"Duty until Death."
"This is what my Father often repeated sickly upon his deathbed."
"A monarch holds onto his scepter of power until his palms slice open and a river of blood flows. Blood to satiate the evergrowing greed of the Dukes! Blood to fullfill the lust for power until he can no longer feel his libido. Blood to feed the millions of starving. The ones so forlorn to work, to earn! Blood to appease the thousands whose hearts were plunged in the cruel wars that were raged to lay claim to these lands. Lands as far as the horizon and some even further! Those hundreds and thousands of skulls that bear the weight of this kingdom. An age of turmoil so great that none remained unaffected!"
"This is what he repeated in a feverish rage!"
"Is it not enough for you to feed on me like leeches that you circle around my deathbead like a pack of hyenas, a group of vultures. Vulgar and obscene in your desires, with your scantily clothed ambitions? Is it not enough that my bones shall bear the weight even after death? Is it not enough that my blood has flown like great rivers? Understand this! Understand that there is no god! There is no saviour, there is only sacrifice."
"And what did you say in response, your majesty?"
"What did I say?"
"Yes, your majesty."
Silence grew. A silence so cold that even the greatest of rivers would have frozen twice over! A silence so sharp that it makes old wounds tingle in pain and the hairs on the neck rose in anticipation. Not one, not one of the multitudes ushered even a whisper. Theirs breath stuck in their throats and refused to move, weighing them down like chainmail.
Yet, not even a word was spoken. A dark looming shadow grew in the royal court. It slowly ushered a darkness like no other! This shadow clung onto every member like tar, cold and sticky. It leeched all the warmth from them and a chill pervaded deep into their bones. A cold and unforgiving storm was brewing in the horizon, as if to envelope this kingdom of war. A cold so harsh that it froze them both inside and outside, they dared not shuffle their feet, even as their legs were sore and it pained and pained and pained. They wouldn't dare. Slowly, it was as if they had become marble statues instead of living beings. Part of the marble that they stood on, a material that cost its weight in gold.
"I said"
The moment was here. The moment it would all begin. The moment which poets and bards would tell and retell over and over again till their mouths ran dry and they died. A moment that is impossible to express in words. The moment from which there is no going back.
A deep sigh reverberated in the large but densely packed hall, yet not one person dared interrupt the long drawn diatribe their monarch was about to complete. Their monarch, who ruled with an iron fist for decades over this vast kingdom with no opposition.
"Father, you are not worthy. You are not worthy to carry on this legacy nor to besmirch it with your delusional ramblings. If it is blood that is needed, I shall give. I shall be King, then I shall become Emperor and then I will rule over every living being as far as my eye can see!"
"They will bend the knee!"
Every person knelt on the ground at the same time. Their knees thudding as the same time!
"Even if they bleed, they shall not get up!"
"Your Majesty!"
"Silence!"
The person who tried protesting was a Duke. Yet it did not matter, for he turned into ash.