>>5738996>>5738998>>5739002Only now, on the precipice of this monumental decision, do you realize… You really have no plan. You hurried here to catch Rufos before he could escape or expose you. Only on-route did you even realize you couldn’t bring yourself to slaughter him and his family. You were so caught up in dealing with your OWN family matter—leaping from crisis to crisis!—that you have no real thought to how you’d stop him, save for brute intimidation… But that can only last so long. If Pricne Rufos of Hawksong has proven one thing, it’s that fear alone cannot keep him in line… At least, not forever.
“…Well?”
“DO NOT RUSH ME!” you roar, then quickly quiet yourself, lest you alert the guards.
Fear may not be a permanent solution, but it keeps the human male safe while you pace his chamber. Struggling to find a solution that the damnable princeling will accept and hold to, but which will Not give him a chance to escape and attempt a rebellion, is truly a quandary fit for a Dragon King… An OLD Dragon King, older than two decades. You wish you had your advisors with you, or perhaps that you could consult your Dark Gods… But as you are here, now, in DEFIANCE of those Gods, what are you to do?
Maybe… Maybe Eka will forgive you if you JUST kill him, but spare his family? Maybe you can make it look like an accident, or like the Paladins’ doing in some failed power grab? Cover it up, like with Alexos?
Oh Gods, what if he TELLS EKATERINE about what you did to Alexos?!
Your hand slips to your assassin’s dagger unconsciously, and the Prince tenses up again. Seeing the fear on his features—so similar to those of your Human Queen—you stay your hand. You breathe out, a deep sigh.
No. If Ekaterine found out you’d killed her brother, or made him kill himself, she would never forgive you… And she is smart. Naïve, idealistic, maybe… But not stupid. You’re honestly not sure you can even keep the secret of Alexos’ final, deadly duel a secret forever… But this, THIS would be all too obviously your doing. Even if she never discovered it was you… What then? Would she not fall still deeper into grief, believing her brother had been slain by Paladins or driven to suicide?
Would she ever recover?
“Here are my termsss,” you hiss. “If you love your family sso much, you who dare to lecture ME after ssending assassssinss to sslay your own brother… Renouncce your claim, for you and for your heirs, forevermore. Live a ssimple life, peaccceful.”
