Rune

Arklomene’s curse: either kill the person you love or die knowing that he or she has to suffer with having killed you.

This vengeance curse is not perfectly suited to Rune’s situation: he loves Jalina, but he doesn’t expect that Jalina would agonize over killing him. However, he doesn’t want to die and he would never kill an innocent person to save himself.

At the bottom, we see the Lords of the five houses other than Beowald and Redley. My favorite is Lord Dawson, in the center. The other Lords are aghast at the scene before them, but you can see sympathy in Dawson’s eyes . He knows that the pain Rune is enduring is only the beginning. He understands the full impact of the curse because he loves his wife deeply, and she loves him. He’s also heard of this curse before and has had time to ponder how he would feel under it.

The concept for this curse was inspired by a scene in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Buffy has to kill Angel, whom she loves, in order to save the world.