Forsaken
"Truly what I see before me is naught but illusion." The younger brother tilted his chin back down towards the black and white pieces that lay scattered with purpose before him, a frown touching his wan features as his brother sat before him, robed in grand clothing and free from his armor. "You've come to play a round against me, knowing that you cannot possibly push through my vanguard?"
"You presume I only wanted to challenge you. Am not I allowed to spend time with you, as a brother ought?" Lorian moved a pawn idly forwards, crows feet crinkling at the corner of his stormy eyes as he smiled at his pallid opponent. Lothric's chin remained lowered, though Lorian had no way of knowing that the frown wasn't for his thoughtless movement of the chess piece, but for the truth behind his comment.
"If you are here before me, who is taking your place on the outside? You are irreplaceable." A dull pain coursed in Lothric's temples, swirling and pulsing behind his eyes. Momentarily he was blind, and where others would panic at the sensation of such incredible pain and a loss of a sense, to the Princeling it meant nothing. Patiently he allowed this to pass before speaking again, giving no indication of his minute of suffering. "It matters not. I would rather have my sword where it belongs. " Though he only saw darkness, his sight had never failed to return. And losing such things brought with it the substitution of other forces, the ability to hear the hearts of man and listen to the pained wailing of Lothric Castle as she sang to the moon.
"Lordling?" Lorian asked quietly, vexed by his brother's silence. After a moment he understood and rushed his gaze down to the chessboard once more, knowing full well not to ask if there was anything he could do.
There was nothing, after all.
Footfalls, nearly silent, filled the halls, growing closer until they stopped. Perfume touched Lothric's nose, followed by the scent of rose tea and the odor of fresh blood coursing through veins. A woman that he could not see gently placed a cup of tea at his left hand and turned with the swishing of robes. He waited for the maid to leave, puzzled after a few seconds of silence.
His waning vision dared to dip back, bringing the form of his brother back before him and the maid to his side. "You are still here, servant?" His words were heavy with the pride of stature, though his tone towards the servants remained as gentle as the tone reserved for his own sibling. It was not in his nature to abuse power.
That cruelty was for the gods.
There wasn't a bit of timidity within her. Lorian saw the vague movement of her turning to face him, gripping her tea tray flat against her bodice."…You've left the window to your sleeping quarters open once again, Milord. Forgive me, but your health is my utmost concern and-…"
Lorian held up a hand to silence her. "Perhaps it is best you mind your station."
A fire erupted in the woman's heart, her pulse so violently enraged that Lothric felt the strain of laughter taunt the back of his throat, daring to pass through his lips. Instead he merely looked away, his smile invisible.
'I am minding my station, you ignorant, base-bred fop.' Lothric heard her words clearly and worried for a moment that she had actually spoken them aloud. He was relieved that the woman hadn't, but oh my, the secrets this curse allotted him were truly something else. He only turned his gaze back towards his brother after she was clear out of earshot.
"The maid's tea is always foul and rife with herbs to make bolster my strength. It makes teatime a miserable experience."
"Yes, but I'd have no other tea." Lorian claimed a pawn, only vaguely listening.
Lothric's next sentence elicited a bit more of a response. "Your tainted blood is scorching her veins. Did you intend to tell anyone that she carries your child?"
Lorian sat upright slowly, moving his fingers from another pawn to rest on the table between them. Meeting his brother's gaze was easy, but determining whether or not there was an answer for his statement was truly difficult. The questions he longed to ask were ones that he dared not. "How would..."
"I can hear his pulse, quick and mighty. As belligerent and lively as both mother and father. Can you call yourself such a thing in the state that you will soon be in, Lorian? I feel not shame nor humiliation from you, so I am free to assume this wasn't an error?"
Lorian's mouth formed a hard line. "My error is that I am still so gravely doomed to defy the laws of this world."
"You allow the lifeblood of our namesake to carry on when it was so near to being dead? For what, pray tell? Love? Family? These are things not meant for you nor I. Should Father learn that you are offering him more sacrificial rites..."
"I would strike down any who intend to repeat what has been done to you, my Brother. The cycle of Lothric will not continue. Do you not trust me?"
"You intend to…" Lothric fell silent, silver locks falling over his gaunt shoulders as he shook his head. "What you have claimed from me will destroy that which you long for. A father who cannot speak? An abomination who minds as a nameless sword, scraping his belly along the earth like a low-slung beast? And when this curse touches our minds, so too will our bodies no longer be as they are. It exists to impose, to oppress, to make one's will as giant as their being will become."
"Should I be mute and blind and bestial, not even then would I be the abomination of our Father and his fathers. You remain the hand that steers the sword. Would you still guide me?"
Lothric closed his eyes once more. "Imagine if your freedom were borne from this curse. Freed from it by my will and acceptance of its horrors entirely. My dear Lorian, the grandest knight to greet this world, ruling as the next King. He stands untainted and beautiful, making a commoner as his uncompromising queen and his kind children as his legacy. His strength would be unparalleled. His justice unquestionable."
"It is a wondrous daydream, but it is only just that. This curse has written our fate."
"Yes, I understand." Lothric offered a smile. "But are the forsaken not afforded daydreams?"
