Wracked with Loyalty

Chapter 1

BOOM-Boom boom, the drums beat, stitching together a message that only soldiers and ones in training would understand. The message was clear as day, a calling for one specific soldier to report to the belltower; Cassius Raeen.

Cassius marched out to the bell tower and saw his commanding officer beckoning him forward. His body chilled as he saw his mother in cuffs before him.

"Raeen, where is your father?" The commander asks in a voice that others would mistake for sympathetic, yet anyone who was training in Wisteria knew the voice was a mask for the insensitive character the Commander is.

"My father, Commander Harlem? He's been dead for all my life." Cassius said cautiously, his instincts screaming at him that something horrible was about to happen.

"Were your parents ever married?"

"Not that I ever knew of, yet I never asked...? Why do you ask?" Cassius responds, anxiety lumping in his throat as he sees the slight move from his mother, one of hopelessness.

"Are you aware of the law, Cassius? How about you, Kennuria?" Harlem ask, pulling Cassius's mother, Kennuria, up.

"Mother, what does he mean? What law is he speaking of?" Cassius questioned as he got closer. "Why are you cuffed? Let her go, Sir."

"The law states that a child born out of wedlock should be slaughtered, however you are important to our cause. Instead of us killing you, Cassius, we are going to kill your mother..."

"What? No! Don't lay a hand on my mother!" Cassius shouted as he felt his muscles coil as he prepared to fight for his mother's life.

"Don't do that. Don't... do that." The commander stated firmly. "You don't have to get hurt here."

"Are you threatening me?" Cassius growled under his breath as he got ready to strike.

"Soldier, I don't make threats. I make guarantees, so let's not do this."

"I'm calling Captain Faris." Cassius says as he reaches to his mother to take her back with him.

"The captain sends his condolences... He knew you wouldn't take this well..." The commander muttered as he moved in front of Cassius's mother.

"He knows about this?" Kennuria asked, a newfound sadness evident in her voice as she looked up at Harlem.

"He's the one who ordered this." He stated before drawing out his weapon, a sharp scim with fancy decor along the handle. "He told me to tell you how sorry he was to see you go. You were his favorite villager. Say your goodbye's Cassius."

Cassius looked from his mother to his superior and made a decision. He lurched forward, his dagger in his hand as he was seconds away from flinging it to the man who held his mother.

Right as he was about to throw it, his mother keeled over, writhing in the grass as blood gushed from her throat, staining her beautiful blue dress, the dress Cassius had helped sew as a gift to her for her birthday.

"I l-love you my dear son....Make me... proud, C-Cassius." His mother croaked out, her blood bubbling at her throat before her body went limp, a final breath escaping from her pale lips.

Cassius felt his knees make contact with the ground long before he heard his dagger clatter in the dirt. He shuffled closer to her and lifted her body into a hug; the tightest one he ever gave her. All the blood drained from his face as he just blankly stared ahead and clung to his mother's lifeless body, all the memories of his childhood flooding his mind.

He didn't notice that Harlem had left until the bell tower's field was washed in the orange of the sunset. He looked up to the sky and screamed at the gods above, blaming them for her death, begging them to bring her back.