"Mercy?" Anastasia raised her eyebrow. "I don't know."

She was so vague. "Yes Anastasia, you won't show me any mercy?" 

"Mercy. It's a strange word Aed Ruad," she said and started circling him. "I begged you for it once. But you shackled my broken wings." She looked at his wings. "Now I have done the same to you—broke your wings." She gave him a sinister smile. It was so different from the sweet, polite, soft smiles she usually gave. It was more of a lethal one. "You hated me. I hate you." 

Wisps of black smoke lifted from his pooled blood. They rose up in the air and then disappeared leaving a sanguine smell mixed with copper and tar. He could feel numerous cracks and voids in his body and it felt horrible. "You were so compassionate, Anastasia," he said in a jittery voice. "You are now tainted." 

"Oh, dear God. I always thought that I was out of depth with you, but now I recognize that you were out of your depth… always, in that world of yours… which was filled with hate and torture and murder. No wonder you wanted Maple, no wonder you wanted the throne of Vilinski even if that meant killing and destroying lives." 

Circling, circling, circling. 

"I am tainted?" she smirked. "If I am, then I love the color of my contamination."

Aed Ruad looked at Ileus who was still sitting very quietly, watching him like a hawk, watching her like a protector. "He is a sly wolf, Anastasia," Aed Ruad continued. "He is making you do all this. He wants you to go against me. But look at me," he urged through his pain, through the dizziness that he felt as his magic vanished slowly. "Look at me, Anastasia." She stopped, cocked her head and looked at him. And now that he had her attention, he said, "I am your cousin brother. Your father and my mother were related by blood. They were real brother and sister. We are first cousins. If there is one person who would always think of your good, that is me. The past—it was what my mother painted for us. But let's start a new future. I know you are somewhere in there. This demon—this demon in you is planted by the dark wizard who is now your husband. I would rather say that the demon in you is the wizardry of the dark prince, who is sitting across and looking at the two us while laughing in his head." He tried to get up and weakly supported himself on his elbows. He pointed to Ileus. "Can't you reason how he had been trying to destroy our lives? You and I would have ruled the kingdom of Vilinski, had it not been for his intervention! We would have been there sitting harmoniously." 

"Harmoniously?" Anastasia's eyes became wide. "What does that word mean?" She started circling him again. 

Aed Ruad closed his eyes to take a deep breath in. The poison, the stabbing in the wings—it was all taking effect on his cognitive thinking. But he had to focus and wriggle his way out of the situation with his words because physically, he was at her mercy. He conjured whatever little magic was left in him. He summoned it to help him. "You know Anastasia, after the marriage with you, I would have gifted you so much wealth, I would have ruled the fae kingdom by your side with dedication. I would have been your dedicated husband and allowed you to rule as my equal. That is what I meant by 'harmoniously'. And you know that I mean it." The little magic that was in him rose to his chest. It hummed weakly over there, as if waiting for its master to use it. He called for more and in the meanwhile he had to befool her. His eyes were wide and soft and slightly squinted like that of a lost puppy. "After our ascension to the throne, I was going to let my mother know of my intentions. Trust me." He let his magic wait for his instructions. 

"Wow!" Anastasia said. "Just wow!" She stood behind in front of his feet and peered in his eyes. "Aren't you the vilest, creepiest, most poisonous of all? You wanted to mend my life after marriage?" 

He nodded and summoned his magic to his feet to lash at her sword that was standing on the ground on its tip with her hand on its hilt. If only he could destroy it…

"Who stopped you to mend it before marriage? And it is Ileus who is tricking me?" She raised her sword again. 

Fuck. He called his magic to lash at her feet at the right moment. 

Her chin dipped, her voice guttural, she said, "But why do I feel that it is you who is using every bit of a lie to get out of this situation. You bloody pathetic pig! You wanted to gift me the wealth that you stole from me? You wanted to rule the kingdom with me that you stole from my parents? That was your dedication?" She shook her head. "Look at yourself, you son of a bitch, shithead, asshole!" 

Aed Ruad started shaking. "No, no, no. Anastasia. Please listen to me." His eyes went to the symbols on the sword that danced crazily, as if out of blood lust. "You misinterpreted me!" He called his magic. "Now!" 

Anastasia brought her sword down and stabbed it through his ankle. Blood sprayed when she took it out from there, it was covered with pieces of flesh, blood and splinters of bone. As the blood flowed out, the magic disappeared in wisps of black smoke. 

"Ahhhhh!" Aed Ruad shouted and fell on the floor, his head thrashing in his own blood. The pain of his injuries increased. He was drowned in excruciating pain. "Have mercy," he said in a hoarse voice that didn't sound like his own. He didn't expect that she would stab him in the feet. He didn't expect that his magic would be wasted so easily. He cried. "You bitch! You fucking bitch!" The pain in his ankle was unforgiving. With little energy that he was left with, he got on his elbows again and scrambled away from her, dragging his injured wings and legs along. He tried to find a wall for support, but it seemed that he was in the middle of a big room—a room he didn't recognize. As he dragged himself away, Anastasia followed him slowly, taking one step at a time. She looked at him with her chin dipped like a feral tigress as she wiped the sword on her gown. Her wings susurrated behind her in tension, in a sinister way. She looked like a… deity. But he had to distance himself from her. He had to get away from that sword. It was draining him out both emotionally and physically. He didn't know what else to do to stop this insane woman. "You've gone mad in your revenge, Anastasia!" he managed to whisper. "You don't know what you are doing!" 

"Haven't we all gone mad once in our lifetime?" she countered. "Haven't we tried to make others a victim of our madness once in our lifetime?" 

And Ruad paled. He knew what she meant. 

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