Chapter Text
At this point, Laurent had stopped struggling.
His bindings were too tight, and the gag hadn’t been removed, even for water, since he spat in Govart’s face nearly two days ago. He couldn’t move his legs, his ankles tied together so tightly, even when forced to kneel it pulled hard against the rope bindings. His arms were similarly tightly bound. His wrists, bound behind his back, had died parts of the ropes red with his blood.
He no longer had the strength to physically fight back as he was dragged closer to the cliffs edge. A cliff not too far from the capital where mere days ago he had been arguing vehemently with his uncle, the Regent, about power and his responsibility to take the throne in less than a years’ time. It had been a humiliating affair in front of the Council where every deed since his young teens were dragged into the light. His mistakes, his growing pains, and his horrible change in attitude and personality since his older brother had passed. How he was not fit to rule since he had not the personality and charisma of a true leader like his brother or his uncle. The Council deciding to send this irresponsible younger Prince on a tour of his own country, to work hard with guards and local governments as practice and to prove his worth. Just as his Uncle had wanted. Laurent had no choice but to go, knowing fully it was doomed from the start.
He was wholly unsurprised when two days into his journey, a “random” band of thieves and bandits overtook his small company and kidnapped him. He had seen before he was completely overwhelmed and knocked unconscious, a double of himself and not a very good one so a pure distraction, dead on the ground, a horrible looking dagger protruding from his chest. Then a glimpse of Jord and other faithful guards raging in grief, not seeing or realizing the real prince was being carried off into the nearby woods.
A few days of abuse and beatings later and some mild starvation and dehydration, he now looked over the edge of a cliff. Slowly coming to realize and accept in a morbid way, his death would be on those beautiful rocks and waves below. He was snapped out of his melancholic staring by a voice he assumed he wouldn’t hear.
His uncle approached on light feet. Looking down at Laurent like he was merely a piece of trash worth no respect. “Shame you had to grow to be something your brother would be ashamed and disappointed of. At least you will join him in the depths of the ocean.” Was all the Regent said as he nodded to the brute holding Laurent down then turned and began to walk away.
Laurent felt the knot on his gag be untied. He normally would have some remark or rude comment to reply to his uncle but before he could even begin to catch his breath, he felt himself being lifted.
Then he was floating, air whipping around him, the sounds of waves getting louder.
With his last breath, a desperate plea slipped out. “Mother, brother, please, protect me.”
The wind quickly whipped the words away, so it was heard not even by Laurent.
His eyes slipped closed and after what felt like forever but also just a brief moment, he impacted the water.