The King's Remorse

Only a Murderer Would Do That

"Arcane!" Ky shrieks, sprinting across the smoking ground and forgetting his fight with King Garonda XIV. Phoenix's eyes don't leave his opponent, and the Blood Demon doesn't spare the tan cat a second glance. Arcane's head snaps up, and his body stiffens in fear. Something tells me I've seen a familiar reaction before, but I don't remember what it was.

"What are you doing here?" Ky asks. His eyes are wide with awe, and a smile is growing across his face. He tilts his head up to look at Arcane.

"I-I... I, uh, thought I would stop by." The constellations and galaxies scattered across his pelt shift, and the swan on his foreleg seems to beat its wings ever so slightly.

"Whoah. I can't believe I'm here! I just can't! Like, I've wanted to meet you for just, like, so long! I kept telling Phoenix that you were real, that you still existed. He didn't believe me, but I knew it! I just knew it! Even when he didn't, I knew you were still alive. I didn't doubt it for even one millisecond! You went up to the top of Ragdon Volcano and hid, but I knew you were still alive, even after all those search parties came back empty-handed. Oh, and you brought me back to life, though I was never really dead. I'd just summoned the Blood Demon. But thank you! I wish I'd been able to meet you then, but I guess-."

"You're welcome, I guess." Arcane shifts on his paws. "What's your name?"

Can he look any more uncomfortable?

"Oh, uh, Yeah. I-I-I'm Ky! It's so awesome to meet you!"

"You." A deep voice, one I know doesn't belong to King Garonda XIV, rumbles from the dragon's throat, though his mouth doesn't move.

"Huh?" Arcane searches for who spoke.

"You should've been dead. It's been far too long."

"So long as I don't blink I can't die." I can hear the hatred in his voice. Arcane's brows furrow as his lip curls. His expression flickers somewhere between anger and apprehension.

"Hm. And what's finally brought you down from your prison?"

"I want to try to make things right, though I know I can never make up for what I did."

"And what exactly did you do?"

"I-I." Arcane's voice cracks and his lip quivers. "I killed Freedom."

I can hear the shame he feels, how he feels so much guilt over what he did. A series of gasps sound across the landscape, but none are very loud or sound very surprised; most already knew this, if my guess is correct. This annoys whoever is speaking through King Garonda XIV. The dragon's eyes turn completely red, and his movements become robotic as his head turns to scan the burning Sea.

"I think a lot of people already knew what I did. That's probably why the search parties stopped- who would want to find someone who murdered an innocent being? It's stupid. I can't ever take back what I did. I can say sorry, but it's not like it'll mean anything- I can't bring back Freedom." How lost is he? How long has it been since Freedom died?

"But you brought me back. You did that. You're already trying to make things better," Ky says. "Please, Arcane. Please don't go back."

"No, Arcane. Please, please go back. Better yet, disappear off the face of Ragdon. There's no going back from what you did. You killed Freedom, and it's all your fault. Who would kill an innocent person? Only a murderer would do that, someone who's gone completely crazy. There's no place for a murderer on Ragdon. Run; you'll never be welcome here. Not now that everyone knows what horrendous crime you've committed." King Garonda XIV, or whoever he now is, fixes Arcane with an angry glare.