Broken: Day 15

Word Total: 90,010

Year to Date: 690,060

Summary of Events:

Arina watched as Emil duelled King Sevastian and Samuil duelled Anastasia and pondered using her magical abilities to stop the fighting even though it might kill her to do so. Samuil transported her, Emil, and himself to the lake as dawn neared and they discovered it was still possible to break the spell. Unfortunately King Sevastian and Anastasia transported to the lake and the fighting resumed until Arina decided to use her abilities to stop the fighting, weakening her greatly. Emil tried to help her, but she'd knocked Samuil and Anastasia unconscious and Emil couldn't revive them; he got a charodei to come after she fell unconscious and learned that she could not be helped and would die shortly. Emil succeeded in breaking the spell as she died before ordering King Sevastian killed, lest he kill himself. Once this was all over Samuil regained consciousness and realised that Arina was dead . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Samuil walked around Sevastian and Arina to kneel beside Emil. He tried to pull Emil into an embrace, but Emil resisted, so Samuil just left his arm loosely draped across Emil's shoulders.

"I'm sorry Emil," Samuil whispered. "If I could I would do something. Anything."

"It wouldn't help," Emil replied.

"That we could've hidden our plans from them and succeeded without all this fighting, all this death," Samuil said.

"It is useless to think of such things now," Emil said.

"At least we succeeded in breaking the spell," Samuil said.

"For what purpose?" Emil asked. "It was useless, it was pointless."

"Was it?" Samuil asked.

"Arina is dead!" Emil cried.

"I know," Samuil replied. "But are you sure that all of this was a waste? Was it not a good thing that you were able to find a woman whom you loved?"

"Only to have her robbed from me?" Emil asked. "I would rather never have found a woman to love than to suffer this!"

"Surely there is another woman who can bring you comfort," Samuil said.

"No," Emil replied.

"You did not believe you would even find Arina," Samuil said. "Surely she could not have been the only woman in the world whom you could love. Surely there is another woman who would even be able to solace you in this time of grief."

"I don't care if there is," Emil replied. "I will not seek her out. I will not seek any woman to love. I will not marry no matter how much it would mean to Matushka to have grandchildren. I cannot stand to have this happen again."

"Surely it wouldn't," Samuil said.

"Of course it would!" Emil cried. "It's happened every time! Every time I love someone they are taken from me! I will not doom another woman to suffer this end because I loved her!"

Samuil sighed, but said nothing. Emil put his face into his hands and sobbed. Hardly a week he'd known Arina, and although he'd given her so much hope, he had also crushed it completely.

Oh that he could have known her for a month! That he could've been the one who died instead of her! That she would not have had the secondary curse caused by her parentage!

Emil wished that he never would've met Arina, not because he wouldn't have loved her, but because of the fact that his meeting her had brought about her demise. It was not Sevastian's fault she had died, as much as he'd felt vindicated to blame the man for it. It was his fault she had died.

If he wouldn't have met her none of this would have happened. If he wouldn't have sought the spell to be broken she wouldn't have been broken. He wouldn't have been broken.

That he would've left well enough alone. That he would never have greedily pursued the better swan. But naught could be undone now; it could only remain as it was: irreparably broken.

Next Post: September 29