She is right, I think, in what she says. I suppose we can rest easy with that fool being gone and maybe I should be happier, I mean, we were at peace now weren’t we? Heyel however, had always told me that peace was false, that it never really existed save for to pretend for a little while and I never really understood what he meant to be honest, I never really thought about it and yet, I think, with everything that happened in Diveen that maybe I finally do. Peace really is false. It exists for only so long as it takes those secretly plotting against you to rise up and someone is always plotting against someone. Maybe you think the world is right and maybe you think everything is fine, but your version of peace is not everyone’s and that, I think, might be the very key to, well- life itself. Maybe I was too young to have these thoughts and maybe I wasn’t, I don’t know and I don’t really care. I was glad I had figured it out I suppose. After all, I would be King one day and I think its important to understand that there will always, always be someone who wants to see you fall down. As long as the world was made of free will, then it would be made of free thought. Being King is about my being brilliant (even though I am) it’s about my…shaping those free thoughts into a way that benefits myself and maybe that sounds harsh and maybe it hardly sounds like justice or righteousness but it’s the truth and really I think sometimes the truth is far harder to hear then any lie. For now at least however, I don’t see the need to tell Zelda, why worry her? I should enjoy the moment, there would be time for more thoughts on that later.

I let my lips pull back into a grin, nodding now in agreement to her, tail waving slightly in a gesture of good nature before my assurance we were indeed friends seemed to delight her all over again. I don’t know why anyone thoughts girls were difficult, they weren’t, just tell them what they wanted to hear and everything was fine. I think, one day, I would look back at that thought and laugh at myself and the utter naivety I had just displayed, for now however I was merely content to tell the girl the truth- we were friends. We always would be, or at least, I hoped we would. There was a reason to our meeting that day I think, a reason even I am not entirely sure of but it’s there all the same. She was useful to me, I wanted to keep her, I liked her- after all and really like and usefulness seem like a very good combination. Her promise to at least help me, if I ever decide to become something of a tyrant was pleasing, a chuckle on my lips all the same- making light of my own words although in truth I suppose I did fear it. How long does it take to become like Covet? Hateful of everyone and everything around you.

Then again I think he just hated anyone better then him- though that was his own doing. He judged them better- so he hated them, us, Angels and anyone who called an Angel friend. No one judged him, but him and then of course he lost all sense trying to give away Diveen and then trying to defeat the Spirane Queen and then prattling on with his efforts to, I don’t know, breed his own empire. I don’t really know what was with that. Idociy really can’t be helped. I truly hope I don’t become so very…..ridiculous. Indeed I pray Zelda tells me well before that occurs and I hope I have the sense to listen. If Covet taught me anything, I suppose, it was to show me exactly the sort of creature I truly never hope to be. Heyel had been right again- a crown does not make you a King.

My thoughts were interrupted once more by Zelda, the violet of my gaze turning towards her now as she asked after Asteraia, the field pack as my head nodded in response.

“Twice. Once when I was very young to inform the young princesses there that their kingdom would not last- I was right. Second when I was older, to speak to Impa, their Alphess and ask her of…other matters. I need to travel their again though, there are more things I need to speak to Impa about. I like the fields very much. I think I should like to own them one day. Why do you ask?”




h y r u l e
The Once and Future King