A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1822 - 1822: The Stirring of Great Winds - Part 7

Slowly, but surely, it had come about, and they could not resist it. Arthur was ever so meddlesome in the process. A man of incredible means, and incredible love and loyalty, he did all that he could to allow the two of them together. A man loved by the Gods, and Blake did not doubt that they loved him more after that.

Three years later, they had their peace. A quiet cottage, away from the world. A horse each, to travel where they wished to. They'd disappeared from the world, and there was naught the High King could do about it, but sit and stew in silent rage. Embittered, surrounded by the corruption that he'd allowed to reap.

"Maybe we ought to have cut it off, all that time ago," Blake ventured, as he sat there, on his bench, and the streets grew ever quieter. No one was foolish enough to stay around long after night had fallen. It was far too cold for that. "My King might have felt enough pain that it was like losing the entirety of his arm – but he would have still been able to live, still been able to grow… Perhaps it was my duty to recognize that."

"There seem to be, after all, things in this world that we can simply not attain, whether we are a King or otherwise. It was clear from the start that it was not meant to be… That we had to resort to corruption, in order to forge any paths forward, perhaps that was the evidence of the weakness of our position," Blake mused.

Both Princess Pestophonie and Dominus had been content to stick to their honour all the way. They had limited themselves, and still allowed their friendship, as a quiet little respite from the world around them that so saw them drained. They hadn't needed underhanded measures. They had been content to wait for the path the Gods would show them, and each time, when it did come, the High King and even Blake was powerless to resist it. Dominus Patrick, freed from the confines of his honour, after the High King's decisions, and Princess Persephone, allowed the same – they were both terrifying creatures indeed.

Quietly, the two of them existed, away from the world, as the most massive entities in it. Quietly, did they surpass even Arthur. They were the beating heart of the Stormfront itself. When they were allowed together, there was a period of prosperity for reasons unknown. Arthur kept himself busy, and villages were allowed to flourish, Yarmdon invasions were fought off with ease, and the High King sat dormant, without interfering in anything. Progress was made – those same villages that Arthur helped were able to build up enough resources to see them lasted through more than just one winter. They were able to put food aside, and see it sold, and their villages grew as a result. Blake could not think that it was a coincidence, for the realm to grow like that, so delightedly, when it was that Dominus Patrick and Persephone were allowed together.

Even in Blake's memories, that had been a period of sunshine. Naturally, it had rained and snowed, but nothing had ever seen quite so grim. His own family life, his time with his own wife and children, that had been a quiet spell of blissful peace. It was only in the rooms of the High King where darkness sat, and poison grew.

When he heard that she was with child, that was when the High King's anger had spilled over, and Blake realized that, after all, despite being the Chief Strategist, just like his King, he had no control. The decision that the High King made afterwards, in his quiet, without consulting Blake, and the tragic result that followed. Without asking after it, Blake knew what had been done.

Two stones, cast simultaneously. The realm was informed of the death of Princess Persephone. How it was achieved with Dominus so watchful over her, Blake knew not. He supposed the Princess had always loved her freedom, and Dominus would have been the sort of man to continually encourage her time alone, so that she might enjoy flying without him, and the then two could enjoy flying together that much more. Whatever the result, the means of a poisoned dagger, spitefully driven through the stomach, targeted at the very image of their love, was the result.

Then the High King gave the order to Arthur. He made an excuse, using the Verna complaints of Pandora activity. He said it was for the sake of peace. Arthur was not a man to refuse. Dominus was ordered to attend to him as well, but naturally, Dominus would not shift from the grave of his wife. He knew what the High King had done, and that he didn't storm the Capital there and then, and attempt to take his life, was a fact that surprised Blake even in his old age. For, with all the time that Dominus had spent in Persephone's company, he had broken through to the Fifth Boundary, seemingly with a quiet ease. He could have caused a storm if he wished to.

That he did not, likely, was a product of his honour. Even when Arthur was slain by the High King's cruelty, Dominus did not use his anger to wage war. Like the knight he was, he put the realm above himself. He endured it quietly, tragically, a creature of myth, and Blake knew then very well why it was the Gods seemed to love him – for to endure all he had, and still make such a decision, it made Blake love and respect him too.

There was a man capable of swallowing pain of the most unimaginable sort, in a way that the High King had been unable to. Dominus Patrick had accepted his fate. He knew better the whims of nature, and he had resigned himself to it. An incredible man was what he was. The quiet hero of the Stormfront. That, after all he had achieved, and all he had suffered, he still managed to go even further, in the depths of his grief, to be the first creature to attain the heights of the Sixth Boundary. And how could he not? The man had lived a life of perfect example. A knight, indeed, but also a human, a man capable of incredible love, and also incredible restraint. The greatest swordsman in known history – naturally, after all, it would be such a figure.