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Zam stood in her highest section of her towers , his hair tied on the back of her head. As she looked outside the window, there was no joy, neither any amount of the paranoia that usually ate at his brain daily.
Just a numbing realization that what she had was truly gone.
Each one of her people,each child she would see playing in the rain were dead and have been. They didn’t accept this at first, why would she? He had spent years doing her best to keep her empire save. She had spent years with the crown resting on her head. So much so it started to wear down on their skull.
But this?
Seeing the wreckage of the place Zam had called theirs?
The rumble burying each of her empires homes, each bloodied body underneath, some of those she had grown close to hidden below the broken pieces of the place he had watched grown and built up from the ground in nothing but shambles.
This kingdom was everything to them. It meant more than any man had ever meant to anyone.
It wrecked her in a way that no amount of responsibility ever could. There was only one person to blame, only one soul deemed responsible of her ruin.
Spoke.
That twisted bastard had somehow lined tnt under the gravel roads of her empire while she was away in battle. his stomach twisted with nausea as they thought back to the fear in her citizens eyes. A fear that had been engrained in her memory.
She believed he had done it because he was salty. Because he was jealous of her success, and power.
He had opposite intentions.
Spoke wanted power, control just like she had yes. But he had never wanted to destroy her mind in any way. He saw how she looked down at her kingdom before it all happened. He saw the anxiety growing each day. In his eyes, what he had done was the only way to bring her back.
Even if it was the only thing keeping her together and tearing her apart at the same time.
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Princezam sat atop a tall cliff, legs dangling off the edge listening to the sounds of the wind blowing through the pine trees. She had a very faint smile on their lips, nothing but a small upturn of lips but it showed how she was actually at peace for once. Despite all the destruction of everything she had loved…
it was peaceful. For quite some time.
though that silence was broken abruptly. By the sound of rustling in the leaves behind her.
That subtle, almost nonexistent sound caused her to tense. Prepping for the assumed ambush of whoever was just a few feet back from her. Accompanied by the smell of something similar to gunpowder. Very familiar to someone he knew.. in fact—
Spoke stood close behind Zam. Rocking on his heels back and forth, sounding a low whistle. “Well, well, well!” Spoke grinned, clasping both his hands together, resting his cheek against the back of his hand. “Look who’s here.. All alone, Zammy?” Spoke asked, as if he wasn’t the rooted reason on why Zam had been alone.
Zam stared at spoke, eyes narrowing in on the boy in front of him. He seemed too bright for someone who had blown up a past powerful empire. “Spoke, what the hell are you talking about?” Zam turned to fully face the voiding. “You’re the one who’s alone. You have no one now, spoke.” Zam corrects him, turning her gaze to the ground, fists clenching at his sides. “Why? Why on earth would you come back after the harm you have caused me?!”
Zam demands, stepping forward. Pointing straight at spokes chest. Spoke raised both of his hands, trying to show he didn’t have any weapons, no secret lever or plan. Though that was difficult to believe when it came to this boy. “Woahh! Calm it down, zam! Just checking in on a friend!”
“Friend?….”
Zam repeats the label under her breath. Her hands beginning to tremble.
“Spoke! You cannot be serious, What type of friend would ruin the only thing I lived for?!” Zams eyes darted across spokes face. He tried to scan it for any ounce of manipulation tactics he usually lived on. Finding none was somehow worse. How could someone be so clueless and blind to the destruction they caused??
“You are not my friend, We were never friends. Anything you believed we had is fucking dead and buried! Do you truly believe I would still have any amount of care or love for someone… Someone like you??” Zams breathing was heavy and slow. Her hand lowering.
“It was ruining you, zam. Didn’t you see how tired you were? I was just looking out—-”
“Don’t you dare try to defend yourself right now, spoke. I could’ve dealt with it! I have dealt with it. Why was your solution tearing apart my destiny?” Zam turned around looking back off the edge of the cliff.
“If you think killing my problems is the best route….” Zam paused , eyes darkening “maybe you should just kill yourself since you’re my largest problem.” The sentence hung in the air like smoke. Nesting deep into spokes mind almost immediately.
“What…?” He breathed , letting out a nervous laugh. “Nice … hah… nice joke, zammy. Come on.. lets… lets just go back to my house….” Spoke said desperate to change zam’s mind, to shift her thoughts from him being gone and back to them being close.
Spoke reached out, trying to grab Zams wrist to pull her closer, Zam yanked her hand back, turning around sharply. “Lay a single finger on me and you’re not just going to be dead to me.” Zam hissed , stepping forward to look down on spoke.
Spoke didn’t respond. For a while he was just staring at zam , he tried listening but all he heard was static and the sound of his own quickening heartbeat in his ears. He couldn’t hear with himself spacing out, but he could see the pure hatred in her eyes.
Her suggestion to end his story short had repeated in his mind.
Spoke didn’t let Zam finish whatever sentence she was saying before turning around , his body feeling heavier then before.