Around them is the incessant nattering of fatherβs council β tired and decrepit old fools still swarming about the decaying carcass of the empire they so valiantly serve. Unwilling to acknowledge for even a moment that what they hope to create, what they hope to continue, has long but given way to rot, its body already festering within and bloated, insides melting away to blackening bile. And still they flit about as mayflies, biting away at their holy empire, gorging themselves while they still can.
Even a dying creature can still serve a purpose before it is finally claimed. They listen with only half an ear but briefly, only to turn their attention away. It is always the same β the war, the stores of food that dwindle by the day. As they argue does the cancer that eats away the very vitality beneath their feet continue. So will they turn their greed elsewhere, to more fertile ground. Only will they realize within their new capitol that they can no more flee the sickness as they can excise it.
βYour body is already gone. It is by our will and our power alone that sustains it.β Like a marionette with its strings cut, will it collapse never to be of use again should they leave. βBut you may have it in due time, if that is your wish. If what you desire so badly is a corpse.β To prove their point, they allow the illusion to drop. Unseen by all but the little speck, is the true extent and horror of its body β an open grave left to the elements, cold glassy eyes that stare and watch.
Motherβs hand drifts to their crown, already is it clear that she too tires of the drivel that spills forth as murky sickness. The council has been dismissed, one by one do they file out of the hall and from his throne does father rise with a tired sigh. Itβll not be long now before he too falls to dust. This entire family tossed to the same grave as this little speck. βOnly when we are through with our needs here will we leave. When we have what it is that we truly want.β At that does their gaze turn briefly to the bastard prince, for all his power does Dion stand away from his family. βHow strange it is, he is the most powerful creature in this room and yet he allows his own blood to use and mistreat him.β Β