How To Rule ✅COMPLETE

The Decision

Rin could smell the blood as soon as she walked into her father's room. Piles and piles of blood soaked cloths lay in a basin beside his bed. He looked paler but the wound had stopped bleeding though she could hardly celebrate. He looked even worse. A voice in the back of her mind knew where this was heading but she could hardly admit it to herself. She just wasn't ready.

'Father.'

Arion awoke from his sleep at the sound of his daughter's voice. She was still in her armor covered in blood, hopefully the blood of his enemies so he deduced she had won the fight but as he met her eyes he knew it had slowly begun to change her in ways he could not comprehend. She was a ticking time bomb and if she was not careful she would implode. He needed to make her understand how to control it but first he had to talk about her mother and involvement with the darkness. Something he had vowed never to talk about but as he lay there uncertain about his recovery he knew he had to tell her.

Make her understand.

'Rin we need to talk about your mother.'

'No father rest, please.'

'It is important.'

Rin was apprehensive of what her father had to say. His face had taken on a serious expression and the only time she had ever seen him so was when he used to scold her when she was younger but now it was not a scolding and she dreaded what he was about to say.

'Your mother was not capable of having a child but it was what she craved the most and when it was confirmed she couldn't it broke her heart even more. She started spending more and more time in the library, searching for another way since she couldn't accept what the doctors had said, and then she met him.'

Arion watched as his daughter leaned on the wall behind her. He knew she was exhausted and needed to rest but he had to make her understand. Maybe she would have better control of it if she knew what it was.

'A necromancer who dabbled in dark magic. He informed her of a way her wish could come true. Use of black magic. She wanted you so badly that she dd not care o learn the effects of black magic. I guess she assumed it was similar to dark magic which I myself had taught her. I tried to stop her but I couldn't she gave her soul so that she could be able to conceive and she did. When you were born she was with you always and when she died is when I finally realised what she had done.'

Rin had never heard this parts of her mother before. Through the years all her father had spoken of were all the good in her mother but the whispers of the servants never let her forget what her mother really was and snippets of some of the things she had done always seemed to reached her ears but now as she watched her father she wondered if all of those rumors were really true.

'That is why you have so much power Rin. It is intertwined with black magic and she bound it to you. You are bound to the darkness of black magic. She never wanted you to be inadequate like her; atleast that's what she believed. When she died she left you a book, a very dark book, but I have done everything I can to keep you away from it. I am weak now so I can hide it no longer. It will call you but Rin you mustn't accept. It will ruin you. It will turn you. Understand.'

Rin reeled. She had been a major cause in her mother's death. It was in wanting her so much that her mother had lost herself to the darkness of black magic. She did not kill her physically but she still felt responsible. Rin knew it was not her father's intention but she couldn't help the blame and as she watched her father smile no doubt relieving the memories of his time with her mother, he added her to the list of people who she hoped not to disappoint.

Rin spent the afternoon in her bed chambers and as night fell the tugging in her chest grew stronger. She knew what it was but she tried not to answer it. She had promise her father she wouldn't and she hoped she would keep the promise. A knock on her door made her even more scared.

This was it. The bad news she had been waiting for all day.

Rin watched Gavin and from his facial expression she knew he did not hold any good news. Her heart dreaded any more pain but she would deal with it. She did not know for how long though, she was sinking and sooner rather than later she would drown in it all.

'Rin it's your father.'

'Is he dead.'

'No, but he is dying.'

Gavin watched as Rin looked at her father's sleeping form. He was paler than usual his hair sticking to his forehead and as he watched her hesitate to touch him as if she feared losing him in a single touch he could see her slowly unraveling and if their king died she was bound to change, and he did not know if he would like who she would change into. 

The walk to her mother's catacombs was short and as Rin stood outside she could feel the invisible string pulling her, urging her to go inside. She walked in not wanting to give herself any time to back out. This is what she needed to do to make him better.

To save him.

It is as though she knew exactly where she was going. And standing in the wall farthest from her mother's tomb, she could feel it. Behind the slab of concrete waiting for her to take it. It was not hard breaking through the concrete and when she saw the book hidden in the nook on the wall she picked it up. She touched the dusty cover of the book and she could have sworn it hummed under her touch. Maybe there was a spell inside she could save her father with. Flipping through the pages she sensed the power the words on the pages held and how it made her feel.

Powerful.

Arion felt it but it was too late. He was too weak to stop her. She was in her mother's catacombs and judging by the uneasiness in his chest he knew she had found the book. He needed to stop her before she ruined herself with black magic. He tried getting out of bed but crumpled to the floor. The healer came in immediately she heard the commotion but Arion couldn't let her help him. He needed to see her before it was too late.

'Get me my daughter now'

Even his voice had become weak. He was closer to his death than he had thought. He just hoped he would get to her in time. His wound had reopened when he fell and as he lay on the floor waiting for someone, anyone to bring his daughter the bloodloss started to make him dizzy. He barely noticed when he slipped into unconsciousness.

Rin stopped flipping the pages when she saw it. The spell she really needed.

A spell to heal.

She had never performed this type of magic before but as she spoke the words, followed the ritual she could feel it slowly becoming ingrained in her mind. And as the wound on her palm stopped bleeding she hoped she really had saved him.

Rin had only ever used dark magic before so as she finished the black magic spell she expected consequences but when nothing happened she felt relieved. Though it was short-lived and then it begun.

The pain.