Blood and lust are two things a king can never shy away from and I am no different.I have five wives, yes five beautiful women who service my needs whenever I want them to. Don’t get judgmental too early.History has thought me that  in order to be a powerful ruler,you need to have multiple wives. And a good ruler knows his history like the back of his hand.   I made a grave mistake yesterday, I killed the white haired man’s son . We had him captured him a few weeks back , and locked him up in our dungeons.I went on my usual rounds to visit my prisoners and there he was sitting like a goose , without pride . In a moment of madness , I killed him and sent his head back , just to remind him that his crown prince has been decapitated.  I am sure he would have cried , like any father would on seeing his son’s motionless head .

” Shenshah , we will protect you with every drop of blood we have. We will have a thousand of our best horsemen surrounding your palace. Not even an insect will move in unnoticed .  But you ,please sit inside the prison cell. You will be safest there. Even if anyone breaks through our infantry, no one will expect you to be there. It will give us enough time to protect you if any thing untoward happens”  .   I acquiesced to my bishop Matsya’s suggestion. For once, he seemed to sound smart. Smarter than the whores who roam around across my kingdom . As a reward for his intelligence I asked him to play the game of chess on my behalf. ” The minute the sun sets, the prophecy will cease would have failed. I will live a hundred years.” . A king by default is haughty and it is part of the education we receive. Always blow your own trumpet loud enough so that it echoes across the seven rivers. It keeps the enemies at bay , they said. Walking across the gallows is quite familiar for me . After all I have to hand pick the thirty two people who will play each other today.  The prisoners gathered near the cell and sang hymns in praise of me. After a few years of listening to the same chants, your ear drums feel exasperated and you want to scream out “  Just get to the point, enough of fawning and bootlicking ” , Alas, if only being a king was as simple as being a minion.

I wandered around the cell in squares, triangles , circles and in every other geometrical shape I had learned in my childhood.Suddenly I heard chaos outside. The boisterous crowd were screaming and I felt blind. I wished I had a Sanjeeva like how Dhirudirishtra had in Mahabarata to see how the people, my people had turned blood thirsty like vampires.How I wish magic and sorcery existed.And then silence. The bishop must have made his move? Did he start the game like how I used to start?I sat in my cell helplessly hoping against hope that the guard would tell me what was happening outside.

The sun light was slowly diminishing and soon I would have defeated the prophecy. The very prophecy that threatened my existence in this world. There was a loud cheer again . Maybe, the game was heading towards a result? Was the dumb bishop smart enough to win?  I cannot afford to lose. The sun slowly set , and there was darkness in the prison cells. I had won the battle . I have conquered Death and the thought of living a hundred years made me smile.Almost immediately,my cell was opened by the servant who must have been instructed by the bishop to have it opened upon sunset and I went back to my palace. My safe haven henceforth. The chants of  ” All hail the King ” grew louder . I went and stood outside my balcony to smell the fresh air of victory. The victory over the prophecy. ” You made a mistake yesterday Sire, you shouldn’t have killed him. He was my son. “  and sunk a knife through my back , and stabbed me twice.  I fell down on my knees turning and looked at my conqueror . He had the turban on his head no more, the turban a bishop should have. His white hair flowed down like silk , on his shoulder.“Matsya? You..?” . The white haired bastard looked at me and smiled and stabbed me again . Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the moon move away . The sun shone again. It had been a solar eclipse.

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