A memorial goes up to the men and women that wore the Crown of Days to protect the youngster who helped them win the war. The young woman, the parents, and the duchy both honor her, and the brave ones who sacrificed their lives, dying one day at a time, to give her the strength needed in those terrible days, also thanked the last one, bent and aged before their time, for their lives.
@internutter/challenge-02821-g264-caste-of-the-shadows -- Anon Guest
The Duchy lives. So many others do not. It was a bad war, but it is over. Blood and bugs and shadows are all gone, now. Our days have sunshine and our nights can have dreams. Well. Potentially, our nights can have dreams. It's ended. It's over.
Thank the gods that it is over.
The Vicereine is back to playing as if nothing ever happened. Most of the time. You have to know how to look to see the impact it has made on her. There's a sadness there, and no surprise. So many gave their days to her, just so we could win.
What a victory.
My liege the Duchess did not allow me to spend all my days for her. I would have, you know. I was ready. That, I tell you, is what loyalty looks like.
I am too clever to pay for my own sins.
Today, the Duchess and the Vicereine are discussing models. Monuments for those who did spend their last day for the Vicereine's health. There is not enough room, even now, for full statues of all those who laid their lives down for the Duchy.
There were so many.
Regiments of them. Men and women. Children no older than herself. They all knew how important it was for the rest of the realm to live.
"It shouldn't be just faces," said the Vicereine. "They were real people. They had stories. We should tell their stories."
I am old now. Old in body. Not so much in time. There was a day when I was younger than the Duchess. Now I am older than her father ever aged. "I... can arrange that. I could have the busts tell their stories to anyone who asks, if you like. The voices they had before they started, too."
"Good. None of them should sound old. They weren't old."
Ah, but they got old. Children grew to adults in less than a month. Aged to death in the struggle to use enough power to defeat the ravening hordes. I made it happen. I witnessed it all. I... asked them.
Men. Women. Children. Soldiers. Common folk. Merchants. Servants... I asked them all. I let them choose.
I did not have a choice.
My Duchess commanded me to live. So I live on. An old man. Twice as old as I ever should have been.
The Vicereine placed a chair in a model of the House of Faces. Right where someone sitting could see a wonderful view and enjoy the sunshine. "You can sit there," she said. "Until we need the bust."
And I will tell my story, too. To anyone who asks.
Some sins must be paid for in life, and this... this seems too comfortable to pay for mine.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / hemeroskopion]
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