[He should fight it, he thinks, but he does not. He should face his destiny, not run away from the terrible fate he's being forced to experience once again. This serves a purpose, surely. That's the lesson. He's here for a reason.
Or maybe the truth is simply that his destiny is to experience a series of endless trials before he dies.
Regardless, regardless of what the truth is, he'd rather believe her words: that he doesn't have to, that this world and his own are two different stories, and what he chooses here doesn't have to reflect badly on him in Eos. She'd told him once before that she didn't want to be the selfish choice, that choosing to be with someone wasn't meant to be selfish. Could that same logic not apply here? To be someone other than the king with his head in the guillotine, primed for sacrifice. To be just a man like any other, not avoiding death but indulging in life until it comes to whatever end is meant for him. Living to die isn't really living. This is why his father didn't share the truth with him, he strongly suspects- so he wouldn't have to struggle with this for his whole life. He wants to focus on life, not death.
So, as the kings of yore charge in for the kill one after another, he buries his face against her and he does not watch. As cries of pain and gasping breaths echo through the chamber, he clings tightly to her and tries to focus on her hand soothing his hair. As a dying king quietly pleads for his father to end it, he breathes with her, praying it will still his pounding heart. And when it's over, and the room falls into silence, he lets the tears fall but he does not sob, nor does he break. He doesn't look at the body on the throne, because he doesn't need to. And he doesn't want to, so... he doesn't have to.
It doesn't feel good. But it doesn't feel worse, either, and that's a victory flag he'll fly. His arms around her tighten, grateful, uncertain, relieved. It's over... they made it. He's so focused on that fact (or hope, or desperate belief) that he doesn't notice as brilliant light flares outward from the Crystal in all directions, the ground falls away from them, and they sink into an endless blue dreamscape.]
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Or maybe the truth is simply that his destiny is to experience a series of endless trials before he dies.
Regardless, regardless of what the truth is, he'd rather believe her words: that he doesn't have to, that this world and his own are two different stories, and what he chooses here doesn't have to reflect badly on him in Eos. She'd told him once before that she didn't want to be the selfish choice, that choosing to be with someone wasn't meant to be selfish. Could that same logic not apply here? To be someone other than the king with his head in the guillotine, primed for sacrifice. To be just a man like any other, not avoiding death but indulging in life until it comes to whatever end is meant for him. Living to die isn't really living. This is why his father didn't share the truth with him, he strongly suspects- so he wouldn't have to struggle with this for his whole life. He wants to focus on life, not death.
So, as the kings of yore charge in for the kill one after another, he buries his face against her and he does not watch. As cries of pain and gasping breaths echo through the chamber, he clings tightly to her and tries to focus on her hand soothing his hair. As a dying king quietly pleads for his father to end it, he breathes with her, praying it will still his pounding heart. And when it's over, and the room falls into silence, he lets the tears fall but he does not sob, nor does he break. He doesn't look at the body on the throne, because he doesn't need to. And he doesn't want to, so... he doesn't have to.
It doesn't feel good. But it doesn't feel worse, either, and that's a victory flag he'll fly. His arms around her tighten, grateful, uncertain, relieved. It's over... they made it. He's so focused on that fact (or hope, or desperate belief) that he doesn't notice as brilliant light flares outward from the Crystal in all directions, the ground falls away from them, and they sink into an endless blue dreamscape.]