River of Bones

Blood of the Royals

Duke Witherbriggs POV.

As I stalk through the quiet, rarely traveled halls that lead to Lady Mayu's waiting rooms, memories of Lady Mayu's past states of anguish begin bubbling up. Each one resurfacing with a greater mask of pain painted on the Lady's face, in her words, and hidden behind her shattering composure that she uses as a wall to block out and hide the truths of her faults and trauma.

I remember the first time I aided Alla when Lady Mayu's wall began to crumble, I remember the Lady's usually dead eyes having the shine of liveliness of a person who remembers seeing.
Her eyes filled with fear and the flames of rage. She clawed at them using the pads of her fingers rather than her nails, Tears spilled down her face as she whispered the names of the emperor and late empress. I pushed away the memory of Lady Mayu helplessly sitting on the floor, her back bent and her forehead resting on the cold stone floor, trapped inside the memories only the royals know of.

just what did they do to you?

I pushed open the doors to her waiting rooms, as expected...she was not there. I heard a muffled thump come from the door to my left, Turning on my heels I marched towards it. Dread begins to well up inside me as I push past the door. Memories of our past encounters become as clear as a reflection in a mirror when my eyes fall on her disheveled image.

Mayu's POV.

My blood pounded in my ears, my heart matching its rhythm as it beat against my chest. Everything is dark, so dark but it starts to fade into color. Into a memory. My throat tightens as the world around me becomes the very one I abhor, the one I've lived everytime one of those who carries the tainted Blood of the royals comes around.

I'm in the throne room again. I'm that child I was sixteen years ago, kneeling on the floor before the emperor, shaking in my skin and dripping in fear as I pray to whatever twisted gods above to get me out of what they put me in.

"WHAT DID YOU SEE!?"

The emperor's voice booms, echoing back through the room. I flinch, shrinking back into myself, trying to become smaller than I already seem, Hoping that I can disappear. The tears begin and the sniffling follows behind. My lips quiver as I try to find the voice and will to answer.

I can't seem to find either, the words hiding from me. too scared to face the fire of the emperor's power.
Seconds go by as I leave his question unanswered I can practically hear his patience chipping away.

He will kill me

These words reverberate inside of my mind, stinging more than my tear filled eyes that are paralized, refusing to blink from the amount of fear that flows in my blood, coating my veins.

The Emperor begins tapping his finger on the armrest of his throne. For some reason this causes my fear and anxiety to spike, becoming as sharp and painfully dangerous as the blades of swords.

My trembling breath is the only sound in the room for the next two minutes that feel like centuries. Then I hear a snap. It must've been his remaining patience because the next thing I knew was his raging voice filled my ears

"ANSWER ME OR YOUR THROAT WILL MEET THE EDGE OF MY SWORD!"

The next words seemed to spill out of my mouth, stumbling over themselves as they tried to save my life that hung on by a single thread.

" I-I-I d-didn't see anything y-your Imperial majesty", Fresh tears begin spilling from my eyes like rivers, retracing the dried trails the last ones left.

"LIAR!"

The emperor's voice roared and I must've let out a scream in fright because the room went silent, the echoes dying down within time.

no matter the fear screaming inside me not to do so I dared to look up. I dared to set my unwelcomed eyes on the Emperor whos face was contorted with fury.

Whatever hope, wish, or dream held in me of escaping his rage with my life vanished. There was nothing on his face that told me I could walk away breathing.

Everything told me he was going to break me. Break me into little pieces and scatter me throughout the kingdom.

My heart dropped at the thought and I began scrambling for the words to fix this....but there was none.

Everything that happened next happened in a blurr

The emperor's finger tapped once more on the armrest of his throne, The doors flung open with a violence I've never known, Men in armor used to protect flooded in and while their armor was said to shine bright, reflecting the promise of safety...to me they only carried the look of red.

They seized me by my arms and carried away my seven year old self, I stared empty at the emperor, the fear so thick inside me that its just numb.
As the Throne rooms doors began to close I could only hear one thing despite the commotion around me.

I could hear the emperor's last words to the leader of the men in armor that night.

"Do what you wish to the brat. Once she's sure to be too shattered to speak a word of what she saw... release her back to her waiting father"