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edenfallingA tiny prequel to the mournful kingdom of sand (aka, the other-sister-won-in-Charn AU), written in response to the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
genprompt_bingo square apocalypse. *evil smile* (275 words)
[ETA: the AO3 crosspost is now up!]
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The Way the World Ends
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Jadis takes a deep breath and sets her feet and shoulders before she begins to speak the Deplorable Word, and that moment, that heartbeat of preparation (and her arrogant refusal to conceal it) is her undoing.
Cynara lunges forward and jams the point of her dagger into her sister's mouth, piercing her tongue and choking her throat with blood. Even so, the first syllables of the Word buzz in her mind like fiery wasps, digging holes between the familiar paths of her thoughts to lay their poisonous eggs, and she feels a foreign hunger stir, restless and newborn, in her gut.
She never wanted to know the Deplorable Word. What would be the use of ruling an empty, barren world? And why look beyond the walls of the universe when there are so many riches right here to hand? True, their world is dying, but that death is slow: Charn has stood ten thousand years since Lilith stepped through a door to reshape the world in her image, and would have stood ten thousand more after Cynara's own reign before the weary sun dwindled to ash and embers. She had such plans...
No more.
Cynara cradles her sister as Jadis falls, unconscious and scrabbling for breath, and knows with dreadful certainty that she will never sleep easy again until she both learns the missing syllables and speaks them all herself.
Well.
Death is not the fate she would have chosen for Charn, but she is Queen and Empress and this world's fate is hers to choose and impose. And there are other worlds.
Perhaps she'll even take Jadis with her when she finds another door.
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End of Ficlet
genprompt_bingo square apocalypse. *evil smile* (275 words)[ETA: the AO3 crosspost is now up!]
---------------------------------------------
The Way the World Ends
---------------------------------------------
Jadis takes a deep breath and sets her feet and shoulders before she begins to speak the Deplorable Word, and that moment, that heartbeat of preparation (and her arrogant refusal to conceal it) is her undoing.
Cynara lunges forward and jams the point of her dagger into her sister's mouth, piercing her tongue and choking her throat with blood. Even so, the first syllables of the Word buzz in her mind like fiery wasps, digging holes between the familiar paths of her thoughts to lay their poisonous eggs, and she feels a foreign hunger stir, restless and newborn, in her gut.
She never wanted to know the Deplorable Word. What would be the use of ruling an empty, barren world? And why look beyond the walls of the universe when there are so many riches right here to hand? True, their world is dying, but that death is slow: Charn has stood ten thousand years since Lilith stepped through a door to reshape the world in her image, and would have stood ten thousand more after Cynara's own reign before the weary sun dwindled to ash and embers. She had such plans...
No more.
Cynara cradles her sister as Jadis falls, unconscious and scrabbling for breath, and knows with dreadful certainty that she will never sleep easy again until she both learns the missing syllables and speaks them all herself.
Well.
Death is not the fate she would have chosen for Charn, but she is Queen and Empress and this world's fate is hers to choose and impose. And there are other worlds.
Perhaps she'll even take Jadis with her when she finds another door.
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End of Ficlet
