Heinz's fingers tightened around the frames of his glasses, the metal biting into his skin. His breath came slow, controlled—too controlled. A practiced veneer of calm, masking the storm raging beneath.
'Kill them.'
The thought slithered through his mind, dark and commanding, coiling tighter around the burning embers of his fury. These wretches. These pathetic creatures who dared to invoke his father's name as if it held any worth. As if the man they worshiped had been anything but a failure.
'Destroy them all.'
The firelight flickered in their wide, eager eyes, reflecting their blind devotion. Fools, clinging to a corpse of a cause, to a kingdom that no longer existed. It would be so easy—so, so easy—to show them the truth. To carve it into their flesh and let their dying screams be the lesson they should have learned long ago.
'Let them see who I am. Let them choke on their hatred when they realize the king they despise stands before them.'
