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“How could I abandon my children?”
They had kept hidden, sliding against one another beneath the Earth’s surface for some time. Then: the seismic waves came crashing, they re-emerged from the soil once more preparing to coat this world in red—then the next, then the next.
The last chain that holds the Scarlet King—his avatar—fast is brittle and rusty, threatening to snap at any moment.
This material world is infected. It has been for a long time; maggots crawl and dig into its rotten surface, bedecked with the stinking larvae of flies. They took his greatest servant, his avatar, and thought to chain him down. He stirs on a plane of red—languishing, writhing, lying in wait for when he can raze his new kingdom to ash and grow brilliant red flowers from it anew. Blood shall water their new soil.
He feels naught but sorrow. His children…
They have been waiting for him for what is only a blink in his incorporeal eye, but must be thousands of years in theirs. They have tried to keep track of his absence with shadows cast upon sun dials and grandfather clocks. But, he thinks, time cannot be contained. Time does not ebb and flow for you as it does I.
And he abandoned them when this world was all but rot, before they carefully began to sculpt the earth into a kingdom befitting his rank.
From their ranks they plucked out beautiful brides for him to wed, to bear his children—in a ritual that sealed them as his and his alone. Every wandering hand and incantation they recited so as to bless his brides with life that should inherit the world in his absence. Souls stuffed into the most flawless mortal shells, all for the Scarlet King.
They have nearly succeeded.
His first bride brought forth a conquest.
His second bride tried to rebel against his will.
His third bride drew her last breath in longing.
His fourth bride tried to trick him.
His fifth bride displayed her loyalty.
His sixth bride tried to return to his arms.
Only the last and seventh bride of his remains—she, like his avatar, remains chained. She is a hostage by another kingdom, their joyful reunion kept at bay.
I am sorry for abandoning you in the dust, my children, One day I shall return home.
The Scarlet King sits bathed in red, eager to take his throne.
He waits for the day the last chain breaks.