The theater itself was a living thing in those final moments before the curtains opened—breathing with collective anticipation, humming with a nervous energy that made the air feel charged.
The artificial moonlight streaming through those impossible windows had dimmed to something softer, more intimate, painting everyone in shades of blue-silver that made faces look ethereal and slightly unreal, like we’d all been transported into some dream where normal rules didn’t quite apply.
The two tiers of seating rose up on either side of us, packed so tightly with bodies that I could smell the mixture of expensive perfumes, cheap colognes, sweat masked by powder, and that particular metallic tang of anticipation that always preceded violence.
The stage itself dominated the space—framed by those heavy burgundy curtains looking intentional now, artistic even, like someone had deliberately aged them for effect. Behind those curtains I could hear muffled movement, whispered instructions, the soft scrape of props being positioned with last-minute precision.
I bounced in Julius’s lap with excited glee that probably looked absolutely ridiculous from an outside perspective but felt completely justified given the circumstances—my body vibrating with manic energy, fingers drumming against my thighs in rhythms that matched my racing heartbeat.
Julius made a small startled sound beneath me, his hands tightening slightly where they rested in my lap, and I could feel his chest rising and falling with breaths that came just a little too fast to be completely calm.
"Easy," he murmured into my ear, his voice carrying traces of his own nervousness wrapped in fondness. "You’re going to launch yourself into orbit if you keep bouncing like that."
"Can’t help it," I whispered back, my grin probably visible even in the dim light. "This is either going to be the most brilliant thing we’ve ever done or the most spectacular disaster, and I genuinely don’t know which outcome I’m more excited about. Both? Is both an option? I’m choosing both."
Just then, the curtains opened with a mechanical whisper, fabric pulling back on well-oiled tracks that Llyod had personally repaired, and the stage emerged from darkness like a painting being unveiled.
The set was deceptively simple—a single room constructed from painted flats that depicted stone walls covered in ivy, a window frame positioned in the center that showed a painted backdrop of rolling hills and distant mountains, a wooden table center stage with two chairs angled toward each other in confrontation rather than conversation, and scattered props that suggested this was someone’s study or meeting room.
The lighting—created through a combination of carefully positioned candles, mirrors, and Julius’s subtle magic manipulation—cast dramatic shadows that made everything look more substantial than it actually was, more real despite being obviously artificial.
And there they were. Hodor emerged from stage right, his massive frame making the set look smaller by comparison. He glared out at the audience with such obvious discontent that several people in the front rows actually leaned back instinctively.
His costume was deliberately rough—a guard’s uniform that had been distressed to look worn and battle-damaged, dark leather and dull metal that suggested years of hard service, with strategic tears that revealed the burn scars covering his skin like topographical maps of pain.
His bald head caught the light and threw it back in sharp highlights, his expression promising violence with the certainty of someone who’d delivered on that promise countless times before.
Orion entered from stage left, and the contrast was immediate. Where Hodor was bulk and intimidation, Orion was grace and curiosity, his slim frame moving across the stage with dancer-like precision, his ginger hair catching the candlelight and transforming into something approaching copper fire.
His costume was scholar’s robes—deep burgundy with gold threading, slightly too fine for someone of common birth, suggesting either theft, patronage, or both.
But what struck me most was his expression as he gazed upon the crowd—childlike wonder, genuine and unfiltered, like he was seeing something beautiful for the first time and couldn’t quite believe his luck.
The audience erupted into cheers that shook the wooden seats beneath us, applause that built and crested like waves breaking against shore.
Some were clearly cheering for Hodor—appreciating the raw physical presence, the promise of brutality—while others had already latched onto Orion’s aesthetic appeal, drawn to the underdog narrative before the story had even begun.
The opening dialogue began with Orion speaking first, his voice carrying across the theater with a projection that seemed impossible from such a slight frame.
"They say a man’s worth is measured by what he’s willing to defend," he said, circling the table with languid grace, fingers trailing across the wooden surface. "But I’ve always wondered—what of the man who has nothing left to lose? Does his worth evaporate with his possessions, or does it perhaps... crystallize into something purer?"
I was speechless. Actually, genuinely speechless, my mouth hanging slightly open in an expression that probably looked deeply unflattering but I couldn’t help because Orion was a natural.
I hadn’t been present during most of his training sessions with Willow—had assumed based on our brief interactions that he was soft-spoken, timid even, someone who’d need coaching just to speak above a whisper.
But up on that stage he was eloquent and witty, commanding the space with effortless charisma, his words flowing with the polish of someone who’d spent years studying rhetoric and performance despite the violence-scarred hands that suggested otherwise.
Hodor, in deliberate contrast, made a show of fumbling his response. "A man’s worth..." He paused, squinted at the table as though his next line was written there, then shook his head with exaggerated confusion. "A man’s... no, wait. Worth is... damn it, what was the line?" He looked directly at the audience, breaking the fourth wall with aggressive intentionality. "Something about defending? Or was it pretending? I forget."
I felt Julius’s body go rigid beneath me, muscles tensing like cables pulled taut, his breath catching in a way that suggested he was trying desperately to suppress whatever emotional reaction was threatening to erupt.
This was sabotage, pure and simple—Hodor deliberately undermining the production, throwing off the careful script that Julius had agonized over for days.
But Orion didn’t miss a beat. His eyes flickered with something sharp and calculated, and he adjusted course with improvisation so smooth it seemed planned.
"Ah, I see the years of guard duty have dulled your memory along with your wit," he said with a smile that was all teeth and no warmth. "Allow me to refresh it for you—you were meant to say that a man’s worth is measured by his scars, because only a brute would confuse suffering with value."
The audience gasped—an audible intake of breath that rippled through the crowd—and I felt my own grin widening because Orion had just turned Hodor’s sabotage into character development, transforming a mistake into intentional condescension that served the narrative.
Hodor’s expression shifted, genuine surprise flickering across his scarred features before being replaced by something darker, more interested. "Careful, scholar," he rumbled, and this time his delivery was perfect, no fumbling, just pure threat. "Men have died for less presumptuous words."
This verbal warfare continued throughout the entire first act, the two of them locked in a battle of wits where Hodor would deliberately fumble or mangle his lines and Orion would counter with improvised brilliance that not only salvaged the scene but elevated it into something more dynamic than the original script had promised.
The play—titled Ma Mort Nous Fait Taire, which Julius and Llyod had agonized over during a three-hour deliberation session that had involved several bottles of wine and at least one minor argument about pronunciation—told the story of a disgraced scholar hired to tutor a brutal guard captain in letters and philosophy, with both men harboring secrets that would inevitably lead to violent confrontation.
It was deliberately simple in structure, designed to be performed by exactly two actors, with all the complexity coming from character dynamics rather than plot mechanics.
When the lights dimmed for the first scene change, I heard the controlled chaos of my crew backstage rearranging props with practiced efficiency—footsteps muffled by fabric, whispered coordination, the soft scrape of furniture being repositioned.
The audience’s anticipation built like pressure in a sealed container, conversations erupting in hushed tones as people leaned toward each other to share reactions and predictions.
"That ginger one is magnificent," a noble woman behind us whispered to her companion. "So clever, so quick with words. I hope he wins."
"Bah," her companion—a man with a voice like gravel in a blender—countered with obvious disdain. "Give me the scarred one. At least he’s honest about what he is. A killer. No pretense, no performance. Just raw capability."
Already they were picking sides, investing emotionally in characters they’d known for barely twenty minutes, and I realized with satisfaction that we’d succeeded in the most fundamental goal of any performance—making the audience care about the outcome.
The second act showed the growing tension between scholar and guard, philosophical debates turning darker, more personal, with each man slowly revealing the wounds that had shaped them.
The third act was pure escalation—accusations, betrayals revealed, the moment where both men realized violence was inevitable and almost welcomed it.
And then came the fourth act, and the setting changed to a town square at night—painted flats rearranged to show buildings silhouetted against a starry sky, cobblestones suggested through clever use of gray paint on the stage floor, and a single streetlamp constructed from brass and glass positioned center stage.
The two prisoners emerged from opposite wings, and the audience’s collective breath caught because both men now carried rapiers—slim, elegant weapons that caught the candlelight and threw it back in silver flashes.
Hodor’s rapier looked almost delicate in his massive hand, like a toy sword a child might play with, but the way he held it suggested he understood perfectly well how to use it.
Orion’s weapon seemed more natural in his grip, an extension of his arm rather than a separate object, and he moved through a series of practice cuts that demonstrated training I hadn’t known he possessed.
"So we’ve come to this," Orion said softly, his voice carrying despite its quietness. "All our words, all our arguments—they were just prelude to this moment. The truth is I’ve wanted to kill you since the day we met."
"Likewise," Hodor rumbled, and for once there was no fumbling, no mockery. "Difference is, I’m going to succeed."
The fight began.
And gods above, it was beautiful. Orion moved first, lunging forward with textbook precision, his blade extending in a perfect straight line aimed at Hodor’s throat.
Hodor knocked it aside with contemptuous ease, metal screaming against metal, and countered with a horizontal slash that would have disemboweled Orion if he hadn’t twisted away with acrobatic grace.
They circled each other, trading attacks and parries, their footwork creating patterns on the stage floor—advance, retreat, sidestep, lunge—all executed with the kind of precision that suggested real training, real experience, real danger.
Blood appeared first as a thin line across Hodor’s cheek when Orion’s blade kissed his skin in passing during a particularly aggressive exchange, and the audience gasped at that first red mark.
Then Orion took a slash across his shoulder that soaked through his burgundy robes and made them darker, wetter, and the crowd’s energy shifted from excitement to something more primal, more visceral.
They leaped across the stage, using the props as obstacles and advantages—Orion vaulting over the painted wall, Hodor smashing through the streetlamp which shattered in a spray of glass that made several audience members cry out in alarm.
The fencing was magnificent, each exchange building in intensity, blades moving so fast they blurred, the sound of metal on metal creating a rhythm that matched the audience’s collective heartbeat.
Then Hodor made a mistake—overextended on a thrust, left his side exposed for half a heartbeat—and Orion’s blade flashed upward in an arc that caught Hodor’s ear and severed it.
The flesh tore with a wet sound that carried across the silent theater, and Hodor’s ear tumbled to the stage floor in a splash of crimson, landing with a soft plop that seemed impossibly loud.
Blood fountained from the wound, painting Hodor’s shoulder and chest in arterial spray. He staggered backward with one hand pressed to the side of his head, his expression shifting from shock, to fury, to something approaching respect.
The audience roared
Orion pressed his advantage with ruthless efficiency, his scholar’s persona completely dissolved into something harder, more dangerous.
He was utilizing his skill to compensate for his lack of size, staying mobile, striking from angles Hodor couldn’t easily defend, turning Hodor’s bulk into a liability rather than an asset.
They exchanged blows with escalating brutality—Hodor taking a slash across his ribs that opened skin and revealed muscle, Orion catching a pommel strike to his temple that sent blood streaming down his face.
Then Orion saw his opening. Hodor lunged with too much force, his balance shifted forward, and Orion sidestepped before driving his rapier directly into Hodor’s eye socket.
The sound it made—wet, intimate—silenced the entire theater.
Hodor’s scream tore through the space like something living, and he stumbled backward clutching at his face, blood and vitreous fluid leaking between his fingers as his remaining eye went wide with shock and pain.
The rapier had penetrated deep, and when Orion yanked it free, chunks of tissue came with it, dripping down the blade in strings of gore that made my stomach turn even as my brain catalogued every detail with cold fascination.
But Hodor didn’t fall. Didn’t retreat. Instead something shifted in his expression—the last vestiges of performance burning away to reveal pure, distilled rage.
He charged, completely abandoning technique, just raw forward momentum powered by fury, pain, and the desperate need to kill the thing that had hurt him.
Orion’s eyes went wide as he realized what was happening, tried to bring his blade up in defense, executed a counter that sent Hodor’s rapier flying from his hand to stick into the wooden stage floor with a vibrating thunk.
But devoid of fear, devoid of self-preservation, Hodor didn’t stop. He continued his charge, closing the distance in two massive strides while Orion was still recovering from the disarming move, and his fist—massive, scarred, covered in his own blood—connected with Orion’s jaw in an uppercut that lifted the smaller man completely off his feet.
Orion dropped to his knees, and I watched with clinical detachment as his jaw hung at an angle that jaws absolutely shouldn’t hang, broken completely, blood pouring from his mouth in a waterfall of red that soaked his robes and pooled on the stage floor.
His eyes went wide with sudden horror, with the realization that he’d lost, that all his skill, wit, and grace had failed him in the end against simple overwhelming force.
Hodor stood above him with a wicked smile, his remaining eye gleaming with triumph as he reached down to grip Orion’s neck with one massive hand.
He lifted—slowly, deliberately, making sure everyone could see—until Orion’s feet left the ground entirely, his body dangling like a puppet with its strings cut, hands scrabbling weakly at Hodor’s wrist in a futile attempt to break free.
The crowd watched in absolute silence, every eye locked on the stage. I felt Julius’s heart hammering against my back as he witnessed his story reaching its violent conclusion.
With a single squeeze—one flexing of Hodor’s massive hand—Orion’s neck snapped with a wet crunch that echoed across the theater like a gunshot. The sound was final, absolute, and Orion’s body went immediately limp, his eyes still open but empty, whatever spark had animated him extinguished in an instant.
Hodor dropped the corpse to the floor where it landed in a heap of burgundy robes and spreading blood. The silence stretched for one eternal heartbeat.
Then the crowd erupted.
Cheers and sobs mixing together in cacophony, nobles on their feet applauding or covering their faces in horror, some laughing with manic glee while others looked genuinely shaken. The energy was wild, uncontrolled, the kind of reaction that confirmed we’d succeeded beyond any reasonable expectation.
I watched it all with not a single spec of emotion in my heart, just cold assessment and philosophical observation.
This was the truth of victory—it didn’t care about cleverness, skill, or who deserved to win based on some arbitrary moral calculus. Victory belonged to whoever was still standing when the violence ended, and morality was just a story people told themselves afterward to make sense of outcomes that fundamentally had no deeper meaning.
Orion had been brilliant, talented, everything a protagonist should be, and he’d lost anyway because sometimes the universe doesn’t give a shit about narrative satisfaction or poetic justice. Sometimes the brutal, scarred monster wins simply by being willing to endure more pain and deal more damage than his opponent could survive.
And honestly? That felt more honest than any fairy tale ending ever could.
Hodor turned to face the crowd then, his ruined face—one eye gone, ear severed, covered in blood both his own and Orion’s—splitting into a victorious grin. He bent slowly, picked up the rapier that had stuck into the stage floor, and raised it high above his head like a champion claiming his prize.