[ WP ] A man with immortality slowly realizes that it is a curse , not a blessing .

**-016** 
 **Resolution Challenge** 
 
 `` It was my father who bought it for us. He paid for it with his life. The gift called for a payment in blood. He paid. He paid and never thought twice. We were numbered eight, when he gave us the blood; the that bonded us to the creature from the Mist. Father waved, smiled, and vanished. We live with that one sorrow. We live knowing he gave up all to ensure his children would never die. But of course, we did die. 
 
 It was immortality he bought -- not invulnerability. We did n't age. We did n't die. But, we learned early on that we could. My brother Egon was the first to discover the truth. He died with an assassin's knife in his neck and surprise on his face. Cabal died in a knife fight, killed by a gambler who thought him a cheat. Edric drowned in the floods. Aulus died trying to save him. Calidora ran off in the night and no one knows where. Oswin killed himself. He could n't handle eternity. I went crazy. 
 
 Mathern was all I had left. I could n't let him go. What is immortality without someone to spend it with -- without someone who understands? Mathern tried to follow Oswin on his seven hundreth birtday. He missed his heart. The wound was debilitating, but not lethal. He has no strength to try again. I turn nine hundred and fifty-three at midnight. Mathern turns nine hundred and fifty-one. I could n't kill him. 
 
 I could n't do it.'' I blinked back tears. 
 
 The queen stepped down from her dais and circled the coffin I had built. A coffin of gold, decorated with rubies red as blood. 
 
 `` You're brother Mathern is within?'' She asked. 
 
 `` He is.'' I replied. 
 
 `` Kill him. Do it now, and I will give you that which you desire above all else.'' She was noble, brave, and her decree was anything but a command. 
 
 `` I ca n't live alone.'' I sobbed. `` Please do n't make me.'' 
 
 `` Kill him. Be merciful.'' She studied me. She was testing me. I opened the coffin. He was there, breathing slow. His face a mask of pain. A mask he'd worn for over two-hundred and fifty years. A mask I gave him to wear. 
 
 `` She wants me to kill you.'' I explained. My tears spilled slowly, making a splat sound in the bottom of the coffin. 
 
 `` Please,'' he begged. His eyes were earnest. 
 
 I took up the knife she gave me and set the point over his heart. He reached up weakly and tried to force the blade in himself. I realized it was what he really wanted. He'd suffered enough. I cried harder and shoved the knife in till the tip struck the bottom of the gold coffin. 
 
 `` Well done.'' The queen applauded. `` I was n't sure you'd be up to the task.'' 
 
 `` I'm all alone now.'' 
 
 The queen smiled. `` Are you, dear brother?'' 
 
 `` Who are you?'' I asked, coming around the coffin. 
 
 `` I know. It's been nine hundred and twenty-three years, but do you not recognize your own sister?'' She asked. 
 
 `` Cali?'' He asked. 
 
 `` Queen Calidora,'' She replied. 
 
 `` Why did you leave?'' I asked, daring to approach her royal personage. The court gasped and the guards moved to block my way. 
 
 `` To avoid this very situation. I knew what father's gift was going to do to us. I knew and I could n't stand the idea of watching my family die one by one. After Egon, I had to leave. I had to learn to love the solitude. You all died that day for me. 
 
 But, here we are in different lands. My men I sent to conquer, and what should they find, but an immortal guarding a golden coffin in a sealed crypt. Have you any idea the feelings and confusion I felt to learn that after nine hundred and fifty years, my brothers were still alive? The queen wept. 
 
 I cried. 
 
 `` What is wrong?'' She asked. `` You are not alone.'' 
 
 I swallowed. `` Yes. Yes, I am.'' 
 
 The queen was confused. `` Explain, brother. Why do you feel you're still alone?'' The queen winced in pain. 
 
 `` Because, I was sent to kill you.'' He replied. `` I did n't know you were my sister.'' I replied, falling to my knees in my despair. 
 
 `` What?'' She asked, grimacing now. Her stomach felt like it was on fire. `` What have you done?'' She asked. 
 
 `` I poisoned you.'' He got up and went back to the coffin and pulled the knife from his dead brother's heart. The queen stumbled forward and went to her knees. I climbed the steps slowly. `` I'm sorry.'' 
 
 The guards moved to stop him, but she stopped them with a raised hand and a word. I climbed the steps and knelt before her. 
 
 The clock in the city sounded its bells. It was midnight. 
 
 `` It's my birthday.'' I said. Blood ran from her eyes like crimson tears. 
 
 `` Happy birthday, big brother.'' She gasped, spraying my armor with tiny flecks of red. I cut away the straps binding my armor. The plate covering my chest fell away. I removed my padding and tore open my white linen smock. `` Thank you, little sister.'' I said, plunging the knife into my own heart. She collapsed and fell forward, hugging me. We remained that way for a long time. The last two immortals locked in an embrace of love. 
 
 Edit: Oh my god, thanks for the reddit gold. I'm flattered.
