Kane came to a stop, seeing a glimpse of the small village far ahead he could not help but wonder, it had been so long since he had a place to rest. He had walked miles, seen shelters, and even escaped checkpoints, but today he might have just seen a place to finally rest from the trouble of the last three years. The village looked remote, it looked like a place he heard of only in stories, a rest haven for runners like him. Thinking back, he never knew he could ever reach such a place, he never knew that life would bring him here. He thought back to the time when he was still the Lord of a castle with servants and soldiers doing his biddens. He thought back to the time when the empire bowed before him not just because of his wealth, but for his power and might. He thought back to how life was, even with the politics of the empire, his life was not simple, but it was stable. It was stable enough to feed an entire city which he did since he became the Lord of Westgate, the greatest city in Avalon.
Kane remembered how his brother had betrayed him, the look in his brother’s eyes when he was sent to prison for conspiracy against the empire. He was the greatest Lord in Avalon, but against the Empire, even he had to bow. He controlled the Empire's military, making him one of the only few Noble with Military experiences. Trusted not just because of his fighting skills, but because of his mind for war and his strategic thinking was second to Non. He never lost a single war until his brother betrayed him for power. Even with his great mind, this was one thing he never saw coming. He could read people's minds in warfare, see through enemy strategy but never a betrayal from the person he called brother. His heart broke not because of the betrayal but because for the first time in his life, he missed a variable and now it had made him a rolling stone that gathers no moss. But now looking at the little village and thinking about everything he had to endure to get to where he was, he could only smile because at the end of the day, he would now be safe.
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Moving forward although the village was still far off, he could feel the peace he was searching for all along. He could feel the joy of wanting a place to rest his head. After what looked like forever under the hot scuttling sun of the desert, it was almost a full day, but he was finally close. He could make out figures through his blurry vision. At first they were two, then three, and then he saw five, when he blinked he realized that they were not just people, they were strong, or rather they looked strong. Stronger than ordinary soldiers. When he came closer, the faces began to look familiar. They were warriors, not just any warriors, the ones the empire thought were dead. The warriors of legends. Speechless, he just stared looking at them. But there was a problem, their stance was off, it was not the stance you give to welcome someone, it was the stance soldiers took to send a person away and from his years of giving commands he recognized it.
Looking at them and wondering, one of the warriors began to explain. He was not seeing ghosts, they were warriors lost to time, a lot of them did not end well, they had something in common, they were all warriors that were betrayed by those they held dear. But looking at them, Kane also recognized something, their eyes did not speak of pain, in fact, it spoke peace. The kind of peace he had been searching for years. The fact that they had gone through the betrayal he went through and looked like that made one thing clear, for him to enter the village he needed to forgive his brother. And so he did. With tears in his eyes, Kane looked up to the heavens and shouted in a loud voice. “Brother, I forgive you”. Immediately All the warriors began to fade and when he looked at himself, he was also fading. The only thing he saw was a white light, and then paradise. It was a paradise of warriors. Looking at the environment he saw the five warriors he had met earlier and seeing his confusion, they began to explain. That was a land of warriors, and only through warriors could enter, but entering came at a cost, he had to let go of the pain. If he had let go earlier, he would have entered immediately when he saw the Village from Afar.
THIS IS MY ENTRY INTO THE INKWELL COMBINED WRITING PROMPT #50
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