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After a few turbulent months of living within the imperial palace walls of Penkos, it nearly feels normal. But you refuse to let yourself fall complacent. You spend days wandering around the grounds, checking for blindspots, and listening to conversations. Some days you take lessons, and others, you can practice fighting with weak wooden swords. Though you're still angry and upset, you start to wonder about your goals and what you will do about your villainous fiancé. She does nothing else than attempting to assimilate you into her Empire and learning about Clarus. She didn't even notify you when she left for business. As you open the door to your class, a familiar voice greets you. Then you remembered. The Engagement ball was coming up.

Hey hey it’s me again! Not tooooo late this time. This is a bit of a longer audio! I originally wanted to do an hour and a half but it seems like I’ll have to write more than 6600 words. Hope you’ll still take about an hour though! We’re back with Princess Seia and her fiance Crown Prince Adept. A few months have passed, and despite still bickering their relationship seems to have calmed down slightly. Princess Seia teaches you very briefly on how to navigate the different houses and their importance for the upcoming ball! Anyway, this is a bit more information-heavy and explores a bit more of their relationship and how it is developing. But anyway! We’re in the holiday season now! I hope everyone is cosying up and chilling out! December can be very stressful so I hope everyone can find some time to relax a little! Art, MP3, MP4, and script will be uploaded within the month! Thank you so much for the support again! Have a cosy day and take care of yourselves!

- Shiaides <3

Comments

Anonymous

(In my imagination) Adept writes, some point after the ball - "If I had been wiser... If I had been wiser and less selfish, I would have called to stop the madness. I wasn't wise... I was blind. Now I'm shackled to a villainess... I am a man, if one can call me a man, with but two choices. End my existance now and set myself free, but condemn my people to slavery, or live as a slave myself, with the slightest hope of winning back my people's freedom from Penkos. I helped sow the wind, I reaped the whirlwind. Now the dark tide rushes over Clarus. Can I now stem that dark tide before it dooms those I swore to protect?" Supposing Seia or Theina read this, what might they each say to Adept?

shiaides

Seia’s response: I believe you continue to misunderstand me. But that is only reasonable. It has been short amount of time. It is true you are in an unwanted arrangement. However, that is beyond discussion at this point. Now, if you choose to die or flee to live in obscurity, indeed you condemn Clarus to a dark fate. You claim your people have no freedom, and will be slaves…which is a ridiculous statement. Lest you forget it was your step-mother who attacked her own people. Who attempted to claim Attican land and people as her own. Lest you forget how we have upheld the peace treaties for hundreds of years. It’s as if your prejudice continues to cloud your judgement. What did you think would happen to Clarus after it lost? Who would be there to feed your people, to fix your infrastructure after the war? It is Penkos and Atticus. After occupation when it is deemed repaired enough for Clarus to function without assistance, our military forces will leave. However, without you as head of the state…it will fall to the Council of Elders. Though we have made precautions through certain policies, I have no doubt they will choose to abuse their powers. They have already begun underhanded methods to bring the people under their control. Your path to the throne remains open. Simply because of this marriage and because of how Penkos and Atticus has vouched for you. Your claim to innocence is that you were betrayed by your step-mother. The very stepmother who “blackmailed” the council into giving her troops. Manipulated into believing the worst for your people unless Penkos could be weakened. It is up to you to reclaim your throne in the next few years, and to lead Clarus into a state of peace and prosperity. Indeed you swore to protect your people. You may call me a villainess for what I have done and how I have treated you. But your unyielding stubbornness is what will destroy your people.

shiaides

Theina’s response: Adept…you disappoint me. I want to be kind, but I must also be frank. Perhaps…you are still blind. It is within your right to be angry, to be saddened, to sulk. The living have a right to. It is nature to feel these emotions. But you continue to make the same mistakes. Over and over again. Believing in the worst when things don’t go your way. I just wish you could question things. Instead of going blindly by instinct. When I married Livius, it was for love. For my own freedom. Yet you believed I would be abused, hurt. That I was your stolen possession. But that was not how it was at all. Here again, you believe that Penkos has the worst intentions of taking your land, simply because you exist here, engaged to Seia. Yet you forget…it was your country who attempted to hurt both Atticus and Penkos first. When I arrived in Penkos with my mother all those years ago. It was to discuss the Clauran troops that encroached upon our land, on Wyrtroot Island. Which had long been Attican territory. The conquest of any territory had not been done since Great grandmothers time. A long standing treaty between the three regions. It hurts me to know you were manipulated by your step-mother. I have the utmost sympathy. I always have for what your home life was. You know it from our years of friendship. Yet…your continual blame of this country that is now my home…it is difficult for me to watch. Indeed you are given two choices. One is to either forfeit your life, and to give up. Which I do not wish to see. As your friend I would never wish that upon you. But, the other is to live and use this chance for the better. For once…perhaps it is time for you to think, question and listen to yourself. Use what is an opportunity for yourself as I once did to secure my freedom of choice. The wind has faith, and so do I. You will what is right for the people of Clarus and what is right for you.

Anonymous

Adept continues - "Theina is right, as she so often is. She and my sister were the only dim candle lights of hope I had. Then Livius seemed to snuff that light out. I forgot that she's a person and that if she was unhappy with Livius, I may well have been the first person she would come to for help, if she needed it. Instead, I treated her like a "stolen possession" as she put it with tragic accuracy. I think, perhaps, being shown no kindness by almost anyone made me overvalue Theina. She seemed like the most incredible person simply because she was the only one who was kind to me. One could say I was greedy for Theina, but is one who is starving greedy for stealing food? Greedy? I cannot agree. Desperate to the point of stupidity? Absolutely. What have I done? I condemned so many to death for my own delusions! Miro, that witch, preyed upon me in my state of weakness and I failed to stop the spiral! All to wage an unjustified and unnecessary war of conquest! If I saw her tomorrow, the lingering death I would dispense would be too horrible to write. If Theina doesn't hate me for how I reacted, she should. Maybe she should kill me... How fitting it would be... Seeing her and Livius so happy together was both a relief and like knife in the back. I don't know what to feel anymore. Either way, I think I will leave her in peace now. I tried to rob her of her choices before. I won't make that mistake twice. I'll let her come to me, if she chooses. As for Seia, I still don't know where I can afford to stand with her. I have been subject to manipulation for far too much of my life. I have no way of knowing where to draw a line between a genuine truth and an unaltruistic lie. She and Theina promise me over and over that Penkos and Atticus simply wish to rebuild Clarus and create peace. I'll hold them to that promise for now, but Seia must understand that I will not be an obedient stooge. I did not recognise one manipulator only to trade her for another. I will be a Claran King, not a Penkosian puppet. I hope I am wrong, and Seia's seeming kindness is genuine. She has lived through much of what I have. However, while the people might bend, at least for a time, they will not break. For they are Claran. If the Penkosians do show any sign of tightening the noose, they will be disappointed at the outcome, and I will do all I can in aiding the people's fight if the need arises. Clarans have faced down darkness in the past, and we have defeated it as well. It is merely a question of whether those alive today will see it, but, of the end result, however long it takes, I am sure of that. Regardless of whether or not Clarus will be truly independent, all Clarans have right now is the shame and humiliation of defeat. What will Clarans have to be proud of? I will have my work cut out for me. Theina's heart belongs to Livius and his to her, I've accepted that despite how painful it is. I don't know what Seia makes of our engagement or what she plans to do if she finds love of her own. Nobody wants my heart. In giving up Theina and being unwillingly bound to Seia, I must abandon love completely. There is no love. Only pain. Theina says I should use my "opportunity" to "secure [my] freedom of choice". She compared it with her marriage to Livius. She did that out of choice and because she loved him. I have no choices any longer. Seia tells me that I am not barred from love, but I have been made to marry her! I don't imagine she endorses infidelity. Unless I can divorce or avoid the marriage in the first place, I will find no love. Seia may just be my puppet master, and as long as I am alive she will be breathing down my neck. Even if not, I will be stuck in a loveless marriage, unable to find love of my own. I will have no happiness. The best I can hope for is that she doesn't stoop to Queen Despina's level. I must err on the side of caution. Even if I have misjudged her, or somehow she leaves the picture, my shame will haunt me forever. I may succeed in rebuilding Clarus and regaining my people's freedom from tyrants at home and abroad, but I will never find joy. I will never find peace. I will not be missed when I plunge a dagger through my heart. Clarus is in desperate need of reform. Perhaps a route to democracy is worth pursuing. No monarch could abuse their powers unchecked and in being chosen by the people, it would help minimise the risk of both an oligarchy under the foot of that insufferable elder council, and a Penkosian puppet state. Perhaps once the Council of Elders is out of picture, and I can be sure of Clarus' future and the independence of its government, then I can die. If I can get rid of the council, maybe the engagement to Seia will become obsolete and will be broken off. If so, there may be some hope after all. Of course, that is very optimistic. It's likely that a transition to democracy will take years. It also poses obvious risks, not least such an institution being hijacked. The system will not be perfect. It will need time to be refined and improved. Once it is, though maybe I can find some means to divorce Seia. Assuming my sister is alive, then I can find some peace again. If she is gone, then I have nothing to live for. Death will be all that remains. I prey that my little angel of a sister still lives. I can only hope that she is well. I cannot bare to think of her in those war ravaged wastelands, alone and terrified. We may be the only spark of hope for both our futures we have left. If she has also been lost, then I have almost no hope. Unloved, manipulated, alone, and constantly on alert for any sign that I am being used again, I fear I will go mad. I have got to keep my wits about me, yet I can trust no one. I must move on alone." Again, I wonder what Theina and Seia would make of this entry. I'll see what you have to say and leave it at that. I don't want to keep bothering you with these. I might add a journal entry or something like that on each new part or mini roleplay related to the Penkos-Clarus war and events after, just for fun. I look forward to the rest.

Anonymous

Best one (yet) of the series!