Amir Skylock

Amir was born the second child to the King and Queen of Skylock. She was seen as a miracle, since they had been trying for a second child for years, and it had been five years since her older brother Layton had been born. As per Skylock tradition, her grandmother was supposed to choose her first name and she would take her grandmother’s name to be her middle name. Her grandmother was travelling at the time and sent a letter saying she had chosen the name Amelia – but, the letter got smudged and when it was given to the King, he misread it as Amir, and honoured what he thought was his mother’s choice. It wasn’t until a year later when Amir’s grandmother returned from her recent expeditions that they realized the mistake, but by then, Amir had already been presented to the public, so the name stuck.

When Amir was born, everyone noticed how unusual her eyes were – she had the same blue eyes as Skylocks before, the colour vivid and swirled, almost like agate stone. But a small section of her eye was deep brown. This, along with how much trouble the King and Queen had had in conceiving a child, triggered many rumours not just in the Kingdom of Skylock, but across the other six realms. Among them, the popular ones were that Amir was a changeling, switched out by the Fae, and that her mother had had an affair with a member of the Fae. Even more rumours spread when she grew her hair. While most of it was the same light-brown as most of her family, she had one, almost-black section, peeking through no matter how her attendants and ladies tried to do her hair.

Amir was incredibly close to her older brother Layton, despite her parents having another son barely a year after her named Jasper, Kylo two years after Jasper, and twins Alec and Evander three years after Kylo. Despite being closer in age to Jasper and Kylo, it was she and Layton who were close. They did almost everything together, shared nanny and most of their tutors, and secrets as well.

While their personalities were quite different, they were best friends. Layton was the calm in Amir’s life – showing her the joys of reading, horseback riding, and art. There were a few other children around the castle near their age, especially Knights and Guards’ children. Amir grew close to many of them, and they took turns teaching her sword skills, archery, knife throwing, and even hand to hand combat. The most interested in teaching Amir these skills was Joanna, a friend shared by her and Layton. The three of them, along with a boy named Dylan, were a little group who were completely inseparable. Layton and Dylan were not interested in weapons and adventure and combat like Joanna and Amir were, but they all found things they loved to do together.

Much of the difference between Layton and Amir came in what they were being raised to be. Layton was being raised as the oighre, the heir to the Skylock throne. He loved the learning that went into it, with a knack for politics and history. Amir was more interested in adventure. She loved learning about weapons, climbing trees and racing horses, learning events for Skylock games, and hoping to spend her life like her grandmother and Aunt Elena, as an adventuress. One of her favourite places to escape to were the gardens, but also a room in the old wing of the castle, a room made of glittering metal and windows, filled with plants and a small pool and fountain.

When Amir was 13, she started dressing up and sneaking out through the back kitchen door, and into the village for the night markets, buying trinkets and vegetables for herself and her brothers, and her first taste of adventure. She would cover herself in a heavy cloak, bringing a wicker basket with her. She would shop the stalls until her basket was filled, and would then make her way back to the castle. It was a habit she never stopped, and while many of the villagers figured out who she was, no one said anything.

As Layton started to spend a bit more time studying with his father and father’s advisors, Amir grew close to her brothers Jasper and Kylo, teaching them and eventually the twins the combat skills she knew so well, and they started to have their own kind of adventures.

When she was 14, she was brought in as a member of Layton’s Inner Circle, the closest confidantes of the oighre, who train to fill the spots of the Council when the oighre moves on to become sovereign.

Just after Amir turned sixteen, the Circle was sent to treaty talks with Keene and (mountain kingdom). The rules, though, were that two royal children weren’t supposed to travel long distances together, so Amir planned to leave a day after, and Layton decided to only bring their best friends Joanna and Dylan with them. Tragedy struck, and the three of them were found dead, their carriage and much of their clothing set on fire. Losing her brother – her best friend – and the other two people they were closest to nearly destroyed her. She spent two weeks in bed, emerging for the first time for her brother and friends’ funerals.

Soon, Amir was catapulted from being the background child who planned to live a life by herself as an adventuress, travelling the world, to being next in line for the throne as oighre. She had to be crowned as oighre, and all of the reports at the time talked about the tragedy still written across her face. Despite becoming oighre, though, she continued to sneak into the village every week, and continued to train with guards and knights. When Layton died, her and Jasper immediately became closer as he moved into the role of her closest confidant, and Kylo became her closest friend when she needed something softer, calmer. And while she started to read more of the political and historical books she needed to to be a good sovereign, she continued to read romance and thriller novels.

Amir struggled for a while, trying to balance life as the oighre and the life she had grown up planning for, and had to actively work for balance in it.

A season into Amir being oighre, her father requested the newspaper to send a journalist, someone to live in with the family, and publish a weekly serial about the new oighre. With Amir having stuck to the background, the shadows, Layton the public face for their whole lives, the castle – and the whole kingdom – felt like the citizens needed to get to know their future queen. Theodore Crawford, who was immediately given the title of Sir, was brought in and became known as the royal writer. When Theodore first arrived, Amir stood on the balcony high above the foyer, trying to catch a glimpse of the writer as he arrived.

It took her many weeks to really start opening up to Theo. He worked to earn her trust and start writing more. The day the first serial came out, her mother read it out loud at the breakfast table. Amir and Theodore soon grew to be friends, flirting starting to arise between them as Theodore continued to publish the serial every week. One day, Theodore was supposed to meet Amir and knocked on her door – and she opened it, still in her corset and underskirts. He told her she’d wait but she invited him in, giving her attendant a scare, and had the attendant leave and let Theodore help her put her dress on.

It happened a second time, this time somewhat planned, and Amir still only in her undergarments and shorts. They passed it off as research for the serial, and he went through every step to get Amir dressed. That day was the first time she sat in on the Throne Room with her father, having citizens come and ask questions, and air their concerns.

One of her favourite gifts was a book that Theo gave her. It was just a romance novel, but it meant the world to her.

For her seventeenth birthday, her first birthday as oighre, large festivities were organized. Young men from across the realms were brought in as suitors, complete with a welcome ball, a birthday fear, a birthday ball, and a morning after brunch. Amir broke tradition, inviting many of the merchants and members of the public to the birthday feast and birthday ball. This was the first time the public truly saw her as oighre, and it made them see her as a kind, caring queen, who really wanted to connect with the public. At both the balls, Amir danced with Theo, and spent much of her time along the sides watching everyone, her, Theo, and her brothers rating the young men who had been introduced as suitors.

At her birthday ball, Theo finally broke and told her how he wanted to kiss her. She surprised him when she broke a little and told him she would really like that.

Late on the evening where all the birthday guests were leaving, Amir and Theo shared their first kiss, both of them realizing how badly they wanted it. They wanted to keep it quiet, though, so when two guards came around the corner, Amir sent Theo away to his room. That night, though, Amir’s world was rocked further when she found a note in her room. Someone told her that they knew who had killed her brother.

Amir and Theo started to steal away for private moments, times to think and talk and cuddle, just finding time between her duties as oighre.

One of the days when Amir just got to be a teenager again was a day when her parents were fighting about something, and her and Jasper took their younger brothers outside to play in the rain, sitting in a cave they found to warm up, talk, and tell stories.

Soon after, Amir officially builds her inner circle, made up of her brothers Jasper and Kylo, friends Gio, Aramis, Kenaia, Denna, and Shehada, an old tutor Mido, and the young man training to be her personal knight and future Knight General, Arthur, brother of Amir’s friend Joanna, who had died with Layton. The news was passed on to Theo to announce in the serial, and he was hurt that he wasn’t in her circle of advisors and confidantes. She explained that having the man she loved in her strategic and political group meant she would spend her time focusing on him: and her plan was to have him much closer, making reference to marrying him some day and making him Prince Consort.

A second letter arrived, advising her to meet just outside the castle to learn more about the death of her brother and their friends. Skilled at sneaking out since the age of 13, she slipped out late at night, but was immediately kidnapped and whisked away to Keene. She was taken to Novak’s manor, where she was put in a large, red dress – a Keenian wedding gown – and while she was there she learned that Keene had been kidnapping RiKoi citizens and forcing them into slavery. Novak arrived, wearing a crown she recognized as one Layton though he had lost. Novak forced her to kneel, telling her he was going to marry her if she liked it or not. He did not expect Amir to be the warrior she had grown up being, and she figured out how to knock him unconscious. Knowing she wouldn’t make it out alive on her own, she sat in his bedroom, with him unconscious nearby, and read, praying someone would come and help her get out.

Soon, Lenora, Arthur, Jasper, Theodore, and a few knights, arrived and helped free her. Jasper and Theodore came up to Novak’s room, and found her. She took Layton’s crown off Novak’s head, kicked him, and took the sword the rescue party had brought for her. They tried to sneak out but the Red Guard was alerted, and they had to fight their way out. Some of the Skylock knights got a bunch of horses out of the Keene stables and they all got up on one, making their way out of and racing to the border, crossing into the (forest kingdom).

It was then they realized Amir had been injured, a large wound on her side, and had to keep her awake as they raced against the clock to get her back to the royal doctors. She woke up soon after the surgery, stating that it had gone very well, and they saved the red wedding gown, sending it to the Emperor of Keene, Novak’s grandfather.

When she returned to her own bedroom, Amir had her attendants remove all the red clothing from her wardrobe, barely able to look at the colour without triggering the memories and they pain fro that night. All of this led to the Council feeling like they should go to war, Amir being invited in as oighre to give her opinion. But as only one person, her vote not to go to war with Keene was overturned and the notice was sent to Keene.

Within a week, all the Skylock troops, including the Clan armies, were suiting up for battle. Amir put on gear, tying as many weapons as she could to herself, and had the guard lock Theodore in his bedroom, hoping that was a way to keep him safe. She rode out at the front of her armies, stopping at the border in neutral land to meet with the Keenian Emperor and Prince. They talked, Amir giving all the details to Novak’s grandfather. The Emperor and Prince kept trying to look past her to the King and Prince Jasper, but she insisted that it was she they should be talking to, demanding their respect. When they told her the only way they would let it go would be an eye for an eye for the men who had died at Novak’s manor that night, they retreated and Amir insisted that, although men were volunteering to go with the Keenians for their sovereigns, she would not send them to their deaths like that.

Realizing that the harm brought to her was considered treason against the old laws of the land, they devised a plan to kidnap Novak and hold him to bargain. Amir held him on his knees in front of her as the Emperor and Prince realized she was willing to kill him, ending their line of succession since the Prince had no children and no marriage prospects. As things cooled, Amir strengthened the Skylock Knight presence on their border and throughout the kingdom to protect her people from the Keenians, whom she believed would be waiting to attack.

As life returned to normal, Theo freaked out realizing he probably wouldn’t be able to stay a journalist if he married into the royal family, and Amir granted him space to think about it. She wrote out some fun details to send him for that week’s serial, but Jasper switched them out for old journal pages, so that Theo saw how much Amir had given up when made oighre. The fear in him settled a bit from there.

Amir started meeting more often with her circle, learning and working towards more political aspects. Their first thing was the RiKoi slaves she had seen while in Keene. They rode out to RiKoi, bringing Theodore with them, and were welcomed with a feast and a ball by the RiKoi king and prince, Prince Maximilian, an old friend of Amir’s. The next day, Amir requested her and the King speak in one of the beautiful wheat fields she admired so, where she explained what she knew about the slaves. She told him that it wasn’t her kingdom’s fight: but if the King wanted to do something about it, her armies were ready to support RiKoi, and to fight for what was right. The RiKoi sovereign agreed, and plans began. Amir and the Circle, with Theodore and the addition of Prince Maximilian, travel to Tunngas, and (forest kingdom), getting them on board to fight as well. They get word that the Mountain Kingdom will be fighting with Keene, and Whawei refuses to join either side, staying neutral. The party goes to them, and Amir tells them that by staying silent this way, they are taking the side of the oppressor. While it doesn’t go over well, Amir didn't back down and they leave.

Days before riding out towards battle, far from the Skylock border, but still fearing for her family, she sends her brothers and Theodore to the Isle of Ilona, where she believes they will be the safest. Just before Theo leaves for the Isle, he proposes to Amir, asking her to just say that she will marry him.

During the battle, Amir fought hard. At one point, she was knocked off her horse, almost unconscious on the ground. Many knights from the Lock-allegiance watched, seeing their warrior on the ground. She opened her eyes, feeling like maybe she could just stay where she was. But, mustering her strength and courage, she got back up on her feet, pushing forth and giving their troops new hope. Eventually, along with Lenora, they make it through all the barriers to the Emperor’s palace, and they force him to surrender, all the slaves being free. The Emperor makes a cruel addition that if they want to remain free they must leave Keene, where many have been for as long as six generations. Skylock, RiKoi, Tunngas, and (forest kingdom), all offer new lives to the formerly enslaved people, and they disperse throughout the realms.

When they return from the month long battle, Theo tells her he has to go. That he doesn’t think this is the life he wants. While heartbroken, Amir obviously lets him out of the promise they had just made, watching him leave through the window in her bedroom.

Weeks after Theodore left, Amir meets Torrence, when he is escaping from the dungeons. She takes the tall, young man under her wing, bringing her to stay with the family and the two became fast friends, alike in their adventurous mindset. While Jasper was antsy about having Torrence, a Keenian, formerly imprisoned, stranger amongst them, and feeling like Amir is trying to just replace Theodore, Amir loved the company.

Torrence taught her how to rock climb, showing her how to scale the cliffs near the castle, and in turn she teaches him to throw knives, as well as the art of hawking. Their relationship deepens, Torrence gifting Amir a set of throwing knives he created, and Amir kisses him for the first time. Their relationship blossoms into more romantic feelings, but after a few months, Amir realizes that it is not the love she had felt for Theodore, and ends the romantic relationship. Luckily, Torrence is extremely understanding, and they stay close friends.

On a night where Amir and her Circle are riding out to see Torrence, Amir feels like there is something lurking in the mist, and she can’t tell if it is something that is a friend or a foe. But something in her makes her get off her horse, making her way into the fog and spots Theodore. They run to each other, hugging, Theodore realizing he needed her in his life, he needed her, and he walked home. They abandon their plans to visit Torrence, bringing Theo back to the castle.

Just after her large 18th birthday party, Amir’s father falls gravely ill. While they tried to hide it from her and say he just wasn’t feeling well and setting it up as an opportunity for Amir to work more as sovereign-in-training, eventually the news reaches her. While walking through the castle with Theodore, staff and guards run up and refer to her as her Majesty, and she realizes her title has suddenly changed. The Knight General informs her that The Summons has been put in place to make her Queen, and she must go to her father’s bedside to receive the Ring and the Right. Amir goes, finding her frail father, and her family comes too. The High Priest and High Priestess perform the Ring and the Rite ceremony, making her Queen.

In a whirl wind that follows, Amir has to release her father’s advisors from their duties, induct her Circle into official members of the council as her advisors, meet with, be crowned Queen in a huge coronation ceremony. Amir’s coronation dress, an absolutely beautiful and elaborate Skylock-blue gown with elaborate gold details, had to be glued onto her skin, instead of using any kind of illusion fabric to hold it up.

In that time, she tells Theodore that she wants to get married, if he’ll have her. He heartily agrees, proposing to her, adding a wedding and a second coronation to the craze around them. Four weeks after her coronation, the two get married in a beautiful ceremony, on the castle grounds with friends and family. Like every Skylock wedding, it was complete with their own, personal vows, rings, and a hand binding ceremony. Her father recovered enough to walk with a cane, and he was able to walk her down the aisle. Two more weeks later, he is crowned as Sovereign Prince Consort, and the two can officially rule together with kind hands over Skylock. While Amir’s coronation gown is more elaborate, her love is in the wedding dress. Similar in colour to her coronation gown with the same, Skylock-blue, it was strapless (and held up without the help of glue), with intricate gold embroidery across the dress, angular details on the bust making her look very queenly.

Kenaia, Denna, Shehada, lady in waiting, lady in waiting, lady in waiting were her bridal party, while Torrence, Jasper, Kylo, Gio, Aramis, and Arthur, were members of Theodore’s grooms’ party, with Alec and Evander as the Ring Bearer and Tartan Bearer.