Author's Notes: I'm REALLY keen on getting this fiction done. This is the final chapter sans the epilogue. Enjoy. Also, ladies and gents, I'm pleased to say that you are LUCKY. I have chosen to censor the beginning of this chapter due to the graphic nature. Feel lucky you don't have to see it in your head like I have to. Stupid imagination… To put it very simply, death by magically burning is NOT the way to go. So, to repeat, I am avoiding the death scene of Rudelynth…

Whatevergirl: You are sweet.

Vocabulary for this chapter…

Requiem: Loosely translated to 'an end to/for'

Rhapsody: Beautiful Music

Felunas: A race of bipedal felines of my creation.

Species X: Think Nanaki

Chapter 11: Requiem of Life, Rhapsody of Death

Not a word had passed his lips since yesterday, but one could not blame him. Reevesyn and I sadly watched on as Reno quieted his daughter and tried to explain what had happened to the girl. Of course, she was far too young to even understand the words. Still, she seemed to understand the sentiment. There was a nearly a dead gaze. Quite a bit of him died out there with Rude. He had been changed profoundly. The Prince I had borne was broken, the pieces scattered forever to the wind, as our people were.

"Reno…" I said hesitantly. Icy cold eyes, emotionless and dead, turned to me and I could barely repress a shudder. My son was gone.

"Yes mother?" His voice matched his gaze, lacking the gentle, loving voice he used for his daughter. This time I did shudder. My thoughts turned for a moment to the words of caution Tailye had given me.

"They will call him Ice Prince, and the Dead King of the Light."

"You would greet me so coldly?" I asked before moving to him and taking Ren'Ai from his arms. With a giggle she reached out for my pale blue wings. Between the wingless guards and the rarity that she saw any but her father and his friends, she had never seen wings anywhere near this color. For some reason, the wings fascinated her. Rufus said it might be because her genetics did not take well after us, and she might never grow her own wings. Only one High Priest's child ever bore wings, and that was the child of Cytledorma, a goddess herself.

I gently moved to the crib, cooing softly to the girl before laying her down among the richest fabrics in the kingdom. Then I turned and held my arms out to my son. As expected, for a mother always knows, he ran to me, burying his face in my dress and sobbing. My hands gently ran through his hair, an old trick of mine to calm him.

"Why did father have to do this?" he demanded, a child again in my arms.

"He thought he was protecting you and our people," I whispered and he glared up at me, a pained teen, mourning his lost love.

"I don't need protected when his protection harms me more. Sometimes the cure is a greater evil than the illness." Now he is a man in my arms, mourning his lost youth.

"Reno, we have both lost the man we love, do not use it against me. We both have pain, but we will survive. I know you do not want to be married, but you must be. And you must be brave."

A small nod was all I received as my answer. "Please, do not fail, you are important now. It is not time for rest…"

"I love you mom."

"And I you my son, and I you."

He was wed and crowned privately; he would not be seen in public kissing another. Despite his anger, he did consummate the marriage, and his wife was soon carrying his son. Tailye spirited away young Ren'Ai one night, never to be seen again. Then, in the think of it all, less than a week after his lover's death, Hhojyodeymga returned, a grin upon his dark face and an army at his back. The army laid siege to the capital for six months and ten days, fear consuming the people.
"My King, they have broken the wall. Only the palace walls protect us now," I informed Reno.

"Thank you Lord Reevesyn. Start evacuating the city. No flying. It is time for the people to scatter to the winds. Now the city will be the last fight."

"Do you say we are doomed?" I questioned.

"I say this is the end we knew would come. They fought and slew most of the Cetra. They hunted the Felunas race to extinction for their pelts. They murdered and enslaved Species X, driving them to the high mountains and canyons. They indentured the last of the Dark Buterfluas, and will kill them when we are gone. We create, and they destroy. The perfect circle of life."

Profound words but I was not yet ready to give in.

"Reeve," he said, his voice as cold as ever, "You and Rufus must leave tonight. Take the witch, my wife Nalepa, with you. And take my son Lynth."

"Renonalte," I said in shock.

"You gave your word, now keep it. You have been a brother to me, and a teacher. A friend and a lover. An aide and a guide. Now, I must go to my fate, repay the debt Hhojyo left me with. I do not want you here for it. Just leave."

I bowed and left, knowing I'd never see Reno again.

"Now it is a fair fight!" he shouted from where he stood on the parapet. "Just your army against mine Hhojyodeymga."

"Hardly fair… I outnumber you Prince," the fallen Priest shouted back from his horse, "And even if I die, my King, my son Sephyroth can continue to fight."

"You will both die," Reno shouted back, his voice changing, melodious and sweet. "You had death slain for crimes you committed, but it will not spare you destruction. You insulted the gift of peace and life. You forsook the gifts of word and wisdom. You spat at death's gift of magic. So all of these are taken from you!" the King raised a hand, and the colors of violet, black and silver seemed to peel off of the wings of Hhojyo and the priest screamed in pain. The colors flew to Reno's raised hand.

"You made a Priest bleed," Reno said, color draining from his own wings and joining the orb in his hands. Now Hhojyo's wings were brittle and sickly gray, while Reno's were perfectly radiant and white.

"Now pay the Price!" he shouted over the roars of shock from his soldiers, and cries of the name of the goddess of life and light.

Reno released the orb and it fell to the ground. None understood until it was too late, and the ultimate magic of the light goddess reborn, the power to take the life she gave, washed over them. No sentient beings survived, not even the welder of the magic. Thus fell the great kingdom in one fell and purifying motion.