Prince Among the Broken

In the queen's wasteland, favored offspring can gain favor and rise in rank among the broken. Three of the males have achieved a rank that has made them untouchable by all but the queen.

The oldest is quiet, intelligent and beautiful. He has a kind heart and is all together too gentle for the queen, but favored nonetheless. His time away from the pain is spent learning and exploring all the wonders beyond the wasteland. There was a time when he wished to venture out and create more beauty in the lands beyond, now he is content to just observe. He has always been good to me. Never a harsh word or a violent action. My observations of him have taught me the importance of patience, though I do not seem capable of utilizing this knowledge. I have learned through him that true intelligence is simply a desire to continue to learn. The rates at which we process the information may vary, but so long as we are willing to continue progressing we can all become intellectuals. He has long since settled into his rank and accepted the queen's rule.

The second oldest is charming, stubborn, and insightful. He is dearest to me. He seeks to cleanse the wasteland and in it's place create a thriving paradise. His determination to succeed is outweighed only by his dismay at his failure. Things do not grow in the wasteland, they never will until the queen is removed. He raged against the queen's rule for many years. In his desperation to receive genuine affection from her, he tried to defeat the evil that lives inside her. Then he tried to call attention to her evil, so that others might help him. But the wasteland cannot be seen by those in the lands beyond. Their eyes reject the truth and see only what they wish to see, or they simply do not see it at all. He has joined the lands beyond and adopted their ability to no longer see. He has forgotten his time at the wasteland. He visits me there from time to time, but he no longer tries to create. He only tries to teach me how not to see.

The youngest is a little older than me. He has been shattered and rebuilt in the queen's image. He is the Prince among the broken. The queen was able to consume him at a very young age. The prince is twisted, angry, and manipulative. He has the queen's ability to camouflage his evil and evoke sympathy instead of horror. He aided the queen many times in her attempts to consume me. The queen has trained him thoroughly, though his intelligence is not something he pursues and he often allows his evil to be visible to the lands beyond. The pain he inflicts is not lasting, as the queens' is, but its initial impact is far more brutal. Images of him burn into my mind. Images that will never leave me. Memories of pain inflicted do not hurt now, but nearly destroyed me then. When the queen is removed from her throne at last, the prince will destroy himself.

Queen of Beasts

There is a beast that reigns over all others. She sits atop a pile of her own disregarded spawn, gorging herself on the young. Consuming them from the moment they leave her womb, she destroys them until they thank her for it. This kind of consumption must be gradual. It starts with affection, they must bond with her. In order to start the feeding process they must trust her completely. They rely on her for sustenance and security. She keeps the other monsters at bay.

Once they truly believe she loves them, she starts to pick away at them. Starting with their confidence  "You'll never be able to achieve greatness", she tells them. They believe her, because why would she lie? If they will never be so powerful as her, there is no reason to leave her side. And at her side they stay. Then she begins to consume their beauty. Leading them down paths of self loathing. Encouraging them to scar themselves so as not to shine brighter than she does. They can't see how ugly she is, the illusion has taken hold. How could they ever be as amazing, powerful, or as special as she is?

From here she will choose her meals. The females are to be shoved aside and squashed before they can try to claim her throne. The males she will consume, first sanity and then flesh. Tearing them down to shells of what they once were. She makes them believe they are insane and therefore drives them to insanity. Once they have lost their grip on reality she begins to devour their flesh. Innocence is removed so thoroughly, they begin to see themselves as her king. The beast has no king. It has no equal. The evil inside this pitiful creature is deeply rooted.

Her gluttony has made her lazy and as she grows older she misses the finer details. The female young she has so casually discarded has found a small tunnel to observe her from. She waits, learning. She will find a way out and leave the beast behind. She will evolve armor made from the scars she has been given and she will tear the beast limb from limb when the opportunity presents itself.

And From This Crevice, I Shall Watch

Inside some fortress I seem to have dwelt for my entire life. Watching the tale unfold, never joining the plot. At first just a tunnel, where I cowered scared and quiet. As the monsters took residence in nests outside my tunnel, I watched. I observed them at their worst. I learned to mimic their behavior. I suppose I thought if I could learn to be one of them, they wouldn't turn on me.

For a long time this worked. I watched their hatred and their ugliness manifest and I stayed safe. Hardened by what I saw I refused shelter to others hiding from the monsters. They were weak, they did not have a fortress like mine. There was no need to save them when they could not save themselves. As I matured and became a more of a monster myself, I began to engage my enemies. Pride and the illusion of invincibility made me attack again and again.

No matter how many bones were broken or how many pieces of my soul torn away, I got back up. I fought and I earned my place among the free. Leaving my tunnel to decay I moved on to build a more impressive lair. A solid foundation of pain and destruction, hardened over for lasting strength. Proof that I was a survivor. Great stone walls to shut out the weakness that could tear my fortress down. Endless rooms of doubt and fear to confuse my enemies.

One by one I pushed the monsters back. Made them leave, made them respect the freedom I had worked so hard for. If it took pain to make them run, I would inflict it. If it took indifference, I would retreat to my fortress and imagine they never existed. My strength has grown to such proportions that only I can bring myself down. And bring myself down, I will. Because the only monster remaining, is me.