The Tales of Scora

Chapter Nine

(Slight gore warning!)

 "Raelyn." Ren called out, smiling at the queen.

"Hi, Ren." Raelyn smiled back, fastening her armor straps as they prepared to head out, the others in their group rushing around as they packed up.

"I messed up... Yesterday, when I said what I did."

"It's okay, I know you didn't mean it." Raelyn freely forgave the knight, her inner thoughts screaming at her not to. Ren's endearing smile twisting into an almost sinister one.

"Oh, no. I did mean it." Raelyn's stomach dropped, dread twisting at her insides. "I just didn't say it quite right." She cleared her throat, standing up and grabbing her sword. "You know, Kiernan really does blame you for what happened. Maeralya too."

"You don't know that." Raelyn breathed, taking a step back as Ren drew closer. She looked frantically around for their companions, but there was no sight of them; they were gone.

"Oh, but I do." The queen scrambled backwards, knocking some miscellaneous objects over onto the ground, and she sensed a presence behind her. "You see, he told me that you really should pay for what you did. 'What goes around comes around', right?" Ren smirked, as a blade stabbed Raelyn in the back and emerged from her chest. She gasped, seeing the blood spew from the puncture as burning pangs flashed through her chest and down into her arms. She felt the presence, which she now realized was the wielder of the blade through her body, growing closer to her face, but she couldn't bring herself to look back.

"Hello, dearest." Kiernan whispered in her ear, his warm breath ghosting across her skin; a feeling that she missed dearly and longed greatly for, but this time, it made fear run down her spine as she trembled. The environment around her was different, and she recognized the horrid place despite its peaceful appearance. She was back on the battlefield, where she had experienced the worst day of her life. She felt even worse when she realized she was standing exactly where Kiernan had been killed.

She gasped shakily as he ripped the sword from her, making her cry out in pain and collapse to the ground. Just like he did. "Doesn't feel so good, now does it?" He laughed, "Now you know how it feels, to be stabbed in the back by someone that used to love you."

"'Used to'? W-What are you talking about...?" Raelyn pushed out through desperate gasps for air, pressing on her gushing injury like it would do any good; she already felt her heartbeat beginning to slow.

He scoffed, "You really think that I ever loved you?" Raelyn let out a heartbroken gasp, followed by a sob.

"What?"

"You truly didn't know? You're more clueless than I thought." He kneeled down, roughly grabbing her face, the feeling nothing like how he usually interacted with her; every simple touch filled with love, and so gentle like if he touched her she'd shatter. "Those women were right, on our walk that day after our wedding. You were simply... a placeholder. I never actually loved you, our marriage was just to get my mother off my back until I found the one that I truly wanted." Those touches, the soft smiles and looks of adoration he gave when she wasn't looking; they truly meant nothing? He really was his father, wasn't he? Charming and kind when they met, and all through courtship, all for it to end up being a mask to hide his true, menacing intentions? Raelyn had always had the slight fear that lingered in the back of her mind that he'd become his father. But he always proved it wrong. What changed?

"B-But... No," She wailed, pulling herself to her feet despite the growing pain rooted in her heart. She stumbled towards him as he turned around, his back facing the woman who adored him so.