Somebody To Love

Consequences

The sun is already high in the sky, and in the courtyard, the few people that are there, are silent, no one feeling the need to say anything, given what is about to happen.

Near one of the high stone walls, a platform has been raised overnight. A tree stump stands in the middle of it, a basket placed in front of it, and the executioner is standing to the side of it, wearing all black clothes and sharpening his blade, waiting for his kill.

Harmony, Elise, Jensen, Donna and Justice walk out into the courtyard, followed close behind by Jared and his men. Harmony sees the executioner and remembers how she had gone to him the night before, paying him a little extra gold to give her father a clean death, not wanting Elise to watch the man chopping away at their father's neck.

Standing in front of the platform, Elise by her side, Harmony nods at the executioner, who motions a guard to bring Fergus out, before holding Elise's hand. She can feel her sister shaking, and quietly whispers to her if she is sure she wants to do this. Elise simply nods, squeezing Harmony's hand in response.

Harmony feels Jensen hold her other hand and looks up at him, seeing him nodding at her in support. Without looking, she knows that Donna is on the other side of Jensen, and Justice is beside Elise, while Jared and his men stand behind them, all making sure that both she and Elise know that they are there for them.

Harmony's focus is brought forward when she hears feet shuffling. She looks over and sees her father being dragged to the platform in front of them, before stopping behind the tree stump.

-"Lord Fergus MacLeod, for paying rebels to storm the Castle and attempt to kill myself and the Queen, as well as paying them to kill the Queen when she was taken prisoner, you are hereby charged with treason. The penalty for such charge is death by execution. Do you have any last words?" - Jensen states, his voice resounding across the courtyard.

-"Sure. Both my daughters can burn in Hell for doing this to me."

As Fergus delivers his last verbal lashing at Harmony and Elise, Jensen squeezes Harmony's hand, before looking at the executioner and nodding, giving him the go ahead. Jensen wished he never had to do this for both Harmony and Elise's sake, but as Harmony had said to him, Fergus needed to pay for all he has done to both her and Elise.

The executioner nods back and the two guards still holding Fergus force him on his knees, placing his head on the tree stump and tying him down. Once Fergus is secure, the guards leave the platform, allowing the executioner to have enough space to execute his job properly.

As the executioner comes to stand next to Fergus' head and lifts his blade, Harmony can't stop the knot in her stomach. She feels Elise squeezing her hand and she squeezes back, knowing that, despite what their father has done to Elise, she still loves him. Something that Harmony will never understand.

Harmony knew that, the moment she became Queen, she would have to make difficult decisions, but she never thought that one of those decisions was to sentence her own father to death. She will be the first to admit that there's no love lost between her and her father, but if someone were to tell her that one day she would be attending her father's execution, and that she would be the one who ordered it, she would tell them they are insane.

Yet, there she is. Standing in front of a platform, about to see her father getting executed, and all she can think is how she wishes that she could be anywhere else but here. Squeezing Elise's hand once more, she steels herself for what's about to happen.

The sound of the sword cutting through the air on its way down and the thud of Fergus' head hitting the basket placed under it fill the air and are the only sounds that can be heard in the small courtyard.

The royal family make their way back to the Castle, Elise not letting go of Harmony's hand as they walk side by side, no one sparing a second look at the man that has made life for Harmony and Elise a living Hell for years. Elise looks behind her and sees Jensen, Donna and Justice right behind them, and thinks that Harmony was right. They might be all they have left of their family, but they are definitely not alone.