Part III: Noel Meets Her

And yet despite having it all, it wasn’t enough. Everything became routine, his cabinet (advisor) meetings about the state of Argunstun, his sexual escapades with the women who saw him as Alexander’s true descendant, the prosperity of the kingdom that he worked so hard to make and to earn felt meaningless to him now. King Fayden was on the balcony of his palace, looking to the horizon full of the white-blue mountains with a map in his hand. Was it not enough? Wealth, influence, the people’s adoration? It didn’t feel enough to King Fayden, who felt he was missing something. In his mind, he hadn’t proven himself as a conqueror yet, so that was on his bucket list, but the mundanity of being King ailed him. He became King to avoid the repetitiveness of farm life just to be back in the same position but with a different hat and different powers instead of none. He continued to meet with his women and Penelope Sunshine, but his advisor meetings that went over stately affairs and his actual affairs felt just as stiff as ever. There was no spark, no excitement, nothing that could inspire him like his dream of becoming the King once did. That would all change when the bodyguards who overlooked those that went in and out his palace told him of a woman who wanted to see him. He at first brushed it off as another affair that he was unwilling to contribute to, feeling as if his affairs were all an assembly line at this point, but he got intrigued when the bodyguards told him that was not what she was here for. With that, he let her into his palace to see what was so important that he, a King, should listen. Then she walked into the room. Instead of bowing, which is what every guest did, she instead asked if her husband, Liam Nightingale, can have her pay his debts or have his debts waived altogether. This was the spark that the King was missing in his life. Sure, he had Advisor Edwin to keep him stable and pragmatic, but finally, an equal person who defied all logic to speak to a King as if he were just another person, that was attractive to the Noel inside King Fayden’s exterior. With this, he tired to bargain with her, asking her out and in return he’d free Liam, but none of these proposals would move the stubbornly principled Zamira. He finally decided to hire her to be in proximity to her, and she agreed, despite knowing that in order to free her husband, she’d have to sacrifice a little bit of freedom herself. With that, Liam was freed. Zamira and Liam went home and King Fayden insisted that he join them. When he saw his hut, he saw it was homely compared to his palace. Small, yes, but it held personal items such as a portrait of each other, and other non essential tools that seemed to identity with them. Though Zamira had made it quite clear that King Fayden should now leave, he stayed, unable to move from his position. He felt as if he was suddenly emasculated by Zamira’s husband and as he felt this, Advisor Edwin came to him. He asked him why he was so distracted lately. However, he recognized Zamira, not as Zamira Nightingale but as her name back when she was a noble as Zamira Arendale, a part of the distinguished Arendale family who helped fund the Kingdom since the beginning, being tied to Alexander’s ascension a millennia ago. He decided to keep her near that he would move her to his palace with Liam and they both agreed, despite the risk, because it was payment and it was a better living environment that they could be in as long as they were together, it was a home, even if it wasn’t theirs’.

Part IV: Noel The Conqueror, Noel The Unrequited Lover

A couple years later, King Fayden had finally returned to Argunstun after conquering tiny nations and villages that had allowed him to slowly gain the land in all of the East and all of the West. He had finally achieved one of the main goals he had in life, to become a conqueror. Mind you, he used the similar sleazy tactics that he used to gain influence back before he was even crowned the throne such as burning the land after he passed it, burning enemy tents, looting gold and land, and cutting the heads of those who didn’t agree to his treaties until he found someone who did. He never prided himself as a moral man, but he always prided himself in the knowledge that he has never lost in the game of ambition before. However, it was also during this time that his overwhelming obsession with Zamira became clear to his inner circle, as while going on his conquering rampage he wrote love letters daily despite her being married, and Penelope Sunshine, the one who was formerly his favorite and still the most devoted to him became increasingly jealous of the situation. When he came back, he went to an advisor meeting as he was hoping to invade the largest empire, Romanski, but time and time again he was refused this due to the scope of Romanski. He had a large kingdom now, but he didn’t have the resources and despite having allies, Romanski was the empire that ruled the world. In this advisor meeting, Penelope interrupted them, specifically calling out King Fayden for being interested in a married woman and his neglectfulness of her when not too long ago, she was the closest woman to be the Queen, now cast aside. He decided to speak to her alone, and when they got nowhere, she had tears in her eyes as though they were never exclusive, she was the one that he had filled her head with dreams of being a future queen (where, he had hoped he would have finally reached the apex of love to offer her that). Their conversation was her righteous emotional turmoil over Fayden ditching her for Zamira, and Fayden was quite short on syllables due to his utter dryness and refusal to talk about it deeply. He deflected every concern with a certain cruel pragmatism that left Penelope silently in pain as she left the palace. After that, he decided to see Zamira, who, at this point was hired as his scribe. For the 100th time, he tried to ask her out and for the 100th time, he was rejected. This rejection had left him emotionally turbulent as he went back to his advisors office. He had the world at his fingertips – adoration, wealth, the people’s love. How could she not love him? Was he not manly enough yet? He had conquered villages and kingdoms, turnt Argunstun from a little kingdom with an underrated prestige to one of the core kingdoms going towards empire status. It was with this emotional turbulence that he decided he should conquer the largest empire of all the land, that his advisors had been rejecting and coming up with excuses for for a long time now – Romanski. Romanski started similarly to Argunstun as a little kingdom with prestige and had become the largest empire known to man. This was for the course of 500 years, but; their dedication to conquering and philosophy made them a hub of inspiration far and wide. If King Fayden can invade that, he would be worthy, finally. He felt betrayed when even his personal advisor, Advisor Edwin advised against the invasion and alluded to his own emotional instability. After the advisor meeting he decided to bring his Sword of Alexander across his kingdom, as he was thinking about his frustration where Zamira declared that she would love Liam til death do them part. With this, he finally found what he was looking for – a robber trying to steal from an elderly woman. He stopped the robbery, and the elderly woman went home safety, meanwhile, he paid the robber an enormous sum to kill Liam Nightingale, all while telling him that if so much as touched Zamira that he’d him kill himself. He said the robber was with him and left. With this, the robber killed Liam. Zamira’s screams and tears were so wrapped in grief that the palace thought that hell had descended on earth. During Liam’s funeral two days later, Noel Fayden (the King) was angry that she still would remain a widow of her whole life rather than be taken from the greatest man the kingdom had to offer – the king. Zamira went back to the palace to collect her things, and when Fayden tried again to get her hand in marriage, she exposed that he knew the image of her that she liked, but that Liam actually knew her. With that, she left, much to the King’s chagrin.

Part V: Noel Gives Up His Crown But Zamira Still Doesn’t Love Him

Two weeks later, the kingdom was watching as Zamira wanted to show them a trick, regarding with how Noel Fayden became King Fayden. She recalled, that, before Liam died, he often told her that he would be murdered, and though she thought he seemed paranoid, she supported him as he would have with her. She recalled how he often visited the cave where Fayden took out the sword of Alexander until finally he realized something. Two days before his murder, he showed her something, she was going to show to the crowd what he showed her. The crowd was getting rowdy, and by the time she asked for Fayden’s sword, they had become the will of the nation. He reluctantly agreed, knowing that what came next would undermine his legitimacy as a King, the one thing he had all this time. She used the lever that Fayden used all those years ago to show that it could lock the sword in place, maintaining to the myth of it being unable to be sheathed, and then unlocking it by putting her foot down on the lever, showing how he had claimed legitimacy all those years ago. Fayden became more erratic after this, and despite being a trailblazer in his early years as King, by this point he was consumed with his obsession with Zamira where the value of his kingdom, his land, his people, no longer had any magnetic pull to him anymore. He decided to give up the throne and pass it on to Advisor Edwin, now King Eldrich, as he went to Zamira’s one last time to ask for her hand in marriage. She refused. In the end, he reflected as the sun set that he was never truly a King, just a man who needed the world to validate an invalidated existence.