Last Moments of the King

The title is pretty descriptive.

It was clear and cool and calm.

I laid on the on the giant  piece of celestial rubble that was once an acre of my world. It had been a monument, made of the hardest stone we could mine. The swirled patterns etched into the wall that was now my floor shepherded the winds and the smoke. It’s all I could think. It’s all I knew.

It’s so calm. So beautiful.

I couldn’t see my blood pooling around me. I couldn’t smell the metal-tinged aroma of the black liquid seeping into the cracks of the hard stone surface. I could feel it draining out of me. I could feel the cold replacing the warmth it once granted.

My eyes danced in synch with the bright lights flaring around my body. The Aelphi ship’s guide beams flashed. Each turned on in some beautiful rhythm, accompanied by the boom of superheated air. 

My armor was sharing the photons. The reflections coming from my natural secreted defensive skin bounced and played with the gasses and dust in the air. I was made one with the beauty I saw. 

My senses weren’t working correctly.

The light headed dizziness took over my training and I was a simpler version of myself. A single sound that brought me back to my front focus. 

Rough soled boots crunched over the marbled ground.

The voice didn’t raise far above the rumbling of movement coming from all around. I hadn’t noticed the sounds before but as my mind became clear, everything rushed in.

The first words were lost. They flew along with the chaotic winds. The speaker continued, coming closer, dragging something along the ground. I could hear a metallic ring. The sound of a blade sliding on stone.

“Isn’t this lovely?”

I knew the tone. I knew the voice.

I moved. My body jerked as if there was a chance of getting back to my feet. What I took for beauty spun in a maelstrom of radiation and wreckage.

I leaned my head up, trying to ignore the pain of sending fractured bones into motion. Every part of my skeleton cracked but I saw him. My face reflected back to me in his mirrored visor. I could see him in my mind. Thin lips pursed and continued.

“I’m sure you felt quite impressive, clawing your way up my ship, but… and this may come to you as a shock… Impressive doesn’t matter much anymore.”

He lifted my sword. It had dropped from my grip when the largest of our moons was thrown at the planet. The blade had been outfitted long ago as a shielding weapon. It was passed down through the line of Kings. It was a symbol of protection, the role of leadership of the Aphozyan people. 

Without a thought, I had forgotten my perch on the Aelphi ship which I had latched on to and traveled with through the atmosphere. My son was safe, captured and held by the enemy, but alive. It was our world that was in danger. With the sword in hand and the energy vents open to full, I shot myself in the path of the satellite. 

I failed.

This Aelphi regent which stood over me couldn’t activate the true potential of the blade he held. In his hand, it was simply a deadly and singular point. His words hit me harder than the deathblow he was ready to deal.

“This is fitting, you know.”

With a breath, he heaved the great long royal sword above his head. It was longer than he was tall but there was enough clearance. He couldn’t keep his strength with it. 

In a flash, the sharpened head of the blade slid down. 

There was pain, then darkness.

Beyond that, it was calm.

It was beautiful.