The Shadow of the Accursed Executioner

Chapter 11: The Power of the Crown

Many portraits stared from between two walls of deep and finely red walls, all with blue eyes and silver hair from within their painted worlds. Their borders gleamed and glimmered of gold and bronze from even the slightest move, as we pass another painted depiction of a king which was inscribed as thirty-nine. Then across from the opposing wall of the thirty-ninth king was the thirty-eighth king. For the hall continued until the final portrait had etched of a final number, before a room of white stairs leading into many halls and rooms throughout the palace.
For the last king of the past rulers in the hall of portraits was shown as number twenty-seven.
The twenty-seventh king.
"The numbers. They end here." I wondered, staring up at the depiction of the twenty-seventh king, his blue eyes glowed like a bundle of crystals within each eye. He sat on a large, pale throne within a backdrop, a smudgy plain of black and grey nothingness. Yet the portrait of the twenty-seventh king had farther deepened, oddly unwell, as if he had displayed an uneasy sense of regret, a lonely dread shown by his old and sad mouth beneath his long and pale nose inside a painted world of seeming, unseeable plight.
"Ah yes." Ayu wondered, his queer voice grew rhetorical. "King Aragenn Andswall, the twenty-seventh king. Also known as Aragenn, the Untouchable."
"Untouchable? Then, he must of been a great swordsman." I thought. "To have a name such as that."
"Aha," Ayu grinned, "far from it." He said with certainty.
Ayu's smile had now changed, yet to seem more false. Then he stared up at the depiction of King Aragenn's bleak and lonely world.
"He was named untouchable because arrows and swords phased through his body." He said. "Nothing that attempted to hurt him could touch him. Yet his body, his existence was simply whole in this world, like any ordinary man. He sought to build a new world, not a new world itself, but a world where no longer humanity must draw into their unruly nature. So he decided to use his 'power', his unusual form of existence, you could say, his body which phases through the existence of this world, to drive fear into the hearts of his enemies. He told them...he screamed and he reigned-to keep a lie for the lives of his people. Then finally, he achieved what he wanted, and this brought him what he needed... Time. Enough time. Enough time to build a new world with his followers. For he had called this new world...a village."
Then Ayu strolled, passing behind me, resting his hands onto the pommel of his hilt as he appears beside my opposing side, pacing his steps, each baring a thought.
"Then eventually...Aragenn's village, had become this palace." He said, his queer voice changed, somewhat proudly. "A small realm...separated from beyond. And now the people, our people, of the Capital thrive within a new world. A world were our people can be safe, who are controlled, but only swayed toward the moral of rule. For yet even till this day, they are guided by the descendants of Aragenn's followers, their noble lords."
I backed away from the portrait of the twenty seventh king, astonished I were with King Aragenn.
"He was quite the man then." I said, amazed, yet it were too strange, his ability to phase through all forms of existence.
-His body.
Untouchable. A nonexistent body, I thought, yet able to exist within this world as another human.
"...Indeed he was. An impressive man. But this is common knowledge, Ghen."
"Well, I..."
"Hm, hehehehe." He giggled, so sudden, he placed his left hand over his mouth like the shaping of a lemon.
"Kiah never believed that Aragenn was untouchable. So she never taught me all there was to know of him." I said, as Ayu paced his steps behind me once more, then to appear back beside me in his original place.
"Then there is more you must know." He said, playful, and purposeful, his voice was mysterious, his smile lingering, as he steps away.
"More to know." I mocked his words. "You have a hall of incomplete kings."
For Ayu had said nothing, as he continues to stroll away in silence.
"Then where are the remaining kings?" I added, curious to know of, and to seek out the past kings before Aragenn.
For Ayu had said nothing, still, as he leaves the hall of kings.
"Come." He said. His voice was distant.
Then I entered the room beyond the hall of kings, which the room had reside as a wide flight of stairs, white they were the steps and the handrails, a golden shine, curving out as a display as two round orbs to the bottom of the rails. For before the flight of stairs were two large rooms to see out, left and right by the hall of kings, which one was a stunning hall to dine with many and a ballroom to dance within the other.
"You seem impressed, Ghen." Ayu remarked, appearing part way up the stairs, he clutched his right hand around the grip of his sword as he rests his other against the handrail.
"Yes." I said, with a plain voice. "I am impressed, Ayu..." Then I smiled.
I climbed up the stairs, now to stand beside Ayu.
"Ahaha." Ayu laughed with an adoring voice from his queer throat. "I find it quite amusing, Ghen. We have been friends ever since we were boys." As Ayu brought his arm around my elbow, now to lock our arms together in place. "To be friends for so long...yet this, is the first time, for you to be inside my home."
Then Ayu brought me up the stairs, now to see the climb split at a wall into two smaller flights of stairs, as the flights of white and gold stairs had conjoined together again at the base of the second floor, (with many more endless and brightly, decorative rooms), then to see another flight of stairs to the third floor.
And the third floor of the Silver Palace was quiet, a little dark across a passing hall, of large and looming twin-doors from the stair's ascension. Then Ayu brought his arm away from mine as he pressed his hands against another set of large doors, which had stared back, patterned of silvery indents from around a corner, continuing as that long hall.
But Ayu froze in place for a moment before the door. Then he turns to see to my eyes.
"Inside...is my bed chamber." He announced. "Come. We shall discuss more inside." As he leans back into his silver doors, revealing.
And the hall brightened from within his bed chamber, as if he had the power to control, to shine a clear light, like a type of dawn-day light, bright and enchanting. As he begins to strip away his short cape, now to place it without a care over his kingly bed. For Ayu's chamber had reside of two wide balconies looming between his bed, where you were to see the roof of the palace, the King's Court, and the many sectors of the realm and beyond, to stare deep at a merging blue sky of grey, casting over the rest of the world where creatures and Pillagers live beyond the walls of the realm. For Ayu's bed chamber had reside of a large mirror staring down at his wide and soft bed of endless blankets and silky coverings. And between the right-side balcony with a breeze passing through white chairs and a giant mirror, stood of fine shelves filled with many books along with a longsword leaned up, a little hidden, the hilt dressed beneath a curtain, against a white wall between.
"Ghen." Ayu called me, now as his face was subtle and grand. He strips away the scabbard around his waist. "Now, as I had mentioned before, there is much to discuss."
Then Ayu smiled, to grin at my confusion.
"You may sit or lay wherever you see, Ghen. Please."
Then eventually I approached Ayu's bed, now to sit at the end beside him as I pull away the worn boots from my feet then to drop into his bed.
-For yet but his bed, were like endless clouds conjured by angels, I thought.
"Are you going to tell me...about the rest of the early kings..." I asked, wondering and now so relaxed in Ayu's bed. "Your bed is...very nice Ayu..."
Now I had shut my eyes, yet with ears to listen.
"Ahaha!" He giggled so deeply queer, that his laugh had raise my weary eyes.
He rose from the seat of his comforting bed.
"Then finer beds for the men and women of the realm shall become my first priority, once I become king." He remarked, for yet his smile grew faint.
"..."
"However..." Ayu wondered, now as he peers out into the many sectors of the realm from his left balcony.
Then I sprung up from Ayu's bed, now to stand by his side.
"What's your plan for the realm, Ayu?" I asked, expecting an answer.
But Ayu hadn't spoke. For he continues to stare down at the realm with his slouched body and his arms laid against the rail of the balcony, as calm beats of wind rustled his silver hair, his eyes now concealed.
"Whenever my father decides to abdicate the throne, or when the day of his passing shall come, I will create a perfect world." He said.
"..."
"...I will expand upon the realm." He added. "We will build another wall, to conquest the lands beyond."
For Ayu's words were strong, yet as a king and prince, he were.
"And only then, perhaps..." For Ayu's smile had now changed-with passion through his eyes yet, it, but his smile, had displayed an obsession. "Perhaps I shall bring this form of order across the entire world."
I thought.
"But, this ambition, Ayu..."
"'But'?" He repeated, now with eager mischief to his voice. Then Ayu slammed the palms of his hands against the rail. "No please-do go on." He mocked my objection.
Then he was silent, awaiting for me to reign the reality upon his ambitious plans to expand the Capital of the Realm.
"A perfect world." I thought. "Ayu...I envy what you seek. But we are far from a reality where the Pillagers will seek peace." I said. "They're monsters... ...Aren't they? I guess...there is a reason why the knights are never here."
But Ayu continues to stare off in silence.
"And I hear that your father is quite a ruthless king-"
"...?!"
Now, but as Ayu turns to stare up at my eyes-now to squeeze my wrists as he shuts his eyes in seduction.
As he, began to moan from his throat, his lips so sweet, so wet to arouse as he holds out the deepest breath of a longing kiss into my mouth.
Then he released, ending with a heavy breath from my lips-
"A-Ayu?" I spoke from his kiss-conflicted, for his kiss were like a revelation, our friendship, now delved into a sudden seem of love.
For he, had said nothing.
He, had only smiled from his kiss to me.
Then from the breath he had left he kissed me once more with farther lust, now eating away at my mouth, his tongue drenched in slags of dribbling spit.
Yet for Ayu's love felt forbidden beyond.
"Then tell me this." He spoke from the release of his second kiss, smiling. "To see your face now, this moment..." He thought," ...is it not perfect?"
"..."
"Then surely, all our ambitions, our dreams, are possible."
Then he pulled me away from the balcony.
For Ayu groped me as we backed away into his bed chamber. He stripped me down of my tunic now to resume his next kiss, his body laid over mine over his kingly bed, as he too strips down all his fine clothes.
For his slim and pale body was lean, built as a warrior he was. His white chain and silver hair dangled down to caress against my chest with his silver hair, as he placed his fingers across my broad shoulders, now to caress down my stomach with his thighs clutched against my hips. Then he began to thrust with his hips as his mouth gaped of joy, our eyes now staring deep into one another, as he continues moan and pant from the stalk of my penis.