The Prince, Part II

The prince had been mistaken in thinking that he would be pursued by the king’s men after exposing his father as a traitor. After six months of being left alone in his travels and attempting to reveal the ways of the treasonous king to those in distant kingdoms, the prince decided to go back to his own kingdom and find out why.

Upon entering the village, the peasants that had once groveled in the dirt before him now turned their backs on him. The prince was granted access to the palace only after the king was told that he had arrived.

He found himself alone in the great hall with the king looking down on him as he would an enemy. But the prince also felt the eyes of something else upon him.

“So, I hear that you’ve been spreading lies about me,” the king said, barely able to contain his rage against his once-favored son.

“I followed you on your last trip before the fire,” said the prince. “I now know that you are both a traitor and a liar."

“How dare you insult me!” screamed the king. “I will have you killed!”

“I doubt it,” said the prince calmly. “It’s my guess that someone else now pulls your strings when it comes to making such decisions. Otherwise, you would have had me killed already."

“Is your master hiding in the background even now?” the prince continued.

From a curtain behind the throne, a man stepped out and walked towards the king. He approached the throne saying loud enough for the prince to hear, “Leave us now.”

The king reacted as if he had been struck, but obeyed this strange man without even a backward glance towards his son as he exited the palace.

The man took his place on the throne and asked the prince to be seated next to him.

“I figured you would come back here sooner or later. Have you had any luck convincing anyone of your ridiculous story?” the man laughed.

“First of all,” said the prince, “Who are you and what do you have on my dad to make him your subordinate?”

The man laughed. “My name is Lucius and I have nothing on him,” he said. "I merely stoked his greed and the rest of him soon followed.”

“I understand,” said the prince. “Your kind have been run out of all the other kingdoms at one time or another due to taking over their money supply and implementing usury to bleed the people dry. Then you stole a kingdom from people who only wanted to live in peace."

The prince saw that the man had a change in his eyes for a moment, but maintained his composure.

“Whatever you may think," Lucius replied, “The aristocracy in my kingdom are the power behind the throne, both in your kingdom as well as my own.”

“And you are from the kingdom of darkness,” said the prince. It was not a question.

The man laughed again. “You should talk with the villagers the next time you see them. They now believe otherwise. They are calling us the kingdom of light."

“Of course, they’ve also been informed regarding your treason against the king,” he continued. "They were told to turn their backs upon you if you were to ever again enter their village. As you have already surmised regarding the king, they would kill you themselves if allowed to do so.”

“You see,” said Lucius, “We know that you will never be believed by the masses as your kind never has been on a scale that has ever made any difference. Your kind have always ended up being killed off by the same mentality that we dupe into worshipping your image 100 years later. Of course, our lineage will recreate your image in a way that best serves our own purposes.”

“But it doesn’t have to be that way for you,” said Lucius. “Give your fealty to me and my kingdom now and you will follow your father to the throne. Your complete domination over the peasants will remain intact and you can use them as your beasts of burden to fulfill all of your desires. As long as those desires do not conflict with our own.”

Looking at this vile creature before him with his beady eyes and a mouth locked in a perpetual sneer, the prince understood why Lucius could never be king himself. It was impossible for his visage to hide its contempt for all of humanity. He had the face that even his own people could not trust.

“Before you reject my offer out of hand” Lucius continued, “Let me tell you what kind of future you will have if you do. As I've stated before and am sure you have already seen for yourself over the past months, no one will believe anything you have to say, even while everything you have been talking about is actually happening."

“They will believe only what we tell them to believe as they have been trained to obey only the aristocracy. From our schools to our religions, they are used to create mindless slaves who obey without question, no matter how much we take from them in the process. We get them to kill each other off in the name of their god who was manufactured by us. That’s what they wish to bow before and that is what they get!”

“Anyway, what do you care about these slaves?” said Lucius. “You will have them back bowing before you before this day is through. All you have to do is give your allegiance to me.”

The prince shook his head sadly. “Those are not my ways anymore. I can’t be part of the bloodshed of war used to enslave them. I also know that ruling others always comes with a price of being ruled myself. Your presence is the only proof of this I need.”

“I will never give fealty to the likes of you,” continued the prince. “You are a betrayer of all humanity, the lowest of creatures who has deluded himself into believing that you are something you are not. But even in your own kingdom, there are those who see you for what you are. They no longer wish to participate in enslaving others through war as the chains are now also being fitted around them."

“Enough!” Lucius shouted. “Be on your way; you are banished from the kingdom. I will have my servant announce it shortly.”

“You must never come back here under penalty of death," Lucius said. "But go anywhere else you wish. We will not pursue you. You are not a threat to us as you will simply be ignored.”

As the prince walked away from the kingdom, the villagers once again turned their backs upon him. He wondered how much of what Lucius had said was true.