Four months had come and gone before Raxseis at last came to accept his sister had turned her back on him. The Prince accepted that one day soon he would have to kill her to save the future of his home. There was only one thing that drowned out the screaming nature of such truths, a rant shooting from the mouth of his father like shit from an ass.
"How foolish could you be? You allowed a young girl freshly tarnished by ungodly acts to travel by her lonesome, with only the company of her ladies! Not only that, you watched her leave and walk through the very gates I had built to protect you all!" King Paraxious came to bellow. He had been consumed in his grief and resorted to wine to lessen the ripping pain in his chest. He took several long gulps from his chalice before turning to both his son's. "Raxseis, you are nothing but a lazy boy. One who is counting down the days until I am placed inside a crypt. Your entire life even as a child, has revolved around you sitting in a seat you have no hand for. You care only for yourself, and your wants."
A chuckle came to break the feud between the two, as Raxseis took to his feet. He saw his arms folded over his chest and his head held high before speaking. "Oh yes father, blame me as you always do. When I went searching for her you sat cowering in your beloved chair, allowing your children and subjects to do your job. You claim to hold such undying love for your daughter, but you spent no time looking for her. Nor did you require she be accompanied to the funeral pyre of the traitor. You have been a horrible parent her entire life, dooming her to live in the shadow of our mother so that you could one day gaze into the eyes of your wife. Perhaps, if you had allowed her to live as she wished to, we would not be here facing the greatest rebellion since human existence on this planet. My sister who I spent weeks searching for would not have claimed the most powerful dragon to walk Evernia as her mount. We have nearly no opportunity to best Adalaya and her supporters. We have, what, forty weak dragons who could defend us? Why would they? We beat them, starve them and have ripped them from their families. Adalaya wishes to set them free. Weak or not their flames will turn upon us."
Exsidious stepped forward spreading his arms between both his father and brother. "Why do we argue amongst ourselves? Our relative has come to rebel against our rule. We should be focusing upon her death in response to her actions. You both live in the past, if you venture there to often you will become lost in it. The fact of all this now is that Adalaya is due any day now, to burn our city into ashes. Do you both, not feel that, that fact alone would trump your senseless bickering." The three exchanged looks, before Raxseis continued.
"No brother, if she has become as strong as the rumors tell, it is time that all secrets come to light. We are all going to die, anyway right?" Exsidious shut his eyes his head shaking in disbelief. "Brother, you do not have to make the situation worse than it already is. Father has suffered enough, so have you. The only reason I stand the only one with no regret is because it would seem I am the only male in this line of succession to whom holds common sense in his head."
Raxseis began to pace, his brain slowly beginning to put together the right words to slice his father as deep as possible. "Oh yes brother, father has hurt enough. He has yet to pay for anything that has befallen this family. Apart from our mother's death." King Paraxious looked to his younger son his eyes cut and questioning. "Exsidious what is he talking about?" "Trust me father you do not want to know." "No, my child I do, what other secrets have been kept from me. Or are you finally man enough to reveal your acts of improper intimacies my boy. Is it true? Did you rape your sister? Have you been molesting her innocence for years? Did you make her believe that your abuse was how the ways of love were?"
Raxseis came to smile, its spread a dark and devious show of the truth in his father's words. "Yes father, I have fucked her since the time she claimed her thirteenth name day. In fact, that was the night it happened. You see, she told me that she always held feelings for me. That she felt wrong about viewing her eldest brother as someone she wanted to be intimate with. Unlike you, I told her to follow her urges and claim her happiness no matter what the world thought of them. It was a virtue I learned from your dear late wife and beloved brother in marriage. You see father, you were so blinded by love you had no idea about the true happenings going on under your roof. Time and time again you begged my mother for a daughter, I remember your groveling well. It was not you who brought forth Adalaya, but mother's brother. Your seed could only produce males and well your wife knew her brother could possibly grant you your heart's desire."
Paraxious moved to grasp the collar of his son. His fist shook with his rage and disbelief. "You would dare defile your mother's memory boy?! Have you truly ventured so far away from all I have taught you?!" Raxsies stood silently, for once he had no rebuttal to his father's chastising. The King turned to Exsidious with pleading eyes. "It's not true, tell me it's not true." Exsidious looked down at his boots a moment, not sure how to say two simple words. His gaze came to meet his fathers with a grim glow of sorrow. "Apologies father, but what my brother speaks is truth. We both came to see their sexual acts with our own eyes. Uncle Tarbion is, Adalaya's father."
The King released his first born and moved to rest his palms atop the round table in the room. Tears of bitter salt came to rim and burn his eyes. He had been a fool, suddenly he thought back to Adalaya's birth and how his brother had been the first to enter the birthing chambers. He recalled the face of his daughter and how perfected her smile was in comparison to her mother. It all made sense now, she had been the product of incest and so the curse of the sin had come to infect both her and his son. "Why did either of you hide this from me? Why did you not come forth and reveal the truth back then?"
Exsidious moved to place a hand onto the old man's shoulder attempting to comfort him. "We feared you would kill mother for her adultery. Once our sister came to be born we feared that well... you would kill her too. The right time never came around to reveal the past father, we are so very sorry." "Speak for yourself brother, I feel no remorse for an old fool. At least I thought enough of him to tell the truth about the happenings of Morgaideign. I suppose I should tell him that his most cherished step daughter is carrying my child as well. Come to think of it, she should be nearing the end of her maternity season in the next two months or so. I am sure the war will begin once she brings forth my son."
The pain had grown too much to bear for the old man. The argument had left him both mentally and emotionally battered. He stood up straight and took a sip of his wine. His gaze turned to the stained-glass windows of the keep. Beyond the horizon, he could see the movement of darkness, a shadow beginning to cast over the land. His eyes came to squint and even with his vision declining, he knew the shadow well. It had been one sung through history books for years. The Shadow of Drathell it had come to be known. It was the warning that the great Incendartu was nearing. The old King came to laugh, it was all he could do to mask his shock and heartbreak. He turned to his boys and finally let the tears fall. "No matter what you both may think of me, I have always loved you. You are my legacy, I will love you from the underworld because I will not live to see my Kingdom fall." He turned from them opening the windows. He stepped onto the window seal and faced them a final time. "This is a storm you both must fight alone. Remember always, you reap what you sow. The crown you came to covet my child is now yours. Heavy is the head that bears it." With that Paraxious spread his arms and allowed himself to fall backward. Exsidious rushed forth attempting to save him but had no luck. He watched as his father's body whipped in the wind until it came to collide with the rocks below the keep. He wept, his knees falling to the stone floor. "Raxseis, what have you done?!" The new King stepped forward grabbing his brother by the shoulder. "What we should have done a decade ago." The men looked upward, and at last came to view the might of their little sister. Her rebellion had come to charge upon air and soil, and there they were unready for combat.
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