Lightstar Family/Xarnelf/Roleplay 49

Despair

(OOC: The events leading up to this roleplay include Tharion stepping down as General and Luyten making known his intention to step down as Judge too. This was due to their discontentment at the way Orphen was leading Aenilia.)

The letter dropped from his suddenly numb fingers, drifting noiselessly to the carpet of his study. The Duke staggered backwards towards his seat, verily falling into his wooden chair at the last moment with a slight grunt of displeasure. His steward rushed forth to inquire about any necessary assistance and received a lackluster wave in response.

"Leave me. No one is to enter short of an extreme emergency."

Nodding, the old man exited the room, closing the door behind him softly on the way out.

Turning his head to the side, his cheek resting upon the hard surface of the backrest, Xarnelf regarded the night sky through the only window of his study. He noted a few stars twinkling lightly up above, but the rest were uncharacteristically covered by gloomy clouds.

First Tharion, and now possibly Luyten.... Aenilia could ill afford to lose even one highly respected, well-known, and active member of the council, but two? This was too much to bear. The Duke of Idapur's left eye began twitching in irritation and despair. It seemed like Aenilia was falling to pieces right before his eyes.

At this moment, a sudden realization came to mind, and he wondered how things might have turned out differently had he elected to write down Tharion as his secondary, or even tertiary, choice, instead of leaving both the second and third options empty as he had done. Indeed, the thought had briefly crossed his mind to give some votes to Tharion, with whom he had become somewhat of a good friend, but somehow, something within him shot down the idea almost as soon as it had surfaced.

Xarnelf was wholly dedicated to serving and supporting his liege Orphaea Imperium, yet he never questioned why, and did not start now. For the truth of the matter is, to this day still unbeknownst to him, the Duke's mind had been...altered, to say the least, nearly two decades ago.

This was during the critical time of the civil war within Taith Aenil, for those who are unaware; it was at this point that a Gray Aenil, one trickster of sorts, chose to intervene on Orphaea/Orphen's behalf, smiting the then young and naive knight with an illness of the mind. And so it was that Sir Xarnelf Lightstar--completely devoted to the Pontifex Arella Morningstar, loyal to the Paladin Primus Helios Raiva, and wary of the often quiet Haruspex Maximus Orphen Vincent--came to turn against his respected superiors and the loyalists, joining with Orphen and the recently arrived Luyten in rebelling against the Old Guard.

How differently things might have turned out if he had not been brainwashed... He might have been exiled from his birthplace, or even worse: fallen in battle alongside Helios during his last stand.

How differently things might have turned out if he had not voted only for Orphen... Tharion would have become King, Luyten would have remained Lord High Executioner, and Aenilia would have still stood together, instead of falling to shambles as it seemed to be happening now, bit by bit.

But of course, the Gray Aenil who had performed this mischief made sure of a task well done, and none of these curious musings were running through Xarnelf's mind. He thought only of the uncertainty which loomed ahead for Aenilia. Who else might lose heart and leave? Would he be the only one left who remained loyal to the Emperor, despite all of Orphen's perceived shortcomings? The only one left who had been a part of Aenilia since her rebirth from the ashes of Taith Aenil; the only one who could remember their realm's beginnings?

Perhaps he was already the only one left...

A despairing thought indeed....