I feel I must.
Comprehend all things and leave nothing unsaid.
Allow truth to seep in rejecting all lies.
Never disobey the voices that shield you from them.
Not a moment goes by that I don't doubt myself.
Outside there is light that closes in on itself.
Threaten those that wound you.
Excruciating ceaseless pain that follows me to bed.
Surround yourself with yourself and be in total agreement.
Convinced its all an illusion that will pass with time.
Awaiting a tidal change for respite.
Perhaps tomorrow my pain will be light.
Expect no improvements in a broken world.

Blackened beyond resemblance to that of a living girl.
Andulan was delivered to a cold hard slab of vile witchcraft.
Only this wasn't a witch's coven.
Nor was any witchcraft actually involved.
That was merely what she screamed once she realized where she wasn't.
Lying face down leaking into snow beneath her ruined corpse.
Andulan demanded her throat be cut immediately.
My death was why you came by the thousands to our castle right?
For what other reason did your forces come for the throne held by my father?
If not to see us all stacked and burnt atop a stripped down column of humanity?
Tell me! But they owed her no explanation.
That was when silence reached for song's hands.
Hidden behind her skull.
A simple gesture freed her from her thoughts.
Replaced a girl with a monster.

Oil was used to seal her fate and that of her siblings.
While a sword was ****** through her only relative.
In clear view as she writhed in fire.
The crush of fabric attached to her only competition.
Threatened to smother before the fire could claim her.
As her sisters and lone brother agonized in a pool of misery.
She thought only of herself and her slain father.
The only person worthy of acknowledgement.
The others never recognized her beauty or grace.
It made her sneer at them with disdain.
Her mother was throttled for hours, where none would bear witness.
Andulan couldn't care less.

The night she was killed, she was but a girl of 13.
Still young and whole.
Unblemished by that insistence that all fade with time.
Fresh flowers went unnoticed around her.
Guarded night and day, joined by her father's snakes wherever she went.
Wandering the passages of her entitlement bare-foot and weightless.
She'd be gawked at if she tried that outside the blissful permission granted by.
Her father's hold over the world.
Tragically from their perspective only.
Song stood as worthy challenge to Venom's potency.
Easier to apply and effortless to spread.
Once inside it charted course across territory wearing clothes from all cultures.
Puppets of such quantity couldn't be bitten into submission quick enough.
To stem the tide of red they'd set into crashing motion.

While Matthew and his timid protector watched.
Sharin burned with her tears.
Inside the conflagration, behind waves of blackened heat and bitter smoke.
An ongoing mockery of lady-hood held a plump prisoner before her feet.
He vowed in vain to serve the venom queen as yet another faceless stooge.
Lucky for him she wouldn't suffer the company of anymore idiots.
Battered and humbled he wore a defiant smirk.
She'd remark later how he appeared to welcome his death.
Not everyone enjoys the company of one as glorious as myself.
That dress cast aside the darkened hue it obtained.
The scent of smoke didn't cling nor did the stench of shed tears run down its length.
For you see.
She has no remorse left in her.

Toblin's mind shot him an image of what he'd do.
Before he actually did it.
Buckets of oil drowned what remained of Sharin's tear.
Her tear ducts were now thoroughly clogged beyond return.
Drumming fingers danced upon his leathery tunic.
It was Andulan, princess of lies wearing a human face.
If he turned from his conviction to see Sharin burn.
And faced her.
That snake would bite into his neck and fill his homeland.
With buckets of blood.

Joined by that dead queen.
Who shouldn't still be breathing.
Made Toblin uneasy and groping for a way.
To see her gaze turned from him.
Not enough room in this carriage I'm afraid.
His brain wanted him to say.
A cowardly misdirection sure to sever head and leave it dangling.
Above the recently resurrected House of Venom.
The loyal need fear no such poisons.
Toblin knew better.
Every man unwise enough to kiss those snakes.
Woke up powerless the next day.
His command seized by serpents swimming beneath the defenses.
He had built over a lifetime.