The Fall of the Kingdom

by Philip Hoyler

The sun was red that morning. But that was not uncommon on these dark days. He knelt in the field, the valley between two low hills, shocked at what he had just done. Here, where just a few hours before two mighty armies had met each other, he was alone.

Empires came and went they said. Then another would rise up to be overthrown.

~~Did it have to be the way that it was? Why must such things fail? Why did his dreams get shattered? Why?!~~

He was a soldier of the kingdom of Thanek; the great empire that spanned three continents and was considered to be the epitome of greatness. Its reign and that of its benevolent kings had lasted for more than 1000 years. It had treasured peace and done all that was necessary to keep it.

Thanek’s ambassadors were the best of the best; there were few inter-kingdom issues that were not solved before they even came to the attention of the king. When they failed, the king himself would move to solve the problem. If worse came to worst, the Thanek Honor Guard was the largest and best trained fighting force in all the known world. It was said that even the dragons to the south feared the wrath of one of their warriors.

~~He was a man, a person, a father, a friend.~~

The line of kings grew weak and indecisive, but still very benevolent. 400 years had not seen open war on the soil of Thanek kingdom, and the new king would do anything to keep it that way. Anything, including appeasing those who made demands.

Word had come to the capital city that a new empire had risen up on the borders of the Thanek kingdom and was making demands of territory and—more frighteningly—weapons. The king of the Thanek kingdom gave the territory, but would not simply give away the fine arms produced by the smiths. Such a thing would deprive the Thanek Honor Guard of its distinction.

There were those in the land that disagreed, at both ends. Some said that giving the land was simply wetting the appetite of this as of yet unnamed foe. Others vehemently held that not giving the weapons was asking for war; after all, their enemy would find weapons of their own. What was the difference? Just a few could not cause too much trouble, could they?

Rumors began to spread. People became fearful. After a report of an entire town burning to the ground, some began to steal from the smiths, in an attempt to appease those that would threaten them. Smuggling the finest swords and spears became common and the Thanek Honor Guard began to tighten down on the illegal activity. After all, if there to be war, they would win, therefore this desire to comply with an unknown enemy was non-essential.

Then the guardsmen grew to become despised. More rumors flew: One about the Guardsmen ransacking a home and beating a family, one about them using excessive force on a suspect, one about the methods used to get confessions out of their prisoners. Even those who knew the honor with which the Guardsmen conducted themselves began to wonder if there was any base for these tales.

A lie that is partially true is the most dangerous kind of all.

The anger of the people began to show. They began to hear rumors about what happened to those that dared to approach the king even though they were free to do so as they had been for 1000 years.

Slowly order fell away to dissent and chaos.

No one knew why, but the people began to mistrust, then despise, then even hate their neighbors. People moved many times, families divided. Lives were torn apart. Laws had to become stricter; as a result experts in the law became more and more common. No longer did the people care about each other, only themselves. To them, everyone else could be an enemy.

Then came a blow that shook the entire kingdom: the king himself disappeared.

His instructions were to “maintain the status quo” until he returned.

It had 9 years since then, the steward had done well and the kingdom nearly recovered, but then his health failed him and he passed on.

Rumors that he had been poisoned or in other ways murdered flew. Almost no one believed it when the Supreme Commander of the Thanek Honor Guard announced that a thorough investigation had determined that the steward had died of natural causes.

The question on the forefront of nearly everyone’s minds was whether or not the Supreme Commander intended to set himself up as dictator. He did run the country for a short time, but followed the policies of the King as much as he could and stepped down when the steward’s son was ready to take over.

Bad tempers abounded.

Just weeks later, the first of the bloodletting began. There were many who felt that the son of the steward was too young and incompetent, and that the Supreme Commander would make a good leader for the country. There were also many who feared a military dictatorship and wanted to see the Supreme Commander resign from his post completely. Neither side was appeased this time.

No one knew where it started, that did not matter for it was soon everywhere. Neighbor rose up against neighbor, father against son, brothers against each other. Even the Honor Guard divided.

Fighting was everywhere, the rose red every morning for there was blood shed every night.

Then matters became even worse. The Honor Guard re-formed into two separate units that engaged in all out warfare.

~~He had once been a noble leader, someone who was revered by all, now he was gone.~~

Then had come the day of reckoning.

The divided Thanek Guard met on the plains of Gustus and fought there.

The battle had begun at sunrise with surprise attacks from both armies. They intermixed to the point where there were no longer battle lines. Every man fought only to survive, not knowing who was friend or foe to him.

The Supreme Commander entered the battle himself at noon when he realized any hope of organized combat was lost and he was needed for his blade rather than his leadership abilities.

The fight lasted into the night; the classing of steel mixing with the screams of the dead and dying.

Clouds rolled across the sky; the stars and moon refused to shine. But the rain did not come to quench the flame of battle that burned beneath them.

As the light just became to appear above the horizon, the Supreme Commander was one of just 30 left of the once 10,000 strong honor guard. He also stood alone.

~~He was a great man, in retrospect even those who hated him in his life agreed on that; but he could no longer handle the directed attacks of those remaining who sought his life.~~

As the sun peaked over the hill, a lone rider appeared, and stopped in horror as the Supreme Commander fell.

The wrath of the rider was terrible, he drew his own sword and fell upon the remaining once-guardsmen. The flash of his blade split the air. Its song pierced the darkness of the early mourning. The blades edge was fine and swift, the weapon was expertly handled.

Those that were opposing him tried to fight back, but he blocked or avoided every blow. None could touch him.

His foes tried to flee, but none made it more than ten yards.

The rider’s anger cooled and he went to the side of the Supreme Commander.

The sun rose red, here in the small valley between two hills he knelt, shocked at what he had just done. The light shone on the kneeling figure and the corpses around him. Then a voice spoke, the Supreme Commander of the Thanek Honor Guard had one last thing to say before he died.

“Your majesty… I have seen your return, I die at peace… Please, don’t forget…”

As his friend, the leader of what had once been the greatest fighting force in the world, died the returned king thought about what he had learned. There was no enemy making demands; it was all rumors, in the end the only thing that could destroy the greatest empire ever on the earth, was itself. This is what the king had learned on his journey, he had left weak and returned strong.

Looking down, he saw a small flower on the field next to the body of the Supreme Commander, on the only spot on the field that was not blood red. The flower was blue with a yellow center.

“No my friend,” he said, “you will never be forgotten.”

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