Legacy

The soft cries of a baby echo through the empty palace halls. A new life has just been brought into the world, a life that would end moments later if action was not taken.

"Where is Andraos? Where is my husband?" The mother of the baby went into a frantic state. "Bring him to me now!"

"My Lady, you must remain calm. The King is outside defending the city, he cannot be here right now," a midwife shouted, holding the mother of the child to her medical bed.

The midwife, however, knew what fate was laid for the King for she had enacted it herself. In a swift moment, she pulled a knife from her stockings and stabbed the mother through chest. The midwife was quickly restrained by nearby guards, but it was all for naught, the mother was already going to die. In her final moments, she kissed her child on its cheek and left the baby in the care of the one person she trusted most, her own slave. The slave girl, although young, just barely over 16 years of age, immediately understood her responsibility. She grabbed the child and left the palace, avoiding enemy detection.

Silenced screams began to pierce the silence that was left in the room after the slave girl's departure. Each and every person in that room knew what they had to do. The nation was lost and prisoners were not to be taken. Only torture and slavery remained for them as long as they lived. So, they enacted their final duty. They would not allow themselves to fall to the enemy and be humiliated. Each took a vial of poison that they all kept on their person's in case of emergency and drank it. One by one, bodies dropped onto the floor. Their duty has been met, their orders followed to the very end.

The slave girl continued to run. She stopped not for injured civilians nor enemy soldiers. Run. Run. Run. This thought boomed through her mind as escape was the only thing she could do.

"How could I take care of this child? It is not much younger than I!" Doubts flooded the mind of the slave.

"Stop. These thoughts are for later," she muttered to herself, desperately trying to keep calm.

As she finally escaped the city through a newly formed crack in the outer wall, she turned back to see the palace ablaze. As she saw her old life burn to ash, her gaze then turned to the child in her arms. She was free now. No more masters. No more chains. Traitorous thoughts festered in her mind. She began to set the child on the ground, fully prepared to abandon it, yet as she lowered the child to the soil, she found her hands could not let go. A smile flashed through her mind, as if the smile she had just seen yesterday was now a distant memory. She resolved herself, preparing her iron will. She would raise this child, even if it killed her.

As the morning sun began to rise on the flaming city, the child's first night of life had been completed. Even though tears wailed through its face when it was first born, no more crying could be heard, almost as if the child had resolved itself too.

As the two set out, the slave girl took one final, long glimpse at the city. Though the fire was raging and screams were still crackling from within the city, the girl began to feel hope. Hope that the child in her arms would one day return and claim what is rightfully its from those who pretend it is theirs'.