Cera & Edwyn (Revealed!)

The following is a poem I wrote for a local RP group, and I feel like it's decent enough to publish here.
Going into it, assume that you live in a world where there exists a famous play, The Tragedy of Cera & Edwyn by the playwright Eversong. Shades of Romeo & Juliet. The play is set in a country called Breoce, a far northern land which is sparsely populated, and given to infighting among its clans. Lacking things like audiences and theaters, the play is mostly performed in southern lands, large cities, and the like.
I thought it might be fun and immersive to not only create a story from this fictional world, but to create a correction to the popularly known (yet incorrect) version of that story. A good real-world analogy would be to give something like Romeo & Juliet (the obvious inspiration here) a new "true" ending.
It's for fun. Try to have fun. I did.


~~~~~~~


Two houses locked in mortal feud,
Pursuit of peace was long eschewed,
And each had filled a graveyard with the other’s cherished kin.
But late, to each - a scion born,
Whose heart knew more of love than scorn.
And bridges that were burned by hate, perchance, their love could mend.

~~~

A favorite tale, no doubt you’ve heard:
Immortalized in every word
By Eversong the Bard - whose sense of drama is divine!
But up among Breocean folk,
The famous version is a joke.
So if you’ll all allow, I’ll tell a tale more genuine.

By now you may have guessed my plan,
For no tale is more famous than
The tragic, doomed elopement of dear Cera and her beau.
Forbid to wed as they would choose, 
they fashioned an elaborate ruse,
And Cera and her Edwyn slipped away so none would know.

The Smuggler’s Pass was freedom’s gate,
And at appointed hour late,
The two met ‘neath a moonless sky, and south to freedom, fled.
In Bracken town, they’d stowed a raft.
Without a sound, they launched the craft,
And straight into the Pass’ dark, the tiny vessel sped.

Now those of you who’ve heard this tale
Are watching for a blood-dyed sail.
For this is where great Eversong turns hope into despair.
~
The Crimson River-Kings appear!
And being vicious privateers,
They take the lovers captive, and they bring them to their lair.

They meet that villain, most abhorred!
Rhadiman, the Pirate Lord,
Who duels with Edwyn for his love, and cuts the brave lad down.
Gripped with fear, our Cera runs!
Dodging fifty pirate guns,
She’s cornered on a cliff, from which she jumps, and surely drowns.

When back at home, the houses great
Learned of their poor children’s fate,
And how their constant feud had robbed the world of love so pure,
The flames of anger douse at last
And both sides put away the past,
And thus did lovers’ tragedy at last a peace assure.

But wait - “I know that tale”, you say.
“You promised me another way!”
And fear thee not, dear listeners, for now, I keep my word.
The lovers fled, that part is true,
They really braved the river, too,
But after that, the truthful tale becomes a bit absurd.

Their raft was dashed against a stone.
They huddled there, soaked to the bone,
Until the River-Kings appeared, and saved them from their fate.
By nightfall, they were warm and hale
And as they told their star-crossed tale,
They stirred the noble heart within the River-Kings’ first mate.

The first mate sprea d their tale around,
And when the pair woke up, they found
That even Rhadiman was sympathetic to their plight.
Together, they cooked up a ruse -
A likely tale that could be used
To end the families’ feuding, while assisting lovers’ flight.

They spread the tale you’d heard before
To every passing troubadour.
Within a week, the news had brought the feuding to an end.
And though they missed their homes and kin,
The lovers found a new home in
The most unlikely place, and with the most unlikely friends.