Matrimony and Mayhem

                                    

                                          
~Valarendrik~
                          
The wailing ocean waves crashed against sharp yet weathered stones just below my gloomy bedroom balcony, while I sat at a ghoulish vanity, staring vacantly at my reflection. The corpsen hands of a timid servant girl gently wove a few small braids on either side of my head, pulling my hair back into a regal, high-set, half-up fashion. Blackened skulls and other bones lined the looking glass which I gazed into, framing my melancholic expression. 
                          
It was strange how the last time I had actually glimpsed my own face in a mirror was the last time I was supposed to be wed. I no longer resembled the shy and timid corpsen prince I remembered, but instead, I looked much stronger and more kingly. I looked alive.
                          
"Is it to your liking, Your Highness?" The servent slightly bowed as she respectfully spoke, referring to my hairstyle. The hem of her plain black dress swept against the black stone floor, with a few dark strands falling from her swirled-up bun.
                          
"Yes, that will do." I kindly responded without actually glancing at my hair. My claws nervously tapped against my bouncing knee and crimson mist swirled along the unchained enchanted shackles around my wrists, as concerns much greater than my hairstyle plagued my mind. "You are dismissed."
                          
She politely bowed, then turned to leave without another word. The clicking of her footsteps softly faded into the distance as I blankly sat there, having an internal existential crisis. The haunting visions from the void replayed over and over again in my mind. So much had been revealed in such a short amount of time and my views of the world and myself would never be the same again. 
                          
I abruptly stood and swiftly stalked through the intricately carved archway which led to my balcony. My regal cape of soul silk fluttered out behind me while the spiked obsidian armor I wore rested heavily upon my shoulders like the weight of grief. The sea winds keened across the restless opaque waters, not dissimilar to my unquiet soul as I gazed out to the very place within the waves where I had seen the serpent arise many times. 
                          
Seaspray lightly misted my stoic face as feelings I had never felt before for the slumbering water beast began to stir. I had spent most of my life loathing the dreadful serpent for taking my brother from me. Blaming it for my accursed claim to the throne. For the abhorrent crown embedded within my skull. But now I felt compassion for the beast, for he was just as much of a victim of this cruel world as I was.
                          
What would happen if I returned the orb to him? 
                          
"Don't you dare even think about it!" The crown angrily screeched. "He is too lost to insanity and will devour you if you try!" I mentally brushed the crown's voice away, preferring to watch as a slimy black tentacle rose above the water and swiftly wrapped around a low flying winged creature, slurping it down beneath the waves.
                          
I thought deeper about the tenverian people whom I once considered mere myiasis to this kingdom. I knew now that it was not their fault they were so lost to such depravity and aischrolatreia. The light within their souls had been extinguished by corruption, stolen from them by the degeneracy of the alien and parasitic lloigors. A frown fell across my lips. I suddenly longed to help them, but as far as I knew, there was no cure for corruption. They were likely unredeemable.
                          
My heart broke as my thoughts drifted to the living world of light that my soul had come from. I had so many questions about it and myself, yet I knew that they could never be answered. That world was long gone, and all its knowledge was forever lost. I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep unneeded breath, cherishing the one small glimpse I had been given of my soul's true homeworld.
                          
...I will likely never even know the name of it.
                          
My eyes reopened as I slowly exhaled. After one last glance over the ocean, I turned and wandered back into my room, with my spiky armored boots clacking heavily against the floor. Despite all of my life-changing revelations, Lucilia and our unborn child's wellbeing remained the most important thing which weighed heavily upon my thoughts. And although losing them would completely break my heart and shatter my soul, I had to ensure that they were safe from this world. They were much more important than my own happiness. They had to go back to earth.