The story so far: Maron, Kil, and Rob tried to stop the tournament from being run by killing all the lords running the tournament and burning down their offices. But on the way Kil died, Rob escaped, and Maron was taken prisoner.
I woke up in a large wooden room with slight slits of light illuminating minor parts of the room. The grassy floor I was on wasn’t typical to normal prisons, and it didn’t take me long to realise that I was underneath the stage where Rick had been killed.
I didn’t know whether to feel anger towards Kil and Rob since they didn’t help me when they could have done, but then again, they may have had a good reason too, I provided a good distraction and there were guards, so many guards. And I suppose they needed me to take me away.
I was their sacrifice. I didn’t mind because it would lead to a greater future, however I couldn’t help but wonder if they knew what they were doing when they sent me down there first.
I was more concerned now about whether or not they survived. I sincerely hoped that they had, Kil in particular. If nothing else the fire was sure to get a good amount of people anyway, and I was content to live with that as long as the world had changed, and the tournament was cancelled.
Maybe everything was a lie, and we had made our moves and attacks based on superstition. It was extremely unlikely though, and anyway, why take the risk? By trying to make the kings son king instead of anybody else fighting it would be sure to prevent the worst-case scenario we were all scared of.
“I’M HERE TODAY BECAUSE OF AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT, BUT FIRST WE HAVE ANOTHER CRIMINAL WHO CLEARLY DIDN’T LEARN FROM YESTERDAY! AND THEY WILL BE EXECUTED AS A FURTHER EXAMPLE! YOU MAY FEEL SORRY FOR HER AT FIRST BUT ONCE YOU’VE LEARNED ABOUT WHAT SHE DID, AND WHAT HER ACTIONS LED TO AS A CONSEQUENCE YOU SHALL NOT BE SYMPATHETIC AT ALL!”
“HERE IS THE EXECUTIONER!” I could hear the big man walk onto the stage and place down his heavy block, it worried me, naturally. Then he crept down the stairs and opened a small door, it was the door that led to me.
I knew what had to happen, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. I tried to pray to any god out there for help. Whether or not it would help, I’d find out.
My executioner wore a mask. He was scary. I couldn’t run, my legs could barely hold my weight.
But I still had hatred. I didn’t hate my friends, but I hated how they escaped, and I hadn’t. I hated Rob because while he was doing a good thing, his actions led to Rick’s death. It wasn’t a rational hate and if anything, I hated myself for being weak and able to fall into the guards’ hands so easily. I hated that this was a problem in the first place, that this was a problem in the world that I had to fix. That there was nobody else out there who could fix that for us.
Where did I go wrong? What caused me to become the kind of person who could just murder, and slash people through the throat so easily? I had no idea. Everyone had changed. I remembered the days of walking from the forest to Canden or from Canden to Taltree, those were the innocent times when we didn’t have anything to worry about. When the fate of our country wasn’t resting on our shoulders. The best I could hope for would be that it ends now.
Whether I had seized victory or not I was still a criminal, I had done a bad thing, many bad things. Now was the time for me to pay for my crimes, the ones not directly linked to saving Sevren. The ones that set me on this crazy journey to my death in the first place. I was evil, it didn’t matter if my goals were just because the ends didn’t justify the means, not often anyway.
They put the bag on the head and walked me to the block. I looked into the crowd for Rob, or Kil, but they weren’t in sight.
“THIS PERSON HAS COMMITED VIOLENT ARSON. MURDERING MANY OFFICIALS IN THE PROCESS. ALL FOR THE REASON THAT SHE COULDN’T ARRIVE FOR HER TOURNAMENT MATCH ON TIME!”
They took the bag off of my head and people looked shocked. Perhaps they recognised me from the first tournament book.
“ANY LAST WORDS?” The announcer shouted as my head was placed on the block.
I began to cry. When I first set off to the tournament, I had no idea that it would end like this. What a miserable life it had been. I had always wanted to die surrounded by family and loved ones at an old age. Not this.
Yet my goal had been ultimately good, I realised that our methods were poor. All I could do now was hope. And as I looked into the crowd, a crowd of Sevrens, only two words came to mind.
“I’m sorry”
My Brain Is Completely Empty 