Prince, King, and Darkness

Your life has come to an end.

"Is that the limit of what you can share? Is there nothing else?"

A void of sound swirled in the darkness. Echoed were the words spoken by the one human.

"Cease your infernal quietness, lest my rising ire find you!"

Sadness will find you. And perhaps something more.

"Then I shall seek aid elsewhere."

There was once a young prince. Blond and bold, his shenanigans bordered the terrible and sadistic. The servants feared for him when he visited the scaffold to see thieves' hands cut off and reveled in their screams.

"This insane boy is going to be our king," they'd whisper.

The prince didn't care. When he took the throne, everyone would bow.

Do you know why you're here?

"Avaunt, voice of darkness. Lest your fate be an enchained one."

Only a fool yells into the abyss without want of an answer.

"I've known many a fool. I am... not one."

Then why are you here?

The prince grew. In time, he saw how different he was to his estranged father, the current king, and his mother, a lady turned frail with illness. He saw the kingdom for what it was: a ruin in form of adjoining cities. Criminals ran rampant, and he had the power to determine who lived and who met the guillotine. Many heads were cleaved at his words. Guilty... and some unsure.

This power was so... intoxicating.

"Drunk or not, I knew what I was doing."

No one knows the force behind their own actions. No one.

It was his father's final words which reached him: "don't be a ruler who commands fear." These words went farther than anyone would know. The prince had dreams, but the kingdom had to survive for a dream to ever work. And what of other dreams? Were his more important?

"My duties beckoned action. I aimed to help the people. I tried!"

Then why did you drink the poison?

The red robes become the man. He... I - it was me - the king. The robes that day were heavy with apprehension. My thoughts lent to the future. The jeweled crown was nothing more than a fanciful piece. Many wanted me dead, wanted me gone. I took the chalice and filled it, with clear knowledge of my actions, and drank.

"One man should not hold so much power," said the king. "The shadow is too great on the people who are the lights. It is them who should decide the fate of a kingdom. It is them who aid one another. I was... a useless figurehead unfit to rule. I was a block on progress and the future will sway to the better without my intervention."

Do you hold any regrets?

"I have regrets. More than a castle full of them; more than a life long lived. But this action is not one. A brighter future awaits all subjects at the hands of themselves."

Well done, my son. We're proud of you.