text: [Themes: grimdark fantasy, female protagonist, war]
  
  Sophia and Juliette find themselves walking down the corridors of this large castle. In their journey, they are uncontested by any thing that may want to claim their lives. This does very little to stop the two from feeling on edge. Although she regarded the environment with the lense that she was visiting family, that family was also her enemy.
  
  Today someone was going to draw their last breath on this earth.
  
  "Your highness," Juliette speaks up to get the princess's attention, pointing out the drawn cues they were given to follow. "I believe that is meant for the both of us."
  
  It doesn't take long for them to find themselves in what can only be described as a 'playroom'. Everywhere one could look, the environment would be decorated with all types of stuffed creations and treats. And from a balcony stood Bridgette and Henry Nevermore who looked down at their older sister with empty smiles.
  
  "Big sister! You've certainly been busy! You took everything from our sisters and made it into your own strength. Everything, those men whom you gave the title of knight sure are performing admirably." Bridgette comments, not seeming the least bit upset at the ongoing events that were happening from beyond the room. If anything, she seemed to enjoy the spectacle of death that she had a hand ib bringing into fruition.
  
  Henry on the otherhand looked slightly crestfallen.
  
  "I-I'm unsure how to feel. You've certainly become harder to kill, but now it's only you and Juliette."
  
  Bridgette crinkles her nose.
  
  "Making a Juliette doll was not in the cards, but can you have Sophia without the other? We have to complete the set, lest our sister becomes lonely in her soon to be new life."
  
  Sophia couldn't find the energy for any remarks to make. The woman only wanted to get this over with so she could get everything over with. All of this killing was becoming too much of a routine thing. However, it seemed that there was just one more hurdle to overcome if she wanted to move onto accomplishing just that.
  
  But true as her young siblings have said, she was indeed surrounded.
  
  All of the stuffed creatures and beings alike began to move, and she was unarmed.
  
  "Stay behind me, your highness!" Juliette moved in front of her, shielding her from any potential harm from the front. However there were still creatures enclosing in on them from all of their sides.
  
  On a far table table in the room, she spots a knife. It's tempting to grasp, but Juliette could be overwhelmed any moment.
  
  The hands on the clock were ever ticking down. This was going to be one of Sophia Nevermore's finest moments, or her very last.
  
  > stay still
  What differentiated Sophia Nevermore from her siblings? Was she really so unremarkable that this would be her resting place? Judging from the repeated affirmations of both Bridgette and Henry, even an eternal slumber wouldn't it be something that would. be given to her. No, she was facing an eternity of a fate that was worse than any death that can be given to her.
  
  She refused any fate that seemed unfair and cruel. It was what drove her to this point, and she wouldn't stop rejecting and refusing death when it was so readily offered like a disliked dish.
  
  Did the cook not get the message?
  
  "All of you should eat one another." Sophia stated softly, halting the movement of the stuffed creatures.
  
  It seemed that a process seemed to overtake all of the creatures, as if a previous command was being overwritten for a new one. The stuffed creatures in attendance would go from moving to both apprehend and kill to cannibalizing amongst each other. A mixture of stuffing and blood flies throughout the air, as the sounds of gnawing, tearing, and swallowing commence.
  
  True fear seems to flash on the faces of both Bridgette and Henry as their own creations turn on them as well. A suspicion is confirmed as even stuffing flies from their bodies as the process of them being torn apart as well begins.
  
  "No, no! Sister stop this! Big sister, stop this! No, stop this, sister!"
  
  "Make them stop! We don't want to be eaten! Sophia!"
  
  Everything is so damn bright. Sophia wants to tear away from the sight, it makes her feel uneasy. The guilt is palpable, and she thinks that if maybe she was a better older sibling, she wouldn't have to be killing her own little sister and brother to begin with. But that was in a perfect world in which any of their sins could be easily wiped away, and a world in which there wasn't nearly as much blood that had already been spilled.
  
  "Your highness," Juliette's voice cuts through the loathing, and she holds up a mirror for Sophia to look into. What stares back at her are eyes that are brimming with a brilliant cobalt.
  
  Was this how great magic coursing through the body felt like? Sophia felt inhuman in ways that she never had before. Juliette felt like her sight had improved several times over. No, not in a sense that she could see further, but she can sense things so much clearer now, and it's a familiar trace of energy that has the woman walking from the playroom.
  
  Sophia Nevermore had successfully fed Bridget and Henry Nevermore to their own creations.
  
  Now it was time to sate the curiosity, her legs carry her to the dungeons. It's there that she sees a large muscled figure hoisted up in chains, he's missing a hand but other than that, the recently appointed knight wasn't doing as bad as she thought he would be doing. The other alternative was him being dead after all.
  
  Paul Kirsch opens his eyes slowly, only mustering a weakened smile at the sight that greets him.
  
  "Shit, took you long enough, your highness."
  
  "Your statement implies that victory is something that you've always thought to be in our grasp."
  
  "Well, it was either that or accepting that I was fucked. Glad it was you guys winning, though."
  
  Finally Juliette arrives, catching up with the rather fast moving Sophia. She nearly bumps into the other woman, an act that would be paramount to a great disrespect and even a small blunder for a woman of her position.
  
  "Your highness, you could have slowed down!" She finds herself whining anyway.
  
  "Oh, a fight between the two of you? That's rare." Paul remarks, casually swinging back and forth from his restraints. "I didn't pay the admission fee for this, so I hope you two ladies don't mind that." He still finds the ability to joke, despite being an amputee in inhuman conditions.
  
  Juliette for her part looks a cross between scandalized and embarrassed.
  
  "Y-You're nearly naked, Sir Paul!"
  
  "...That's the thing you notice? Can you uh, get me them whenever you're ready? I need a shower, a shave, a haircut, new armor, a new weapon, and oh, a new hand if that's in the budget."
  
  > The Lady In 'Charge' Year Twenty
  -Year Twenty-
  
  Sophia Nevermore saw it fit to expand her reach throughout two of the territory's she now had in her control. In the span of two years, so much had changed. Once a sheltered princess, many were now calling her,
  
  Queen. And if her title was going to be updated, she figured Juliette go from being a simple attendant to her main advisor. Honestly speaking, she would have given her an even grander title if the woman hadn't argued so much against it. The teachings that were so very ingrained in her was certainly tough even for her to crack.
  
  Such things were often as irritating as it was amusing.
  
  Moving on, Paul finally did get his new hand, It was made out of the toughest silver, and was imbued with magic so that it can move as good, if not better than his old. All in all, many people were happy to see him escape the clutches of death. Especially none other than the advisor Juliette Forthwight, and Evie Fayre.
  
  Roy was happy to be appointed students to train in the magical arts. A little known secret to nobody, not even Juliette, was that the queen herself was a student of his after dark.
  
  No, no, no. Nothing improper was going on between the two of them.
  
  Roy was simply just amazing at magic. And through conversations, Sophia had found out he was younger than her. By a few months, but it was something to keep in mind.
  
  Currently, she had enough aptitude to create one spell.
  
  That was one more than she could ever do before.
  
  There was still Caspar, who may or may not be dead. She had sent delegates weeks ago to the Holt Kingdom, it wouldn't be long until they've returned with the much needed information that she would need to make her next move.
  
  "Queen Nevermore, the delegates have returned." It's the voice of one of her assistants that tells her this information.
  
  The days in which only Juliette alerted her to such things had long been gone, as the woman had her only responsibilities that took her away from her side even more. Sophia had a feeling that although even she was away from her, she was working as efficiently as ever to re-join her side. She looks forward to being able to recount the different experiences of their day, but first there was pressing business to attend to.
  
  "I'll be right there," Sophia responds as she pushes herself away from her study.
  
  "We weren't able to make contact with Caspar Holt, or the king, Eldred Holt. The man that is the acting king is the father of the king, Reginald Holt. He has requested that you travel out to personally meet him, so that he could supplement our forces with his!" The delegate recounts.
  
  There are excited murmurs that make up the sound of the room as Sophia thinks deeply on this. Why had no contact with either Caspar, or even his father have been unable to be made?
  
  So many elements to worry about, and did she really have to worry about them?
  
  At this point, Sophia Nevermore feels like she's more than proven that she could handle her own against anynoe that feels to take advantage of her. But another element that leaves her at a loss of just what to do exactly with this information is that she doesn't believe her older Noel or Rosemary would ever outright attack her.
  
  They've only shown her kindness throughout her life. None of their troops had sent warnings of a war. But still, there were so many questions left unanswered.
  
  To find those answers, she would have to take the path of most resistant.
  
  Even after absorbing everything her recently departed siblings had to offer. Their funds, military, strength, infrastructure, she was sure that Noel and Rosemary had more in bulk.
  
  The two of them was always so clever. Was she ready to risk life and limb again, or was there a different path she could take?
  
  > Path of Conquering
  "Why can't we go with you, your highness?"
  
  Juliette looks to be on the verge of her head exploding. Sophia however doesn't yet say a word, throwing her traveling cloak over her body and securing it with a few clasps.
  
  "Because someone has to be in charge when I'm gone." She says as it is the most simple explanation in the world. "It doesn't make sense for all of us to go into this unsure situation. I feel more safe if I've left you all to handle things while I'm away handling these matters."
  
  Roy shakes his head, leaning backwards on one of the pillars that adorned the entranceway of their castle.
  
  "You're the most important one. Both the Queen and our leader."
  
  "In short, he's saying that he'll miss you too much." Evie teases mercilessly.
  
  Juliette doesn't find humor in light of the situation, and the worry on her face only deepens even more.
  
  "Your highness..."
  
  "Juliette, your face will wrinkle prematurely if you keep doing that." Paul chimes in, his arms crossed behind the back of his head. "It would be a damn shame if that were to happen." The knight captain's face grows serious for a moment. "If you take too long, we'll come rushing in, but you already know that, don't you?"
  
  Sophia smiles at her small little band. It's only been two years since she's known some of them, but she feels that she can already trust them to handle the things that she cannot. There were a great many things that she couldn't handle after all.
  
  "Juliette, they'll have to listen to you. So you're going to have to keep a cool head, understand?"
  
  The advisor is only able to solemnly nod her head to this. This felt like a situation in which she couldn't convince the woman of anything else. She would just have to have faith in her abilities.
  
  -x-
  
  It takes a three and a half days on horseback to reach the Holt Kingdom. With the Nevermore's and Holt's being allies for so long, it only made sense that their territories weren't too far apart from one another. Over the course of those three days, Sophia Nevermore shares a fire with some of her knights, hearing them recount stories which she had never heard before, details of their lives she was unaware of until now.
  
  Some of the knights seem surprised to hear she's nothing more than a recluse for most of her life. It's amusing to say the least, but eventually their journey is at an end, and they're all ushered into to meet the acting king.
  
  There are comfortable chairs that adorn the meeting room, and places for the knights to unloosen and unequip themselves from the heavy equipment of their arms and armor. Tea is given to all, as well as biscuits that Sophia recognizes as her favorite. Although the taste is slightly off, it does still taste better than stale bread.
  
  "Ah, Sophia Nevermore, is it still princess? Or are you truly a queen now?"
  
  "Whatever title fits the occasion at the given time."
  
  Sophia answers as she turns to meet the gaunt figure of Reginald Holt. The man seems to have aged several years, but as a child, he was a man that was always seemed old to her to begin with. Of course the man still had many inches on her, but se figured that would be the case for most of the men who she would interact with in her life.
  
  How unfortunate, Sophia always admired how tall her older sister Penelope was.
  
  There's a moment in which pleasantries are exchanged first. Any real business is halted as mundane questions are put at the forefront instead at first. It's only half an hour into their conversation does Reginald lean back in the seat, clasping his hands.
  
  "So, you're finally going to engage in a war effort against Noel and Penelope? I cannot say it doesn't hurt for me to even say those even words, but it's unfortunate, do you not believe so?"
  
  The woman nods her head in agreement, taking a sip from the beverage offered to her.
  
  "It is indeed, but it is the only path in which the answers I seek can be answered, I fear. If there was a way in which this could be avoided, I wouldn't be here asking for assistance in the form of you lending some of Holt's troops."
  
  Sophia placed her cup down on the table, assuming a thoughtful expression.
  
  "I wonder if Caspar and Eldred are doing alright. It's said that they've disappeared around the same time was father was slain, right? They say it's a good chance that it was my brother and sister that did it, but I'm sure they've had to have some help. It sounds too good to be true that the two of them could throw our kingdom into such a state of disarray with only their efforts alone. Wouldn't you not agree to that, acting King, Reginald Holt?"
  
  The old king only mirthfully chuckles, wiping the look of mild astonishment from his face to raise his hand and snap his fingers. At that action, his own soldiers move into the room, their blades aimed at the unsuspecting knights.
  
  "You've truly grown into a fine woman. You mirror your mother in many ways. I've been thinking since seeing you two years ago, seeing my grandson tugging at your arm, only for you to bring embarrassment upon yourself. This old man has been thinking you're wasted on an overly excited child like that. It's that very reason that I had to get rid of him, my own grandson, oh and my son, too! What a crying shame! Betraying your father, helping the prince and princess, you can say it to be unfortunate collateral."
  
  Sophia feels only contempt for the old man that stares at her with uninhibited lust. To openly admit to such things, she wondered if he was the same man that would visit her birthday party with extravagant presents.
  
  "You're barely a man, but a monster wearing the flesh of a man."
  
  "Wouldn't that go for you as well? Your hands aren't exactly free of blood. It's a path paved with blood that has you led you here."
  
  Sophia looks away from the man's stare. He almost seems too excited to point out such a fact. Reginald is not wrong at all. There were times she looked at the mirror that she saw faces of those whose lives were extinguished in which she was either directly responsible for, or played a part in. It wasn't something she enjoyed, but that still did little to change the reality of the fact that the blood at her feet almost made it too difficult to walk.
  
  "You're suffering. I can tell. I have a proposition for you. Become my woman and you won't have to walk this bloody path any longer. Forget about staining your hands with even more of your siblings blood. You can even return to your life of old, with even more comforts than you've had before. It's either that, or rot in a cell."
  
  Sophia Nevermore's choices were laid out to her, as heavy and as suffocating as they were.
  
  > accept the 'deal'
  It's a feeling of great hate towards her own self that Sophia finds herself seriously contemplating this old man's offer. Perhaps they were one in the same in ways. Nothing he said was too far off from the truth, and Sophia Nevermore was beginning to find herself tired of this path. There were still more siblings she would have to confront if she wanted a grasp on what really happened those two years ago. Did she even have enough strength to hear what the truth was? If it's something that her father was worth being killed over, did he in fact do something that warranted, from his own children at that?
  
  She feels like she wants to become sick all over the table sheet.
  
  There's a great period of silence that passes over the table. But the fight seems to leave the young woman's body as she practically deflates in her chair. Sensing this, and ever the experienced king that he was, Reginald directs his men to take the knights that had accompanied Sophia out of the room to their many protest. The 'queen' just sits in her seat, and doesn't say a word to stop such a thing from occurring. Fighting, she was tired of having to fight any longer. Her eyes feel heavy and dead as she stares at the wall, hoping to trade places with it.
  
  The feeling increases ten-fold as she feels the hand over her own.
  
  "It doesn't have to be tonight, but eventually, you should become receptive to the idea."
  
  > 'Queen' in Name Alone
  ~Year 23~
  
  Queen in name alone
  
  "It's the Queen! Make way! Make way!"
  
  Sophia finds it hard to walk and move out of the carriage.
  
  Her stomach had gotten so much bigger. Could her small frame even handle such a thing for a third time? She wonders this to herself as she's supported by knights with the Holt insignia. Although she very much had her own kingdom to run, whenever the king of the Holts called upon her presence, she nearly had to drop everything and come running.
  
  She honestly didn't feel like had much in terms of power at times. She was a queen of the Nevermore family, right?
  
  Sophia is led throughout the halls and she sees several portraits of dignified men. Her body lingers on a picture of a certain boy with blonde hair, and eyes that were blue, but a different shade from hers. Oh, she noticed that the color of his hair was also a different shade than hers as well.
  
  Honestly, she would feel slightly odd looking at someone romantically whose features were so very similar to her own. That's why, this arrangement wasn't bad.
  
  Although she didn't see much of her friends like she used to, this arrangement wasn't bad. Sophia never had to lift another hand and take another life ever again.
  
  That was really all she wanted.
  
  Any indignity she would have to face, it was well worth it.
  
  "Ah!" She suddenly feels a kick to her stomach, and it catches her off guard. Fortunately, the father is quick to catch her. Even in his rather mature age, he was still quite spunky. The life she lived, it was one that she was content with living. Sophia Nevermore didn't have to think anymore if she ever wanted to.
  
  He smiles at her, and she smiles at him.
  
  The woman's thoughts are happy ones, like an impending date of a wedding. It would be on that day where everything will truly feel complete for her.
  
  It would be the day she could choose to cast away the Nevermore name.
  
  Fin.