Loyalty and loss (Kaeli POV)

“They escaped? How could you let that happen?!”

There is a resounding smack, and Kaeli falls to the floor from Victoria’s backhanded strike. She looks away, rubbing her face where a red mark has already appeared. Victoria stands over her in a towering rage, hands clenching into fists.

“Answer me! We could have broken this petty resistance with him! And all you say to me is ‘they escaped’?!”

Kaeli slowly stands, taking a deep breath. She looks into Victoria’s wild grey eyes, remembering a time before the madness that drives her former friend now. Those eyes once shone with happiness, compassion, and conviction. Now, all Kaeli can find in their depths is pain and anger.

“What would you have me do, Victoria? I am not a fighter like you are. My magic isn’t practical like Niran’s. What exactly could I do?”

Her words only seem to add fuel to the fire of Victoria’s anger. “Within these walls, we are invincible! The Great One aids us here, and it’s our sacred duty to aid him in return! Or did you forget our purpose?”

Kaeli sighs, shaking her head. “I remember our purpose. Probably better than you do. How far you have fallen into madness. I wish I could show you.”

Victoria answers with another backhand, sending Kaeli crashing to the ground once again. This time, she stays down, tears welling up in her eyes. Not from physical pain, that ceased having meaning years ago. The pain of watching your closest friend descend into madness and corruption never goes away.

Victoria stands over her. “This is the last time I will be lenient. Next time, we will cage you outside the palace and let the corruption take you. Think on that for a while.”

With that, Victoria storms out of the room, leaving Kaeli alone with her thoughts. Her thoughts, and her memories. Memories of starting the organization that would become the Order. Memories of discovering a chained god in a disused dungeon. Agreeing to aid the Great One in bringing order to the chaos, without knowing that even then, the corruption was eating away at his sanity. Back then, all they wanted was peace, not knowing it’s cost.

Leaning against the wall, Kaeli cries for the loss of friends, and the **** of dreams. They had built the Order to quell the wars that savaged the land, wars that had raged since the fall of the gods centuries ago. And they had succeeded, but in the end, it cost so much. And somehow, they had replaced war with a peace that was as corrupt as the Great One. Through her tears, she whispers the thoughts that hang in her mind at all times.