Eden Ablaze

“Confess your treachery, brother! Confess! Confess! For the greater good, confess!”

My blade dances across the keeps stones as the castle burns beyond. My new Eden, devoured by the man for whom my heart beat. Drops of blood dot the stones of the tower floor. The end of our long crusade draws nearer and nearer as the sands of my brother’s hourglass empty.

The hour of my ascent draws near. Emperor. The words taste as sweet as honey on my tongue. What was taken from me would soon be returned.

We stand atop the tallest tower as smoke smothers the sky. Fear flows from blue eyes that refuse to look away—refuse to understand the madness they hold. He must fall, and my ascent must come for the greater good.

My sword clangs once more as sparks threaten the hem of Jacob’s robe. Yes, Jacob…the name returns to me as the moment draws near. Your army burns, your people burn. Now, we end your madness. He wore no armor. My anger burns.

“Confess!”

The very sounds of the battle around us recede at my charge. Off to my left, the tower door crashes open.

Ah, Duncan, my stalwart ally. Now, our hour has truly come.

Duncan approaches us, sword drawn. Never the coward, he dons steel plate. My brother could never hold such power, such glory.

“My loyal servant, you have come,”

My eyes leave my brother. He was less than a corpse now–the sands of the hourglass empty.

“Of course, all loyal servants were summoned as the sword of the true emperor. Your struggle up here echoed throughout the tower.”

“And what of the summons to defend these holy walls!” My brother yells from the stones. Such weakness. Even the lamb knows not to struggle as the butcher approaches.

“And, of course, my sword swears to the true Emperor,” Duncan speaks evenly. A true servant. My love for the man swells. My stalwart deputy on our endless march–never once has my trust of the man faltered. So few men of such standards occupy the earth. A true Eden he could make, had he the heart for such endeavors. A man of a pure-blood ancestry, he alone understood our great struggle. Jacob and the comparable mutts of the earth could never occupy Eden and could never take the mantle of Emperor. Duncan understood they must be destroyed.

“Loyal as always, Duncan. The end comes. Hand me the crown, brother, and confess your betrayals before us.”

“My betrayals?” Jacob laughs. He must forget the neck wound came from my blade. Blood pools upon the stones from them. What’s one moment before my due comes? My sword lowers. He deserves to speak, for our mother but not for any love born upon my heart. May he confess and end the current folly. “You have betrayed us all. Betrayed the throne of our Eden.”

“Ha!” Laughter erupts from my belly, from my toes, at the charge. My betrayal? How can the one who came from mother's womb before he took a breath betray what was my due?

Jacob resumes, “You seek to usurp what was granted to me. The throne was never yours, Valdar,”

“How dare you speak my name.”

My anger returns at the utterance of such falsehoods. The throne was my due. My due!

Enough. My sword returns to Jacob’s neck. The flames reflect off the steel, as do the blues of Jacob’s eyes. Now, he laughs.

“So fearful of who you are. As a bastard should be.”

Duncan utters no curses nor approvals. One slash and Jacob’s rule ends. One slash and the throne comes to me. My brother’s head was all that was needed.

My sword stays. “Your words are but a plague.”

“You are the plague, Valdar. You murdered my father. You murdered our mother for the shame she bore. No, you may not have held the noose she placed around her neck, but we know the shame she bore was yours. You are no more than a bastard base-born scoundrel. Cut me down. Please! But know always that your heart be blackened as your stable hand father’s was. The blood of the one who raped our mother courses through your heart.”

Below, my army sacks the castle–the defenses long crumbled. How many bastards would be fathered today? May they not breathe tomorrow, for that would be a mercy.

Jacob does not stop: " You’ve burned the world, burned all those who wronged you, and yet your heart beats black. Tomorrow, as the sun returns to wake you, black blood. Years from now, when your bones crumble, black blood. Black! Black! Black! Blac–”

My blade cuts through Jacob’s Adam’s apple. My brother gurgles once, then chokes upon red blood. No sorrow enters my heart. Truly black then.

“For the greater good, brother. You are a plague, as always.” my curse falls upon dead ears.

“You’re a bastard,” Duncan speaks, and the sudden sound wraps dread around me. He was correct. My mercy bested me, and now...a new threat emerges. But no, Duncan would not betray me. Surely...

“No…you cannot be,” Duncan says once more, a sudden edge to the words. “Was the war all folly then? All for a bastard?”

He looks out over the blaze, over the howls, over the death. The world calms for a moment, even as the blaze grows ever stronger, then the spell breaks.

Duncan’s blade cuts toward my head. My own sword meets the challenge.

“Duncan, my brother…” the suddenness of the betrayal takes me unawares. No, Duncan, never a bastard. My heart beat before Jacob’s. My lungs breathed before Jacob’s. My blood runs pure, whether you can see that or not.

“You’re a bastard!” another blow comes, then another. One by one, my own steel counters the assaults. He may be fast, but he never learned sword mastery down amongst the alleys. Duncan’s assaults are a formula: one after the other, over and over, met by parry after parry.

“All of the war, all of my trust Valdar! Gone! You bastard!” Fury fuels Duncan’s blade. The formula crumbles, and our dance becomes a brawl.

My anger towards Jacob lessens, and a new betrayal floods my soul. One by one, Duncan’s attacks falter. Rage covers the face of my best general.

“We swore to you! Our homes? Gone! Our honor? Gone! All for a bastard!”

He slashes savagely, regard for form long abandoned.

Between my anger grew sadness. Duncan’s loyalty had been such a stable force for me. Now, he must be put down. All between me and the crown must fall.

He lunges. My blade lashes.

The moment freezes.

My arm lunges forward, but Duncan no longer stands there.

“A mad dog must be put down.”

He speaks so softly that the words are nearly lost to the maelstrom of battle around us.

The blade enters just below my heart. Fatal.

As my knees collapse and blood gushes from the wound, the castle crumbles to the flames.

Heat brushes across my face. An Emperor at last. The Emperor of Ash, that’s how they’ll remember Valdar.

Laughter grows once more from the depths of my belly. What folly. What folly.

Yes, the Emperor of Ash.

The world turns black as the flames consume my castle.

My Eden.

Gone.