Author's note: Prompt by Krystal Gryphon.

Jenova stood on a palace balcony, bathed in midday sun. She was staring down at the marble city Nantal, capitol of once-proud Kutaar, called the White Jewel of the empire.

There was not much testimony of its former splendor now – a dying city of crumbled walls and shattered dreams. She could hear and see soldiers fighting, but her House was strong and her warriors were not the ones dying. Human screams and inhuman laughter echoed as the streets ran red with blood.

Jenova pushed the human in her grip closer to the railing, forced him to bend over it and look down at his people. Forced him to see the price of his foolish quest to destroy her kind.

“You woke the sleeping beast and loosed the plague of war upon us all,” she said coldly. “Tell me, mortal – is it all you expected?”