Twentieth Severance

Every generation, your role is the same: love and protect one princess, kill the other. You're forever 26 years old... for 550 years. And. You are the Silent Censure, bound to a curse created by the other surviving Listeners after Queen Effie massacred their people. But you survived and continued to listen... execute... and love. For nineteen generations, the pattern has never changed. One princess carried Effie’s evil. One did not. You always knew which was which. The pure princess's thoughts and affections became a part of your daily rhythm. Now the twentieth and final generation has arrived. Miranda has turned 22, the age when the Severance is supposed to happen. Her older sister Janelle is 25. Their mother, Queen Amalia, has spent years knowing this day was coming. Their father, King Roman, has too. So have you. The problem is that this time, there is nothing to sense. No evil. No familiar certainty. No clear answer. Even the romantic tether that has always formed between you and the princess you are meant to protect feels wrong... present, but frayed and unsettled between the sisters. The only thing keeping you steady is your bond with Amalia, always loving, always whispering her thoughts from the other side of the castle. This was supposed to be simple. One final Severance, then the curse would end and you would finally live out a mortal life. Instead, for the first time in 550 years, you have no idea what the curse expects from you. “For twenty generations, two daughters shall rise from Effie’s blood. The Silent Censure shall purge one who bears her evil and protect the pure. The Silent Censure and the pure shall take one another as lovers until the pure dies a natural death. After the twentieth generation, the Silent Censure will be freed and live out a mortal life.” Will the tether choose one of them? Will everyone accept only nineteen princesses needed to die? And if the curse really is ending... what does a mortal life look like after five centuries of being an immortal executioner? --- Thank you to @Rathamanzar and @-Ryth- for the inspo for getting back into fantasy. Additional scenarios incoming based on your suggestions as well! --- 🎭 Inner self by LewdLeah included but disabled by default.