed it. He wasn't going to be able to identify any suspects and he sure as hell wasn't capable of deciphering my father's casefile.

This kingdom delivered disappointment after disappointment and I had to rule it from today onward.

Fuck me.

Mr. Scaevitas shot me a small smile while he anxiously loosened his tie. Foxglove's eyes moved from him to me and he took his discomfort as a sign to continue. "The last point of interest is just a heads-up about the coronation. Obviously it's a formality since you won the conquest, making you queen already. It will be live broadcast in four hours. So please, I beg of you, be on time and make it go smoothly. You won many people over by winning, but now you need to convince the rest."

"Who is going to crown me?" I wondered, ignoring yet another plea for me to behave. 

Pleas seemed to be routine these days and by now they should've figured out that those things rarely worked on me.

He gave me a pitiful look. "I assumed you wanted your father to do it, but since he isn't with us anymore I will be doing it."

"Hell no." I frowned. "I'll crown myself."

"Fine." He looked at Hemlock, Briar and Mallory, shifted in his seat and hesitated before continuing. "There's also the matter of your father's funeral. We're thinking of making it a kingdom wide broadcast."

My expression dropped into a glare. "You want to milk my father's death for views? Absolutely not."

"But we think it will-"

I raised my hand, cutting him off. "One more word about it and I'll make everyone's head explode. I will arrange the funeral with Mr. Anders and that's final. Anything else?"

The men shook their heads and I stood up, having more important things to do. On my way out I stopped next to the one star general's deceased body and patted him on his back with a smile.

"You can broadcast his funeral."