Kingdoms of old had risen and fallen as ages passed, with alliances forged and broken. Over the course of history, there were many known tyrant kings, though they were only known as such in the eyes of history. One such tyrant king was known as Lewis the Conqueror, a widely known King who ruled over many lands with an iron fist.

Legend states that he swept across the lands, burning everything in his path. Kings and Queens bowed before him, offering him their wives and daughters to satiate his bloodlust, but none could stand up to his wrath. But, history is never kind to its subjects, and time can twist tales of heroism into tales of villainy. It is often left to the scholars to interpret the tales left behind, to weave history into a truth…

“No…that just sounds pretentious,” Xeik said as he sat back, sighing. He looked up from the document he was writing, towards the massive Kingdom of Auclair. Taking the city had been the easiest part, and King Lewis had offered amnesty to any soldier who laid down their arms. It was the main castle itself that had been under siege for days.

“I just hope that idiot knows what he’s doing,” the scholar said as he looked back down to the parchment. “A lot of neighboring nations aren’t going to like this. They’ll see it as a threat…”

–

King Lewis marched through the halls with a small retinue of soldiers at his back. So far, the resistance had been minimal. The few that refused to surrender were slain, leaving the path open for them to hunt Auclair’s pathetic excuse for a ruler.

“Felix!” Lewis roared, his voice echoing through the empty halls. “Show yourself, you coward!”

Rhenakos rolled his eyes, “Yes….call the coward out. Let’s see if he runs right to you.”

“Shut up,” Lewis shot back. “I have Vela scouting. If he’s running from me, he’s running towards her…”

The red haired knight smirked, “I bet she’s not wearing much again…she always did like going with minimal clothing when she-”

Another knight smacked Rhenakos in the back of his head. “I’m right here, you know,” Drake said with a glare. “Just because you two used to date, doesn’t mean you ca-”

“Would you two shut up for five minutes? I might miss the-” Lewis paused, and smirked. “Signal. There she is. We’ve got him.”

The small band of knights followed Lewis into the courtyard, where Felix and those loyal to him had gathered. Felix was bleeding from a small cut on his forehead, but his knights looked worse for wear.

“Well, well,” Lewis said as he walked towards the circle. “Sniveling as always, Felix.” He took a threatening step forward, and the small group of knights seemed to quiver. “Did this miserable excuse of a human explain anything to you? Did he warn you of the beast that came knocking at your door?” The look on Lewis’ face seemed to shift to something close to glee. “Did he tell you nothing of the Tyrant Phoenix? The Conqueror King who’s black flames raze the countryside? My flames burn everything to the ground leaving nothing in their wake….”

The small group was now shaking. Felix pointed, “How DARE you! You dare attack the proud kingdom of-”

“Shut your mouth,” Lewis said as he raised his blade, pointing it at Felix. Black and blue wings erupted from his back, jet black flames circling the Tyrant Phoenix. “Those who wish to run…flee. Tell them of the horrors you witnessed here. Tell them of my legend…” He smirked. “Those who wish to stay can burn at the side of their King…”

At once, the group of knights scattered, leaving Felix on his knees, alone.

“Ah yes…right where you belong,” Lewis said as he placed the edge of the blade to Felix’s neck.

“Kill it! Kill it now!” Felix yelled before his life was ended.

There were guards that had stood down but there was a singularly group that ran towards the stairs and up them.

“Oi, boss…” Vela popped up. “The third floor window is bricked up… Wonder if that’s the it he was talking about.” However, she saw that Lewis was already on the move to the upstairs going after the knights that had run away.

Flashback to the war prior

Alvaro the Fey King spit in Lewis’s face, “I’m not scared to meet my end King Lewis… but before I die let me tell you a secret.” There was a grin on his face.

“Get the fuck on with it before I kill you faster,” Lewis wiped the spit from his face.

“Auclair is hiding a dark secret… Something most precious that even you would find interesting.”

End

That was what Alvaro had said but Vela was unsure what the hell he could have been talking about. The Kingdom of Auclair was a powerful nation of magic. Though it was small in size compared to the kingdoms around it… It was the magic barrier that protected it… That had made it so fearsome.

Two years prior the barrier had fallen and with it news that the royal family had been slain by the king’s nephew. They had been allied to Lewis in the past but the moment that barrier fell the first thing that Felix had done was a royal decree making Lewis the enemy.

The barrier had never been restored and Felix had thrown countless men and children at Lewis’s army to stop him before the fight reached the castle.

The knights had gotten to the third floor and in the middle of the hallway was a door latched with many locks and a magic lock at that.

Lewis had not been born a king. In fact, he was born nothing more than a slave boy. His master, though, had been a powerful man who ascended the throne through bloodshed and trickery. There were few who knew his true secret, though; an assassin in the shadows who guided his path to power. Once the King had outlived his usefulness, though…well…

King Lewis ascended the throne an unexpected year after the previous king. No one quite knows where he came from, but the old King of Kaliyota had suddenly vanished without a trace, and left the crown to his dear friend. There were few who found it odd, as the old king never really had that many friends, and certainly not a friend with a questionable background…but those few who questioned it seemed to quiet down. Mysteriously.

The new King of Kaliyota was swift in negotiations, and soon found himself at war with many of the neighboring countries. Many thought King Lewis a warmonger, but they were fools to believe it. The first kingdom was nothing more than a country of slavers. Their rulers were corrupt, and knew nothing of morals and ethics. Lewis would know best, though, as that was where he had hailed from. Taking the country for Kaliyota was easy, and soon he turned his attention to the next.

It was then, the King was approached by a powerful man…a fae lord by the name of Alvaro. Alvaro recognized the strength that Lewis commanded, and wanted that strength of his own. Shortly after, he was approached by another country…the Kingdom of Auclair….

No one quite knows what happened in the negotiations, but Alvaro’s fae kingdom was next to fall to the Tyrant King’s hands. And so it seemed almost inevitable that Kaliyota would turn its sights on Auclair…

From an outside point of view, the timing of Felix’s ascension to the throne and Lewis’ subsequent siege of the kingdom meant only one thing. That Lewis was out to conquer the world.

It was, however, far from the truth…

—

Lewis killed the guards with ease, tossing their bodies to the side. The first key had already been entered, but it was the second that the guards had been struggling with before their untimely demise.

“Strange,” Lewis said aloud. “Could this be the secret? Their precious ‘treasure’?” He unlocked several sets of locks, but frowned when he found himself unable to open the door. It took summoning Vela to finish the job, and soon the door opened.

He was met with a dark room with low lit braziers. The King could tell that it was once a bedroom, but had been repurposed into a makeshift torture chamber over time. There were the sounds of rattling chains from the other end of the room.

A frail, but spiteful voice rang out from the darkness, “Back again? Fuck off, I have nothing for you.” The voice was raspy, but clearly feminine.

“Oh?” Lewis’ own voice rang back.

There was silence for a moment. “You’re…not Felix.” The voice sounded so unsure. “Is this another dream?”

Lewis walked towards the back of the room, strengthening the flames of the braziers as he walked by. The chained woman winced as the lights touched her ghost white skin.

“Not a dream,” Lewis said as he broke her chains, carefully letting her drop to the ground. “Felix is dead…his abilities as a ruler match his abilities in combat. Auclair is now a part of Kaliyota…united under my rule.” His voice was surprisingly soft, despite his rough demeanor earlier. “And you…you were rumored dead…”

The lights hurt her eyes at first and she closed her eyes tightly to avoid it. She had lost much of the color in her skin, she was nothing but skin and bones, and what may have been worse was the amount of dried blood across her naked form. Her hair was long after two years of imprisonment. “I might as well be dead,” it came off as a matter of fact but even with her sitting now… How she rested her broken legs… Her eyes rolled back and she fell over.

Vela handed Lewis a cloak at his beckoning and watched as he wrapped the small woman up in it. She weighed nothing and it could have been like she was nothing more than a ghost considering how much she weighed.

“What the fuck did they do to her?” Vela looked around at all the torture tools. “And why?” She thought the girl was dead at first but the slight sounds of her breathing put her more at an unease than it should have.

Once she was taken to the infirmary Lewis’s trusted adviser and healer took a look over the princess. “Her legs have been broken more than one time in multiple places. Her lungs are scarred from poisons. Not to mention the lesions on her back from what I’m assuming was a whip. Probably the shock of being set free made her pass out. She was tortured no fewer than a few hours before we stormed the castle. They broke her fingers.” Treatment was administered after the analysis. “I’m unsure how the hell she even lived through this. Other than being stubborn.”

It was hard to see anyone like this, but Lewis had seen similar cases before. Slaves had been beaten and abused by their masters for the simplest of failures. This woman’s case though, seemed almost too severe. Whoever was torturing her took great care to inflict as much pain as possible, pushing her to the absolute edge of death, but never crossing the line.

Xeik had been called immediately, and his diagnosis and treatment were administered to the best of his ability. Now, it was nothing more than a waiting game.

“Keep an eye on her,” Lewis stated as he took one more look at her. “Let me know when she’s lucid. I have questions for her. In the meantime, I have a kingdom to organize.”

–

The infamous Tyrant King was known to take any and every woman he desired. Kings and Queens offered up their daughters, or even themselves to quell his rage. It is rumored that the King sired hundreds of children, and that the Tyrant King’s blood runs in many of the population…

Despite the nature of their accrual, though, the women eventually learned to love and adore their King. Most would bear his children willingly, and without complaint. Many even begged for it. All were satiated by the Tyrant Phoenix in the end…

–

Lewis closed his eyes as he shifted another pile of paperwork on the desk around. If there was one thing he hated about taking over a kingdom, it was the vast amount of paperwork involved. Trade routes and treaties, complaints and requests…all of it was far more demanding than one would think. Sure, that was the point of having an advisor, but Xeik was preoccupied with other matters.

“Really need another advisor,” he muttered.

The door to the office burst open, and a busty looking, half dressed red-headed woman waltzed in, a grin on her face.

“Master Lewis!!!” her voice rang. “I brought your harem into the Lord’s bedroom, just as you requested!”

“I didn’t request anything of the sort,” Lewis stated as he looked up from the paperwork. “How the hell did you even get here? I left you all back in the forest Kingdom…”

“Aww, but how will you sire your children with all of us if we’re stuck over there?” she asked.

“Saoirse…we’ve talked about this. I’m not going to force it on anyone. And I’m far too busy to even think of the concept.”

“But..you have no issues when I-”

“When you sneak into my bedroom and try to take advantage of me while I’m sleeping?” Lewis snapped back.

“I would never, my lord. After all, I know you’re just trying to play hard to get. You have an image to maintain.” Saoirse grinned. “I know you secretly want all of us. We’ll take good care of you tonight…I’ve convinced the girls to take turns. You won’t have to worry about a thing!”

Lewis closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. I would rather be anywhere else right now…Goddess help me…

Vela knocked on the door and looked at Saoirse, “Xeik said she woke up. It was for a second but she should be up completely in a bit.” She knew how Lewis was… “Maybe it would be better to ask her questions all night tonight? Gods know she needs the rest King Lewis. However, she’s fighting Xeik on sleeping as it is. She probably doesn’t trust anyone.” After all… Felix was her cousin.

“Also, we got all the bodies cleaned up and the blood is the next thing up. Xeik also had me bathe her and groom her a bit. I cut her hair though… It’s too much for the state she’s in and she probably won’t mind. She doesn’t seem to care about anything at the moment.”

“She?” Saoirse looked at Lewis then at Vela. “Who is she?”

“The princess of Auclair… Who else?”

“But she’s dead,” Saoirse sounded confused.

“That’s what we all thought. Her fucked up cousin apparently had other ideas for her. OH! I was pilfering through scrolls in Felix’s office when I came across this.” Vela handed the scroll over to Lewis. “Get the fuck out Saoirse. This isn’t for you.”

Saoirse pouted and bent over to kiss Lewis’s cheek before leaving, “Fine.”

“Bloody woman,” Vela said as the door shut. “It’s a contract. Once Felix got what he wanted from her he literally sold her to Alvaro for an army. However, the contract is dated two years ago. Written shortly before the king died mysteriously.”

It was as if his prayers had been answered. With Saoirse gone, Lewis poured over the contract that Alvaro and Felix had. There were quite a few interesting pieces of information, which he had not been entirely privy to. However, this explained why Auclair had previously approached him about creating a treaty. They recognized what was to come from Alvaro.

“That old bastard Jurian had it figured out from the start. It’s too bad that he couldn’t move fast enough to prevent it.” Lewis sighed. “If I had attacked earlier, this might have all been avoided.” In his mind, he was responsible for the fall of Auclair.

“If you had rushed things, we might all have died,” Vela replied. “Better to not dwell on it.”

“Don’t you have a husband to attend to?” Lewis shot back. “We both have busy nights ahead of us. Enjoy your free time while you have it.”

“Yessir,” Vela said, snapping to attention with her tongue out.

Lewis found himself walking into the infirmary only a short while later. Xeik was looking over some paperwork, absorbed in whatever he was reading. To his side was a bandaged woman, who seemed to be in a daze.

“The Princess of Auclair,” Lewis said as he approached with a half bow. “Do you remember me? Your father and I met briefly…about two and a half years ago. I am…saddened by his passing.” It was hard to show, but he meant it. “If there is anything that you need, please do not hesitate to ask.”

Simone’s dull eyes turned and loomed over him for a second. Her eyes met his almost uncharacteristic of most people who knew the rumors, “I remember you.” She turned her head away from him and closed her eyes. They still hurt from the light. “You called me shy.”

“Why did Felix torture you?” Lewis knew that this was a dangerous question. Even Xeik looked up at him hesitantly.

“Because… The magic that fuels this place is under lock and key. Only the immediate royal family knows how to use it. It’s passed down from the ruler to their heir. Felix realized he fucked up by killing my father as fast as he did after he found out. So he tried to get it out of me.”

Her fingers grasped the blankets around her as she thought about a request. Her eyes reopened and she looked up at him. “In the flowers just east of the castle. They are probably diseased and dead… They buried him there. Please bury him in the tomb next to my mother. He would have wanted to be put next to her. He had his own tomb made beforehand but Felix was using it against me. Please move him there.”

It was hard to see her like this. When he had met her the first time, her grey eyes had been full of life and joy. The fact that it had come to this was a tragedy. He grimaced at her request. Even now, her thoughts were on anyone but herself.

“Xeik. Have it done immediately,” Lewis commanded. The advisor nodded, and left to arrange the requested proper burial of Jurian.

This left Lewis and Simone alone in the room for a time. Silence permeated the air between the two, and Lewis found it hard to form words. How did one talk to someone who had endured so much?

“If…it would please you, Lady Simone, we can open the burial up to the public. I’m sure the people will want to pay their respects for their King.” From his memory, Jurian was quite the popular monarch, one who held sway with the people of the land. His loss was known to the kingdom, but Lewis doubted that Felix allowed anyone to mourn.

In the end, Simone agreed to let the people attend, and pay their last respects.

“And what about you?” Lewis asked. “Would you like to attend?”

Simone’s dead eyes flickered for a moment. “I…can I go?”

“I would never deny you the right,” Lewis responded.

“Then…I want to go,” she said, looking back down at the bedsheets.

“Right…” He stood there for a moment longer. “Well…if you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask. I’m sure…” The King looked around awkwardly. “I’m sure Xeik will be back any moment…”

—

A few days passed, and the day of mourning for King Jurian came. The people all gathered at the entrance to the tomb. Many were surprised that the Tyrant King, known for his hatred and bloodlust, was allowing such an event to occur.

“Today,” Lewis announced as his voice echoed across the crowd. “We join our hands in the loss of your King. Not the man who usurped the throne, the one who’s name will be cast out from history…no, we mourn the loss of your true king, Lord Jurian of Auclair.” He paused, letting silence take the air for a moment. “I took your lands by force, and for that I apologize. I have taken your lands, but I will not take your hearts. Kaliyota is in name only…the lands will always belong to Auclair…”

“I have news, though,” Lewis said. “A silver lining in the dark cloud. Your Princess…she yet lives…”

Simone had gained enough strength in her legs after a few days to walk with help. She didn’t want to be carried, she didn’t want to be wheeled, she wanted to walk. She wore a delicate dress of black and she didn’t look out of the ordinary. When Lewis spoke about her the crowd lit up. However, when they saw the girl who approached the grave they grimaced. They all worried about what she had endured.

“I wish I could talk to you all… But I can’t right now,” it was all she could say and the people accepted it without doubt. Simone was crying but if it was for her father or herself she didn’t know as she laid the bouquet down. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to speak.

It was a soft movement as she went over to Lewis and tugged at his sleeve, “Thank you. He would be happy.”

–

The days that followed had her in a different room that had been redecorated. She had her own dresses for the first time in two years. It was hard to get used to it. For the most part she wouldn’t let the maids in to help her. They were worried for her.

The maid came into the office where Saoirse was bothering Lewis once more. “My lord, we took things to appease the princess but… She didn’t answer us again. She didn’t eat breakfast or lunch either, again. We’re worried she might wither away to nothing at this rate.”

Vela crashed into the room, “AHHHH, LEWIS!”

Saoirse got a look on her face, “That’s king Lewis!”

“IT DOESN’T MATTER! The top of the tower. She’s on the top of the tower. She’s going to jump! Xeik went up to try and stop her but she is speaking gibberish.”