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"If you could be anything in the world, what would you be?" Finlay asks curiously.
"Yours. I'd love you how my mother loves my father. I'd kill for you, rot for you." Malenia picks at grass, afraid to meet Finlay's bashful gaze.
That was 10 years ago.
Now Finlay sits at the Haligtree, watching Malenia do exactly that. Her eyes and limbs are obscured by rot, taking on a haunting red color.
Finlay can either watch and listen to Malenia beg for her to pierce her heart or she could make this quick.
Malenia released her Scarlet Rot during the war to protect her knights. She now sits immobile at the mercy of her lover. Such a shame how love can be so painful for the giver. "I was doomed from the start, being the bearer of this unholy curse. Free me from my pain." The rot ravages her body like an unwelcome lover, grasping at limbs, pricking skin, prolonging pain and not giving a single thought about pleasure.
Finlay's mind starts to scream. "I will kill the god who watches my lady suffer. I will put an end to the force that reaps anguish on my fellow army and its leader. I shall slay god and and feast upon its carcass atop its own grave. A monster I may be-" Finlay grips her own sword above Malenia's chest.
Not letting her finish her sentence, Malenia manages to say, "You are no monster if you have a reason to kill. You have love. You are a monster if you can not love. And god can not love."
Finlay's hands falter from her words. We were all born from love, but god made us to watch us suffer. God crafted our graves when he wrote our names.
So why should Finlay grieve? This was all a plan. A scheme no one could run from.
They will meet again in another life. As the tiniest of bugs or the biggest of beasts. For now, just let her have her peace.
Finlay plunges her sword so deep she thought it might pierce the ground, then does the same for herself. The world stops spinning and the sword hits the ground, spores marking themself along Finlay's blade.
A new rot is born, a mix of the 2 women's blood. It will spread along the earth and love will find a way to stay alive.