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When news of The Holy Revered being the Holy Monarchs' child spread, Leofric couldn’t help but feel bitter, betrayed maybe. Maybe it was a hope for the end of the candle of revenge, finally burning out. Or would smother be the better word? That feeling had been a rock in their stomach since it had happened.
Reflenora Place loomed, for once, he found the stained glass ugly. The windows depict the dirty sin of a lie. The lie of a better future from The Holy Revered. The way the sun reflected off the white palace felt too pretty for the poison that lay within its walls. It was a long way up those steps, but with each one he gathered more and more lines he was going to say. They were going to scream, to yell, and let everything that had sat there behind the dam walls.
When they reached the top, the Palace was oddly quiet. A breeze crawled through, causing the cyan, purple, and gold fabric decorations to sway. The usually bustling palace seemed hollow. Of course, there was the ever-present sound of the stream that ran through the place but other than that, there was not a soul to be seen.
Adenike quietly shuffled by but did not bring life with zir. Ze looked older, a silver streak now running through the braid, although only a Cazulea of one hundred and seventy-five. “Adenike,” he called out. Adenike stopped, turning zirs head to them but had no response. “Where’s The Holy Revered.” The words came out harsh, accusatory. But in this moment, it seemed like a just response.
Adenike looks back to the ground, then to the other side, away from Leofric, “Its not accepting vist-”
“Not what I asked,” Leofric demanded, the hot searing of rage needed quenching and this was their shot at it. “I asked where The Holy Revered was.”
“Leo I understa-” Adenike had not moved from zir spot as if glued to the floor but Leofric moved, moved with the force of a storm, leaving nothing but destruction in his wake.
“No, you don’t!” Any act of kindness The Holy Revered had shown Leofric now was hazed over by… by something. “I have spent my entire life fighting, lost everything! All because of the Monarch. Do I not get some satisfaction of expressing some amount of grievance to a liar? A fraud?”
Leofric had never seen that look on Adenikes face, different from the usual stoicism or smirk at a successful jest. Zir's eyebrows creased in a scowl, “Oh forgive me Grand Sun, for I must have insulted you. You’ll find The Holy Revered as joyful as ever sitting in its office.”
The tone almost made them jump out of their skin. He looked back to the open archway back outside, thinking for a moment about leaving the corpse of Reflenora Place to rot. Instead, they bite the inside of their cheek, tasting the iron that came with it. Blood was always a bitter taste, he deserved his retribution. Their parents deserved retribution.
The Holy Revereds personal office was hidden for the most part. It was made that way on purpose, Leofric had been told. If invaders ever came it was an easy place to hide. What kind of shitty ruler would hide? Oh, wait.
The anger had finally made its way to their throat as they heaved open the stained glass door. He would have loved to slam it open, cause it to shatter, but the door was too damn heavy for him. The room was dark, sunlight covered by more stained glass figures staring at him. While the live figure sat with its back to them. Just like the rest of the castle, it was still. Leofric grabbed a candle and a match, striking it ablaze before igniting the candle. They watched it flicker for a second, before the match burnt his hand, hissing as he waved out the flame, dropping the halfway-gone stick. And all this time it had not said a word, still, more statue than alive. For a moment they questioned if it was even breathing. He climbed onto the chair that was much too tall for him, obviously made for another species, so he sat in the place he usually did. On its desk. Right front and center, legs crossed, immovable and unignorable. They stared at the back of its head, hoping it would give in and turn around already. Adrenaline and anticipation coursed through his veins. What did the forged savior have to say for itself?
Yet it still didn’t move.
Leofric was tired of waiting, feeling the blood rush through their veins, their skin was slowly becoming a prison for their emotions. He grabbed the chair, spinning it around with every bit of force he could. The usually glowing yellow eyes now looked dull, even as the flame danced across its glossy eyes. It blinked a couple of times, its pupils getting smaller. Yet, it still didn’t move. The candle danced in between them. A barrier almost, more of something he was hiding behind, though he’d never admit that.
“Are you going to say anything? Or just look at me like that?”
It blinked slowly like somehow gravity had increased tenfold in this tiny room.
“I said are you-”
“I heard you.” It finally spoke, like pottery being shattered in the Kiln. The way it sounded like karts being drawn by horses gave way to the fact it had not been used in a while. For a moment, the gravity had reached up to their shoulders, dragging them to sag. The Holy Revered always spoke. It never even seemed to stop, talking in essays rather than holding a conversation. It was always in control, no matter how dismal it was, no matter how many times it got cussed out and slapped by other rules. Yet now like fallen prey, it was still, waiting for death to come to collect it. He looked up further, and he could see pure white roots growing in on the right side of its head. Since when did-
“I’m guessing News spread overseas?”
It was Leofrics turn to blink, “Uh, yeah.”
They sat there in silence for a while. “So tell me why you spend all the time coming here?”
“I wanted revenge.” Leofric deadpanned.
“Wanted or want?” Its voice felt like it had flatlined somewhere between the lines of their dialog.
“Want.”
“You’ve already had it, no? You’ve drawn my blood more times than I can count.” Its eyebrow raised ever so slightly.
“You wouldn’t get it-”
“You can say that to Adenike but you don’t get to say that to me.” Finally a hint of being alive, of anger.
“Why not? Why don’t I get angry? You lied to me!” Leofric asked, more of demanding.
"Keeping my last name to myself is not a lie.” The Holy Revered deflected.
“When you share the last name of a dictator it kind of is!” Leofric scoffed.
“That's the reason why I did it, you thought of me differently then and now. I was able to make huge strides while under no last name.” The Holy Revered tried to reason.
But Leofric was so tired of reasoning, “Is politics just some big fucking game to you? A game of chess where you also seem to be the winner of every time but yet the one time you get beat at your own game you grow sour. You are a sore fucking-”
“If you came here to insult me, you can take your leave. I’ve got the press doing that enough.” The Holy Revered tried to turn around again, but Leofric jumped, knocking over the candle in the process, and forced it to look them in the eyes.
“You don’t get to run and hide.” The flame had somehow transferred deep into his bones, reigniting the feeling from earlier.
“They are going to behead me in a week's time. I'm not afraid of it. Unlike you, I welcome death with open arms. You will go to the grave fighting. I already know I’ve fought and lost my war. They said that the moment they saw me, I'll shine bright like a star, but die quickly like one too.” There was an uptick in the speed of the voice as it cut deep.
Leofric felt like choking, he really couldn’t tell if it was from the fact that no matter how much time went on, the war never really ended or the fact his once friend now acquaintance had admitted it was waiting for death to come. “I don’t get you. You are full of secrets, have you ever even told a truth.”
“I can only tell the truth. We’ve been here befo-”
“No I mean have you ever told anyone your entire story? You are never moving, always still. It's unnerving. Aren't the high priests of Sigke supposed to be angry? Full of bloodlust?” Leofric grabbed it pulling it closer, staring down as it tilted its head back. “Why do you react this way when I come in, full intent to kill you? Kill you for your mother's crimes? Da made me hurt and I never got a say in daw execution. I never got my Justice. What made you worthy of it all?”
Leofric was shoved back, wind leaving their throat, “Anger? Is that what you wish to see?” It rose, the being almost double his height now seemed like the mountain range this castle was nestled in. “You say what me worthy like it was a reward! Like it was an honor to kill my own mother like a dog.” Leofric just stared back at it, more eyes on him from the windows, all seeing, all judging. They never understood how The Holy Revered found it comforting.
“But yet you were probably pampered, a cushioned lifestyle under the Monarch dawnself!” Leofric knew they were picking a fight they couldn’t win. You can’t win a war against a dead man.
“You want my past? Here let me hand it to you on a silver fucking platter and force it down your throat with a silver spoon. Since you think knowing is such a privilege.” The Holy Revered never moved, yet commanded the room. “I didn’t even grow up on this planet. Just like then, everywhere I go I am a stranger. Turned away at every door once they saw I am not like their own. And so without food and not knowing how to grow food, guess what I turned to?”
The words had died in their throat.
“Theiving. I turned to thieving. Running from kingdom to kingdom avoiding getting caught. And once my horns grew in? I cannot tell you the number of times I woke up in the middle of the night to someone trying to saw off my horns, thinking they were made of solid gold.” The ground seemed to move under his feet. “The one time I found a home, I fucked it up. You think so highly of my rage while they condemned me for it. I became A sinner in their eyes overnight.” Its head turned to the side, then down. “It was late that night, in a home their founder helped me build for me to live in with a smile on his face. I awoke to a thud. I had just made a new axe, it was heavy and a little bit too big for me to wield in all honesty. The intruder had come with a gun, he started to shake as I made my way down the stairs. I remember the bullet almost scraping against my horn, the sound as it rattled and rang in my ears, and the way the gunpowder filled the air. I remember how I wobbled while trying to swing that axe.”
Suddenly when The Holy Revered looked at them again, the way emotions painted its face made Leofric gag, it looked real, the marble beginning to crack. “I remember getting one good hit in, I had never seen their kind bleed before. They bleed red there, Leofric. I don’t remember anything else but I remember the looks of disgust on their faces when I woke up.”
He felt himself shaking, leaning away even though it had not moved any closer, standing with open palms.
“They told me they couldn’t recognize the person, the body was too mangled to pick out any features. They said his blood stained the walls. They said they dragged me outside as his blood rolled off me. My clothes soaked through. They said I wouldn’t calm down, so they pinned me to the ground and knocked me out. Yet, every time I woke up, my eyes would glaze over again and I would scream and kick, hiss and growl. So they kept me in chains until finally one of them suggested they get the blood off me. By then a week had passed.”
A thud on the desk made them jump and look back at it, anger made its skin flush cyan. “From then on I was a monster to them. I was something they couldn’t control. But where in Sigkes name was I supposed to go? There was not a kingdom in the region that had not heard what I’d done. Once again I was homeless. They put me on trial for the thief's death. I begged that judge for forgiveness the same way I beg to my god.”
“When da came to fight me, I didn’t even know da was my mother until after daw was headless. I was just told it was my destiny to vanquish evil. But I cannot get the sight of daw body still in the grass as I come down from a vision of daw holding me as a baby, wobbling and crying as da set a basket down a river. I held that head to my chest, begging to go back a few seconds, to right my wrong but time doesn’t work that way.” It seemed to shake apart in time with him.
That’s when it hit them.
The ground was shaking.
An Earthquake was happening.
The Holy Revered had started an earthquake.
Its eyebrows scrunched together, “In some ways, I'm not so different from my mother. Both slaughters of men. Same equation, different outcome.” It laughed, “But that's the pure definition of insanity! Yet we both are insane in some twisted metric of fate. We were both cast out by our own societies, not having homes to go to, only the hope of a better tomorrow. But you’ll never see daw that way, only ever seeing me that way! What in Sigkes name is the difference between the thief and the dictator?! I will forever have to live with that regret, Leofric! It haunts me on the darkest nights, daw blood forever under my fingernails, no matter how hard I scrub! I cannot scrub out my sins! I can never be clean!”
Leo's voice felt so quiet when he did speak, “But you have a home, right? This is your home? Like Adenike, Aine, Moksha?”
They watched as its face turned from anger to confusion and pain.
It curled into itself as it screamed, crumpling like paper.
The ground shook so violently that he thought a volcano was erupting.
If they had tried to reach out, it surely would have singed off their fur.
“You don’t get it!” Its voice came out raspy, worn from the scream that made his ears ring, “Adenikes got kids and Kal. Moksha has Yaropolk and Aines still got nim blood family still around! I don’t have anyone! They get to go home when they want to. While I don’t! I don’t have another home, another family to return to! I don’t get to leave these marbled Castle walls. I have never had a family Leofric! No one to return to after hours of work! I blow out the candle and pray that I don’t have night terrors that make me scream too loud.” The ground was still shaking, just now rattling all the bones in his body. “At least you had a home, Leofric! At least you could go home to someone who truly loved you!”
The Holy Revered was crying.
“Is my rage holy to you now Leofric?”
The ground had finally stopped shaking as molten lava ran down its face.
It turned back around, “Get the fuck out of my office.”
Leo stumbled his way out, Adenike standing in the way, like a turret. Leofric launched forward, onto their hands and knees, dry heaving onto the cold, white floor before them.
He heard as Adenike passed by, hooves and Staff clacking against the floor. Leaving Leofric to hold their neck as they coughed and gagged, gasping for air.