Lino finds his wife in a heap on the floor, and she tells him that she discovered a grave where a sinister skeletal hand reached out for her and poured a strange power into her body (the same power which caused the red light)
When the queen comes too, she discovers a mark on her left hand - it is the Rune of Punishment, a magical entity that grants the power of vengeance to it's bearer. This is an incident that is mentioned in the video game, but we never got to see it. The game also does not mention anything about what Lino and the queen may have done to try and rid themselves of the curse, so I decided to invent a scenario where they consult Jeane - a sorceress who specialises in runes. Jeane is a character who has appeared in just about every Suikoden game ever made, but she is not relaly given a lot of depth on the games; you recruit her and she provides you with a means to customise your characters' rune abilities, but that's about it. I decided to give her a supporting role in this story, and surely, the king would want to seek the advice of a rune expert to find out about this power that his wife has been given, and Jeane is the only rune master in the game universe who actually has a name. so she is kind of an easter egg for my little comic!
So, Jeane diagnoses the Queen with one of the 27 True Runes - which means it can not be removed from it's host's body, not even by the most skilled rune master. She also explains that the rune will drain it's bearer's life, little by little, until the host dies and the rune will transfer to a new body to begin it's destructive cycle again. This is pretty dark for Jeane, as she is usually a ligth hearted character int he games who just shows up and giggles, but here I've got her being a bit more serious. The queen accepts her fate as bearer of the cursed Rune of Punishment, and she vows to stay strong and never misuse the rune's power. Her husband takes her hand reassures her that they are in this together.
