The Areson Stories

The King By E. M. Areson It had all been determined long ago they had told me. They said it was my destiny to overthrow him and start a peaceful empire. What they had never told me I’m a monster. The very things that made me a hero also make me a terror… at least it’s what I think now. The monks never meant for to find out; it was all my fault. Everything’s my fault.         After a lifetime of training, I had finally earned the right to wear the red vest, the same my father and his father had worn. Looking back now I wonder why the thought never occurred to me that if my father and grandfather had lived just like I had, without ever meeting a woman before their twentieth birthday, which they both died on, how I had been born. I just excepted it was truth… and murdered accordingly.         The night I did it was a blur, so much fighting. I was careful not to kill anyone or harm any civilians, just like...