“Somebody cut out your eyes, you refuse to see,

Somebody cut out your heart, you refuse to feel.”

- Sinéad O’Connor, “Drink Before the War”

Nobody followed King Claudius out of loyalty; it’s hard to be popular when you’re feared.

The King was too focused on ripping up forests to notice that his people were starving.

He was so busy building fancy factories where they weren’t needed to realize that the water they were drinking was contaminated.

He was so ready to give money to the corrupt governments that he forgot his own people needed it most.

But King Claudius neither cared nor listened when anyone complained, so to utter a word against him was a death scentence.

Until she showed up.

Nobody knew who she was. A cloaked stranger with cascading purple hair down her back and a sword in the sheath by her side.

The town saw her exactly once before she stormed into the castle, sword glowing green and raised above her head.

Nobody saw her after that.

But nobody saw the King either.