The King of the Tower and the Village

Fantasy flash fiction about a strange place few dare visit

Cover design by Gabor Csigas, based on a stock photo by p j on Unsplash

The Upper Levels of The King’s Tower are protected by spells that the King’s melancholy Wizards reinforce every morning. They bind moonlight, lightning, spirits of honey, and devils of wine into their ancient magic, and they bargain with the Planets of the Heavens. Not even a fly could sneak in through an open window and live, let alone a dragon.

The Middle Levels of The King’s Tower are guarded by The Empty. It knows who doesn’t belong on the floors it protects, and there’s not five steps anyone unwanted could take there before The Empty would drive its cold sword through their heart. There are as many of The Empty as there are intruders. It is an armor that forged itself, and that moves by itself.

The Lower Levels of The King’s Tower aren’t protected. They were, but their protection failed, so the King had them destroyed. These levels are a single pin now, some fifteen men tall. On this pin rest the middle and the upper levels. It’s a beautiful pin made of a ray of the Sun itself. It could hold up the entire world. The King’s Wizards advise against approaching it within three hundred and thirty three feet. Those who don’t heed their warning are never seen again. They enter the blinding light of its presence, and vanish. When this happens, The Empty is often heard laughing. Or maybe crying. Nobody knows.

The King lives in a village thirty miles from The King’s Tower, along with his Queen and their children, as well as the entire court (except for the King’s melancholy Wizards). None of them goes to the Tower any more.

The village the King lives in is a happy place. It’s not protected. It doesn’t even have a wall.

Nothing bad has ever happened in that village.

The entire world is convinced the King is a double only, and that the real King lives atop the Tower, commanding forces that could and would destroy the world upon his command.

This is not true. As we’ve said, the King lives in the village.

Trust us. We’re the King’s Wizards.

Design by Gabor Csigas, based on a stock photo by p j on Unsplash