The drums were beating like her heart in her chest; Ba-bomp, Ba-bomp. Lady Dharma stood beside the funeral pyre, her red robe billowing in the breeze, the heat of the flames kissing her face as a tear rolled down it.
In her wildest dreams, Lady Dharma had never imagined this day would come; her own son responsible for her husband’s death. She had raised Saty to be a good boy. She had taught him about kindness, respect, loyalty, and, above all else, Love. There was nothing in this world more powerful than Love, she would tell him. Though today, as she watched the flames surrounding her beloved, she knew that had been a lie, and that there was something more powerful than Love. There was something that could turn a sweet, loving child into a liar and a murderer; Hate.
Hate had infected Saty only months ago, when he had started at a new school. Lady Dharma hadn’t known at the time, but the school was run by a wicked Hobgoblin who relished in watching the goodhearted be turned to creatures just as wicked as he was. At first, Saty was scared of the Hobgoblin and his school, but once the Hobgoblin showed Saty his magical mirror that, as he put it, showed you what mankind was really like, Saty started to understand and even respect the Hobgoblin. He eventually began to believe that everything his mother and father had taught him had been lies to make him weak, and that the Snow Queen was a selfish, silly woman who should never have been crowned Queen.
One day, the Hobgoblin’s mirror was shattered into a million tiny pieces, one of which made its way into Saty’s heart and turned it to ice, making him incapable of kindness or love. He became one of the Hobgoblin’s most trusted spies, telling him of all the Snow Queen’s plans he had overheard his father, a Royal Guard to the Snow Queen, telling his men. After learning of a plot to destroy his school, the Hobgoblin ordered Saty to poison the Royal Guard, so the Snow Queen would no longer have her loyal army. So, the next time Saty was at home with his father, he pretended to be the sweet boy his parents knew and loved, and asked if they could bring some tea to his men, since it was such a cold day. Alas, the tea had been dosed with Nightshade, a deadly poison, killing everyone who drank it.
Looking in his shining eyes now, across the burning flames, Lady Dharma saw no remorse or guilt, but pride. Saty was proud of what he had done, and even lighted the flames of the funeral pyre himself. It was at this moment that Lady Dharma realized the pain the flames would bring could not be worse than this despair. So she unbuttoned her long, red robe, and let the flames rise around her as she joined her beloved in eternal rest.
Submitted by: Shelby Molyneaux