Splash - The blood splattered across the arena.
He didn't even stop to think.
Didn't stop to consider.
I looked at him. Really looked.
Not a hint of remorse in his eyes, on his face.
No guilt, no trembling, no tears. Nothing.
I stood back in shock from his response as I quickly gathered myself back, staring at the dagger covered in her blood, the body lying, blood staining the ashes that laid beneath.
"That was how far your love for her extended to?" I asked
He remained silent, just as the crowd.
"Is that what you call love?" I ask getting frustrated, my mind about to explode.
"Tell me wouldn't you have done the same if it were you" Another council member standing beside him said. He too had brought his wife and two children along with him.
I took out a little knife from my belt, I held the little boy standing next to his mother captive before the knife, pressing it against his fragile neck.
"Stop, don't please, spare him my queen, please." The mother begged immediately, fear, rage rising in her chest all at once I could feel it.
"And what if I don't?" I asked, giving the image of slicing his neck.
She lunged at me pulling him away from me as she knelt before me. "Kill me instead"
"I let go of the knife in my hand as it clattered through the silence. "To love is to be considered, to love is to be willing to sacrifice."
"You didn't love her, you and all of you are incapable to experience love."
I said facing the man and then the crowd.
"To love is to be weak" Another member from the council spoke.
"Love is a strength you will never have, you are too weak to love." I said. bearing my eyes into his, My words shattering his mind as I dug deeper into his mind.
I moved away from the members facing the crowd, "You believe, love, empathy, Endearment and mercy are declaration of weakness." I paused letting the crowd settle, letting the silence seep in. "You are mistaken, the real weakness lies within your hearts, your inability to experience these feelings is what makes you weak, it is what makes you monsters." I let the words settle into their hearts as I spoke once again
"All you know is to kill or to survive. "That ends today, starting with the cessation of the plan to execute the hunaam race." I said stopping as the the crowd murmured something among themselves. "No! we want vengeance, justice for what they had done to us." The same mother with a child on the arena spoke.
"You've had your vengeance! Did you not do the same to those children as the hunaams did to you? Did you not kill hundreds of them? Not experiment on them and left them to die when they failed!?" I shouted, my voice echoing back to me as the crowd stilled, as the ground rumbled.
I could feel my body getting hotter as the silence continued. I could feel the fire burning in my veins. I looked around and saw the trepidation on their faces, as they all took a few steps back.
I stopped, letting my rage settle.
"If anyone dares defy me, they will meet my wrath." I said my voice no longer spilling rage. "Don't expect me to....." A ripple of fear runs through them; a man staggers as though struck. Slowly, one by one, they drop to their knees..."Be merciful when you yourselves kill without shame." I said as I stood there.
The kid I held the knife to came to me, I bent down so I could see his face. "Do you love someone?" He asked with his little voice. "Yes, I do and very dearly at that." I replied. "Can you teach me how to love my mom like that?" He said.
"Mmhm I said ruffling his silver shinning hair.
"Close you eyes and hug her while thinking about her only, you'll fall in love with that warmth and her." I said returning to my position.
"Rise" I said as I turned to leave the arena.
I returned to my room. I sit on my bed as Cilith stands near the door, wanting to say something, but too afraid to.
"I don't bite." I led out knowing very well that wasn't true.
"Love does make you weak, it made you weak, didn't you do the same in the arena as agusti did?". She said, keeping her distance from me, avoiding my gaze.
"Did you not kill your friend to save yourself, he simply did the same thing."
She landed.
"I did that with empathy and love in my heart for her. I did that so I could save not just myself but the others too. He did that just so he could save himself."
I said justifying myself, even though I didn't need to.
"They won't obey you, there is no mercy, love, compassion or empathy in this world, our beliefs lie in power and cruelty. How can you change that?" She questioned still refusing to meet my gaze.
"Do you know why I became the monster I feared?" I asked, she didn't answer so I continued. "So they would follow." I paused, "If they don't then - I will make them follow."
"Would you not want your children to live in a world where the weak don't get slaughtered by the strong?" I asked her, expecting her to answer.
"You can't flip their world around seira, they will start a war."
"Let them start one, let's see how far they go to cling onto their morals."
I said.
"Don't say I didn't warn you" She said, as she turned around to leave.
"Wait" I continued. "Do you know where the portal that leads to earth is?" I ask.
"I don't, the council members should know." She said as she left.
I go outside to the guard. " Summon all the council members to gather in the council room."
He gave me a quick bow and left to call them as I made my way there.
I stand there circling the table my fingers tracing the ends of it.
The members arrive as they all get seated, they haven't recovered from the shock, I could sense how terrified they felt.
"Have the hither returned?" I asked.
"No, my queen, we have lost all access to communicate with them.
"Is that so?" I question eyeing each one of them, reading their faces, their thoughts.
"Show me the way to the portal," I demanded to the women who was thinking about it. "My queen, It is not safe for you to be there." She said her eyes refusing to meet mine. "That is for me to decide" I said forcing her to meet my eyes.
Soon, we stood before the portal.
"What place on Earth does it lead to? And will the hithers return through this very gate?" I asked.
"It opens into what they call an abandoned cave, far from any settled place," she answered.
"That means humans could still return through it?" My words came as a question, though my tone was sharp as a blade.
"They could," she admitted. "But it would be to no avail. The hithers are already halfway through terminating their kind. Earth has been destroyed. They cracked the code and released the nuclear bombs. Not much is left - of the planet, or of their people."
The world tilted. My ears rang. My vision blurred. My heart thundered, desperate to burst free from my chest.
"No… no, no. It can't be. They couldn't have." My voice splintered. I staggered, clutching the air, head pounding. "Against my orders?"
The words tasted like ash.
"Leave," I rasped. "Send for Cilith. Now."
The councilwoman bowed, retreating quickly.
Alone, I paced in front of the portal, each step echoing my unraveling thoughts.
Earth. Destroyed. Humans - dead.
All of them? Gone?
I couldn't process it. My mind blurred, caught between rage and despair.
They couldn't have demolished an entire system, an entire world. And yet… they had. A fractured group, cloaked in the illusion of power, had wiped away a planet.
My planet. My - Home. My people.
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