Ten Thousand and Ten

I am Kyrtus, son of Cenis. And I am ten years old.

No. I am Kyrtus, son of Cenis. And I am ten thousand and ten years old.

I still believe I am ten, after ten thousand years of being a Stasis. Though I suppose it's to be expected; it has happened with everyone else. Severe memory loss, burnt nerves, inability to see or hear; and several of them can no longer speak. They function, of course, but barely so.

They do not function like me.

My bones crack every time I move. I am Kyrtus, son of Cenis, the assassinated Uniter of Factions. My father, in his kingship, brought every terrified Faction together into the Pack Pact (named after the wolves frequently found prowling around the Factions), forming everything and everyone into one group. We danced, we sang. The celebrations were glorious, I recall.

My memory has not faded. I am Kyrtus, son of Cenis, who made me a Stasis in an action that I will never forget. And then he was assassinated, I saw in my last wakeful moments-- ten thousand years ago, mind you-- with a knife from behind.

My voice still remains.

None of these things happen to the children of the Factions who were once Stasisees. As expected, the Factions have now divided even further into their little rabbit holes; and of course, none of them is brave enough to fight the other. No Man's Land is all that stretches between them, whether that be over water or earth. They are pathetic, and in a way, like my father, I pity them.

But that same pity is what caused him to die ten-- ten thousand-- years ago. Pity is what made him lose his life. He had tried to unite the Factions, and in doing so, was assassinated by their uprising. I will conquer the Factions, unlike him. I will conquer the Factions instead of bringing them together to kill me. I will overtake the Factions.

I will kill however many it takes.

That is the difference between my father and I-- and also, undoubtedly, the difference between the Stasisees and I. They and their Factions are all against violence, deeming at dangerous and threatening. I sincerely doubt they have a single knife in their presence. They refuse to fight each other, and they fear each other, but simultaneously they love each other; what is this confusing web of lies they have woven?

I will fight. I will conquer. They fear me already, as I have conquered the immediate Faction in which I have awoken. The servants shiver in my presence.

I am a prince. Or a tyrant; either way, I fight to win land, and peoples. I, unlike my father, use violence to my advantage; it delights me to do so, even.

They say I'm a menace with a dagger. And they believe rightly so. What prince would I be if I hadn't a knife on me at this very moment?

I aim to conquer every Faction. All of the world will be at my feet. They say that this world used to be divided (less than it is now, which is no surprise) into countries and continents, such places, and the cultures of these places have not changed yet. Yet. Not everyone is all the same like they should be.

They should be the same. They should fall under my rule.

They are too afraid even to have a rule amongst themselves. They have no king, no emperor, no pharaoh to guide them through the darkness; none to be the lamp that lights their path. They need that person, but instead they stick to themselves, not wanting an assassination; not wanting violence; not wanting knives; not wanting anything.

If only they knew how prosperous this kingdom would be if they all came together.

As my father once said, I will be the next Alexander the Great. But he was small, and his vision was weak-- and of course, the obvious fault, he died. But I have not died, ten thousand-and-ten years later! I will never die. And my vision stretches far and wide, encompassing all of these weak Fractions. They can put up no fight against my tyranny because they have no fight to fight with. Their Stasis children are weak and frail and pale and invalid.

But me, Kyrtus, son of Cenis-- I will conquer. I will last. I have retained my voice, my memory, and my footsteps crackle whenever they sound. If there is any leader that will bring these fractioned Factions together, it will be me.

Kyrtus, son of Cenis, a master with throwing-knives; a boy who is ten thousand-and-ten; the one who will bring this world to its knees; a blond who will remain undefeated.

***

[Heyyy everybody! Thanks for reading! So, obviously this is not a Shadow Child writing- I promise, Part 7 is going to come out soon- but this is the start of a new series. I've been developing this idea for a few days now after having a dream about Kyrtus, and I thought about making it into a book... but I think I'll test it out beforehand on Vocal and see what it becomes. If it becomes anything at all.

[Please leave feedback in the comments! I'd love to reciprocate. Shadow Child Part 7 is coming soon.]

Sector 2 coming soon...