Placebo Sun

[Talathian]

"You're not going to beat me!" T'alathian shouted over his shoulder as he spun the rope around before throwing the dagger it was tied to into a trunk across the clearing. He had been bested by Rayvinn the last few times and refused to be made of a fool of anymore. Over the roots and with a kick he soared through the air. Beneath him was the chasm that separated the woods with what must have been a river at some forgotten time. Warm rays flushed his cheeks when he landed in a tumble and he turned back with two thumbs up to the lagging Queen he served.

A rude gesture or two, laughter and then she stood staring at him. Squinting he saw her lips moving, her emerald eyes unrelenting but he couldn't hear her.

"Speak up! Cat got your tongue, can't admit you lost?" He jeered and did a back flip in place expecting her to stomp and huff in his arrogance. She did not. She instead stood with her hands by her sides and continued to stare him.

Inexplicably he shuddered with a chill went down his spine. The wildlife had vanished, or had there been any at all? How did he get here? Where was the camp? He began to look around at the treeline, unsure of what exactly was going on. Beneath the radiant sun he was cold, chilling, shuddering even as he began to rub his shoulders. One hand lifted as he looked to the sun and his stomach fell in a deadbolt.

He was blocking the sun with his left hand. His intestines began to twist and his mouth began to dry out. His lips parted and his jaw dropped but he couldn't summon words. Rayvinn stood where she had, or so his peripheral vision told him, but he dare not look back. That wasn't Rayvinn. His lungs began to expand and he could feel his chest growing tighter. His right hand clawed at his chest, it was on fire and he could feel the blood draining from his face.

Call out to her. She will hear you, she will help you. He looked back across the chasm and Rayvinn still stood. He yelled. Nothing. He strained, his veins visible, his throat beginning to burn from the coarse work; nothing. So very thin, so very few breaths began to fill those lungs and his hands went to his throat. Both. Both.

"You didn't think you could play house forever did you?"

His body jerked and he tasted that rich thick iron on his tongue. He looked down at the spearhead through his chest. Rayvinn held it and pierced him twice more with those emerald daggers. Four more followed, one from each of his trusted generals. The burning flowed, a thick crimson that plumed from each wound and before him a silhouette hovered in the sun.

"You will pay with your blood for the lives you took. Your own family. Only blood can appease blood. They will all die and only when they have breathed their last breaths may you meet the very end you brought upon your father."

The silhouette came rushing down and there was no mistaking the eyes that bored within his soul.

He jumped up in his sweat-drenched furs and brushed his brow looking over twice at his phantom limb. In the dead of night he whispered that curse which hexed him still.

"Mother."