INT. ARKWING FARM - AFTERNOON

Flashback.

Helen was only 2 years old and crying over a recently deceased Jen laying in her dead bed. Jen’s multiple lines of mana were dissipating and a few sparkles floated away.

Helen: “Mama! Mama!”

Helen’s father, Arther Flamewing, looked like he was going to have an emotional breakdown and Karsh was for the first time in his life crying, though to a human it looked like he was tearing his face apart and oozing a black liquid.

Helen: “Mama!!!!”

Helen’s grandfather, Victor Karsh, was crying too, but he was oddly at peace.

Flamewing: “Goodbye, Jen.”

Flamewing closed Jen’s eyes and hugged Helen to comfort her.

Helen: “Dada!”

Flamewing: “It’s okay, Helen. Mommy is in the afterlife now.”

Helen: “I want Mama! I want Mama!”

Helen continued crying for a long time and Karsh went outside to vent off his sadness by causing destruction in a forest close by.

Later that day, while Helen was finally sleeping, Flamewing became aware that his oath marks had disappeared from his hand. He took this opportunity of freedom to do what he wanted to do for so many years: beat the crap out of Victor Karsh. Punching a weak old man was very easy for Flamewing.

Flamewing: “You stole my life from me, you motherfucker!”

Flamewing’s eyes turned red as a result of his mutation. To Victor, Flamewing looked like a vengeful demon.

Flamewing: “I had a fiancee, family and friends! I wanted to marry Morkana! She was the love of my life!”

Victor: “I… gave you… a family…”

Flamewing punched Victor’s face and the old man spat blood.

Flamewing: “You tricked me to protect your daughter until she died! You gaslighted me to impregnate her against my will! You made me hide from everyone I love!”

Victor: “You... could have... cut your... own arm.”

Flamewing could have let Jen be captured and executed by the Birds, but instead chose to follow the compelling power of the oath harming his hand. He saved Jen, the angel of destruction that wanted to kill Morkana and took her off world to one of the farthest away Known Worlds, Stardust. This world is so far away that to reach it interstellar travelers have to use a starship to travel across 5 starship void gates and the time to complete the journey is of 5 weeks minimum, which is faster than space travel in the 21st century of Earth, but very slow by the standards of interstellar travel.

Flamewing: “I want you out of my life! I want you out of Helen’s life!”

Victor: “Fair… enough…”

The next day, Victor Karsh left the farm and disappeared from this story.

End of the Flashback

INT. MORKANA’S ROOM - NIGHT

Flamewing: “Morkana!”

A very angry Flamewing was knocking on Morkana’s door despite knowing a Bird was in the shadows pointing a tranquilizer weapon at him.

Morkana: “You can come in.”

Flamewing opened the door and saw Morkana wearing a nightgown and sitting on a chair while drinking some tea.

Flamewing: “If it wasn’t for Karsh I wouldn’t have known you made my daughter cry!”

Morkana: “Flame, I-”

Flamewing: “She is three years old, Mork! I don’t care if you torture me with the oath, I am defending my daughter!”

Morkana: “You are right. I was a bitch again.”

Flamewing noted Morkana’s melancholic voice.

Morkana: “It’s just… She and Prince found out they are siblings.”

Flamewing: “Oh my goddess…”

Morkana: “And then the two decided to recreate one of your old romantic schemes and wasted enough paper to do an environmental crime.”

Flamewing: “The paper trail one? Wow. I don’t know what to say.”

Morkana: “They tried to make it look like you were apologizing to me, but none of them know what you did and I was so angry and thought you tricked them.”

Flamewing: “I wouldn’t trick kids like that.”

Morkana: “And then I made Helen cry…”

Flamewing: “Yes you did.”

Flamewing’s eyes looked serious and judgemental.

Morkana: “I just don’t get it. Why would a kid go to such trouble to try to solve an emotional problem? She is 3 years old and a human! Human toddlers are usually very dumb and only care about toys and cookies.”

Flamewing chuckled.

Flamewing: “It’s because she wants to help people. Also, she likes you.”

Morkana: “No shit. That girl sees me as her new mom. By the way, did you tell her about us?”

Flamewing: “No. Did you tell Prince-”

Morkana: “Yes.”

Flamewing felt really uncomfortable.

Flamewing: “Anyway, Helen is a good kid. She does things if she thinks they will make people happy, even if she is wrong about the methods. She knows when people need help and will try to act fast to help them however she can.”

Morkana: “So you are saying she thinks I am sad and that’s why she is usually so cheery? Not because of having an idealization of me as a mom?”

Flamewing: “She tries to help other people independently of their relationship with her. When we lived on Stardust, she always shared the cookies we baked with the kids living on the next hill, and she once noticed the old woman living in a hut was very sick and told me to make soup for her.”

Morkana: “Reminds me of someone that I used to know, or maybe two someones that I used to know.”

The atmosphere of the room felt awkward, and even the Bird hiding outside felt she shouldn’t be hearing any of this personal stuff.

Flamewing: “Can we please talk about what happened years ago? It’s been 8 months since we met again, and you don’t let me tell you what happened. Every time I want to explain what happened, you change the subject, or command me to go away.”

Flamewing showed the mark of the oath in his right hand.

Morkana: “I already know what happened from the information I have gathered. You left the battlefield carrying the crazy woman that tried to kill me. Did you know I was pregnant at the time?”

This time Morkana wasn’t torturing Flamewing with the Voice of the Void, but stating the obvious with her regular sad voice. It was still painful to hear.

Morkana: “Two months later I received your letter telling me you would return soon, but before that there was something you needed to do. You made an oath with Victor Karsh, didn’t you?”

Flamewing nodded.

Morkana: “I know Victor wanted to protect his daughter from the political powers that wanted her, but he was a monster. Tell me, what was the oath you made?”

This wasn’t a command of Morkana, but a sincere question of a woman desperate to know the truth.

Flamewing: “He… He begged me to swear that I would protect Jen and make her dreams come true…”

The Hero of Rayga felt shame as his former lover’s eyes stared at him with unbelief. The empress was speechless and her hands holding her tea were shaking.

Morkana: “Why… Why?”

Flamewing: “He told me her story and I was compelled to do what is right.”

Morkana: “Arther, she was a monster!”

Morkana glared at Flamewing.

Flamewing: “This was before that!”

Screamed the hero with a very defensive tone.

Flamewing: “I don’t know what happened to her before that day, but she was just an innocent girl that always tried to do what was right! She always tried her best to make everyone happy and smiled despite all the bad things that happened in her life!”

Flamewing was crying now.

Morkana: “I…”

Morkana was speechless. One one hand, Flamewing was trying to defend the monster that killed many people and tried to kill her, and on the other she was aware of what Victor forced Flamewing to do. That oath Flamewing did was very ambiguous and knowing Victor is a manipulative bastard, he must have gaslighted Flamewing to have sex with Jen.

Morkana: “Arther, how many letters did you write to me?”

Flamewing cleaned off his tears.

Flamewing: “I-I wrote one every week for close to 5 years, until I sent my last few letters after Jen’s death. Did-did you receive them?”

Flamewing’s voice sounded like that of a hopeful kid.

Morkana: “I only received a few letters each month, but for a few months there were no letters. I even tried to send my own mail, but there’s no official mailing service on Stardust and my agents couldn’t find where Victor’s farm was. We were also worried that if Jen saw suspicious people she would go full archangel again and this time she would kill innocent civilians.”

Flamewing: “A-and my last letters?”

Morkana: “After months of silence I received your letters telling me you did something unforgivable and that if you returned I would hate you. You wrote that you couldn’t risk telling me what you did in the mail so you would come one day and tell me personally. Well, that happened and I am very angry and sad.”

Flamewing felt like he was going to fall on his knees and cry and even Morkana stood up when she sensed there was something wrong.

Flamewing: “Heh…”

Morkana: “Arther?”

Flamewing: “So that asshole really got rid of most of what I wrote, didn’t he?”

Morkana hasn’t seen Flamewing cry this much, even when she had insulted him before.

Flamewing: “For the first three months I sent you letters telling you everything was fine and that I would return soon, but what I wrote was strictly under Victor’s watch because he didn’t want me to tell you where I was hiding. I tried to send hidden messages that I thought only you would receive, but I guess underestimated Victor.”

Morkana: “What was in those letters?”

Flamewing: “I begged you to save me.”

This revelation made Morkana’s view of the past 8 months be shattered. Whatever guilt she felt that day only increased as Flamewing continued telling his sad story.

Flamewing: “Jen was no longer a threat. She became sicker as time passed and she couldn’t even walk. So what did Victor do? He metaphorically put a gun to my head and made me make love to his dying daughter so she could have a baby and have the family she always wanted as a kid. I know the oath didn’t specify to give her a baby, but I was alone in a place I didn’t know and you didn’t come to save me like I planned so I became desperate and committed a sin to get rid of that fucking oath.”

Flamewing wasn’t lying. He is good at tricking enemies, but bad at deceiving the people he cares about, and his love for Morkana made him tell all the truth as much as it was painful for the two of them to hear.

Flamewing: “And I did it at first to free myself and return home, but then I did it for my own selfishness because I was lonely for so long and I hated myself for that. Do you know how many times I was tempted to cut off my own hand with the Kaisword?! The worst part is that if I had done that Victor would have let me die by not giving me the medical attention a doctor like him should offer. So that’s my explanation. I was deceived by a liar and I impregnated his daughter to save myself, and instead of returning home like I wanted my own self hatred made me raise my daughter with only the help of an eldritch monster that was neutral in this whole fucking conflict.”

What Flamewing described with the voice of a defeated man was too familiar for Morkana. Years of abuse from her father and other people, and being raped by Hellsnake, were very tragic experiences Morkana suffered in the past, and she was also aware she could become an abuser too if she let her own hatred take over her. She tried to reach Flamewing’s shoulder, but she was stopped by her own insecurities.

Morkana: “I… I don’t know what to say…”

Flamewing: “You shouldn’t apologize. I was the one that made that stupid oath and I took a very selfish solution that only made me miserable. If I could have done things differently I would have given Jen a mercy killing before she tried to harm you and your son. I would have cut off my hand that day and I knew you would have healed me, but I tried to save everyone and ended up harming many people. Well, the only good thing about my stupid decision is my daughter and I don’t regret having created her.”

Flamewing said all he had wanted to say for the past 8 months, so he turned around to not take more of Morkana’s time. Morkana on the other hand, wanted to answer to him, but her own resentment was still making her doubt. Once Flamewing was away, she slapped herself and started crying.

Morkana: “Why do I keep making people cry! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”

Morkana kept slapping herself and the Bird that watched all this situation wanted some tissues to clean her own tears.