A Beautiful Trip

A beautiful trip; a sudden twist of emotion.

Jadas had always hated her younger brother Diam. She'd hated him before he was born and she'd hated him after he was born. When he'd been sentenced to live in the dungeon because of the deformity on his back and the curse he'd brought to the land with his birth, she'd only hated him more, only from then on it was with a sense of justification. She'd pretended to hate him for that reason, the reason that everyone else in the kingdom hated him, but there was still there the resentment of his gender, and the left-over feelings of being second, now that a boy was being born to her father, the king, who would become a prince and then a king himself.

She was secretly thrilled when her father had decided that she would escort the guards to the dungeon for the announcement of Diam's execution. She would walk between them, a flowing, scarlet, intimidating symbol of formality in the event. She would represent the kingdom's solid, fiery hate for Diam, and she would sneer down at him for the sake of her people.

Jadas was already preparing her face for the expression as she descended the spiral stairs that led to the dungeon, behind the tall, dark, silent figures of the guards.

Aurus, the retired knight who'd been assigned dungeon duty when he'd become too old for battle, looked up from a blanket of paper on his desk in the corner. Jadas could barely see him.

"Yes?" he said hoarsely, standing up.

"Where is the boy?" Jadas said authoritatively, perhaps more sternly than necessary.

"Diam?"

"Yes."

"He's asleep. In this cell," Aurus pointed. "Why?"

Jadas looked, and her heart was suddenly flattened against her rib-cage by heavy sorrow, pain, and, though the emotion was new and strange to her and she did not recognize it, love.

He was curled up on a metal bed that jutted from the wall, using the deformity on his back, one of his white wings, as a pillow. At the sound of voices where there was usually grim silence, the blonde curls lifted to unveil a soft, creamy face and round blue eyes.

Jadas, who had been preparing the announcement since she'd known she would be the one to give the speech, only stared at Diam. He blinked at her, then smiled, not noticing her attempts at being a fearsome badge of beautiful, unbending, elegant hatred.

The guards looked at each other, and then took it upon themselves to deliver the message.

"Diam is to be sacrificed tomorrow morning."

"Have him prepared."

Each of them had to take one of Jadas's elbows, and gently guide her out of the dungeon. She turned without thinking, and saw Diam cling to the cell bars with interest and watch them exit.