This content might touch on topics that are sensitive or triggering for some readers. Trigger Warning for mentions of [detailed gore, death]
“My name is Renfri Saxe.”Vision had blurred; brain blacking out as memories flooded to the forefront of his exhausted mind. He had been so surprised, taken aback by her exclamation of claim to the name. It was so long ago when things were just starting to build in the lands of Amaryllis; it almost felt like another lifetime, how easy it was for him back then. "..fate seems to have led me to you instead.” She had settled back on herself when she spoke those words to him, such a sweetly coo she had started from the beginning. He'd been sucked in from the start.
“You would send your wife to sleep with another man.” He remembered her surprise to his blind trust in her, a loyalty that had run so deep that he'd never seen her gunning for his life now. If anything, he thought leading up to this day, she would have died for him if it came down to it. "I trust you, and most of all I trust that you know where home is." He never hid the way he believed her so honestly and fully, either. But their sweetly encounters only soured as time went on, as her thirst for power increased, and being gullible brought him to his knees.
“Perhaps if you hadn’t been so busy collecting heiresses, you could have taken him down that night. Or at the very least defended your wife from being taken in the first place.” Ever since she uttered those words, nothing had ever quite been the same between Aeistrios and Renfri Saxe. There was always a subtle tension, a drift that came in-between such powerful forces; a wall that divided them, and soon enough the cracks had evolved into splintering canyons.
"I defended you once. Saved you once - you should of been able to hold your own." They were words he had seethed to her in a rightful rage, and now he was no longer a protector to her. A savior once, he'd of rolled out of any grave should she of ever been in serious harm in her lifetime, but alas... she had dug one herself, and Aeistrios was forced into a hand he had no desire to play in. "You know how power goes, Renfri. How divided one becomes, especially in a raid. You went into that knowing you could be on your own in a fight. You failed, not me." He had tried to get her to right it all then, to see her wrongs, but things never healed. "I am not scared of you. And you will respect me. I have done too much for you to let you act like this. I paved the perfect path for you to reach your own power - you could of gone for the Brook after the raid, like Lachesis did. You could of had your crown. Everything you wanted. But you failed that."
Power.
It had always been about power - it was the main issue in their marriage, and now it was what would bring them to their death. Even before in the Plains, she had always wanted more. Aeistrios could never do enough, and now it was his own legacy she sought. A legacy he had been so willing to share with her after they had united together. It was ironic that this was how things were playing out; he had laid out and shared what he would never of done for someone else. Given her power when he would of laughed at any other wife who thought to reach up so high for his crown. He set aside pride and dignity, letting her control him for a moment of time. Yet, it is still her who cannot be content with what was offered. She is as selfish as he once was, and there was also an admiration for the lengths she'd go to get what she desired. If only the lengths this time had been feasible. It was a cruel fact that had every part of him screaming in frustration and anger at, that this is how their life together would end. There would be no aging together, no days where they'd meet their grandchildren side by side, to see what their legacy became. We are the same. A lie that was crushed to nothing now, a whisper in the wind was all it was worth, and Renfri had backed Aeistrios into a corner. He knew when they had first met that she was a force to be dealt with, a woman who wielded a certain strength that seemed unmatched when compared to others, and even to other wives he had ever taken. She had been the spark of something inside of him, a fire that had been burning bright for the passing seasons they'd spent together - no matter how chaotic. Now it was wanning, fading, her paw smashing out the flame while he could do nothing against it.
She had forced his hand; there was no option for him, no matter how much he begged for one now.
Kill or be killed - a basic instinct that was engrained into everyone and everything living, or so he believed. Her claws had sunk into his gut, poking past his thin layer of protection in clawing into his abdomen for a kill. The pain is excruciating and blinding, a maddening sensation that had every nerve in his body setting off like a firework of agony. Time begins to tick and with each drop of blood that leaves from his body, Aeistrios knows his own life is wanning. "I am not scared of you." A lie he had shouted to her once; a truth that was of this moment. She could end him, he knew it, but he could end her; and Aeistrios would be damned if his children were left orphaned before adulthood.
He'd be equally as damned if there was even a thought he could ever trust her again, sparing her life was no option.
Luckily for him, she was not immortal.
CLACK!
Aeistrios' fangs shut down upon another, his maw enclosed around her spine, which made gruesome cracking noises as it shattered within his force. In an instant did her bodice slump underneath him, colossal frame collapsed on top of her while her claws punctured deeper into his stomach. Everything seems to slow as a shallowing breath is inhaled, a blink as his vision tosses between faded and focused. That is when he feels her claws slacken, a retreat forced upon her with the paralysis he had inflicted. Her chest still moved, her heart still pumped blood through her traitorous veins. Aeistrios rises, his legs shaking from the simple exertion of the act, his stomach a ugly mauled mess of torn flesh, bleeding steadily. Finding it difficult, he allows himself to lay at Renfri's front, using his advantage and staring at her while she could do nothing. The interaction in reality only lasted a few fleeting seconds; but it feels like he stares into her eyes for an eternity.
"We are not the same." He finally whispers out to her with hoarse and raspy tones, straining with weakness from all his energy spent. He maneuvers closer to her then, shuffling in a numbed trance as he seems too close to death himself to feel the effects of all his aching pains. His forehead presses down onto her own then, and to some it might appear to be a tender touch, affectionate as his eyes close to savor her warmth one last time. A warmth that would be replaced by a chilling cold, an everlasting winter for she had been the only woman he loved. His heart would go with her to the grave, rightfully where it belonged as he did not want it to be without her either. There was no joy in what Aeistrios was having to force himself to do. He desperately searched for the feelings of rage, for vengeance, of hatred so that he may block away the emotion of grief that clutched at him so strongly. Grief for not just him and his stolen heart, but for his children who were going to see him kill her; a mother they relied on for more days than Aeistrios could count. She always picked up whatever slack he had left, and while they were not the best parents in all of the lands - they made an amazing team when it came to their little Saxes. He had hated Reah for leaving, and now he hated Renfri for forcing him into this death of hers, causing his children to be motherless in the worst ways. She knew and he both knew he could not allow her to go on breathing past this day. Somehow, someway, she would come back and end him again. Aeistrios realized she was his biggest weakness; he had to be rid of her.
"You failed, not me." A pained mumble that speaks to her, reciting words he'd once said before, a future they should have seen coming to be true again so soon. The only thing she had succeeded in was snapping what little sanity Aeistrios had left within him. There was a madness brewing - and his last voice of reasoning was dying at his paws. "I love you, goodbye." Finally, his jaws open, and similar to what a lion would do to suffocate a doe, Aeistrios encloses them around her snout and holds her in place, the seconds ticking by in drawn moments, each piece of the man he was before this shedding side-by-side with the blood pooled underneath them from his frame.
It was a beautiful kiss of death.
Internally, he is shouting, yelling, crying her name in a mixture of hatred and love. His life was damned, with her gone she had wrecked whatever change could have possibly come about. It was his father who stood within his purple eyes now; the very man he had vowed to be less and less of. If anything, she had just put her kids in even more harm by pushing Aeistrios this far, a Saxe who had such little patience to go around, and so much power to grasp. She could have at least been around to try and point him in the right directions, convince reason to him here and there, but now... now it was done.
Renfri's efforts as a worried mother are in vain as her last moments of oxygen die up, and then there is a stillness as he withdraws.
The chaos surrounding the outcome is suiting, of course a war had not been in place for Morrigan's challenge, but when Renfri pulls her grand scheme? There was no doubt. There was also no surprise to see his enemies taking advantage of what his dead wife had done. Each one of his kids were plucked out by adults, his youngest targeted like they were deer in a hunt. He finds himself standing still, seconds ticking by before a noise even leaves his frame. Still so many came to watch - to see, but even in all of that attention, he did not feel glory in the moment.
A dangerous silence is formed and he knows he cannot do anything for his kids. He can't even see five feet in front of him with how blurred everything was getting. Instead, a low chuff calls from his lips for any children who were able to follow, any of his kids that didn't hate him to leave with him so things may get explained. But here and now was not the place, and Aeistrios wasn't even sure if he would make it back to Iofiel before he bled out in whole.
His stance does not convey anything but a rough and slow stride, demeanor slackened with a defeat - an obvious loss on his face that soon morphed to sinister void.
Amaryllis may of had their God, Morrigan, but they now had their Devil - Aeistrios.
total words; 2,006 // Aeistrios kills Renfri and exits the thread, chuffing for his kids who are able to exit with him.
I love you, goodbye
