How Journeys End by Pineapple | Content Warnings
Panic rose in Siana when she saw traces of battle—saw the hidden room was open. Her father had always told her to come here if anyone dared to attack the castle. In her life so far, it hadn’t been needed. She realized that it was probably thanks to the soldiers beside her, because of people like Camellia that her life had been so easy until recently—because of Camellia that she had the courage to stand with her people and fight instead of cowering away.
Siana gestured with her chin at the door. Viola and Cera nodded back and took offensive positions as Siana took a protected one behind the door. She swung it open.
She heard Viola’s gasp, saw Cera’s jaw drop, before she realized there wasn’t any danger.
“Your Majesty—” Cera started. He spun around. “Your Highness, don’t—”
“What’s wrong?” Siana felt panic rise in her. Though Cera made weak-willed attempts to hold her back, Siana pushed past him.
Viola was already in the room, checking the bodies, soaking her hands in blood.
“Your Majesty!” Viola shouted. “He’s still alive—Cera, go get—”
Cera nodded and took off running, leaving Siana rooted to her spot as she took in the scene in front of her. Her father was lying on the ground, wheezing out bloody breaths through the slice in his neck.
“Your Highness…” Viola stammered. She seemed frantic, nearly hopeless, barely able to handle looking up at Siana between the two dying people in front of her. Her hands were on King William, but Viola’s eyes kept straying to Chrysan, bleeding out a few feet away.
“Yes,” Siana managed to breathe out. It felt like restarting her brain, like surfacing after being underwater for too long. She dropped to her knees, opposite Viola on her father’s body. The blood seeping from him was warm still, creeping up the fabric of her nightgown. Siana took over trying to staunch the blood at her father’s neck, pressing hard into the wound. He flinched at the pain, and she took it as a good sign.
Viola moved over to Chrysan, whispering to him. When he tried to speak back, Viola couldn’t make out the words.
Siana kept her eyes on her father, trying to figure out who could have… There were arrow wounds in the king’s body. Bloody arrows in the throne room—but the only sign of magic was from her father—Chrysan’s hand and her father’s blood sword—
“Did Chrysan do this?” Siana asked. Her voice felt outside of her, like it was some other Siana speaking and she was just an observer.
Viola spun around. “What?”
“Did Chrysan try to kill my father?”
Siana looked up from the king. She saw the moment it clicked in Viola’s mind. The open door, the arrow on the floor in the throne room, his broken bow here, and the king’s wounds?
Between the two of them, there should be a body of someone else, unless they were fighting each other.
“It could have been Lady Via—” Viola tried.
Siana shook her head. “There are none of her magic signatures. Just my father’s, and I can’t… why would he…? He was one of my mother’s favorite guards.”
Viola sighed, her breath shaky. “I don’t know, Your Highness. Chrysan is a lot of things, but he isn’t a traitor.”
Siana felt like she might cry. She was trying to breathe, trying to feel like herself again. She focused on the wetness of her knees, of the red on her hands. The pain in her arm. The sound of footsteps.
Footsteps.
Siana spun around, grabbing her sword from her side.
“Your Highness!” Cera shouted, sliding into view in the doorway.
Yarrow was behind him, panting. He barely flinched as he looked between the king and his ally, like this wasn’t even the worst he’d seen. General Narsi was behind them both. He surveyed both the throne room and the saferoom with the discerning eye of his position, but his eyes lingered on the bodies once they landed there.
“Your Highness,” Yarrow said softly, nodding to the side.
Siana took the cue and moved so Yarrow could work. She stood up, falling next to the man her father had trusted for years. The general looked exhausted, tired in the way that he had during the war.
“General,” she said, mustering up every bit of herself into her body that she could, “how’s the situation?”
He straightened up automatically. “The rebels have either fled or died,” he said. “Many of our guests and staff have survived, but there were significant casualties in the fighting. It will take some time to rebuild our numbers.”
“I have reason to believe Lady Via was a key instrument in the attack,” Siana reported.
He raised a brow at her.
“Camellia told me. She and Chrysan said they have information,” she elaborated. “Whatever my feelings on Chrysan at this moment, I still trust and believe in Camellia.”
His eyes strayed, just a moment, from the princess. “Where is Lady Camellia?”
“She’s been bewitched. I believe I felt Lady Via’s magic in it,” Siana said. “Cera and I left her down in the dungeon while we came to find my father and look for Lady Via.”
General Narsi paled, and he rounded on Cera. “You shouldn’t have left her alone—”
Cera winced. “I know, Sir, but—”
“If what you say is true, we need to—”
There was a groan from the other side of the room, and General Narsi froze in his spot.
Chrysan’s voice floated from the floor, from his spot in Viola’s arms. “General,” he managed out. His eyes were open, barely, and unfocused. “Lady Via… fled, she… She’s weak now, her magic, she…”
General Narsi took a deep breath, collecting himself, and then he took the few steps to kneel next to Chrysan. “Don’t speak,” he said. “Didn’t Queen Ann order you to stay alive?”
“Is he dead?” Chrysan asked, his eyes falling to the king.
“Chrysan,” Narsi warned.
“Did you try to kill my father? The king of your country?” Siana was on him in a second, pushing past everyone in the way to grab Chrysan by the collar of his shirt. “I trusted you, and you—”
“I’m sorry, I…” He took a shaky breath, trying hard to focus on her, trying to keep his head upright to look at her.
“Chrysan, why would you…” She was furious. She could kill him.
But then he smiled and put a hand on hers. “I love you, Siana.”
“What?” Siana threw him down, uncaring for the painful grunt he let out, the concerned gasps and protests at her actions. She stormed out of the room, past Yarrow and her dying father.
General Narsi followed her out. “Your Highness, please excuse him. He—”
The general and the princess stopped in their tracks, staring at the entrance of the throne room when he heard footsteps. There was a powerful force entering and they both felt it, both of them readying their weapons.
Siana relaxed, nearly sobbing when she saw Camellia stride in through the threshold. It felt like being dunked in cold water when Camellia bypassed Siana completely, without a word, her face stoic and focused.
“Camellia—”
Camellia went straight into the saferoom for the royal family.
Siana exchanged a quick glance with General Narsi before the two of them rushed in after Camellia, just in time to see Camellia stab her sword through King William’s heart.
“Camellia!” Siana screamed, her voice punched out of her. “What are you—”
General Narsi wrapped a tight arm around the princess’ waist and pulled her from the room. “Your Highness—”
Siana’s head was spinning. She let herself be lifted away from her lover, away from her father. Away from her allies, her comrades who might need her help. Her heart was far from broken. It was gone, an empty hole in her chest.
She couldn’t cry. She was too confused—too angry for that.
Camellia emerged from the room, her face unchanged from the crime she’d committed. Her eyes passed over everyone.
Siana wasn’t sure if she imagined Camellia’s gaze pausing on her or not.
Camellia’s boots thudded quietly as she made her way back to the entrance of the throne room. Calmly. Precisely. Controlled in a way that Siana was familiar with. It sounded just like Camellia walking into Siana’s room at night, catching up to Siana in the halls, but at the same time, it sounded like someone else. Like a Camellia that Siana didn’t know.
She was bewitched.
Siana knew that. She had to know that because there was no other way to explain Camellia leaving her like this, devastated, in someone’s arm other than her own. There was no other reason for Camellia to walk away and join Lady Via’s side, when Lady Via came into the room.
There was no reason for Camellia to hold Lady Via when Lady Via was clearly unsteady on her feet.
“You finished it?” Lady Via asked, tilting her head at Camellia with a smile.
Camellia nodded, her expression blank. Camellia looked exactly how Siana felt—like she wasn’t in her body, like she wasn’t all there. Like everything was just happening around her, and she was just an observer, like she couldn’t stop it even if she wanted to.
It reminded Siana of when they first met, in the banquet hall after the war ended.
General Narsi took a step in front of Siana, his armor clanking and echoing in the empty room. “Lady Via,” he greeted, a little less than cordially.
“I knew your little boy wasn’t strong enough to kill him,” Lady Via said. She looked pitying, mocking. She hid her smile behind her fingers.
Siana could feel General Narsi seething. It came off him in waves. The gem in his pommel was starting to glow dangerously. “He’s alive,” General Narsi said.
“I had a feeling,” Lady Via said. “He played his part well. I didn’t expect him to be so… protective of his sister, though. Tried not to make her sad until the very end, didn’t he?”
She waved a hand in Siana’s direction without sparing a glance. Color was coming back into the magician’s face, and her movements were getting more animated. Chrysan had said she was weak, but she seemed to be gaining back whatever strength she’d been missing before.
“Ah well,” Lady Via said. “When we started this war, I knew the real hero would emerge. I’m so glad we found her.”
“What are you going on about?” Siana said impatiently.
“You know your father never intended for you to take the throne,” Lady Via explained. “We all knew, after what he did to your brother.”
“My… brother…? I don’t…”
Lady Via gestured to the room the others were still in. “His—Chrysan’s—birthname was Mile,” she said casually, like it wasn’t sliding everything into place like a key in a lock. “I was your mother’s guard originally, you know. She told me things. We were… close. Before she was killed.”
“Mile was stillborn,” Siana said, unsure. “My father said…”
General Narsi threw a look over his shoulder at Siana. There was something in his eyes. Anger, restraint, and… they were glossy, bright with unshed tears.
“You knew he lived?” Siana gasped out quietly. “You knew this whole time? You let him fight and—and you never…?”
He bowed his head. “I’m sorry, Your Highness. I was sworn to secrecy.”
“Don’t be too mad, Your Highness,” Lady Via said, nodding along. “Our dear king killed anyone that stood in his way, including his wife. I’m honestly surprised you and Chrysan lived this long. He might have killed you if he hadn’t had his hands full with the rebels. You should really thank Day Bellis for your life. I’ll pass on the message for you.”
Siana took a few deep breaths through the hole in her chest. She focused on the wavering color of General Narsi’s pommel. She focused on the spinning in her head and tried to steady it. “So, you think you understand everything about my kingdom?” Siana said, her voice calm, her sight steady on Lady Via.
Lady Via pouted. “I couldn’t possibly, Your Highness,” she said, airy and fake. “Queen Anemone was trying to aid Gladiolus. When King William started to invade, it ruined all her hard work. I just wanted her to be happy, so… well, when we tried to stop him, and he had her killed…”
Lady Via paused here, smiling to herself.
“I spun a lie about a flower so Nastur could reign forever. He had the chance to back out. If he’d listened, he’d have known it wasn’t possible. All I know about your kingdom is that I’ll be bringing it to an end. Sorry.”
Siana took a step closer, settling next to General Narsi. She took the handle of her rapier in both hands.
“King William started the war to quickly find the flower, instead of sneakily trying to gain land. I figured a war would bring the strongest warriors to the surface most easily,” the magician continued. Lady Via tossed an affectionate glance over at Camellia.
Siana felt herself bristle, felt her blood boil at Lady Via’s little action.
“I really just did want to kill him, originally.” Lady Via looked back at Siana and General Narsi, pointedly. “When he killed Queen Ann, King William signed his own death sentence. Everyone else was expendable.”
“Camellia isn’t,” Siana said.
“No,” Lady Via agreed. She smiled, sighing a little. “Maybe she’ll fulfill your mother’s wish and bring peace to Nastur and Gladiolus, educate her people on magic and sustainability. The only question here is: would you let her? Or are you just as expendable as your brother?”
“I would let Camellia kill me if she were to deem it necessary,” Siana said, her resignation hurdling quickly into decision and anger. “However, these aren’t Camellia’s own actions right now. They’re yours, and I won’t let you treat her like a pawn.”
When Siana raised her sword, it was Camellia who stepped forward to fight.
JAAM Writing 