APPLE WITCH (girlxgirlxgirl)

31. Reverberation

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⚠️ dangerous activities, violence, death, blood, manslaughter, wounds, additional warnings concerning events that would be illegal activities in real life that can't be mentioned due to spoiler warning = read at your own risk ⚠️

For my cousin.

I will make it short, for I know that you are no longer on my side, but I need to tell you these few things. You have always been like a brother to me, we were raised together and you swore loyalty to me when we were kids. So much has changed since then. I know my father has made you the next heir, and I know what you need to do in order to achieve it. We are on different sides now. You need to kill me, and I need to kill my father. Whatever happens in these next few hours is entirely up to fate, and I'm not going to ask you to swear loyalty to me again. What you do is entirely your own choice now, Sin. But I will still beg of you for this one thing. If you do become emperor one day, please do whatever you can to destroy the tower. It's the last thing I'll ever ask of you, the last that I require of your loyalty.

Whatever happens, I am your sworn brother.

Melora is pretty good at deceiving herself.

It takes practice to know your own mind, and after years in isolation in the tower, she has gotten really good at knowing herself. But once you really do know yourself, you also know what it takes to fool yourself. Melora is fooling herself right now. Or maybe, she's fooling herself into thinking that she is fooling herself. It's all she can do. There are certain things in life that are so difficult to overcome that one must completely shut all thoughts out of one's head. It's a soft buzz, that's all she can hear. Melora has gone completely, clinically insane. That's the only explanation that she has.

It's one thing to be selfless, and another thing to be reckless. Melora doesn't know which one she is. Her mind continues to buzz in its white, empty noise. She holds power, more power than anyone else in this world. She knows that now. There is a strange strength inside of her and that strength will only lead her down the path of death. Although the spring witch might drag her legs along that path, completely refusing her fate, it is set in stone and there is no escape. This is her life, this is what she was always meant to do. And yet, it's so terrible that her mind has completely shut her out. This is selflessness. Melora will become the embodiment of selflessness, because she knows that her own sacrifice will lead to the good of the world. She is the only one who can make this sacrifice, so perhaps it's also a sense of duty that drives her to do this insane thing.

But whatever it is, Melora won't come out of it alive. If she does somehow survive, her mind will kill her before she gets the chance to taste the green air of freedom ever again. There are still bruises, one should know. Bruises on her wrists and ankles, around her stomach and over her neck and shoulders. From the heavy chains of the tower, and from their harsh nails that dug into her skin at every possible moment. That environment is not for a living being to survive in. It's hell, and Melora feels a strange sort of pride in the fact that she has survived her own personal hell for so many years. Only she could do it, because she's done it before. That means that she has to do it again, despite promising that she never would.