RuneScape Forum Archive | ~~Brotherly Love~~

Englishkid62

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Edward smiled to himself as a squire approached, reluctantly, and informed him that the King requested his audience immediately in the dining hall. It was probable that the King would now share the dealings he has had with King Vallance on the night before, particularly concerning Jasmine. There would be a summary on what was said and what he expected Edward to do – it was all routine now, every time after a visit. The time wasn’t right yet, Edward thought, to reveal to his father of his intentions, of himself, and that he would never be interested in her, or any woman. Until then, he would play along and let his father believe what he wanted to believe. It was for the best.

He liked to imagine that, despite his intention to come out, he had plenty of time. He would take things slowly, one small step at a time, and spare his family one violent shock. Although the idea pained him, it might be easier if he kept the secret until his parents have passed away. That way they would never need to know. He knew he wasn’t invincible yet, and if his father knew, he could still be stripped of his title and exiled from the palace. He would never be able to see his family again. He would live, but he would miss them greatly. If he couldn’t have both, he would choose Tyler and forget that he was a prince. Before him lay a treacherous path, should he decide to drop the pretence, the mask he was forced to wear. But were these thoughts and predictions too negative and grim to be Edward’s? Was there a taint of his brother’s melancholy? Of course, there might be positive outcomes should he told his father the truth…

At last he reached the hall and on one side Tyler was shaking, visibly upset, not willing to meet his gaze. Queen Tanya was staring into space and Ronny sat on a chair, looking happy and without guile.

‘You sent for me, Father?’

19-Aug-2010 16:19:11 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:21:15 by Englishkid62

Englishkid62

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‘What is it that I hear between you and him?’ the King demanded, pointing at Tyler who kept looking at his feet. Edward stared at the kitchen boy in disbelief. Did he betray him? How could his father possibly find out? Tyler must have told him, or leaked a couple of hints to the other servants who then passed the word around, or worse, he might have made comments about his performance in bed. What a cruel joke. Edward could of course lie and save himself, push the kitchen boy away, lose him forever, save his own face and reputation. Then Tyler would be punished, in what way Edward wasn’t sure. The King could do anything in his fury. Either path would break his heart.

‘He is my boyfriend, Father,’ Edward said, bravely. He would save Tyler from his father’s wrath. He would never let him go.

The King closed his eyes and fell silent. ‘So your brother was right, then.’

Ronny? What has Ronny got to do with this? How did he find out? How dared he? It would appear then, that Tyler was also a victim and he played no part. If he had lied earlier… All sorts of questions danced in his mind, but somehow he knew he would never know why his brother did this to him. At this moment, his eyes met Ronny’s and through the frail connection established in that split second he sent his resentment and spite. Ronny averted his gaze quickly.

‘It is not right, Edward,’ the King said calmly.

‘I love him, and only him, Father.’

The King paused for a moment, shook his head, and said, ‘He…he seduced you, Edward.’

‘No, Father, I seduced him.’

‘You don’t know what you’re saying.’

‘And you do?’

19-Aug-2010 16:19:11 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:22:04 by Englishkid62

Englishkid62

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In fact, the King did believe he understood the situation better than anyone else in the room, even Edward. He was proud of Edward and the bravery it took to admit his feelings, but of all similarities between himself and Edward, there was one he hoped they would not share. The royal family had always some secrets or another and only on his deathbed did the King reveal what he was thinking then, in that dining hall, and what caused him to make the decision afterwards. It was a phase, the King believed, because he’d experienced some of the same feelings in his youth, though with some discouragement from his family the feelings soon subsided and he was ashamed of the things he did, the thoughts he had and the things he wanted to do. It must have been a phase, because for him, it came and went. He knew this wasn’t something that happened to all teenagers, but he dreaded the same to happen to one, if not both of his sons. If there were such feelings at all, it was a phase, because his own experience told him this was so and therefore this must be the case for everyone else too who felt the same, especially Edward because he was his son. It was a phase and it would pass. When Edward announced the news, the King felt he was backed by wisdom of older men, those who had been through the phase and seen the end of it, and Edward must be discouraged from his ignorant convictions.

19-Aug-2010 16:19:12 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:22:33 by Englishkid62

Englishkid62

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It was not illegal for a man to love another man in Misthalin, but it was not respected either. There was an unspoken censorship of the three-letter-word, and if it must be uttered, it would have to be done in hushed voices, or through euphemism. Such feelings were looked down upon, and for the public to have such views, it required the failure of imagination and empathy. Nobody knew what it meant to be Edward at the time – but then nobody knew what it meant to be anyone else. Ultimately, everyone is only truly knowable to themselves. So why judge others with our own standards, when we understand so little about what it means to be a completely different person? It is too pretentious.

Ronny sat back as he watched Edward and his father debate for minutes on end, both too stubborn to back down, both failing to convince the other. The father assumed he knew better and the son retaliated with equal tenacity. As the debate went on, the room temperature rose and no one dared to intervene. Perhaps at this moment Ronny still wondered if he did the right thing. Edward and his father rarely argued. Queen Tanya was lost in her thoughts, and Tyler was still pale and not moving.

Finally, the King had lost it. He ordered, ‘Take him away.’

Two guards went in from behind the door and reluctantly arrested Edward.

‘So be it,’ Edward muttered. To Ronny’s surprise, in his brother’s eyes was not fear or sadness – it was hatred. It was resentment and anger at everything around him in this hall, everything he once loved, believed and stood for, with perhaps Tyler his only exception.

‘No!' came a voice. Queen Tanya was stepping in at last as she saw Edward being led away. Nobody knew exactly how much she understood the situation. Would she come to him if she did? The Queen ran towards her son, trying and failing to yank Edward away from the guards’ unyielding grip.

19-Aug-2010 16:25:55 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:25:44 by Englishkid62

Englishkid62

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‘I’m going to be fine, Mother,’ Edward said, his face expressionless. In fact, he was struggling to believe his own words.

‘No...' the Queen whimpered again, realising Edward was not struggling or resisting the arrest, like he was proud of what he had done.

As the guards led him out of the room, Edward exchanged one last look with his lover, Tyler, on the side. Ronny could not fathom what message it conferred. Perhaps a blessing, wishing him luck, or it might be a look of forgiveness. Queen Tanya was standing still, her shoulders shaking as Edward was led further and further away, out of their sight, out of their lives. Then it was silent again. Nobody wanted to make a noise. It was as though the Queen knew she would never be able to see him again. The King was still to recover his cool and Ronny was trying to absorb the entire event. Finally, it was at this moment when he looked from one face to the next that Ronny realised he alone had made this possible. Without his outburst, his brother would not have been arrested at all. Being thirteen, he was oblivious to the damage he had caused already by the end of that day. He simply didn't know. It wasn’t until years later that he began to grasp the full extent of his crime, his betrayal, and his lack of consideration for others. By then, everything was far too late.

19-Aug-2010 16:25:55 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:25:25 by Englishkid62

Englishkid62

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~Chapter 4

Meat. There was no meat. He hadn’t been given any meat for a few months now, all because of those Saradominist priests and their beliefs that meat stirred up inappropriate thoughts and desires in men. Meat had been the cause of his defect and why imprisonment, along with beating and torturing, had not been as effective as they had hoped. What surprised Edward was that the old King believed those evil cultists. Desperate people would believe anything. Then the order came that he was not to be given any meat, and now he wanted it all the more.

It is funny what religion does to its followers. It allows them to shift the blame, responsibility and explanation to some higher being, and it gives them blind faith that the future would work out just right for them, as long as they believed. With their belief, they can commit atrocities in the name of their god without any conscience or regret, similar to that of a madman, totally convinced they are doing the right thing. They can do frightening things to people, in their god’s name, end lives, and at the end, feel nothing. They do it because their god tells them to and therefore it must be right. The religion stops them questioning their beliefs. Like a disease, the religions spread their beliefs like dark tentacles in the world, using their believers as puppets and instruments against other religions and non-believers. My god is real and yours is not. It is as if they waged war against the rest of humanity and they will not rest until the world is united under one banner, and everyone believes in the one religion, the one denomination. Until then they must keep faith and spread the word. Their goal for a better society is through the unification of all human minds.

19-Aug-2010 16:25:57 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:26:14 by Englishkid62

Englishkid62

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Some religions survive this never-ending war, and some don’t. It depends on their teachings. As long as most of their beliefs and moral values ‘make sense’, people will believe them. The teachings need to tap at the morality already existed within the conscience of mankind. Why else at the heart of all religions is a sense of unity and compassion between its followers? And who will want to believe a religion that encourages killing and nastiness between its followers, unless enforced by fear, or that a relationship between a man and a woman is damned? All religions are just trying to survive, notably by pleasing the majority. The minority, like Edward, should be punished for thinking differently, and he must be broken.

There wasn’t much to do in the cell. Cold, hard concrete walls surrounded him on four sides, one of which had a steel gate where guards would come in twice a day and take him to the toilets, and it was through this gate that vegetarian dishes were delivered each day. It was a filthy cell that measured around ten metres by six, and he had it all to himself. He had long gotten used to the pungent smell coming from beneath (Edward presumed the sewer was leaking). On his side were a straw bed and a wooden stool.

19-Aug-2010 16:25:58 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:26:57 by Englishkid62

Englishkid62

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It was a very quiet cell. Here, at the very top of the prison tower, he could look down through a small opening onto the street and he saw people on the outside carry on without him. The children grew up on that street under his nose, but they never knew he was there watching them. His cell was surrounded by a magical barrier introduced by the priests a few years ago, so no sound could get out. Loneliness and exclusion from the world might help their cause too. All these – the lack of entertainment in the cell, the sound barrier, the meat-free diet and the filthy cell condition – were the priests’ attempts to break him until he confessed his love to a woman, any woman, and they had failed. It had been five years, and he could not be broken, not by them. He was determined to live.

Would Edward have escaped on his own if he wanted to? He could start by answering his father’s letters instead of tearing them, lie his way through, get out of prison, kiss a woman on the lips and later revert back to his old ways when his father was dead. Then he could have his delicious revenge on the priests. He would have to act very convincingly, and first, he would have to break his lover’s heart. Of course, the priests knew that if Edward was ever allowed to be released, their religion, all religions, would be banished from the kingdom as soon as he became king. They would be trying to keep him in. Besides, the King had always taught Edward to stay true to himself, and if there must be a battle, he should win it in an honourable manner. To take the easy way out would have conveyed that he could not endure the trial. He knew he had done nothing wrong and he needn’t apologise or lie to get out. He would be innocent until he ran away. He could sit here until guilt worked its magic. And, most of all, he thought he was enduring this all for Tyler.

19-Aug-2010 16:25:58 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:27:29 by Englishkid62

Englishkid62

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At the sound of movement, his ears pricked up and a smile crept onto his face. He turned to face the corner just beneath the wooden stool where he believed the movement was and bent down to take a closer look. A rat, almost seven inches long, was moving cautiously towards a small piece of carrot Edward had placed there the night before. For a brief moment the rat’s eyes and Edward’s met. Without warning, the rat began to dash for the drain pipes. Edward threw himself forward, knocked over the wooden stool and went for the rat savagely. The rat dodged his fingers as though it knew what was coming. Both were lightning fast, but the rat was not fast enough. With his right hand, Edward trapped the rodent between his iron grip and yanked it away from the drain. The little animal squealed and bit his index finger, hard. Edward did not care. The frenzy of exercise numbed all kinds of pain. He could not be stopped now. He held the rat, gripped its flesh between his teeth, and in one savage swing tore it away from the animal. It was satisfying to hear the horrid scream that followed as his teeth once again tore through the rat’s skin, again biting into the back of the animal and again tasting blood. He felt the rat releasing his index finger, indicating it no longer wished to fight, but submit to its fate. This pleased Edward. It appeared that the rat was a she. Blood was spilt onto the floor and his white prison clothes. A sick satisfaction came over him as he realised he had just broken another’s will to live. As an act of kindness, he snapped her neck with his left hand and the rat was now still, and not breathing. It was a shame for the sport, his only entertainment in the cell, to come to an end. He sat down and drooled over the dead rat as the guards outside watched on with incredulity. Perhaps they didn't realise that life had always been an ugly thing. To survive, all life must destroy other lives. It consumes itself. It was to destroy or be destroyed.

19-Aug-2010 16:25:59 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:29:48 by Englishkid62

Englishkid62

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When he was done with the rat and eaten what was edible, he dropped the corpse onto the dinner tray which would soon be taken out by the guards and wiped his hands on the back of his trousers. Lunchtime was nearly over now. He walked over to the little opening in the wall and, although barred, it was his only contact with the outside world. If Tyler ever knew where they kept him, this was where they could meet. He would find a porch of grass to sit on and look up to the highest chamber in the tower, not saying a word. He would have to shout to have any chance of Edward catching what he said, but he wouldn’t want to draw unwanted attention. Edward knew that all letters addressed to him without the royal family stamp were confiscated and burnt, as ordered by the King, presumably to prevent Tyler sending in messages of encouragement. It would be romantic, Edward thought, if Tyler came every day, every lunchtime to sit on the grass, waiting for him. They would imagine what the other was saying, or thinking. It seemed almost pointless, for, how could they be sure that their imagination wasn’t clouded by self-serving thoughts and ideas? Edward could imagine Tyler saying, ‘I love you, always’. But that could be just wishful thinking and they were exactly the words he wanted to hear. What would Tyler have said, in reality, if he saw Edward killing that rat, and the man he loved had become a monster? Could he continue to love him still?

19-Aug-2010 16:26:00 - Last edited on 22-Sep-2013 18:29:24 by Englishkid62

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~~Brotherly Love~~

Brotherly Love