The king feared being forgotten more than death. To prove his greatness, he ordered his palace walls painted in pure gold. Each brick blazed under the sun. Travelers marveled, poets praised, rivals grew envious. But beyond the palace gates, the…
He stood at the riverbank, stone in hand. Behind him: a woman who loved him. Ahead: a path to power. Both could not be his. The stone was small, ordinary. Yet when he released it, the water did not simply…
He was a man of God, sworn to silence, sworn to purity.Yet each full moon, he left the chapel doors ajar and walked barefoot through the night, guided by nothing but his hunger. In the hidden quarters of the city…