~URIEL
The first time the darkness came to me…
I was only fifteen.
It came like a shadow with a sweet promise.
It seduced my already broken and hurting soul.
Wrapped its dark tendrils around me and consumed me.
And it’s never left me ever since then.
It became my strength and my curse.
It became my madness and I told myself to accept it as punishment for my sins.
The whispers filled my mind.
They were loud and threatening to destroy me.
Images glitched within my mind as I suddenly felt the arrow hit my shoulder again.
When the pain erupted in my arm, I jolted awake into a sitting position.
My head whipped around as my heart raged against my chest.
I began to force myself to regain my calmness.
The little window at the top of the wall indicated that light would soon touch the sky.
I must have slept all through after the attack.
Did Rune eventually leave?
As if on cue, I heard a small sound and my eyes fell to the ground.
Rune’s fallen body lay there on the ground.
That was when panic and sudden pain sliced through my heart.
My mind was instantly attacked with glitching— distorted images.
As I struggled to make sense of it, one finally came into focus.
It was Rune.
She had a dark veil over her face, her dark hair falling wildly free down her back.
Under the veil, she wore a wide eery smile with dark eyes like one whose soul had already been consumed by darkness.
Then it started glitching again, back into the fake Sayla’s illusion she usually wore.
That was when I saw her horrified expression like I was nothing but a mere spectator watching my body attack her.
My mouth moved but I could not hear what the darkness within me said.
Yet whatever it said, caused her to hit the ground instantly.
I shook my head as the images finally stopped.
Why did I see Rune with a veil?
Was it the darkness playing tricks once again?
This would not be the first time it would play dark tricks on me.
It was cunning and could not be fully trusted.
I sighed heavily and looked down at my shoulder.
The Wailing Arrow.
Why would such a weapon be sent at someone as weak and meaningless as Rune?
It made no sense.
I felt the side of the stone bed for the keys to unlock my restraints.
I found it and easily freed my hands and legs.
Then I gritted my teeth for long as I now stood over Rune’s body— considering whether to just abandon her here or take her.
She didn’t deserve any of it.
In the end, I lifted her in my arms.
That was when I noticed how cold she had become and how hard her body was trembling.
I checked her eyes and noticed that they were moving frantically, almost as if she was having a nightmare.
I almost began to worry for a split second before I remembered what she and her family did to Sayla.
She deserved it.
I balled my hands into fists as I let the anger flow through me for a while before letting it go and carrying her instead.
“For the sake of the throne and the betrayal in the court, I will hold back much longer.”
As I took her back to her room, my mind continued to raise with endless questions.
Questions as to why they would send the Wailing Arrow at her.
Eventually, I reached her room, pushed the door and took her in.
I placed her gently on it before leaving the room immediately.
I knew I could not get the answers to my questions within this building.
I needed to go to the expert.
The guards all bowed the moment I passed them, no one daring to stand in my way.
I reached outside the palace and mounted one of the Royal Shrikes.
It screeched into the night through its large hooked beaks and began to race away.
Only the echoing sound of its hoofed legs and occasional screeching filled the air as I neared the great Orin Temple.
The moment I arrived, every soul bowed as they made way for me.
I dismounted my shrike and handed it to one of the guards before making it straight into the large temple.
All the priestesses instantly came forward bowing like the rest before me.
“Undefeated is the King!” They echoed.
I nodded once and the high priestess stepped forward in her slightly longer robes than the rest.
“To what do we owe this visit, your Majesty?” She asked.
I scanned the room instead, trying to find the one who had blessed my marriage with Rune.
“Where is Priestess Kalanté Drus?” I demanded instead.
The priestess stiffened before looking in her direction.
Only when Kalanté got the go ahead from the high priestess did she step forward to bow properly before me.
“My King…” She began.
“I am at your service.”
“I’d like to speak with you privately,” then I gestured forward.
“Lead the way.”
All the other priestess only watched with obvious questions on their faces.
Kalanté paid no heed to any of them as she kept walking, far away from the rest until we walked out into an outdoor garden which had water that seemed to glow.
She showed me to a stone bench which I accepted.
Then she stood before me, waiting.
I instinctively pulled my shirt free and revealed the injury I had gotten from the Wailing Arrow.
She widened her eyes.
“H— how did you get that?”
She recognized the weapon that was used.
“I need your utmost discretion for the words I am about to tell you,” I answered instead.
“May Orakis strike me dead if I dare breathe them to anyone else.”
I nodded in satisfaction.
“My Queen was attacked by the Wailing Arrow.”
She gasped again.
“T— the fates never attack baselessly… Only if they think whoever it is could unmake the world.”
“The message said that the Queen must die.”
Her breathing grew heavier than before.
Her fingers began to tremble like she had seen horror.
“T— there’s something about her that is strange… You need to keep her away from Orakis at all cost,” she finally said in a shaky voice.
But I sighed as I thought about the Calling of Orakis Festival which was beginning today.
“It’s a little too late for that now,” I said.
“She will be walking the Path of the Veil.”
I stared at her for a while.
“You know the truth, don’t you?”
She didn’t speak and her reaction confirmed it.
She already figured out a long time ago that Rune was not Sayla and that she was a fraud.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
She parted her lips slightly.
“I had hoped that the blood bonding would fail…” She paused.
“It didn’t and now… It is slowly beginning to make sense why.”
I rose to my feet.
Perhaps letting her walk the path of the Veil was the best decision.
If she were to end up dying there then I would be getting rid of her without it affecting my reputation or my throne.
“You think she won’t survive it?” Kalanté asked.
It was my turn to remain silent.
“If the Wailing Arrow truly meant to kill her… Then we should be the ones terrified of her.”
Darkness is calling…