Summer Garden

Luna

Rendi stood behind her as Luna sat on the roof, watching the sun set. He was silent, simply serving a role.

She hated herself a bit more.

She'd taken a person and poured out their soul, and filled it again with her own twist on it. She'd perverted him, changed him on a fundamental level. No one had the right to do that to anyone else, but it was the only way out she'd seen at the time. She could have easily stopped him, but even now she couldn't see a way of stopping Janus without crossing the line.

That was the problem. When you went up against someone so determined to play the game, and willing to break every rule, then the only way you could stop the nightmare was to become one yourself. There are no winners in war, and Janus had made this a war. Her kidnapping was the straw for the camel. Stolen lands, a growing military presence, spies everywhere... Janus had set himself up to be a dictator. Someone had to stop him before he took everything.

So she had.

If she had to hate herself for the rest of her life... She could live with it, if it meant that Trei wouldn't spend the rest of his immortal life fighting in a war. He was a warrior, a soldier. He'd already seen battle. He knew that war ate away inside you. That it burned you head to toe and though it might take years, one day you realise you're burned. She wouldn't let him go through that again.

Rendi served her, but the others didn't. She'd spared them from bastardisation and instead had just killed them. Three hundred Fae, snuffed out in an instant. Never to be reborn. Murder was one of few things that was abhorrent enough that it could break the bond that held a Fae to life. Eternity ended with the trauma. Murder didn't just kill the victim, it fractured the soul of the perpetrator as well, changing them, whether they liked it or not. Now she was a mass murderer. She expected that once this all ended, if she was still alive, then the Council would hand down a sentence that would be little more than an eternity of torture... And she'd deserve it.

The assassin sat beside her, "Is your heart always so heavy, mistress?"

Luna sighed, looking at the red-streaked sky, "I'm the Shadow Knight, Rendi. I'm who the Council sends when no one else is willing."

The man nodded slowly, "I was Janus' second. The first... He was like you, in many ways. His soul was stained by what he had seen and done. He embraced it and was spared your conflict. He became every part the weapon that Janus imagined him to be."

"Toleth." Luna whispered, "His corruption might be one of the most horrifying things in all of this. He was... One of the best. Of all of us. Willing to act, but unwilling to be defeated... Until Janus."

Rendi sighed heavily, "He owed a life debt."

"It's not an excuse." Luna growled, fighting back tears, "There is no excuse to losing hope. Not ever. We are Fae. We cannot be defeated, not by anything."

The assassin looked up thoughtfully, "Perhaps that's the secret of the Arbiter. He learned how to conquer us... And make us thank him for it."

The princess just sneered. Outwardly she was a hot angry mess. Inwardly, it was worse. Hate poured through her veins, burning her up. She hated the fact that she lived while Summer died. She hated the fact she couldn't help Trei. She hated the Fate who had waltzed in claiming to help, and all they'd done is make her lose him. Maybe forever. She wouldn't know when, if he lost. If his soul was taken... They wouldn't know when. It'd be a guess days later. She hated Janus for taking a peaceful world and twisting it to prepare for war. She hated Astrian for being able to hear him.

... She was alone. Alone with the person she hated most in all the realms.

Herself.