Menkar’s Past #1

We have always fought together.

In every battle, against all our enemies.

We served our Queen well.

After all those years of war and camaraderie, trying to make the world a little more like before… banishing the evil that had come to our land …

We decided to spend the rest of our lives together. Quietly. To form a family and rest.

But everything changed that morning, when the queen summoned me to her presence. She wanted me to continue her legacy. I could not refuse, because it was the greatest honor I could receive from our sovereign.

How stupid I was. How foolish of me for not taking precautions. By relying on the honor of others… for not bringing you and our soldiers as witnesses.

Because when the queen died, we were alone. The Council conspired against us, the Marshals. We were pulled away. They wanted to destroy the tradition and establish a dynasty. You and I knew it was not the best option.

Saiph had not been educated in the war, he was more of an artist than a general. And he was ill-advised. So much that he never knew other form of government than to crush all his opposition. And if his desire was to reconquer the lands of the alfar, with whom we finally attained peace, so it should be.

At first we all refused to comply with his orders. You were the voice of reason, you advised us to be prudent. But some succumb to bribes offered to them in exchange for carrying out their outrages.

I had the misfortune of being the only one who said “enough”, tired of participating in massacres of innocents.

I, the one chosen by his mother. The one who was always in the spotlight.

I, who had the most to lose. To lose you, my everything.

That is why the humiliation was nothing. Nor to have to kneel, helpless, before that bastard. Or spend years in jail, waiting, because that was a sigh. I was not afraid to die, but for you, even when I knew you were more than capable of resisting alone. For the life project we had before us and vanished. Because of me.

He tried to send me away. To kill me. But he could not.

We tried to overthrow him, with the few who resisted at the border, and we failed.

And we lost everything. I lost everything.

Our lands, the home of our parents… all burned and consumed as if it had never existed.

And I contemplated it all, in chains, unable to do anything to prevent it.

Unable to stop you burning like a warning sign in the midst of those flames, your heart pierced by your own sword.

So tell me, my beloved. How can I feel love again after all these years? How can I love again if the name I gave her to protect her… was yours? How can I look her in the eye without seeing yours? How can I not think of her as our own daughter?

After all these years, my beloved… we, who began the fall of Saiph, humiliated and banished forever… Without finding rest. Without honor…

‘Kaeso?’

When I see her now… I do not see your eyes. I see hers. I do not hear your laughter, I hear hers. Am I forgetting?

No, a dragon does not forget.