Part 28

I was able to kill many, but it was too little and too late. By the time I had done anything they were all dead.

That bastard of a king had stepped off the dias, his spear had run through Hanan and Ashur killing his own son, his sword had clashed with Naiser’s but my golden eyed friend wasn't able to do anything. Too busy trying to protect his son and husband, Kiaan was nowhere to be seen amongst the bloody scene, had he escaped with the prince? Run for the princess?

Good, they needed to get out. If at least some of us could live then it wouldn't have been worthless.

I watched, horrified as Naiser was cut down by his father. The monster climbed back up the stairs to his throne, smug faced and bloody.

Kichii made a break for him, right as I was stabbed through.

He managed to slit my father’s throat, right as my old man stabbed him through the heart and pulled the blade down to his stomach.

Had we all died? For him to still live!?

It couldn't be. If he still lived then the three of them wouldn't for long.

Or worse, he may just keep her alive.

I could move, barely but I could. Everyone else was dead in the room except us two, I could kill him with my final breaths, I could keep them safe.

I tried to get up, with all my pain and rage and grief that was flooding my body I had almost done so.

But I couldn't, not before Haku was there.

His father’s sword in his hands, plunging deep into the chest of the vile man that had murdered us all.

Killed his own grandfather, with tears running down his face as he screamed. It was filled with rage and grief yet yet recognized.

I was glad for a moment, the three of them at least should make it out alive. Maye even get help in time to save some of the others that were not yet dead.

For a moment at least there was hope. But then his head fell off his shoulders, and thumped down the steps. One after the other it hit, rolling to a stop right in front of his father’s body.

Golden eyes staring into each other as they both lost their life.

The door was thrown open and she ran right to Naiser's body, throwing herself over the dying life of her father.

The scream she let out when she saw her brother’s head separated from her body would haunt me even after I died.

___________________________________________________________________

It was the last words of my uncle, That's what Lionel had said. He had to have it written down, word for word, as a testament to what had happened.

They weren't the last words of my Uncle Kuro, he had said one last thing to Lionel before he breathed his last breath.

“Kiaan… where?”

“Dead. Cut himself open. I think he tried to kill her as well, in fear or grief I do not know. She was injured when I found her but I think she doesn't yet-”

“Then. Any of the others. Are they?”

Lionel had looked up at the knights and medics in the room, none had survived.

None but me.

“No… All of them, I'm afraid…”

“Then… she’s…no. No no no!”

He had tried to sit up, to move towards me.

But he couldn't. He was dying, he couldn't be saved, he knew that. But he seemed to know what i didnt at the time.

That what I was about to suffer was worse.

“You must, you must finish it.”

“What?”

“Finish it.”

“Finish what Sir Kuro? What needs to be done?” Lionel had to hold him down, he was starting to spasm.

“Finish it, kill her.”

I cannot remember anything past that. I screamed, so loud and so desperately as I saw my brother's head.

I blacked out, slumping over my father’s body.

Lionel hadn't done what he was asked, I don't know if I wish he did or not.

He had told Bethany this, the two of them had argued about my mother and his attempt to kill me and my Uncle’s last words came up. What Bethany told me this morning came to mind as I sat there, tears running down my cheeks as I stared at the stars.

– “He tried to do it because he couldn't… He didn't think he was strong enough to be alone. And He didn't want you to suffer either, so he tried to bring you both to the rest of them. And I know he regrets it, I know that if he had known that you would still be here then he would be here too. He wouldn't have left you alone willingly. He was scared, scared that you were going to suffer at the hands of that man-”--

I understood what both of them had done. Though I know Bethany does not understand what I do, and that Lionel doesn't under astdn ti at all.

In our culture, family is everything. Through the blood that flows through our veins or the blood that is shed on the battlefield, Through the trails of birth or the trials of life, whatever family it is found or biological,

it is everything.

Without family there is nothing. No reason to live, no way to live, no way of life.

It is better to die with the rest of your family than to be left alone.

My mother knew that, Uncle Kuro knew that.

Bethany and Lionel didn't understand. Neither of them were from here, neither of them knew of our waysm of our lives as much as those raised here.

Betnahy knew in a sense why my mother had done what he did, what he was trying to prevent, to protect me from -being truly alone, my grandfather, the grief, the pain-.

Lionel didn't not understand it at all.

It was one of the many reasons the maids, guards, stewards, gardeners, butlers, chefs, even Clahadore were so confused by my living. By his efforts to keep me alive.

It was one of the reasons the King and Prince of Reobeth wanted to bring me back to their kingdom as quickly as possible.

They were afraid that One of my own people, the ones who served my mother and father, would send me off to meet them. It was what was usually done in such circumstances.

To send off a child left behind with no one else to call family, it was a mercy to our eyes.

Lionel was so afraid of it. To the point that he refused to let anyone near me without him being nearby. This morning with the maids had only been allowed because Bethany was there and he wasn't far from me.

He slept a few paces from whatever door I was behind at night, his sword kept near him ready to spring into action to protect me from what we saw as a mercy, from what he saw as a horrible thing.

I don't know if I am glad to still be alive.

I'm tired and in so much pain. I'm lonely, I am alone. Everyone I had ever known, every last person of my family had been killed off in a day, while I was left unharmed.

I had so many questions.

Why hasn't anyone come for me? Why was there no one sent to kill me? Why didn't my mother wait for me to go first? How could any of them die?

My uncles were all skilled people, fighters, assassins, soldiers, nobles, knights.

People with training, a life lived in battle and fighting. They shouldn't have been able to be killed so easily.

My cousins should have been able to hide, to run, the older ones should have survived the fight that they fought alongside our parents.

How is it that only my mother made it out?

How is it that I was the only one to survive?

So many questions…

Why is it that Lionel and his men showed up that same day?

My father had said that the war would be going on for nearly another season, at least until the end of winter. So they shouldt have been here mid-fall. Why, on the day that they all died, did he come?

Why without the prince? Without the King? Reobeth was a warring kingdom, their kings fought alongside their men. They didn't just sit away from the battlefield and command the flights from their thrones.

None of it made sense.

Or maybe I was just tired.

That was all I had been since it happened. Hurt, sad, and tired.

At least I could finally see my stars. Father had promised to get some named after me, to have them written down by the scholars in honor of my brother and I.

He had ones picked out already for us.

It took me a few moments of searching the sky to find them. A little bright blob on the left of the Train formation. It had once been two stars that had, over hundreds upon hundreds of years, slowly grown closer and closer together until they were touching and looked like a singular glowing speck in the sky.

It reminded him of Haku and I, two little souls together as one.