A sorrowful sacrifice, An enraptured ending

The end of a life, the start of paradise

"You!"

"Hello brother." 

His voice was low, menacing and full, of bloodlust. It made Scott shiver. Maybe he was going to lose this one. For so long he had avoided death, beat his brother, those before him defeating their other half, light and dark, good and evil. 

Yet as the demon looked at him, watched what everyone saw as immortal stand as a mortal, not an ethereal prince, not an elf. A normal person, doomed to lose the final battle. He had won conflicts, but he was never going to win the war.

"I hope you don't mind the remodelling." Mind! It was as if Xornoth was king; Rivendell was his; Scott was the outcast, not the demon.

"How could you do this? This was once your home...OUR home."

"Once being the key word here brother."

He was right. Rivendell hadn't been something for them both since his brothers corruption. It wasn't home without his family. The kingdom was nothing but that, buildings and people he was forced to rule over because there was no one else.

His parents were dead, his brother was corrupted.

All that was left of the royal family was Scott. Alone and in pieces. His soul captured or lost by those he used to value. This place was nothing to him, not anymore.

"Not that there is much to call home now."

"How did you even get out? We trapped you."

"Not very well." He laughed again, sarcasm and faux sympathy overwhelming and overriding his desire for victory.

"That pathetic excuse of a wizard has a lot to learn if she thinks that's magic."

If he had the time he would have been offended on her behalf, but he didn't have the time, a clock ticking before his downfall, unescapable and inevitable. It was just when that clock would strike twelve that his dreams would fade.

"She won't get to learn anything when I'm done with her."

"They all won't."

Jimmy, Katherine, Gem, Pearl, Shubble, everyone was being threatened. He couldn't do anything. Sure, he was Scott Smajor, King of Rivendell, Elven ruler and Champion of Aeor, but he was no one really. All he had done was cause chaos and watch from the sides or be the root of danger. 

He was Xornth's brother after all, a destiny, a prophecy, a fate, he had never wanted, never would. 

"Don't you dare hurt them! I'm not going to let you!" Yet his voiced stuttered and broke, betraying the façade of a hero, because he wasn't one. He was a failure to his friends and family. He couldn't save his friends or brother, nor could he stop his friends from suffering.

"Aaaaaawww do you care for them?" He did. Scott had always thought emotions were a mortal affair far below his standards, yet he couldn't deny that he grew attached, an indifferent elf, ice and obsidian walls thawed and broken by those he used to see as pawns in his path to success.

Time changes however, as do feelings and people.

"You couldn't even help them when I wasn't here." Tantalizing. Truthful. Poison in an already wounded heart.

"What are you going to do, throw a snowball at me?"

"If you haven't noticed brother, fire melts ice." 

Regret

"Don't worry, I'll make sure it hurts when I get them all, especially that one fish boy you're fond of."