The Hidden Glistening

Chapter 11: The Fuse

My hands blistered away once more...

I shattered. The thought of me and her escaping from this place... this hell... still haunted the heavy edges of my mind.

A tear fell. Weeks ago she was my best friend... now .. just another lifeless shell, huddled beside the heap of other corpses stacked behind the castle walls...

All that she stood for. All that we had.. gone. That open tree stump in the burned forest.
Those late nights we cuddled. Just ... the good times..the memories demolished..for the sake of the Great War...

I grabbed a firm grip on the soup ladle that swirled the prepared meal into the wooden carved bowl.

I placed the long wooden spoon inside and dashed it with the "special" spice in hopes that the king ...emperor..would take the bait.

A false smile on my face, I walked into his royal quarters, carefully and quietly placing the metallic tray on the top of his bed.

I smiled, slowly and gently placing one more dash of poison into his soup, the flecks of the spice brimming the rim of his wooden bowl.

I smirked and prayed he'd eat.

For that note that read.. quilled with ink, shanked carefully onto the lightly triangular folded napkin, sat perched under the bowl read out in the most carefully worded cursive.

"For the emperor"