Work Text:
Natalia Arron was sixteen years old the last time she felt any genuine guilt over killing someone.
The murder occurred the night after her father's funeral, and the poor soul she had killed hadn't deserved such a fate.
Her father had been slowly dying for months, and nothing could've saved him. However, the maid had gone above and beyond caring for him when the family couldn't.
She took such good care of him that if it hadn't been for the uniform, a stranger could have walked in and assumed that the man was the woman's father.
The poor woman's only mistake was walking up to the heartbroken, angry, and very drunk Arron matriarch and offering her condolences.
Natalia had pleaded with her mother to spare the maid. She had nearly groveled at her mother's feet, begging her to let the woman go and send her off the island instead. But, Atrisia Arron would not be convinced. All the hard work, diligence, and successful attempts to make the dying man comfortable in his final days meant nothing.
She had listened to the screams for nearly three hours. The maid was almost unrecognizable when her mother had finished taking out her anger. Alive but unrecognizable.
Atrisa ordered her to throw the dying maid out into the woods to let the elements and the animals take care of the rest. However, Natalia and the guards her mother had sent to help couldn't bring themselves to allow her to suffer any more than she already had.
Natalia slit the young woman's throat the very moment they made it into the woods.
They buried her next to a bush of wildflowers that she'd bring in to brighten up the now late Arron's room.
When Natalia finally went to bed in the early morning hours, she vowed she'd never be half as cruel as her mother.
---
Queen Katharine of Fennbirn was twelve years old the last time she cried at an execution.
When Natalia usually brought her to witness a private execution, she would bring her to the dungeons inside the Volroy. She'd explain in full detail what crime the condemned soul was guilty of, and then she would perform the execution.
Natalia would carry out the execution emotionless, carefully cutting into the skin or ensuring that the prisoner did not panic as the poison was poured down their throat. Sometimes the executions would be quick and painless. But most of the time, Natalia enjoyed prolonging the prisoner's suffering.
This one had been different, however.
Instead of going to the Volroy, Natalia dragged her down to the cellar in the manor. She hadn't bothered to tell her who the man tied up in the center was. All Natalia had done was push her towards the empty chair in the corner and order her to sit.
She did not tell her about his crime.
As Natalia stalked around the man, laughing when he tearfully begged for mercy, Katharine was nearly sick with the realization that the man probably didn't commit any crime.
Natalia tortured him for hours upon hours. And Katharine watched, silently weeping, until Natalia decided she had enough. After the guards dragged his dead body out, Katharine had been given only one explanation.
"His father betrayed me and died before he could answer for his crimes." Natalia had told her. "This was justice."
Katharine cried once again in the privacy of her room that night. Before she drifted her eyes closed, she promises herself that she will do everything she can to be more merciful and kind than Natalia.
---
Queen Katharine is almost seventeen when she realizes she has failed to keep her promise.
She is not merciful, nor is she kind.
And much to her surprise, it doesn't bother her as much as it once would have.
Natalia was gone, Pietyr was gone, the dead queens invaded every thought and emotion she had, and each day more and more of her own people turned against her.
Katharine doesn't really care about her previous promises anymore.
She knows deep down in her heart that what she's doing to Billy is wrong. Billy hadn't been the one to murder the woman she called her mother. However, she couldn't bring herself to care. Her desire to cause pain, just so she can ease hers a little bit, overrides all rational thought.
Her anger is far too great for her to resist anymore.