A maiden. A duty. A kingdom. A Hawke.
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Kingdom of Solis - Kingdom where Poppy lives. Consists of multiple towns, Masadonia is where she currently resides.
Outside of the rise - outside of the wall that surrounds the city.
Ascended - vampry. They rule Solis. Cannot go in the sun because the gods don’t walk in the sun. Have to drink blood or the wounds they acquired as a mortal will come back. If they drain a mortal without killing them they create Cravens.
Cursed/Craven - Mortals who are bitten by an Ascended. Cursed just haven’t turned yet, when they fully turn they are Craven. Ascended are like vampires, Craven are more like zombies. Poppy is told they are creatures from Atlantians. Also believes they can be controlled by the Dark One. Poppy says they have four long canines.
Duke of Masadonia - Dorian Teerman. A sadist, asshole. Also got what he deserved in a public way but not soon enough at all and he deserved to have it done repeatedly.
Lord Brandole Mazeen - his friend. A fucking asshole, predator, rapist. Got what he deserved but not soon enough.
Second daughters and sons - given to the Royal Court on their 13th birthday during the annual Rite. Will travel to the capital, where they will be drained by Ascended, given the blood of an Atlantian to become an Ascended.
Ian - Poppy’s brother. Ascended two years ago.
Hawke Flynn - a Royal Guard that becomes Poppys guard.
Culling - when Altantains go through the “change”
Prince Casteel aka Dark One - Prince of Atlantian.
Queen Eloana - Queen of Atlantia, Casteel’s mom.
King Da-Neer - King, Cas’s dad.
Prince Malek - Cas’s brother who is being held by the Ascended in the capital. They are using his blood to make mortals into Ascendeds.
Tawny - Poppy’s best friend. Also her Maid or whatever.
Ryland - Poppys guard, who was murdered in the garden on their nightly walk, by Jericho, on Prince Casteels orders.
Vikter - Poppys main guard, like a father to her. Trained her to fight even though he wasn’t supposed to. Is killed the night of a Rite by a Descenter but not on Casteel’s orders.
Descenters - those who do not believe that the King and Queen are not the real rulers and they follow “The Dark One” and the Atlantians.
Atlantians - They ascend, during the Culling, where they get faster and stronger and need blood but they aren’t soulless, they aren’t mindless, they can go out in the sun. They need blood but they feed off other Altantians - not humans. Their blood has healing properties. Their blood makes mortals Ascended, not Craven.
Maiden - Penellaphe (Poppy), The Chosen. On her 19th birthday she will Ascend, as will Ladies and Lords in waiting. She doesn’t want to Ascend. She is also not allowed to show her face or interact with anyone other than her guards, Tawny, Duke, Duchess, Queen, and Lord FuckFace. She was attacked by Craven when she was a child, the night her parents died, she has a large scar across the side of her face and on her abdomen and legs. Poppy is part of a group of people who kill the Cursed before they fully turn into Craven. With Poppy’s power of being able to feel the pain of others, she is able to take away their fear and pain before she stabs them in the head.
This is a story about a girl named … Poppy. Penellaphe is the Maiden. What does that mean? Do we ever really find out? She is the Chosen one, destined to be given to the gods on her 19th birthday. She can only ever wear white, must wear a veil on her face whenever she is outside her room, she cannot talk or interact with anyone except the Duke, Duchess, her personal guards, and her lady maid/friend Tawny. Poppy was attacked by some Craven when she was just a wee little thing, and now she has scars on her face and scattered around her body.
Poppy wants more than her provincial life (not sure if that's the right word, but it feels right because I can totally see Poppy singing the words to “Belle” while dancing around her room alone). She wants adventure… in the great wide…somewhere…so she goes to a gambling den. Which is also a place for hookups and hookers. While there, she ends up seeing her father figure/royal guard Vikter, and a woman, (isn’t this the Miss Willa Collyns we will grow to respect and love?) sends her upstairs to a room that is supposedly empty. It’s not. Hawke is there. Who is this? Well… that's a long story. But right now his name is Hawke Flynn, a Royal Guard who is new to town. He thinks she is someone else and kisses her, he realizes his mistake, but that doesn’t stop him. He is intrigued. A little flirting, a little second base happens, but then cock blocker Kieran knocks on the door and tells him a shipment is there. Hawke asks “Princess” to wait - but she doesn’t.
Lots of world building that I don’t really think is super important to the overall story at this point in time, mostly because everything Poppy knows is a lie. So let’s skip to the good parts, shall we?
Poppy and Rylan were on their way for her nightly walk, when stopped by Lord Mazeen, (hereby will be known as Lord FuckFace), he takes Poppy into a room and touches her inappropriately and would have done more but someone started screaming. Poppy notices he smells like flowers. There's a dead girl, with two puncture marks on her jugular, in the next room. She is drained of blood, her neck is broken, and her dress was ridden up like she had been assaulted. Duke tries to blame a Descenter which makes no fkin sense. But Vikter and Poppy believe it to be an Atlantian. Poppy returns to the scene of the crime and finds one single flower petal…the exact same kind of flower that Lord FuckFace smelled like…
The night after the girl was murdered, Rylan and Poppy go on their walk. They make it to the garden this time. While they are looking at some flowers, Rylan gets shot through the chest by an arrow. A man appears out of the shadows, tells Poppy that she is going to go with him and no one else will be hurt, she pretends like she is going to obey, and then she whips around him and stabs him in the back. He moved just in time to not have it pierce his heart. He calls her a bitch and punches her in the head. He hears a low whistle coming from elsewhere and he takes off.
The Duchess believes that the Dark One has come for Poppy.. I mean… she ain’t wrong…
At Rylan’s funeral, Vikter is hesitant to leave Poppys side but Hawke appears. Hawke comes from the capital with glowing recommendations and is on his way to being the youngest Royal Guard. He tells Vikter he will protect Poppy with his life. After Vikter leaves to go light the funeral pyre, Hawke tells Poppy that it's a great honor to Rylan that she is there, then he notices she has a bruise on her jaw from that dude punching her and he says “You’re hurt. You can be assured that will never happen again.”
Poppy attends Court where residents of Masodonia come and petition the Duke or Duchess for something. Mr. and Mrs. Tulis are there to ask them if they would ask the gods if they could keep their third son and not give him to the Rite when he comes of age. They lost their first and second sons to an illness, this is their third and last son. You get to keep your firstborn but you give the rest of your children to the gods. Second children are given to the gods to undergo the Rite and Ascend. Thirds and on are given to the gods at 1 month of age and are never seen from ever again. The Ascended claim that they are serving out their lives in the Temples. They also say that they (and the gods through them) protect the people from the Craven, and the very least the citizens could do is give their children to them to repay the debt or some shit.
Unfortunately for the Tulis’, the Duke and Duchess give no shits and refuse to petition the gods and basically lecture them for even having the audacity to ask such a thing. This does not sit well with Poppy (or half of the people in attendance).
Hawke is chosen as Poppys guard, the Duke tells her she has to unveil in front of Hawke so he can see her face. Once she is unveiled he says “She’s truly unique isn’t she? Half of her is a masterpiece, the other half is a nightmare.” He truly is an asshole. To which Hawke replies “Both halves are as beautiful as the whole. With my sword and with my life, I vow to keep you safe, Penellaphe. From this moment until the last moment, I am yours.” …… HEART EYES …..
This angers the Duke and shocks Poppy because he wasn’t supposed to address her by her name, never by her name. Only title.
Poppy tells Tawny what happened at the Red Pearl. Poppy is convinced that Hawke either doesn’t know it was her, or that he knows and is planning on using it to advance his position farther by ratting her out to the Duke.
The next day, Poppy ends up at a brunch table with Tawny and two other Ladies in Wait. She isn’t supposed to be there, remember - she cannot interact with anyone. The women aren’t there to hang out with Poppy, they’ve never tried before, they are there to try and catch the attention of her new royal guard. Poppy knows she should leave but she is entertained by the antics of the women. They talk a lot, rumors about the Dark One aka Prince Casteel. They finally leave and Hawke comes over and tells Poppy she has been summoned by the Duke.
The Duke, along with Lord FuckFace, has taken it upon himself to give Poppy “lessons”. These lessons are punishments for any little thing he has deemed inappropriate for the Maiden to do. They consist of him having her remove her top, all of her top clothes which I feel like would be a very unMaiden like thing to do, then strikes her in the back with a cane. However many times he deems fit. Most of the time, she is able to make it back to her room. A few times he has struck her unconscious and they just wait for her to wake up before she stumbles back to her room.
He deserves everything he gets and honestly, way more.
This time he hits her seven times while Lord FuckFace watched. Hawke had sent for Vikter because he was worried, Vikter sent him away, so Vikter escorted her back to her rooms, where she stayed for 2 days.
On night 2 she is looking out her window and notices that The Mist is approaching. Aka the Craven. They are attacking the Rise. A lot of the royal guards go to protect it, including Hawke and Vikter. Guess who doesn’t go and protect? The Ascended. But Poppy runs out with her crossbow to help. She takes down a lot of Craven, including a few that almost got Vikter. As everything winds down, she is getting ready to leave when Hawke shows up. Lovely banter and this is the first time Poppy tries to stab him and throws a knife at his face. He reveals that he does know who she is and he has known since she unveiled. She asks him why he didn’t tell the Duke and he said that if he betrayed her trust that would make his job a lot harder, but maybe he should tell them, so that she’ll stop putting herself in dangerous situations. She panics and says you don’t know what he’ll do, but stops herself before she says more. She returns to her room and he follows shortly later to have a longer discussion. He questions her reaction to the Duke, she lies, he says “what did he do to you?” She refuses to tell him. More lovely banter and some flirting.
She tells Hawke the reason Vikter has taught her to fight, and why she was out on the rise, is so she will never feel helpless. When she was six, her family left the capital and was in a small village. There was a Craven attack. No one in the town, including her parents, knew how to fight. Her parents both died, Ian was protected by a villager, but Poppy was attacked - hence all of her scars. She was then taken back to Queen Ileana who helped her heal and raised her.
Hawke again says he will not tell the Duke or Duchess but he just asks that she wears more appropriate attire and shoes the next time.
Duke and Duchess hold a State of the Union (pretty much) and tell everyone that the gods are unhappy with SOME PEOPLE (aka Mr and Mrs Tulis) questioning the Rite and that is why the Craven attacked. Then called out Descenters in their midst and then one of these people rush the stage and throw a Craven hand at them. As he is tackled he yells “From Blood and Ash, we will rise!”
Poppy felt anger from this man. She is used to feeling pain, but not anger. She goes and talks to the Duchess about how she feels like her power is changing. The Duchess tells her its maturing, but not to talk to the Duke about it, it would remind him of the first Maiden, and she is not to be spoken of or even thought about, the gods forbid it. She then goes on to say The Dark One killed the first Maiden.
During one of Poppy’s meetings with the Priestess where she has to read outloud from a history book (not even going into the history she is reading as all of it is bullshit) when she reacts to the “blessing” that was granted upon the Ascended by Nyktos, the Priestess questions her, and grabs her by the chin, tell her she must like the cane. Poppy kind of mouths off and the Priestess pulls her hand back to slap her when Hawke grabs her wrist. He politely tells her to take her hands off the Maiden or he will act on her threat to harm Poppy. Poppy is shocked. No one has ever stood up for her before. None of her other guards have ever stepped to stop her from being slapped. After they leave, she tells Hawke that the Priestess will go to the Duke. Hawke questions if he hits her, and Poppy lies. He asks if he uses a cane on her, is that what the Priestess meant? Poppy lies again. Pretty sure Hawke can tell though.
Poppy asks him about his family, if he has any siblings. Hawke said he had a brother, and he seemed so sad, that Poppy didn’t even think before she reached and grabbed his hand. She took away his sadness, which left Hawke feeling happier and then confused.
The next night, Poppy is bored so she sneaks out of her room and heads to the library. She has heard of a new book and she must read it. The Diary of Miss Willa Colyns. She grabs it, goes into an empty room, and starts reading. She hears a noise, recognizes the Dukes voice, and climbs out of the window, and is stuck on the ledge. Duke stays way too long, just when he leaves, she starts for the window, when she hears another noise. Hawke has found her and he is furious. First, she snuck out without him, and second, she could fall to her death. She climbs back in, lovely banter, then he grabs the diary. He starts reading from it which embarasses the crap out of Poppy.
Next night is the Rite. Poppy gets to wear a color other than red and to wear a mask, not a veil. Hawke isn’t there to escort her, only Vikter. Hawke is supposed to meet up with them there. The wife of someone Poppy helped (aka a Cursed that she killed) comes over and tells her to please be careful tonight, there’s a lot of people there, and anything could happen. Hawke finally shows up. The Duchess comes over, tells Poppy not to socialize. Poppy asks where the Duke is and the Duchess says he is running late. Poppy feels bad that Tawny is just standing there so she tells her to go have fun, that she is going to go back to her room. Tawny leaves, and Poppy tells Hawke she is ready to go. He takes her hand and convinces her to go out to the garden, even though that's where Rylan died and she now wants to avoid it, instead of going back to her room. Out in the garden, Hawke leads her to his favorite place, a Weeping Willow. Underneath the branches, are benches, completely hidden. Hawke leads them under there, where its pitch black. He can see just fine, Poppy can’t see shit. He grabs her hand, goes to the bench and sits, then pulls her into his lap. They discuss how inappropriate this is since she’s the Maiden. Lots of sexual tension. Then she asks him to kiss her. They make out for a bit. Hawke stops them before they go too far, no second base for him this time, and they eventually leave the willow. When they are walking back, they run into Vikter. Who is #pissed.
Hawke and Vikter exchange words, Poppy manages to deescalate the situation, and Vikter dismisses Hawke, and starts to escort Poppy back to her room. Before they reach the building, Poppy has a breakdown. Over the fact that she can have nothing, can do nothing, can experience nothing. She says she doesn’t even know what it will mean to give herself to the gods, and there is no honor in being the Maiden when she has no rights or life, she would gladly switch places with anyone and that she hopes she is found unworthy by the gods.
As they get inside the building, there’s lots of screaming coming from the Great Hall. And what do we see when Poppy enters? Glorious revenge. The Duke is dead. With his cane shoved through his chest. And written above him: From Blood and Ash, We Will Rise.
evil laughter because the Duke freaking deserved it
‘But then chaos happens. The castle is being attacked. Windows are breaking, arrows are flying. Vikter screams to protect the Maiden, and Poppy grabs onto Tawny. Royal Guards lead them and the Duchess out of the great hall. When they are exiting, they see a group come in - Wolven. They were surrounding the whole castle. The Duchess choose a room and ushered them inside. Poppy was annoyed because she said they were sitting ducks. And she was right. A battering ram smashed through the doors and a bunch of Descenters came rushing in. Luckily, Poppy had her dagger, and she fought and killed a few. The Duchess and Lord FuckFace did nothing to help but gaped at her and questioned where she learned to fight like that, how very unbecoming of a Maiden. Vikter said he taught her and he was glad he did. Then he smiled at her and told her she made him proud …. Right before he died.
A fallen Descenter had gotten up and stabbed him, as Poppy and him fell to the ground, Hawke appeared in the doorway and cut the dude's head off. Vikter tells her that he's sorry that he failed her and did not protect her like he should. After he died, Lord FuckFace made a comment about how maybe her lessons didn’t help because she clearly got too comfortable with her guards. Then … he finally gets what's coming to him. Poppy is LIVID. She jumps up, grabs Vikters sword, cuts off one of the Lord’s arms, then his other wrist, then his head, then doesn’t stop stabbing him until Hawke pulls her away, pleading for her to stop.
A week and a half later, Poppy, who has been grieving probably in an unhealthy way, is summoned by the Duchess. They have heard from the Capital and Poppy is to be escorted there. Unfortunately for Poppy, Tawny is not allowed to go. There will be a small caravan of guards taking Poppy and Hawke says absolutely no extras.
Poppy has to ride Hawkes horse with him (because of course she does). They have just a few guards, plus a man named Kieran (aka cockblocker from the Red Pearl). Hawke has packed all the important things - including Miss Willa’s diary. They stop for the night in the Blood Forest and Poppy can’t sleep - she is freezing, she is worried about a Craven attack, and she is worried about getting attacked by these large rat things. So Hawke - is a nice guard and decides to help keep her warm and relax her with an orgasm. He keeps it all above the clothes though. She is the Maiden after all.
The next day they are attacked by Craven. One of the guards, Arrick, is attacked and is dying. Poppy grabs his hand, and takes away his pain, while Hawke and another guard watch. This is the first time Poppy has used her gift in front of anyone except for Vikter.
A few days later, they arrived at New Haven, a little village. A bunch of kids run outside and start waving and seem really excited. Poppy is confused but Hawke tells her it's because they don’t get a lot of visitors. Kieran says they act like royalty is among them with a glance at Hawke. The townspeople seem to know Kieran and Hawke, by name. Poppy notices that there doesn’t seem to be any Ascended around. Hawke leaves Poppy with a woman named Magda while he heads off with Kieran and a man named Elijah who had embraced Kieran when they arrived.
Hawke comes to Poppys room later to check on her. She tells him all about her gift. Then says he needs to go, he can’t stay there, makes comments about how he doesn’t deserve her, she asks him to stay with her.
Chapter 33 - The One Where Poppy Loses Her Virginity (and we find out Hawke really likes honeydew)
The next morning, Hawke leaves to “take care of something” and Phillips, one of the guards that came with them, comes to Poppys room. He is freaking out, something isn’t right, there are no Ascended there, two of the guards disappeared an hour after they got here, he has never met Kieran before they started the trip, also, no one really knows Hawke either, they gotta get out of there. Poppy goes willingly, mostly because she doesn’t want to be trapped in a room with him. In the hallway, they meet Kieran. Phillips and Kieran pull their swords on each other but Phillips manages to cut Kieran. Kieran then transforms - he’s a Wolven. Phillips and Poppy make it to the stables where two other guards, Luddie and Bryant, are waiting. They manage to bar the door shut and keep Kieran out. Poppy is insistent she isn’t leaving without Hawke. Another man steps out of the shadow - that asshole who killed Rylan. Except now he only has 1 hand.
The doors that were barred flew up and Hawke appears, with a crossbow. Kieran is sneaking up behind Hawke, and Phillips grabs Poppys arm so she doesn’t run towards them. Hawke looks right at her and says “it's okay” then shoots Phillips with the crossbow. Another wolven appears from behind them, takes down Luddie. Bryant makes a run for it but Kieran is faster. And then … it's just Poppy. Asshole, apparently his name is Jericho, says he is happy to be here for this moment and can he please kill her now. Hawke says “Touch her and you’ll lose more than a hand this time”. (In case it isn’t clear, Hawke cut off his hand for punching Poppy in the face.)
We find out a lot in the coming pages - Hawke arranged for there to be an opening in Poppys personal guard (aka he had Rylan killed), Commander Jansen has been in on this from the start. Poppy throws a dagger at Hawkes face again, grabs a sword, cuts Jericho again (HA!), cuts someone else, and then her and Hawke face off. Actually, Poppy just kicks his ass while he tries to subdue her. Everyone else just stands and watches, very entertained at watching Hawke get his ass kicked. He manages to finally stop her because she notices that he has two elongated fangs - he is an Atlantian. The townspeople want to kill her but Hawke tells them that absolutely no one but him is allowed to touch her. Delano takes her to a cell
Hawke visits her in the cell. Admits he is the one who killed the Duke. He notices she is hurt, she got sliced by a knife in the stables, he gets her to finally lay down and accept his first aid and while doing so, tells her the story. Or what he knows to be the story.
King Malec fell in love with a mortal woman she got wounded, was dying, and he was desperate. So he drained her blood and fed her his. Since he was an Altantian, his blood turned her into a vampry (vampire), what Poppy knows as Ascended. But Ascendeds are not Altantians, their blood has no healing properties. They have to feed, (because vampire) and when they do, they create Cravens.
Basically - An Altantian can make an Ascended. But an Ascended makes a Craven.
King Malec’s wife, not his mortal woman, but his wife Queen Eloana banned the Ascension (aka making more Ascended) and ordered all vampry’s to be put down. The vampry’s were like hey now, I’m not cool with that, so they revolted and that started The War of Two Kings. King Malec was defeated and dethroned - Queen Eloana remarried King Da’Neer (aka the Dark One’s parents) and pulled their forces back, ending the war. Malec and his mortal Ascended disappeared. Vampry’s gained control and made their own King Jalara and Queen Ileana and their kingdom became the Kingdom of Solis - the one that Poppy knows of. Hawke tells her the second born children are taken to the capital, drained dry by the Ascended, then fed blood from an Atlantian that they are keeping prisoner to make more Ascended. The third and fourth borns are given as babies and are drained dry before they learn how to walk.
Speaking of using an Atlantian, Hawke tells her that for five decades he was held by the Ascended - cut open, fed on, used for food, used for entertainment. His brother rescued him and now he is being held (well he doesn’t really say that here but it's the truth). He tells her that the plan is to swap her for his brother.
Before Hawke leaves the cell he tells her that she belongs to him now. She said you mean the Dark One? And he says “I meant what I said, Princess”
The next day, Delano and Niall come in and tell Poppy they are escorting her to some more comfortable arrangements, to please behave because they like all their body parts attached and breathing, and if they are forced to protect themselves against her, Hawke won’t be happy if they accidentally hurt her. Unfortunately, Jericho shows up with like six other people (including Mr Tulis). They don’t give a fuck about what Hawke said and they want to kill her and send her back to the capital. Niall and Delano are like ummm no. Delano throws Poppy his sword with orders to kill anyone who gets close to her. Which takes her by surprise. Poppy holds her own for a bit. Niall goes down. Delano goes down and is about to get stabbed by someone but Poppy takes him out beforehand. She ends up getting cut and falls down, she swipes up with a sword, and cuts Jericho across the face. She gets up and Mr. Tulis is there, he stabs her in the stomach, she goes back down, she can hear people laughing as she is dying. Jericho makes a comment that he’s going to cut off her hand and keep it as a keepsake but before he can swipe out with his sword, he is stopped by a Wolven - Kieran is there. Then Hawke. Hawke bites his wrist and tells Poppy to drink. Kieran says “Casteel, do you…?” Hawke basically tells him to shut it. Poppy doesn’t want to, because normal people don’t want to drink blood. But Hawke compels her to do so. His blood heals all her new wounds. When she comes to, she feels weird because of his blood. It finally sets in what Kieran called him. Hawke says “I prefer the name Casteel or Cas. If you don’t want to call me that, you can call me Prince Casteel Da’Neer…but do not call me the Dark One. That is not my name.” She hits him, slaps him. She has a breakdown because she has fallen in love with the person who she has been told killed her family. She pushes away from him and feels a dagger. Without really thinking, she lunges up and stabs him in the heart. She starts crying and says she is sorry. He says no you’re not.
She rushes out of the room and outside. She is sobbing because she really does love him.
She doesn’t make it far before Cas grabs her around the waist.
Cas tells her that to kill an Altantian you must stab them in the head or cut it off. They can survive a heart wound. Then he bites her. He drinks some of her blood and pulls away and says “I can’t believe it. But I should have known.”
Then they’re making out. Then they’re having sex…outside…in the snow…after she just stabbed in the heart…they’re complicated.
Apparently a good stab to the heart and a good fuck in the snow made Poppy hate him a little less.
That evening, Cas comes back to her room, says he is there to escort her to dinner. That he won’t let her starve herself just to be stubborn and that his people need to see them together so no one else gets any ideas. Kieran falls in line behind Poppy. As they round the corner into the hall outside of the dining hall, Poppy is stunned to see all the people who were in her cell to kill her up on the walls, staked through the heart or head. All dead - except Jericho. He is still hanging on. Poppy doesn’t really feel bad for them, because they would have done worse to her. In the dining hall, Poppy sits to Cas’s right side and is happy to see Delano and Naill are there and ok. Cas tells everyone his plans - they are to go home to Atlantia. Poppy says that's not her home but Cas tells her that he knows that she is Part-Atlantian. It explains so much and he confirmed it when he tasted her blood.
Kieran questions why go there though?
Cas says because an Atlantian can only marry if both halves are standing on their home soil.
He then smiles real big and raises his hand, that is holding Poppy’s hand, and says “We go home to marry, my Princess.”
Stay tuned for Book 2 - A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire