Wizard's Wish - (Kinda) Yandere SGE x reader

Chapter 116: The Garden of Truths and Lies

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Y/n watched the towers of the castle loom closer as her carriage trundled through Camelot's village, the streets dappled with red and gold light. Kei posed like a statue in the seat next to her, spine stiff, jaw tight, eyes cold and fixed ahead.

In Maker's Market, wind blew dust off cobblestones onto bakers opening their shops, butchers unloading carcasses, and young children sleepily herding towards Camelot's school. Every shop seemed to have a gold Lion painted on its window, while schoolchildren flashed Lion pins on their lapels to two pirates in Camelot armor checking for evidence of loyalty to the king. Amidst the market stalls, a dark gap caught Y/n's eyes: a shop burnt to the ground and a notice nailed to a stake in the ashes.
CONDEMNED
For Suspected Sympathy To Rebels
There was no mention of what became of the shopkeeper.

The carriage rolled past a newsstand, an old humpbacked man laying out the new edition of the Royal Rot, the stand's marquee once labeled CAMELOT COURIER now poorly etched over with a Lion crest. Y/n scanned the morning's headlines.

TEDROS STILL ON THE LOOSE!
King Raises Bounty for Rebels' Heads!

PRINCESS Y/N MISSING!
Kidnapped by Barbarian Rebels!

MORE ATTACKS IN THE WOODS!
Rebels Sack Bloodbrook and Ladelflop!

The Snake had said only four rings were left. And Nottingham's and her's were two of them.
So Bloodbrook and Ladelflop must be the other two.
Had these new attacks convinced their rulers they needed Camelot's protection, like the others who'd destroyed their rings? Had these attacks bullied the two holdouts into siding with Man against Pen?
Y/n's throat went dry.
Are the Sheriff's and her rings the only ones left?

Y/n pictured Japeth striding into the forest, his scims laminating his body as he flipped the carved ring on his thumb like a coil.
He'd bring it back to his brother, Rhian's faith in him affirmed. Bertie, the Sheriff's old jail attendant, would burn it on the king's commands. And now she had practically offered up herself to them on a silver platter. Like the most delicious dessert. Man would become Pen, just like August Sader warned.
Nothing could stop Rhian now.
Nothing could stop him from infinite power.
Except her.
She'd never burn her ring, even if it meant she'd lose the opportunity she'd seen in the crystal. She had to willingly burn it, so as long as they didn't have a way to mind control her, she'd never do such a thing.

Doves in formation circled Camelot's castle, standing tall against cloudless blue, the stains and nicks that tarnished the towers under Tedros' reign since smoothed away. Y/n thought of the fairy-tale castles she'd read about in story-books back in Gavaldon... castles Sophie had gushed about and said they would one day live in together, the two of them and whatever prince Sophie would have snagged... castles that looked just like this one. She sighed mordantly. Maybe she should have thought more about what happened in those castles.

High in the Gold Tower, the windows to the king's bedroom stretched wide open.
Rhian must be up and moving.
Nerves punctured Y/n's stomach. If Rhian was on his feet again, he was dangerous. But if he was feeling well enough to roam around, he was also able to fight... and if he could fight...

Y/n touched the crystal in her bag, squeezing its sharp edges between her fingers. Rhian kills Japeth. I kill Rhian. That's what the crystal promised. Which meant first, she had to turn the two brothers against each other. But how? She'd have to make Rhian trust her... which meant she'd need time alone with him, away from his brother... But suppose Japeth had gotten back with the ring already?

In her window's reflection, she noticed Kei yawn.
But he suuuure likes Y/n a lot, hehe, me too, Y/n heard Dot's drunk voice echo in her head.
Studying his reflection, Y/n studied his face, the horrible burns on it. His one missing arm, now patched up. But the absence of it still sent chills down her spine. Who'd actually cut it off from him, or maybe even burnt it off. A few Tedros supporters? Japeth? Rhian?
Y/n turned to him, giving him her best concerned face. "Kei, what did happen to your... um..." she said, acting nervous and too polite to actually ask it outright.
"What happened to my arm?" Kei asked. "Agatha. Agatha's what happened. A true witch, that one."
"What, no, she couldn't—" Y/n said, before cutting herself off. She remembered what Rhian had told the royals. Agatha had burnt 20 soldiers and burnt off Kei's arm. At the time she'd dismissed it as lies. But maybe it had all been true after all. She thought back to the crystal she'd seen of Agatha killing them, thinking then that it didn't seem like Agatha, and she thought back to all those comments Hort had made...
Agatha had killed those pirates.
Y/n didn't blame her for it. It was surely self defense. But the fact someone so good had been turned to do something so harsh as to burn men alive, that sent shivers down her spine. Their story really had been turned upside down. Truth were now Lies and the Lies had become Truth, just like Japeth said it all would.