She pushed the words out with woeful poise, looking at the empty shelves with her back turned to him.

"When your army stormed the castle, they killed every member of the inner council they could find. But your father lowered his sword when he looked at my face, and held out a hand to help me up. I didn't know why this ruthless warrior my previous kingdom described as a monster was sparing my life, but I found out soon enough. He chose me to be his personal slave because I looked like Faria. Ever since then, he has treated my like the Queen he lost despite my distaste for being absolutely controlled and owned. I was not expecting such a King to be so broken and in need of my affection to feel whole again. He forced me to love him. He couldn't go on without my touch, my loyalty, my subservience. And who knows. Maybe somewhere deep down I do love him- er, the man he could have been. "

She ran her hand along the edge of the shelf before her as if trying to touch the world before her to ground her memories in reality.

"I do not wish to speak ill of my King since I know that even now, you respect and love your father for his deeds as a ruler. But I was told of the atrocities he had committed as a former member of the enemy kingdom, and I still gag thinking of what he has done that he is praised for. Even saying this, your father was not the ruthless domineer he was painted to be behind closed doors. He was something of a marionette doll and would only come to life when I plucked his strings with my wife act. It was as though without your mother, he was a hollow cast of the man he once was. He had no confident action and questioned everything he did. For a woman like me- the enemy, the replacement, the object- to be the one operating his sensations... I still can't believe it was real. The only man who had the entire world in the palm of his hand still longed for one more thing. I was the closest he could get. His insatiable desire to recapture the love he had lost overpowered him."

She looked back at Simba with a sad glimmer in her eyes.

"I have seen your father at his lowest point and without the armor of his counsel to shield his insecurities. Your father is a loving man, and constantly rambles about how he loved her, and how he loves you. A seed grown under the warm sun and the gentle dirt would have bloomed so sweetly. I will not say he treated me well; I know he didn't. But I feel obligated to say that his actions were not of a man driven by an inherently evil soul. It was conditioned that way."

Simba's rage flared up, listening to her lie to him even after she said to ask her anything he'd like. He thought she was a friend, but her subservience to his father tainted her information. In a quick lash of his arm, he pinned her against the shelf by the neck, bringing out his dagger and placing it against her throat. The shelf shook at the impact of her body against it.

"My father is trying to have me afflicted so he can justifiably have me executed." Simba snarled. "If you were as smart as I know you are, you would tell me any information to answer why so your throat remains intact. Understand?"

Kurona nodded, eyes locking in on Simba's aggression without a hint of worry. She knew his father had violent tendencies and Simba would have been likely to possess some as well under his teaching. Even as a child, she could barely contain his aggression, no matter what she tried. He even seemed to scare away the birds from the balcony, angry when wild animals didn't listen to his demands. She was neither shocked or scared knowing Simba was under stress, but knew she shouldn't beat around the bush any longer to avoid his anger from bubbling too high to control. After all, she was used to walking on eggshells in a family domineered by ruthless anger. She tried to nurture it out of Simba, but his emotions were far from controllable and she was not the one to tame a wild animal.

He released her and she clutched her throat to soothe the red mark that hung over her skin. She took a calm and collected deep breath into her lungs before she continued, reaching her own hand to Simba's face to caress it gently.

"You bloomed sweetly under the sun of your mother, but your father has given you nasty thorns," she said softly as she looked up towards the many floors above her, empty with nothing but red dust that flew about aimlessly. Simba watched in confusion as she turned her back to face the shelves again.

"These shelves used to house endless books, on endless subjects and countless stories. They were able to take you anywhere in the span of millions of pages from the great sea to the east, and the land beyond it where your family came from. This place was a portal that took you everywhere that was ever documented. It once let you experience any story ever recorded as if you were on the journey yourself. It was magical."

"How does this answer my question?" Simba snapped in frustration. He began to grow irritated at how long this was taking. As she strolled down memory lane, he could be off solving his problem and getting his crown back. Standing in this dusty room doing nothing but waiting made him start to unknowingly pick at his clothes just to fill the time from being idle.

"Careful now," she warned with a knowing ring to her voice, "A kitten who pounces too early will surely miss his prey." She ran her hands against the books before her, as if questing for something she had already found.

"This once magical hall holds only a single narrative now. The rest were lost after the invasion, burned by the castle staff under your father's direction."

Simba suddenly looked above him apprehensively, observing the several floors of hundreds of thousands of worlds contained by the grace of the written word burned to ashes. He could hardly even begin comprehending how much knowledge his father had reduced to useless ash. He wondered how many journeys had been lost, how many set of eyes he would never look through. He felt like he had lost the world when he hadn't lost anything truly at all. He couldn't resent being robbed of what he never had.

"Why would my father destroy all that literature?" Simba asked, thinking of all the stories he would never read, all the lessons he would never learn. The vast emptiness of the hall struck him differently now knowing it was once filled to the brim. Kurona was quiet for a moment, as if trying to comprehend how to tell him what she knew.

"I wasn't lying to you when I said your father is a loving man. However, despite his love for his family, he has done truly horrific things under the influence of his inherited character flaws and the world his family crafted before him. Your family has a set of values that is passed from one person to the next. Davu gave them to Kaism, and Kaism taught them to you. They seem truthful because it is all you have ever known. These flaws are even passed down even to me; the woman he made to be a replacement for the love of his life. I have come close to thinking his actions towards me were kind. But I know raping me constantly isn't the action of a righteous man. Keeping someone you love as a possession is nothing but a sin no matter how much power you have over them or how much the captor claims to love them. He destroyed a kingdom, he burned away the biggest collection of knowledge from the face of the earth, and he continues to round up the 'sick' and burn them alive."

Her hand wrapped itself around the edge of the bookshelf, grasping on tightly as she leaned her weight into it. The bones in her hand stuck against her skin as her grip grew firmer. Her voice had grown louder and angrier as she recalled what Kasim has done. This was likely the first time she had spoken a word of her unhappiness serving under their family. Simba looked at her in surprise. She was always so collected. Seeing her unravel like this was new to Simba, and he knew she was not enjoying her trip through her memory.

"There is no excuse for his actions against you, but he had to do those things to protect everyone," Simba blurted out desperately. "You have to make sacrifices to protect the majority. The Columbines were letting the curse spread freely. He's doing what needs to be done to keep order." 

Simba tried to reason with her. All of this was for the greater good. A land broken apart by a disease and poor rulers needed fixing and order to remain strong and cohesive.

Kurona's hand released from the shelf. Her chest heaved as she let in big breaths, slowly growing more control over herself.

"Order for who?"

The air between them grew silent. Simba didn't understand. His silence in the empty hall ushered her to continue.

"I was in charge of monitoring the food to sustain the Columbine people, but the Columbine family always needed more. I wasn't told at the time that the heir to the throne, Kay Columbine, was afflicted with the curse at a young age. The family was hysterical behind closed doors, and feared that their reign would be over if they didn't find a cure to heal Kay. The public would never allow an afflicted man to lead them and an affliction of one family member would strike doubt into the others. This information may be helpful for your current predicament, Simba."

Simba knew this story and it's implications on himself. After all, even a single drop of cursed blood taints the whole family. The history of the Columbines were known widely after the invasion, and was taught in records as the single greatest feat of the Adofo family. To be rid of the dark magic tyrants that hid behind their disease, preaching lies to make their kind multiply faster, it was a heroic deed. The task elevated his family to the title of heroes. Though, Simba noticed she had taken a more sympathetic tone to her recounting of events. He had never heard that tone spoken for the Columbines before. He wanted to continue the story to see what else didn't add up to the one he was taught.

"They kept Kay's affliction a secret for a long time, claiming only that their search for the cure was laborious and needed more supplies. I was left to blindly follow orders as they gave no reason for their sudden fixation on the cure's discovery. They only broke their silence too little too late when their ally, the Cuauhtemotzin Tribe, left to side with your grandfather who wanted to take down the Columbine forces to secure their rule over the realm. This initiated the War of Birds and Lions and soon after, his son took the throne with his new bride, Faria Adofo.

"The tribe Chief, your grandfather, had been responsible for supplying the Columbine family with resources from their ancestral land as part of the ally deal, but the Columbine royals didn't respect his contributions to their necessary coalition against your family. The tribe received no power in the council, no say in the defenses they bolstered, and no say on how their resources were used. Seeing his tribe being disrespected by the Columbines made the Chief susceptible to your grandfather's ambition. He left in exchange for protection of their land and their own self determination your father had promised. Looking back now, the way the Tribe was manipulated by the Columbines was a disgrace, but your father's empty promises were the last nail in their coffin."

She shook her head in shame.

"I wish I had done something. That was my tribe too, you know. Even though we had power as council members, we were not listened too in the Family's desperation to cure their son and keep it a secret. But what was one woman and a chief against the desperation of white parents of a future King to do?"

She took in another breath in before she continued, as if each explanation was a punch in the gut.

"However, the Chief's wife, Nadie, refused to aid your father despite all the Columbines did. She knew she couldn't trust the word of the Adofo King of the time; Davu, or his son to uphold their end of the bargain. The Tribe's forces were then split in two, some choosing to leave with the Chief, and others choosing to stay with Nadie. After half their forces left their side, the Columbine Royals were forced to reveal their son's affliction to the inner circle in desperation to keep the remaining Tribe member's support. They demanded we keep it a secret.  Nadie then agreed to arrange the infantry and kingdom defenses as the family looked inwards to research the cure to save their son. After telling her the truth, she supposedly wanted to aid the family in their noble quest to cure the curse. I heard her once say Kay would otherwise be an innocent casualty in a world that failed him."

Simba knew this much, as it was told in one of the books of how the family kept their son's affliction a secret, not revealed until his family took over and exposed their secrets to disband anyone still loyal to the Columbine Kingdom. They went on a wild goose chase for the cure that never happened, promising their people an antidote. With the people's hopes on a cure high, the kingdom's people grew less alert to the dangers and the disease ran rampant- many cases telling of the Prince himself telling the people of the city to "live as themselves and no one else".

But Simba knew little of this ally tribe and his grandparents. His memories only briefly recalling their presence at the invasion of the Columbine kingdom, and his father never spoke of them. It was never revealed why his grandparents left and where they went. The books in the wall tell of their help in securing the kingdom, but then they were never mentioned afterwards. It would probably look bad to know the family members from the Tribe that were instrumental in the victory of the War of Birds and Lions were no longer in the good graces of the Adofo family.

The softness in Kurona's voice had grown colder, and despite her sympathy, there was a distaste she couldn't seem to get out of her tone. Simba waited for her to continue.