King's Heir (A Dadmare fic)

11

"Hey brah?" Fresh looked up from his plate, plopping another piece of meat into his mouth, "Who was that one lady you told me about?"

"Ms. Aliza?" The god hummed in question, answering after Fresh nodded. "She was my teacher, and she taught me how to read in English as I could only read in fae and ancient latin."

Error perked at that information almost excited as he knew what this question meant, Cross also seemed to perk up. Dust and Killer looked to each other before looking back to the king who set his silverware down.

The god folded his hands together before resting his skull on them, socket closing in thought. "I believe I was around sixteen, maybe seventeen when I met her. She was a very lovely lady, around my age, nineteen I think. We met in the library and she had taken notice that I was struggling with a book on stars, how I could only read simple words.

She took pity on me, introduced herself as Aliza and offered to teach me how to read in English. I accepted the offer and over time we got to know each other, I started calling her Ms. Aliza. She always laughed when I called her that just because we were nearly the same age.

I believe it was after I had read a book on mythical creatures that she offered to show me her works which included mini figures made out of clay, figures of beautiful creatures that I could only dream of ever seeing in real life.

The visit didn't go as planned however, her husband came home earlier after being kicked out of the tavern. He saw me and her and immediately accused her of cheating."

Fresh took a moment to take in the new information, frowning slightly and he played a few words over in his head. "He didn't hurt ya, did he?"

Error moved closer to his dad as he watched the frown edge sharply on his face, his hand reaching out and grabbing hold of his sleeve. Nightmare smiled down at him before lifting his head back up and allowing his hands to lay flat on the table.

"He stabbed me." Nightmare's voice sounded almost dead, a slight shake in his tone. "My teacher protected me in the only way she could before the bastard had a second chance at getting my soul. She slit his belly open and the sight of so much blood nearly made me faint, the fact that I was covered in it didn't make it any better.

I remember retching, kicking the body off of me and rolling onto my stomach, I remember my vision blacking out and a hot searing pain in my ribcage from wear I was stabbed. A lot of blood wasn't my own, I could tell and I could see it mixing, violet with red. A sight I hoped to forget."

The second oldest of his boys frowned and he went from holding Nightmare's sleeve to hugging his arm, "What happened after that daddy?"

The god moved his hand to pet Error's head with soft and gentle strokes. "I did my best to heal myself and headed into the woods after my teacher told me I should hide and get cleaned up as soon as possible, I listened. I returned to the tree after that.

Aliza did the best to comfort me as my mentality wasn't the best after that. Your first sight of death will always be a terrifying experience boys, you may feel sad or even angry, hell you may need to kill someone yourself. While I would rather none of you stain your hands, you may not have a chance to keep yourself clean. This world is a cruel place, my loves, sometimes we must go along with it's cruelty and sometimes we have no choice."

Dust and Killer nodded along, as did Error. Cross didn't make a move though, opening his mouth to speak, "What happened to Ms. Aliza, papa?"

Nightmare sighed, his body slumping softly. "Well, things went along fine for a while. But eventually the villagers developed the idea that Aliza had been plotting to kill her husband for his money. They put on trial and found her as guilty... she was then burned at the stake.