The Worm Ouroboros: The War They Wished Back

They had won the war. Their enemy was dead. In the richest hall in Demonland, the victors discovered that victory was not what they wanted.

Lord Juss had crossed horrors to reach this peace. Now the days ahead looked empty. There would be no equal opponent waiting beyond the sea.

Queen Sophonisba listened. There were lands to enjoy, wealth to use, people still living beneath their care. Surely the world had something left to offer.

They did not ask for another feast. They wanted their enemy back. Not a lesser rival. The same dangerous power they had struggled to defeat.

The queen took them to the water at night. She prayed to the gods. Around their small boat, the darkness waited.

Light broke over the distant fortress of Carcë. What had been ruined stood whole. Within it, King Gorice lived again.

The lords hardly dared believe it. To see the possibility and lose it now would be worse than never having been offered it.

Gorice had worn a ring shaped like a serpent swallowing its own tail. It had not saved him before. Now his ending had become another beginning.

The queen told the lords to honour the gods’ gift. They rowed home carrying a hope that another kingdom might have called a nightmare.

Next day, the hall shone again. Juss sat among friends, still asking whether the vision had been only a dream.

An ambassador had arrived from Witchland. He asked to be admitted. The lords reached for their swords, suddenly alive with expectation.

The doors would open. Beyond the hall, their people had only just begun learning how to live after a war.