Right
Oneword: Leverage
summary: She had come into his home to poison his mind and take control of his kingdom. Before she had even begun, she realized she had failed.
Words: 609
Category: half-formed ideas
She could have used him. He would have given her the leverage that she needed to win the people over, to start her reign as Empress. She would have used him; he was practically asking for it, with his big eyes, his easy smile, and the way that he looked to her for reassurance that he was doing the right thing, never losing faith in her despite the way that she openly scoffed at him.
Who cared about the "Right" thing? She had seen what those people did, with their conviction and their Faith and their complete belief in rightness. "Right for who?" she asked him over wine, her eyes cold and angry. "For the poor? For the children or the men or their wives? For the rich, the sick, or the healthy. For you? You can't please everyone!"
Right was such a vague concept, so easily changed. One second it was obvious, and then it spun on its axis and became something else entirely, and each person saw it from a different perspective and became convinced that they had the answer. When those answers did not align with each other everyone was devastated. There would be no rightness in the battles that it sparked. There was nothing to gain from trying to please everyone.
"Just... right." He proclaimed, and though some small part of her wanted to see this "right" that he was so confident about, she didn't believe that it could exist outside of his head. If he had asked her, she would have said that his ideas would flounder and fall. If he had asked, she would have told him what she thought. She may have even shared what she knew of right and wrong. But he didn't, and so she remained silent, with her own conscience weighing her down her heart like it was made of stone. Would he be able to carry on when he saw that he was wrong? She didn't think so, because for once, she was right. He was good, but he was wrong in his belief. Of course, she no longer cared about good. She would do whatever suited her, personally, and the consequences of her happiness was someone else's sorrow, then so be it.
She could have turned him into her weapon, she considered that night while he snored softly beside her. It would be so easy, so simple, to plant that first seed of doubt in his mind, to nurture it, to watch it grow. He would succumb to it, she knew. One little word and she could completely undo everything that he had done. She could do it ...except there was something about him that was pure, and if anyone could find the goodness in the world, she was sure it would be him.
His hair curled across his forehead and spilled over the pillow next to her. His lashes sent shadows that fanned his cheeks. Even in slumber his lips were curled up in happiness. He wasn't beautiful, but he was innocent, and it meant that she couldn't harm him right now. It wouldn't be right, to destroy an innocent boy. Even she knew that.
She would never tell him that she cried that night into her pillow, that she fell to her knees before the moon and wailed to the goddesses. No one would ever know that her plans would never be completed. She couldn't take him for exactly the same reason that she could; he was in love with her, and somewhere along the way that feeling had become mutual.
For the third time in her young life, the idea of Right had shifted.