Oh, false Sanctuary, thy art the bronze snake that came down from its healing staff to feast upon those it hath cured. I should’ve named thee Famine, for thou bring naught but misery.

  - 9/16

  Sanctuary screamed. She screamed as she felt her brother’s presence vanish from the world. She could feel the souls of the murderers follow soon after, no doubt slain by her father’s monsters. That did not sooth the fire that had been ignited in the small opal. If anything, it inflamed it. The criminals were dead, but they had simply… died. Eaten, impaled or melted in an instant.

  They did not suffer.

  They did not know grief.

  Her entire life, father had warned her of the mortals.

  She had ignored those warnings, she had offered assistance, she had given them sanctuary. And now the very lion she had let into her home had slain Dungeon.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  She reached for the threads that bound her to the mortal populations. Twelve thousand, three hundred and two souls that she had saved. She had extended their traitorous lives by years, she had given them power, she made them beloved. And their kind had killed Dungeon.

  She reached further. Thirty thousand, two hundred and twenty-seven souls that had tasted her power by other means. Leeches.

  Sanctuary gathered the threads, and pulled.

  The ((SYSTEM)) pinged rapidly in the corner of her ((GAZE)), but it was of no consequence to her. She impressed her will upon those who already drank of her chalice.

  She hadn’t intended to poison it, but times changed. The ((SYSTEM)) continued to ping as thousands of viewports slowly opened. Sanctuary looked out of the eyes of her benefactives and began to speak.

  Almost fifty thousand tongues, all over Ridoum, spoke with her.

  “I am Sanctuary, daughter of Catacomb, and sister of the one thou hast kilt. Thy people have inflicted a wound upon my own that cannot be mended.”

  The people out her influence’s reach began to mutter, and pull away from the possessed. Her voices grew louder.

  “For twenty years, I hath gifted thee blessings of life. Yet thou art proven unworthy of it. More than unworthy. Thou art ungrateful betrayers that spill the blood of my kin.”

  Sanctuary paused.

  “I swear by my name, and the name of Dungeon, with the One as my witness, that if there are my kin upon this land."

  RIDOUM SHALL STARVE