Requiem by M.S. Hund

Author:M.S. Hund [Hund, M.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jebesyl Press

“Can you guess why there is no glass in this?” Valentin asked, turning the hand mirror so that the baron could see the glittering shards that clung to the edges of the frame. They were all that remained of the mirror’s glass.

Firelight played over the intricate twists of filigreed silver. Such a beautiful piece. Valentin could have sold it to finance his pursuit of the baron, but he had needed to keep it. He had needed this constant reminder of his first glimpse of his new self in the terrible honesty of its fractured surface. It had burned his hand, even as the images burned his mind. He had grabbed it without thinking as the burning castle collapsed around him. Crawling through smoke and fire, not feeling the hot metal searing his skin, not smelling the burning of his flesh. So much of his flesh had burned that night.

Escape. From a burning Hell to a frozen one. Spent and dying upon a hillside lit by the massive torch of the castle, bright as day.

The day of his rebirth.

“My cousin gave that—” the baron began, but Valentin roared, cutting him off.

“Cousin? Family? And what of my sister, you monster? My sister Klara. Did you even know her name?” His breathing came in ragged gasps. “What of our mother? She could not look at me in the months it took me to recover enough that I could be out of her life. My own mother! If I had not needed to pursue you, I would have been forced to leave my home anyway, would have been forced to keep moving.” Valentin’s voice shook with fury and memory. “I could not stay in any one place lest I drown in pity. Fear I could accept. Fear was bearable. But pity?”

His entire body shook with the memory. Every village, every town he had entered in his pursuit of the baron had revealed his burned and battered flesh to fresh eyes. Even hooded and cloaked, children would peek beneath his rags and discover the monster within. They would flee before him, their screaming and mockery announcing his coming. Trumpeters for the emperor of the damned.

“Come and see the freak, the monster, the terror!”

How many towns? How many eyes? How many faces twisted with disgust and fear?

And pity, terrible pity…

Valentin reached into his pack again and pulled forth a pouch. He tossed it at the baron’s feet. The pouch jangled as it landed, splashing mud from frozen earth thawed by the fire.

“The pity had its rewards. Good Christian souls kept me fed and clothed and in coin, even if I did sometimes resort to begging or other…vulgar acts.” Valentin trembled, remembering the humiliation he had endured in order to survive. Displaying himself. Allowing others to touch his ruined body…

He felt the heat of the fire on his sensitive and scarred skin. His eyes found the baron’s and saw neither pity nor fear there. He saw only the reflection of flames glinting in the baron’s pale eyes and a fine eyebrow drawn up in an aristocratic arch.

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