Work Text:
which side of the bed should i lay
You know, telling right from wrong ain’t so hard when the lines have been so clearly established. You’ve seen bad, you’ve seen the worst; the image of the previous Lord still fixed on my mind, the blood banquets he carried on using that child’s blood in a twisted, sick game of his. Even years later, that scene was still clear in my mind. The kid’s motionless body, all trace of vitality gone from her body, and the Lord’s attempts to belittle her right to live. “The girl’s going to die anyway, are you just trying to play hero to pat yourself in the back?”. And maybe, deep down, there was some truth to that, but it wasn’t something the young Jacopo could acknowledge. In his eyes, he was doing the right thing. Stopping the evil Lord, stopping evil.
Now, the new Lord Barnier sat alone in his room, silence surrounding him. It seemed the path had been clear to take. No mistakes. Bringing prosperity into the city was a longtime task, and he was giving his everything for that goal. And yet. If he had such a noble goal, what was just happening around him? When did he start taking the wrong steps? The lines, that seemed so clear to him once, now were all blurred. Gratien’s attempt on his life was tormenting him as he repeated the events over and over in his head, trying to see if there could have been a way for a different outcome to happen. But there wasn’t. He had been betrayed. Probably from the start. Gratien had been good at hiding his true intentions, acting like a friend, only to end up backstabbing him and try to poison him without even a talk.
“You should have known to expect this”, the voice in the mirror spoke, that voice Jacopo had tried so many times to drown. “You only made a fool of yourself trusting someone so self-centered.”
Jacopo faced the mirror, only to find the reflection of the previous Lord gazing back at him, a mocking smirk on his face. You’re digging your own grave. You sealed the deal when you decided to take this name, his name. Keep fooling yourself thinking you’re doing it for the people; deep down you’ve known you’re only satisfying your own greed.
Jacopo reached out with one hand towards the mirror, the image of Lord Barnier disappearing only to reveal the face of a younger Jacopo. Jacopo before assuming this position, before erasing his old life, like he had always done. So that was the truth, he thought, even though he knew that he had only been pretending not to know. He had been on the wrong path since the very start. Alone in that room, alone at the top, he felt what little remained of the old Jacopo slipping through him. And only one thought came across his mind at that moment, after that realization.
What would you think if you saw me now, Morgana?