" Your Majesty, please reconsider!” the voices of the people spoke in unison, yet high above sitting on two highly glistened chairs of gold were two unwavering faces of a woman and a young girl that held the highest authority. The hand was raised and bit by bit, the pieces slowly came together to reveal a dirty row of people in chains that were led up to the wooden gallows to be hung for the sole reason of treason. The House of Randol just like that fell to ruin and two years later the Royal Family fell to its knees by the Crown Prince that was denied his throne.
The city had begun to burn with the five great noble houses that once ruled the country of Braxton united under the banner of the Crown Prince. Just three decades earlier, the country had glistened with power and prosperity. Like with any great rule, oppression, famine, disease, greed and the desire for resources followed, brought by high taxes and suffering to the poorest of people. Thousands were falsely imprisoned and hundreds were executed in the pretext of treason against the crown.
Lord Randoll was the last to speak of the atrocities before his whole family and relatives were executed. The Crown Prince at the time had been close to Randol's family would hear the devastating news while he was away at the border fighting to protect the kingdom. He made a promise at that time that he would bring this suffering to an end.
Meanwhile at the palace, Leticia the princess of Braxton stood overlooking the city of lights down below. A flame slowly kindled, and it amassed larger and larger down below, before the screams of those unfortunate souls echoed outwards.
“Look Royal Mother, the peasants have begun to move.” She whispered, and a woman in her mid-thirties with her brows inward looked at Leticia. Her grin stretched twice as large that it defaced her.
“Who would have thought the ants would begin to amass to take what is not there's.” She snapped her two fingers together, and several shadows appeared behind her.
“You called your majesty?”
“It’s time to hunt.” She ordered with her fingers holding onto what looked to be a chess piece and it was the King. “Who will win?”
Leticia who had been silently watching her mother looked unchanged to what was happening. When did things become so uninteresting? Has it been a few years, since her brother's departure from the palace to the border? Did she change then?
It would be a few months after the massacre of more people would set the fall of Braxton into motion. Leticias own brother leading the final charge on his noble steed like any fairy tale story book through the broken-down gates of the Royal Palace. The army had advanced forward and there was no longer a way out.
“Royal Mother.” Leticia called as she fell to her knees. In desperation she looked up to her who was now slumped over on the throne still grasping onto that King chess piece.
“My poor child. It looks like it was indeed I who had lost this bet.” She whispered, as the King fell from her grasp and slowly toppled to the ground.
“Royal Mother, please do something. They are coming.” Leticia begged, but her mother still remained in the same position she was earlier with her eyes half-dead peering outwards onto this empty throne room that was once so vibrant, and once so colorful. “Mother.”
The door would slam open with men swarming in. The rage and anger visible, as Leticia in tears could only accept what her fate would be. The smell of ash and grime, and blood followed them, while their eyes looked hungry and rabid.
“Drag them down.” the voices chanted in unison through the throne room.
Leticia refused and could only spat out, “I am a princess. How dare you.” Then laughter ensued from the rowdy men.
“You aren’t a princess any longer.” A voice jabbed.
What did they plan to do to her?
Not another word was said, before a hand grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the ground. Her mother not to long after followed with her own arms being held onto by men on each side till, they both reached the center of the throne room. They both were forced to kneel onto the marble floor.
“How could you do this?” She accused everyone. “How could you betray the very country you swore to protect?” Leticia hammered, and the group looked at her in disgust.
“You Royals are all the same. We are nothing more than pawns to you. You use us, and then betray us.”
Leticia denied this claim. “We would never. I know we have upheld the rules...”
“What rules? Do you know how many innocent lives were taken? People can barely survive with the famine and disease as it is.” The voices continued to be disgruntled.
She saw that her plea was going to deaf ears, so she frantically scanned all the men that surrounded her, and to her surprise she saw a familiar face. Fredrick. She looked to him with her pleading eyes, but he simply turned his head away with a pained expression on his face.
The group began to move to one side to allow someone to pass with “your majesty”.
Leticia leaned herself back, and then exhaled briefly before she tilted her head upwards in disgust towards the person walking towards her to only find out it would be her own brother Richard.
Her voice cracked, “Royal Brother.” Her face slightly brightened that perhaps her brother had come to save her. Meanwhile, his dark gaze continued to stare up at the empty chairs above. It was then Leticia knew; he didn’t come to save her.
“You have the nerve to call me your brother now, sister.” He managed to whisper out, before he turned his head to look at royal mother. “As for you...royal mother Beatrice it seems that all your schemes have finally come back to haunt you in the end. How many more people would have had to suffer if you continued your rule.” His hands slowly shifted to the hilt of his blade that rested on his waist belt of leather brown.
“Well! Well! Look at this! Trying to act like a king now? When did it matter to you if the people suffer? As long as I was queen, everything would have been perfect. Yet, you... no matter the amount of time I put into raising you as my own, you were ungrateful.”
Richard found it insulting by the way his face scrunched inwards. In one quick succession, he held out his hands, and grabbed the queen by the neck and tightened his grasp on her. She gasped for air, as he shoved her to the ground.
“I would watch that mouth of yours if you wish to live another day.” He threatened, but the queen continued to laugh hysterically as if she had gone mad.
Leticia remained quiet to this phenomenon, and slowly slid herself by the queen, and grabbed onto her arm to stop her. She tugged once, twice, and a third time but the woman shrugged it off. “Mother.” Leticia whispered.
“You still decide to rebel, even after all the work I put into you. You could have lived a life at the borders, and never return if you despised me so much. What at a waste.” She managed to spat out.
“What makes you think I would not return for my birthright? I knew that you wanted the throne that badly for yourself, yet here you are kneeling before me. So, will you beg for your life?”
She found this comical, and spit at him, “I don’t need your pardons nor sympathies, you disgusting thing.”
Richard wiped away the spit with his free hand. “Still prideful even when you are about to face death. I was going to show some mercy by torturing you then killing you. It seems that I have changed my mind.” He lifted his blade up into the air, and that light glimmer of light reflected off his blade hit Leticia on her face. It seemed everything had gone silent at that moment when that sword sliced through her mother's flesh.
Leticia shuddered and remained in shock, as blood splattered all around her. Her face turned a ghastly white, and in anguish she could only call for “Royal Mother.” Her eyes began to well up, as she slumped to the ground in defeat. “How could you betray Royal Mother?” She wanted to know. Her brother had always been rebellious, but to stage a coup... unthinkable.
He scoffed. “Did you really ask; how could I betray that woman? You have the nerve to ask that sister?”
“She raised us.” Leticia attempted to persuade her brother, but he seemed uninterested.
Richard had lifted the bloody blade up to his face to look at it for a moment. “Do you honestly believe that woman loved you? All these years she had been using you to keep the throne, and for that, the people were the ones that had to suffer for your ignorance.”
“What...” She said in a small whimper, before a flash of light caught her eyes, before she fell to the ground. Her hands still reaching for her brother who had turned his back on her as she bled to death.
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