PRL Serials

AEDa4

A Fhet King is meant to be a representation of his people. A King is deposed when he fails to do that; if his people see him as weak, they fear that they invite disrespect from other sections. The constant state of war that exists on the Fhetat, for valuable resources or just to maintain respect, necessitates a King of true might and if someone arises who embodies that spirit more so than the King, then this new man will usurp the respect of the populace. And once this is done, the new man has the formidable challenge of taking the crown for his own. 

Women cannot be Fhet Kings. They can be Fhet Queens if they prove themselves worthy of marriage to the King, but the crown of a Queen is not imbued with the same magics that the vaulted crowns of the Kings have possessed and passed down since the first Kings took their thrones on the Fhetat. The Fhetatians understand that only a male can be strong enough to properly wield the might and magics of a King’s crown and they cannot fathom that a Queen could ever take her husband’s crown in the event of his death or inability to continue his duties. This explains the rules that have dictated succession of the crown. 

Women have worn Kings’ crowns before, but only as a novelty for their husbands or fathers. No one can truly say that females are incapable of the might necessary to properly wield a crown, but everyone seems to believe it. 

Everyone except for the banished Queen of the former S3 King, Gilthon Deat. Her name was Gilthon Jual when the two were married. She caught the king’s eye after a fierce battle with S12 over the distribution of water. Jual was a warrior with the S3 army and though her male counterparts underestimated her might, she single handedly killed a team of S12 invaders and their general. 

Pleased with her skill, King Deat married Jual there on the battlefield, the corpses of their enemies scattered all around. Many people praised King Deat’s choice. There are few women who earned respect as Jual had and they saw her as a true vessel for the might of Fhet. She would surely give King Deat a great son who would be his heir and carry on as a competent representative of the people. 

But Queen Jual would produce no male offspring. Just three females, the first of which she killed as her midwife looked on in horror. When King Deat heard about the murder of his daughter, the couple argued and fought. 

“She was my daughter!” he yelled and cleared the room of their subjects who wilted under the anger of their King. 

Queen Jual yelled back, “She could never wear your crown! She was useless.” She hit King Deat in the face with her fist to knock sense into him. “You can’t mourn a thing you did not know. I did you a favor.” The Queen stormed off before the King could respond and he knew that he had chosen his queen wisely. 

He would not let her kill the second daughter, but she was sent as an infant to the custody of military leaders who would raise her. The third daughter was born and it was the last straw for King Deat and Queen Jual knew it. He had no choice but to banish her from Castle Gilthon. He had to have a male heir and he had given Jual three chances to provide it, but she had failed him. 

Jual left the castle without her daughter who stayed with the King’s mother.  Jual was livid, but knew that protesting would do nothing. She went back to her position with the military and she met her daughter for the first time. She was still very young, and Jual had no interest in raising her, but she was happy that the girl was well cared for. 

As Jual’s daughter grew older, the two became closer and Jual was excited at the strength that her daughter exhibited. By the time she reached adulthood, Jual regretted killing her first daughter and leaving the third to her grandmother. Jual realized that she could have given them all the same upbringing that her second daughter enjoyed and they could have been just a mighty as the second daughter proved to be. But Jual poured all of her wisdom and care into her second daughter and she would make her into something incredible. 

By the time Jual’s second daughter reached maturity, so too had the son of King Deat that he had with his new Queen. The boy was being groomed to take his father’s crown through the warrior gauntlet; S3’s trial to prove sufficient might to inherit the crown. The warrior gauntlet is a series of fights that the heir must survive over the course of day. There are ten fights to the death and ten households of the favored families of S3 send their oldest son and strongest warrior to oppose the heir. 

But King Deat’s son would never have the opportunity to complete the gauntlet. 

A coup stirred among the military of S3, led by the shunned former Queen Jual. She accused King Deat of tampering with the gauntlet to ensure that his son could complete it and this infuriated members of the military who assumed that their new King after Deat would be weak. 

“I have the champion who can take Deat’s crown,” Jual said as she presented a boy, who she called her son and who was in his new manhood, to military leaders who ran a makeshift gauntlet that he easily won. He even displayed a bit of the magic that characterizes the S3 crown; the ability to project blasts of electricity from his body, though not to the dazzling and devastating effect that King Deat was known for. 

Seeds of the coup sprouted and the young man was emboldened by faith from the military who helped him reach the castle. And the same military sacrificed many soldiers to tire King Deat who possessed the marvelous power of the S3 crown. Many died, but King Deat proved to be no match for his challenger who had a seeming immunity to the magic of the crown, as though he could absorb and redirect it. When the king fell, and the boy stood over his body, Jual stood next to him and raised his hand as the gathered crowds cheered.

“All Hail the new King of Castle of Gilthon. All Hail King Ju-arl!”

The crowd cheered and many wondered why the new King would take the name of the previous, to which Jual responded that King Ju-arl was the son of Deat with whom she was pregnant at the time of her banishment, and whose identity she kept secret from everyone. 

This was a lie. The new King was actually the second daughter of Deat and she didn’t mind living as a man. But no one questioned anything too rigorously, there was too much excitement over their new leader.