"All I have left is dignity" by @KarmaSlave (Samantha Nowinski)

This is Lord Ziera, father of my bad-guy character Zei, from a scene in the story my friend Fei Fei and I are making up. Here's the scene..

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"Give up, Lord!" a soldier cried out to the injured king, who was face to face with his enemy. "There is no hope for the death Irken empire! You must give up!"

Lord Ziera painfully looked back at the group on the other side of the room--Sapphire, his faithful servant...Ric, the one who's been with her in the great search...and Zei, his son...the son who grew to hate him worst than ever. From the look on his son's face, Ziera can tell that he wouldn't care if he died or not.

"...I can't," he replied. "My dignity is the last thing I have left. My kingdom is gone, his faithful workers have abandon and turned on me...even my son grew to hate me..and he even ran away from me.."

Then there was a sudden pause in the air. It was quiet. Tears slowly ran down the Lord's face, but he continued.

"..And I lost what was one of the most important things in my worthless life...my love, who was there for me when I needed every ounce of support, even when I was wrong...I changed after her death. At first I thought it was good..but I didn't realize all the damage I was doing..I didn't realize I was hurting my wife, and my son in the process..I realized my mistakes too late..Now I can never take them back.." Artwork © Copyright 2002 Samantha Nowinski