 29 Aug 2003 @ 15:37, by Max Sandor
This story was written for a dear friend and fellow emperor who just left his old empire behind in order to build a next-generation dynasty. It's now part of the gruesome "Stories of the 401 Knights".
.............................................................. Alara and The Secret of All Emperors
"Another story!" demanded the King from the stranger from a strange land, who was all dressed in white. "Hmm," answered Alara, the foreign sage, fearless but carefully, "King, do you know the deepest of all the secrets of Emperors?"
"Go on and speak now if your life is dear to you," the King smiled at his guest...
"Everyone knows that a real Emperor is looking down on all the Kings, trying to becoming the King of Kings... "Cut the bull, tell me a story," interrupted the King impatiently.
"Very well so," replied the man in white clothes, cleared his throat, and told the following incredible story:
"There was a man, a real man, who had everything he needed for a good living: wives, houses, horses and chariots, foreign and domestic, computers of all manufacturers and operatings systems of his time, cute girlfriends, a good health, and many, many friends.
One morning, after a long and entertaining night with his friends, he went to bed at dawn as usual. But when he woke up at noon, as he always did, and before he could even check his e-mail, he heard a strangely silent voice. A voice so silent only he could hear it.
And this silent voice whispered into his ear: "my son, look around you, so what do you see? Everything around you is normal, yes incredibly normal! There is absolutely nothing special and exciting in all of this anymore. This is unacceptable, man, this is no challenge, this is no life for a son of mine!"
And the man, the real man, looked around him. When he saw what he saw, he was stunned. "Indeed", he exclaimed, "everything is ridiculously normal. This is truly unbearable. I can't believe it! When I came here 16 years ago, I didn't know anyone around, had a terrible accent, and I had absolutely no money. Wow, life was fascinating these days. What a challenge every single day. But now, it's all normal, like all the other people, making some money, paying bills on time, rasing kids, all the stuff normal people keep themselves busy with all their lives... so now what should I do?" he asked the silent voice with desperation.
"Very simple!" the silent voice murmured. "Get an airplane ticket for around the world and start all over!"
The man scratched his head. "I did that already 16 years ago," he said to the silent voice which responded: "Alright, my son, if you have really true power, you can do it again! Look at one of my all-time favorite sons, Prince Gotamo from the Shakya dynasty. He saw what you just saw, just dropped everything and left, like a thief in the night."
The man, the real man an soon-to-be emperor, remarked solemnly that there were no international regulations on child alimnony in Buddha's time, while his hand glided softly over the surface of the K-Mart plastic globe.
And, what should I say, not much time passed, and the postman delivered an airline to the doorstep of the man, the real man, the Emperor to be."
Here, at this point of the story, the foreign wise man, dressed all in white, requested another glass of red wine. The King looked thoughtfully at him, wondering if he really knew the secret of all the Emperors. Just in case, the King made a sign to his general. Then he asked Alara "Before you continue, to be sure, tell me one of the lesser secrets of the Emperors - what do they think they would do for their fellow men?"
"This is not such a big secret, for sure", he answered. "they are convinced they would enlighten everybody in this world and bring peace and justice and fairness for all."
"Good," said the King satisfied, "you may live to finish your story after all. Tell us the deepest secret of all Emperors now!"
Upon these words, Alara, the strange stranger continued his tale: "the man, the real man, the emperor-to-be, was, at the time, not quite of the shape of the Great Buddha, nor that of the greatest of African Kings, both of whom left everything behind they had, but, at least, he took only the very youngest of his children with him, one wife, and zero girlfriends. Like the Buddha who had left his favorite horse behind, he gave away his exotic chariot for a few greenbacks, and off he went.
The, a while later, in the far, far, away country, the silent voice talked to him again: "my son, so far, so good. But there is a secret you apparently are not quite aware of. If you want to feel true power and nothing but true power, you must start with nothing, absolutely nothing! This is the deepest of the secrets of all Emperors. So, if you don't mind, I'll arrange that you lose your remaining funds and income from the old new world while being back in the new old world. Just leave it up to me!"
And, sure enough, shortly after the old new Emperor-to-be was, once again, without funds, and few, if any credit cards.
Of course, once he is at the bottom, he will rise to new glory, unparalleled power, and our civilization may now indeed shatter, new orders, social and economic alike, will rise, the old, rigid structures will break apart..."
"Enough of that.." shouted the King, hearing the words of Alara, the man in white.
"Your story is true indeed. I should let you leave as a free man. Except, there is a little problem..." and at these words he waved again at the general.
But Alara, realizing that the King was intelligent enough to kill everyone on the spot who indeed knew the secrets of the Emperors, disappeared in a gap of space, right in front of the King, well before his henchmen could lay their hands on him.
This was the time when Alara appeared in the Land of the Old Ones. But that's another story.
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