God killer

Prologue: Surrender

The clouds were starting to come in. The air felt damp. Charged.

I stepped up to the temple. My feet, bare now. Heat radiated from the ancient stone. Grit of dust and rock milled beneath my soles, every nerve at attention from contact.

Twelve, just twelve more steps. I moved my protesting limbs, fueled by the need to avoid, the need to forget everything that just happened. My eyes trained forward on the plain grey stonework leading me to my fate. People like me should be cursed, cast aside from history books as vile, criminal, disgusting. Royalty feared these words the most because bringing shame to a royal line could quickly lead to deposement.

That was a distant thought, my royal blood paled next to my fate. What scared me was my body caked in mud, sweat, and the overwhelming tang of-

No.

My lungs heaved as my mind played a reel. The armor I had worn fighting an honorable battle beside my kinsfolk now lay forgotten in the forest. The deed he begged of me, the one I had taken an oath to, was committed in plainclothes. And when I was done, I had fallen deep into the ocean, into the abyss with no light and now the fury of despair came calling at my shores.

Stumbling from that scene, I brought myself here, I had to be quick. My arm clutched the silken strands, the weight hanging from them was a weight that lay on my weary soul.

Drip, drip, drip. It pattered onto the stones, a mockery of rain.

I walked into the depths of the temple, leaving a crimson trail. The columns of stone held up an ornate tower carved with stories of the goddess who lived here.

The darkness between the pillars beckoned. I stepped through as the effigies on the pillar watched.

Let them, I thought.

Let them bear witness.

Let this Goddess witness what I've done.

I bared my teeth.

First as a grimace, then as defiance.