"Life, without love? Is that really living?
Or is that just existing?"
đŹ The Question
Sapphrine paced back and forth in her chambers, desperation clawing at her heart. Outside, the screams of her people echoed through the night. Daemons were attacking. With each guardian that died, a new daemon was bornâmultiplying their forces exponentially.
Her husband, Clandareth, had fallen to Eldritch corruption. The Guardian King was on a rampage, tormenting the entire kingdom. Her son Darth stood accused of massacres. Everything was collapsing.
She went to the only one who might have answers.
Sapphrine: "But Renaldo! He is my son! I think he is innocent. He could not have possibly killed all of those children!"
Renaldo: "Lance saw him do it, Sapphrine."
Sapphrine: "I do not care. I can not and will not kill him."
Renaldo's sapphire eyes bore into her soul.
Renaldo: "And what about Clandareth? He is on a rampage tormenting your entire kingdom. They will fall if you do not act."
She hung her head. She knew he was right.
Sapphrine: "Fine. What can counter Chaos?"
Renaldo: "Well, things naturally go to chaos, so you must find a way to obtain enough energy to power enough Order to overcome his barrier."
A wild expression came into his eyes.
Renaldo: "You swear by the power of love? Why not create something with that?"
He handed her a book and walked out without another word.
đŽ The Ritual
Sapphrine looked down at the book in her hands and let out the deepest sigh. A scream tore through the nightâanother daemon attack, another death.
She rushed to her window. Outside, daemons were slaughtering her people in the streets.
She growled and ran to her alchemist desk. Her hands shook as she flipped through her index, searching for the spell she needed. In her drawer, she found her crystal ballâclear, perfect, waiting.
She placed it on the table. Her eyes scanned the book. She began the incantation.
Her eyes began to water. Her hands began to sweat. She placed her palms on the crystal as she finished the last words of the spell.
A wispy smoke rose from her chest and swirled into a face before her.
"Are you sure you want to sacrifice your love to save your people?"
Sapphrine's voice was steel.
"If I do not save my people, how can I love them?"
Fair enough, it whispered.
The smoke floated into the crystal ball.
A flash of intense energy ruptured from the crystal and cast all the daemons out of her lands.
Sapphrine fainted.
đ The Morning After
She woke a day later. Her King sat beside her bed.
Clandareth: "My love, what did you do to keep the daemons at bay?"
She looked away. Looked back slowly. Something felt... different. Empty.
Sapphrine: "IâI sacrificed my love."
Clandareth: "I am confused. What do you mean?"
She pointed to the table. There sat a glowing orb of powerâpulsing with the essence of love she had extracted from her own soul.
Sapphrine: "I mean I sacrificed my love. My ability to feel love. To save my people."
Confusion deepened on his face. Clandareth walked over to the orb. He picked it up.
â ď¸ The Death of the King
When his warm hand touched the glowing sphere, his eyes flashed.
Then went dull.
The orb absorbed his ability to love as well.
But his eyes did something hers did not.
They turned red.
His confusion hardened into an icy glare. The Eldritch corruption was complete.
Clandareth: "I shall take this."
He turned to leave. But as he walked further and further from Sapphrine, the orb glowed hotter and hotter in his hand.
Until it burst into flames.
He dropped it, wrapped his hand with his cloak to suffocate the fire. But the flames did not go out. Instead, they consumed his entire body.
Sapphrine sat up in her bed and watchedâemotionless, unfeelingâas her husband turned to ash.
The last of his body's charred flesh fell to the pile of dust below.
A daemon hissed at her from the ashesâClandareth's corrupted soul, now fully transformed.
The orb flashed and forced him out of her lands.
She felt nothing. No grief. No horror. No loss.
Only cold, calculating purpose.
âď¸ The Grand Keeper's Staff
Ratallian, one of her most loyal guardians, scowled at the scene.
Ratallian: "My Queen, it looks as if your husband had already crossed over."
He bowed.
Ratallian: "I will gladly sacrifice my love for our people too."
He walked over and picked up the orb. It flashed again. His eyes did not turn redâhe was not corrupted like the King. They went to an ashy stardust grey, like his Queen's.
Sapphrine sighed.
Sapphrine: "We must gather everyone so we can have the power to cast the daemons out of all of our lands."
She paused, her grey eyes cold and empty.
Sapphrine: "And I must kill my son. He will be tainted by his father's influence as well."
Ratallian nodded.
Sapphrine: "Ratallian, let us take this crystal ball and mount it to my staff. It shall forevermore be referred to as The Grand Keeper's Staff."
đĽ The Public Sacrifice
Sapphrine stood before her people, the Grand Keeper's Staff glowing in her hand. Citizens of Laderan filled the square, fear and desperation in their eyes.
Sapphrine: "My people! I need your help to save our lands from the dark one! To do this, I need you all to come touch my staff and yield your emotions to power the barrier so it can extend beyond our city walls."
One by one, her people came. One by one, they touched the staff. One by one, their eyes turned to ashy stardust grey.
Love. Joy. Sorrow. Compassion. Fear. Hope.
All of it, sacrificed. All of it, absorbed into the Grand Keeper's Staff to power the barrier against the daemons.
Sometimes fighting for what is right makes you become part of the Fallen.
The Guardian Queen saved her people.
But the cost was everything that made them human.