“You’ve proven yourself time and again to be dedicated to this cause, Seth,” Henry says while patting Seth on the back with pride in his amber eyes.

For years, Seth has called this man father, this man who raised him and who claimed to love him. Yet all the while, this very man had killed his true father all while lying that Seth and he shared blood.

Henry still thinks that Seth doesn’t know the truth but he had heard every detail of Henry’s drunk recounting to the barmaid he was trying to woo many nights ago. At first, Seth didn’t think much of it as it was quite normal to overhear Henry brag about the gory details of his kills with joyous glee. That night, Henry had detailed how he shoved the blade into this particular enemy’s back then pulled it off to slice his neck. Usually, Henry goes on to the next story but he stayed on this one as he told the barmaid that as he left the tent he heard a baby cry. This baby that he found crying was a boy. A boy that he claimed and raised as his own. It was obvious to Seth that this story was about him. He was Henry’s only child and all his life he had to deal with side remarks about how he looked nothing like his general father. Henry had brushed off the accusations with claims that Seth resembled his mother but it was all a lie.

Henry had raised Seth to kill without thought but in that moment Seth was full of so many thoughts. Seth’s first thought was to kill Henry in the exact way that his biological father was murdered years ago but that wouldn’t be enough to sate the anger ruptured from Henry’s lies. Seth’s second thought was full of rage at having been lied to for he had sliced, tortured, and killed in Henry’s name to make him proud and make himself worthy of the title that he bared to compensate for not looking enough like him but it was all a lie.

How many times has he pushed himself to do things he didn’t want to earn his father’s pride? How many times has he done these things to prove that his father’s blood did run in his veins? Yet, the blood in his veins, it is the very blood that spills in the name of expanding the empire. The blood he was taught was lesser and worthless. He had killed these people who had blood deemed lesser by the king. He had laughed at their pleas as his father tore them from their homes. He had started the fires that blazed their homes while his father smiled with pride.

His biological father was one of them.

He was one of them.

From that night, he died, becoming a walking corpse without a grave. A betrayer of the land who protected his people for generations.

He keeps on his facade, the mask of a son who hungers for his father’s approval. He lets a sadistic smile go on his face but internally his hatred for the man he called father and the kingdom he serves brews.

“A worthy cause it is father, to expand our lands in the name of our king.”

He clenches his fist, his eyes moving away from his father’s face.

“Very worthy, indeed. Tomorrow, you will be my side in the coming battle, are you prepared, my boy?”

“Yes, I have the plans all memorized,” Seth unclenches his fist, pointing to his head.

“Good, go get some rest, we have some heads to slice tomorrow.”

Seth listens to the sound of his father’s footsteps walking away but he doesn’t move. Instead, he waits for the sound of footsteps to cease then once it does he moves in the opposite direction. Once he enters the small village, he lifts up his hood and it takes him some time to get to his destination. He knocks on the door of a small green house where he overhears the mayor lives. The person that opens the door is a boy around his age, who looks at him with suspicion.

“Is the mayor here?” Seth makes his voice sound more gruff then it is, hoping it’ll make him sound older.

“Who are you?” The boy asks, closing the door he’s holding a bit.

“I need to speak to the mayor.”

“For what reason?”

“It’s imperative that I speak to the mayor.”

“Who are you?” The boy asks again but with an edge to his voice.

“Your salvation, if you let me speak to the mayor.”

The boy studies him but doesn’t seem to be relenting his suspicion.

“At dawn, you’ll all be slaughtered in the name of King Edgar for refusing to join his kingdom.”

“What?”

The boy’s jaw goes slack and he opens the door, letting him in. He walks in and sees a modest home for a man tasked to rule a whole village. The boy moves past him and gestures for him to follow him. Eventually, they reach a door with a wooden sign that says mayor. The boy opens the door, calling the mayor father as he tells him what he’s overheard.

The mayor doesn’t say anything just sighs and asks. “Where’s the proof of this endeavor?”

Seth reaches into his pocket, taking out a letter addressed to King Edgar. In this letter, there are detailed plans of the upcoming attack. Seth had acquired the letter after carefully copying the one his father had asked him to deliver to a messenger. Seth walks over to the Mayor and places the letter on the Mayor’s desk. For a bit, the Mayor looks over it, adjusting his thick glasses as he reads.

The Mayor’s expression becomes pensive and he calls his son over to read it for him. The boy reads it, raising his brow as he studies the letter.

“There’s no official seal from the general…”

The boy’s voice is full of doubt and he eyes Seth with suspicion.

“I copied it. I couldn’t dare risk taking the actual letter.”

“How can we believe you then?”

“You can’t. The only thing I can offer you is my word and that copy of the letter the general sent to King Edgar.”

“Your word is meaningless.”

“No, it isn’t. My word is everything,” Seth says, lowering his hood and revealing who he is.