IT’S GOOD TO BE KING

My loyal subjects!

Do not suppose I have assembled you, fanned thus before me, to assuage your common fear. For while the duties of a King do include, at times, the Calculated Blandishment, the Felicitous Lie, this present hour demands more bracing declamation. Vassals, as you know, the fire of War now engulfs our precious land. Everywhere one looks, blood streams thick down trenches raked by the claws of fiends; towers and cottages burn; people run howling through blasted fields, their smudged skin flayed and tattered. Times like these, my subjects—when the Fates uncage their ravenous dogs—forge the true greatness of a Kingdom. Though I am your Leader—who can doubt it?—still I am but a single man. It remains for you, as one body, to act. Therefore, you must pledge with me to turn your eyes inward, search your souls for the lacy robes of sentiment that are the luxury of peaceful times, and cast them off for the iron carapace of unshakable resolve. The Enemy, let me assure you, has performed this self-surgery ahead of us. His heart is stony, his gaze firm—and the hand with which he wields the sword holds steady even in the face of Death. What is the Enemy’s secret that we too must learn, the better to match his merciless ferocity? I’m reminded by this question of my own metamorphosis from carefree boy to the great King you behold today. Yes, my subjects, I too was once a common mortal like yourselves, though unwittingly destined for a higher station. On a certain night in my youth, as I walked the streets of my native village, there appeared a great light in the sky, circled by spinning points, that glowed and swelled until in an instant a blinding beam shot down and touched me where I stood. Within its walls I felt the presence of immense power, and soon, drawn upward by an unfathomable force, I ascended to the sky. There, passing through a membranous gate, I emerged into a palace corridor as endless and vast as a canyon. Thick marbled columns stood ranked on either side, and between these hung mighty doors of black stone, polished to mirrored smoothness. All lay still and quiet; no one appeared to greet or guide me. And so I stepped forward, footfalls echoing, and passed first one door, then another—all were identical. At last I stopped before one, gazed up at its implacable face. A celestial vibration filled my ears. I reached out, touched my palm to the cool surface. The door groaned open. Behind it I found—not chamber nor garden—but an endless void. From the threshold before me a ribbon of carpet, intricately patterned, billowed away into the darkness. I sensed the hand of Fate at my back—and so strode boldly into the breach. As I’d hoped, the carpet supported me with fibrous strength. I traveled rapidly, full of confidence, my eyes open to every detail. By the time I’d left the doorway behind, the space around me swirled with colored lights that formed and reformed into complex geometrical arrangements. On either side great architectural structures rose and fell, composed not of steel and glass but of Ideas. I trust you’ll pardon my indulgence when I confess that I now recognized myself as Conquering Hero, a Knight of Sacred Duty summoned by the Cosmic Powers to undertake a quest of incalculable consequence. As though in response to this insight, a host of those Beings under whose guidance we strive—Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Archangels—appeared in a swarm, circling the path I marched, leading me, it seemed, to some unknowable destination. Then the Spirits parted like waves to reveal a monumental altar, an obsidian pyramid with sharply raked sides, flat top, and a carved staircase ascending its front face. By the time I stood at the foundation, the Spirits’ dancing had risen to a frenzy, and a thunderous blast of organ music rumbled through the heavens. With reverent ardency, I mounted the steps. Cresting the uppermost stair, I found, displayed on a pedestal, an ancient Spear—or rather the blade of a Spear—with a Nail inset along its groove and lashed in place by golden thread. Vassals, I tell you this Spear throbbed with indescribable magnetism. Standing before it, I beheld a Vision, a vast panoramic view of Time—past, present, and future. I saw endless undulating vistas unspool in all directions. I saw the hidden structure of History. I saw our most distant ancestors, as well as our ultimate descendants. I saw how each of us, stitched across the eons, moves in and out of the flow—ever-changing, ever-moving. And I saw Myself, too, dear subjects. Though I cannot elaborate in any detail, suffice it to say that I glimpsed the splendor of my imminent Destiny. Reaching forward, I grasped the Spear in my fist, held it aloft, and so claimed it as my Talisman of Power. At that moment, the Spear burst with radiant light and fire. The beams pierced my body, infusing me with knowledge, cathecting me, cell by cell, to the quick. I must have blacked out under the influence of such an event—for the next thing I knew I awoke, lying in the deserted road from which I’d departed. I rose unsteadily, stumbled home, astonished to be back in such ordinary surroundings—and yet so utterly changed. Many years have since passed since my Transfiguration. Along the way, I met with the usual delays and quirks of circumstance—but always moved with inexorable certainty, according to that Plan revealed to me on the altar, toward the moment of its fulfillment. And now it has arrived. For among the events foretold to me, dear subjects, was this very hour. And so I stand before you, at the center of a Cosmic Nexus, to deliver the following message: We are called upon to wage Total War. Our Enemy knows we have been so called—for he, too, has been gathered up to the bosom of the Eternal, granted the Holy Blessing—but with a crucial difference. While we were elected to receive the Spear, on him—the Devil’s Dupe!—was bestowed the Chalice. These are the emblems of opposing Powers, on whose behalf we will soon do battle. Therefore, we must not flinch in the face of impending destruction. Death is illusion—and mercy, weakness. All soldiers in my army are guaranteed a just portion of Paradise. Follow me, then, to Everlasting Glory! We are poised to found a new Epoch! The outcome is already decided, and it is I who will hoist the victorious standard!

Who dares cross me?