Kisa stood over the bed, looking down at the body of the king. She tilted her head, considering. He didn’t look like much, in his bedclothes, drenched in blood. Just like any other person she had killed. Runt to royalty, everyone looked the same when they were dead. She heard a shuffling behind her, and she turned slightly.
“Yes?”
A woman crouched in the corner. A girl, really. Her face was ashen, and she was trembling. Kisa sighed. Not everyone could handle the reality of this world.
“So that’s it? It’s over?” the girl whispered.
“Not quite,” Kisa replied, looking back at the corpse.
“What do you mean?” the girl gasped.
“Well, it is over for old Rex here, but not for you. The vows were bound, yes?”
The girl shuddered. “Yes.”
“Then this is truly your beginning. But be careful, Queen,” the girl flinched at the title as Kisa continued to speak. “There are more in this kingdom that would see you fail than succeed.” Her eyes efficiently scanned the room, making sure there was no trace of her presence. She glanced once more at the girl. If one looked beyond the trembling and quivering, one could see a strength in her. Kisa considered lingering in this kingdom, to see how the girl faired in her new role, but that is not how she operated. Get in, get out, move on.
Kisa nodded crisply to the girl, then strode over to the tower window, and stepped out into the night.
***
There were murmurs in the marketplace, as there always are when a king dies mysteriously. Many thought the young Queen had done him in; everyone knew he was a hard and unforgiving man, and she could have acted in self-defense. Others thought it unlikely. The girl was just that, a girl, too meek to do anything that bold. It must have been an assassin, from the rival kingdom in the forest. Still others claimed to have seen a shadow soar from the tower, and swore that the Umbra, the Ghost, had come for their king.
Kisa was quite fond of that nickname, if she was being honest with herself. Though she preferred a different translation. For it was darkness she sought out, and darkness that she lifted. As she wove through the marketplace, she glanced back at the castle, and more specifically, the highest tower room. Her Sight let her see darkness, hate, lies, cruelty, like a halo around the cause. Where once the tower had been shrouded by twisting shadows, writhing like worms in the mud, it was now clearing, pieces of darkness dissolving, breaking away. Some would cling for a while – change was never accepted peacefully. But if the new Queen had any of the strength Kisa thought she did, the tower would soon be clear of its shadows.
But there would always be more darkness. Kisa had come to terms with that many moons ago. Even now she felt it calling to her, taunting her.
“You can’t get us all,” it whispered. “We are as timeless as the sky, as eternal as the earth. You may dispel us, but you will never destroy us.”
“I know,” Kisa thought back. “But watch me try.”
Inspired by a writing prompt from The Character Comma’s prompt generator.
© The Lightning Tower, 2020