The kind lord had no friends at this table. Many would benefit from his untimely death; some would draw only pleasure from it. She looked at their faces, but none would meet her gaze. Suddenly she knew why.
She reached for her lord’s cup and drank deeply. The sharp taste of poison danced on her tongue, before flowing down her throat.
She smiled feebly at the shocked faces of the lord’s enemies. Tears ran down the lord’s face as he realized what she had done.
Her sacrifice had not gone in vain; her brother the lord would live another day.
Oh wow, that's one enormous self-sacrifice. I'd love to know more about this political situation and why she felt it was necessary for herself to die to save him.
ReplyDeleteOhhhh, gosh, that's poignant, but so good. That act of charity is one that speaks to an enormous amount of love.
ReplyDeleteHeart breaking! This emanates nobility and self sacrifice, it's beautifully done. I'm really enjoying these.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Lissa, I'd love to know why she thought that that him living even one more day was so important.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would LOVE to see the enemies faces when they realised what she was doing!!
I think at the end of the 7 virtues challenge I'll have several short stories to work in to longer stories.
ReplyDeleteI imagined that the enemies jaws dropped on the table when they saw what she did.
That is a huge gift to give. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this one was beautiful. In her position I think I would've just wanted to bump the lord's cup and spill it--but perhaps by revealing it as poison there was an opportunity to entrap the plotters.
ReplyDeleteIn particular I liked the lord's silent tears, because it made me think that as pained as he was to lose her, he was in a position to know it was the right way for things to have happened in the circumstance.