Part 3

I stared at my empty hands, smeared with stains of ruby red. My fine silken gown was bleeding red from the hem up the rest of my cream and blue fabric. There he was, the man who my kingdom called my mother for he had carried me and born me, laid on the carpet where his blue-blood status drained away almost as quickly as his true blood left him. I knew what lay beyond the walls of my rooms, he had come in screaming and crying, wailing that all was lost after grandfather had had his way. I couldn't see it, I didn't want to, but what if… There was no escape from the splitting headaches that felt like Athena was tearing my head apart rather than Zeus’. I was tired, so Gods damned tired, but I couldn't just sit here. Could I? My brother, my father, uncles and cousins. The people I had lived with since my birth, the ones who raised me, and sheltered me from the cruelty of the world weren't running to my side to shield me from the harsh bloody reality that was soaking into the hardwood floors and plush carpets I now sat upon.

The harsh sound of booming came through the halls, startling me back to the present. Tears were running down my cheeks as thick as streams, my throat felt choked and I could no longer breathe as I wished to.

The screams, the noises of boots thumping of armor clashing as the men from afar stormed the palace. Everything seemed deafening, the sounds of my mother's blood dripping into the steadily growing puddle, the noises of ransaking.