A loud crack resounded through the woods as the sky darkened. . The black axe was motionless now in the hands of its dark owner as he peered up at the clouds. There was something growing in the castle village, something that with all his power and weapons, he could not stop.
He turned his grey eyes to the stack of lumber he had cut and closed them against the chill in his blood. He could no longer light a fire big enough to warm his soul. He had turned his back on this mess a long time ago. There was no going back, not after his destructive departure.
He and the queen had a bond that they could not explain to anyone. It hurt knowing they could not share it anymore beyond friendship, but he loved her too much to disrespect her wishes and her new family. He had left her screaming and begging for his forgiveness that day. Perhaps it had felt good at first to walk away, even justified for the first few months. He thought he had been truly wronged by her actions. Even the first weeks of being freed of his life in the castle had seemed wonderful. Looking back now at what he had abandoned he could only wish he could take it all back.
Oh this had not been the first time he had walked away, nor the second, not even the third time. He had taken such knowledge for granted. Until this last time she had always taken him back with warm and loving arms. He had taken too long this time to regret the loss of his queen.
While he had been deciding if he could forgive her one mistake among his many that she had forgiven him for, she had finally found solace in a wandering mercenary. That had not bothered him to begin with; after all he had been enjoying his own entourage of women.
The first woman after her had seemed perfect, no demands really. He dealt with her when he wanted, on the grounds he wanted. Then she had seen something in him he did not see, did not want to admit. Then another woman saw it too, and another. It hurt now to think that they were right. To realize he had been looking for his queen in them.
Finally he had tried to return to his queen, coming to her doorstep to see why it could not be the same as it had been. It had only made everything worse on both of them when he found her no longer alone. She had forgiven him, but it was too late for him to come home. She and the mercenary had had a baby. The mercenary was her king now, he was just a memory, or at least that is what the Darkness inside had whispered to him.
The queen had even offered him a place as her knight, to defend the home he had once dwelled within as king. He refused and walked away, feeling wronged once more.
He threw the axe from him with a sudden burst of adrenaline and a roar of rage that seemed to split the heavens. A cry resounded as it struck and sank into the nearby tree. He could not look. His rage always killed, destroyed or mangled things beyond repair, it never repaired things. He didn’t want to know now what it had done. Another innocent creature hurt.
He knew forgiveness somewhere inside of him, but it didn’t make him happier, at least not yet.
Thunder rolled through the sky and suddenly everything was washed in a bright white light. It was blinding, even more than the sun, but only for a second. No one saw what happened. It was too fast for the mortal eyes.
It was too late… Much too overdue…
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