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The Weavers of Fate
Murder Your Darlings

Murder Your Darlings

"My brother was the youngest of all my siblings, the funniest, and the one filled with the most joy," Emporer Valeborn said. "I have never truly understood the pain that Regno felt losing Princess Martia until I heard the news of my brother's passing. When I went to sleep last night, I was sad. When I awoke this morning, I was not."

"I became angry," Emporer Valeborn announced. "I still am."

No subtitles were needed for what he said. The look of anger seemed more genuine than the sad face he had earlier, and everyone in the room was frightened. He could be the last thing they saw before they were killed if they were caught.

"I ask you now, my beautiful children, and not just you, but the people of Regno and its mighty leaders to come together and destroy the the evil within! Rise! Rise to the occasion!"

The camera cuts to another view of the nobles standing and cheering, shouting for their beloved leader, crying for the untimely death of his brother, and screaming for revenge.

"Weaver terrorists have killed my brother," Emporer Valeborn announced. "They recruit young people, especially women, and make them believe unholy thoughts. They train them to become killers and when they are done ruining them, they will come for your family next, just as they have come for mine. No more!"

The nobles shouted no more, no more, over and over while the Emporer raised his sceptre in the air and let out a battle cry.

"I ask you not to follow me, but to allow me to lead you to glory and kill every last one," the Emporer screamed. "No more!"

The nobles continued chanting no more, over and over again. It got louder and louder, and Max tried to turn the volume down, but he realized it wasn't the stream that was loud. It was the lodge. People throughout the lodge were chanting along with the Emporer, a man they had never seen, a man who had lied to them for years, because of the fear that their brother might be the one that was killed.

The feed cut to a camera from above, and the Emporer got up from his throne, and everyone followed him out of the throne room, and out into the courtyard. It switched again to another camera in the courtyard. The beautiful courtyard filled with purple flowers and a bubbling fountain had a weapon rack with an old sword held on it.

In front of it was a large rock, and in front of that was a small woven basket. The Emporer walked into view and shamelessly he took off his regalia, leaving only his pants, and gave it to a servant. The nobles cheered even louder when a woman was brought outside, her head shaved and eyes blindfolded.

"Rhiannon Valeborn has succumbed to the lies of Weaver terrorists and killed her husband," Emporer Valeborn announced. "She is almost as bad as a Kingslayer."

Loud boos came from the crowd, and Rhiannon cried and sobbed. She was too exhausted to fight back, too scared, and she told herself, that if this was the end, she could see her husband again.

"My family told me to exile her and take her titles," Emporer Valeborn said. "They told me to take mercy on her feeble mind. That she believed in silly things like tree fairies and talking animals. Where was the mercy for Flama!?"

The nobles started chanting no mercy, no mercy, and everyone in the room was horrified as the lodge started chanting along with them. Aster finally broke down because Rhiannon was paying for something wrong she had never done. Rhiannon had kept her promise and never told a soul what happened at the lodge, and because of that Emporer Valeborn believed she had killed her husband.

Emporer Valeborn took off her blindfold and she blinked rapidly, the sunlight burning her eyes. Her tears came down even faster as she begged for mercy but Emporer Valeborn had already made up his mind.

"Please," she begged him. "I am your cousin. I loved him. I still do. I loved him since I was ten, I would never kill him."

"You can kill someone and love them," Emporer Valeborn replied. "I love you."

He dragged her by the arm and she fought and kicked, but she was no match for him in her weakened state. He pushed her to the ground and made her kneel to the ground in front of the large rock. The Emporer took the sword off the rack, one passed down for centuries by his forefathers, chosen because he believed today would have more meaning if he got revenge using it.

"Any last words," he asked Princess Rhiannon.

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Princess Rhiannon looked forward and understood that no matter what she said, she would always be seen as a traitor to her kingdom. That she was never good enough, no matter how hard she tried. It did not matter that she used her powers to only heal the sick, grow plants, and learn more about the world. It did not matter that she was a direct descendent of the Stormweaver, one of the few nobles left that were.

It still wasn't enough to be equal to them.

So she said what she believed would be best for others like her.

Weavers.

"Do not demand respect from those that will never give it. Take it. And when you have it, never let go."

Emporer Valeborn pushed his cousin he loved so much down, and her head leaned over the stone. With one swift movement her head fell into the basket, and the last of her line was gone. Princess Rhiannon's arms flew up when her head was cut off as if she were falling, and her eyes blinked for a few moments until she finally died.

Emporer Valeborn looked at the camera and made another announcement.

"I hear your filthy Weavers and your lies that turned my cousin and killed my brother," he said. "I hear your fairy tails of your god, the Stormweaver."

Max clenched his fists so hard his fingernails dug into his skin and they started to bleed. The intense look Emporer Valeborn gave when he looked into the camera made Max feel like he knew. Like he knew who he was and would kill him through the screen.

"You claim he is the beginning and the end of us all," Emporer Valeborn said. "The only end and beginning is me. I will kill your false god and bring you all to your knees. If I can kill someone I love to protect others I love, then I will not hesitate to kill all of you."

Everyone in the garden clapped, and the camera cut to the Emporer's mother, no longer in anguish, but crying tears of joy believing the person that killed her son was now punished. No one thought twice of the Emporer's disturbing display of being judge, jury, and executioner, because it was his birthright, and for the first time, he had enforced it.

The Aria national anthem played while the nobles continued to give Emporer Valeborn a standing ovation. While looking directly into the screen with the same kind-hearted voice he used earlier when he welcomed the viewers to the show, Emporer Valeborn addressed Max directly.

"There can only be one."