The King's Champion

The King holds his little Games. The two towers stretch to the sky. Each is square and concrete and insurmountable. One is for the King and his people. In it there are gardens and parties and wonderful times. In the other is housed his Champions. The two only come together for the Games.
Every child at the age of 14 is signed up to compete in the Games. They might not be selected, but if they are, they are moved to the second tower.
The most promising children are trained to be the best fighters, so that they can kill and die for the King’s entertainment.
The King is ill now. The kingdom is held in trust for his daughter by the Queen, who is not the girl’s mother. She did not bear children, so the girl was borne by a lesser consort.
The Queen may resent the child for this, but she will do her job. She will take care of the Games.
The King’s Champion is very young and very handsome. Though common, he is respected throughout the kingdom for his prowess. He is sleeping with the King’s younger brother. He is beautiful and he disdains those who disdain him.

Some years ago there was a third tower, not made of cement, it was little more than a tall mass of simple huts. In the lowest hut, the muddiest, lived a small family. A mother alone with her three children. The daughter and the younger son were not of age to compete, so they were safe for now. The eldest son was already of age, but the mother had not yet put him forward.
The King’s men asked about this, and she said he was ill, an affliction of the blood, that he would be a pitiful champion.
The younger son is named Quinn. He became known for his wisdom, and the king would sometimes pose riddles to him.
A time of great blight and illness came to the land, and the King’s Games fell into chaos. The people starved and rioted. Quinn offered the king a solution. It was genocide.
During the upheaval, the elder son came to his brother. He didn’t wish to live in this misery. He sought to prove himself. The affliction his mother claimed was not real, and he wanted to prove what he was worth. So Quinn helped him escape.
He went to the second tower and entered himself as a champion. When the mother learned that one of her sons had sent the other to his death, she killed herself.
When the King’s men had finished massacring the rioting poor, the ghetto in which the small family lived was all but destroyed. Quinn asked that they not torch the ruins, but let him live out the rest of his life there, alone, as penance for murdering his people. The King agreed.

Now a time of chaos has come upon the kingdom once more. Quinn, now a grown man, still lives in the ruins of his home. His brother is the King’s Champion, and does battle every week. He lives at the top of the second tower, in the best conditions of any commoner, and lies with the King’s bastard brother.
The old Queen and the young Princess must make amends to save the kingdom from this new doom. And perhaps this time the bloodshed will be worse.