Chariot Argon

As I saunter the hollow streets of Nùs-Faddahd, my head raised high afore the suited people who looked low. The skies white and dreary, had opened for a sun that had lost its yellow glow. It was black now. Our sun was now black. But our buildings were carved from a platinum mountain atop the Erroneous Peak. None spoke, all silent. The skies had not granted us that right. To revel and cheer. Frolic was no more since that day. The day of the Black Sun. The day our king was coronated before the people. Every year on that day, we make way to let them walk through the streets. To let him strut his status, like a platinum peacock blockaded by tigers.

This place, this peak was never stable. Power here was taken. Only those destined to have it would claim it. The man who succeeded, his name was Samahaya IV. His copper face, that dark beard, the silver garb and the masked men in armour who carried and followed him. Like followers carrying their god. All cheered at his arrival. They were lost and dejected only moments ago, but when that horn blared, all smiled and parted the streets.

I could not see anything at all. For several men, a head taller than me, had obscured the view.

"Samahaya, Samahaya..." they would repeat.

Again and again.

I did not need to see anything. I had come here with a plan. Power they said, was to be taken. And I loaded the bullet into the flintlock. It was my father's. Gold and decorated. With the name "Argon" etched onto it. My name.

I stared at the gun. And then at the crowd. I had made this decision long ago. For ten months, I had imagined this. I wanted to be known. For whatever it was, I did not care.

My father had spoken to Samahaya long ago and left enraged. With the king taking my mother with him. I no longer know of her status.

Samahaya had stepped onto the head of a pauper, pushing it into the mud, laughing as he did so. The pauper shedding a waterfall of tears that wetted the soil, as his cries were muffled by the earth. He had that much power.

That pauper had now returned. No longer irate. But with the golden gun. And with a face more rigid than stone and colder than ice. With my locks coloured from the very mud they fell upon. And the silver bullet that would end it all. One shot. One shot was all that I had. If I missed, the guards would find and kill me. There was no running from them. They could move with light. There was no fighting them, they could crush skulls with their bare hands. And the supporters would punish me in ways worse then death, for hurting their king. So why would I do such a thing? Especially amongst a crowd like this.

He told me to do it. He said it would help.

And if I won....If I hit him?

Well then the king would become no more, my name known for a while and I would leave the world. Death with a smile. My face torn from my flesh, my body burned in scalding water and my ashes left with the wind. For what would that punishment be if I won in the end, but a scratch upon my very soul.

I sifted through the crowd and made way eastward, pushing through the people until I got a clear view of the parade.

And I stood waiting for the king.

And as he came closer, I nodded to myself. For my father. And me.

He had come closer. The people were blind to me, enveloped in their joy. That was the greatest surprise. I had the gun brandished but none noticed. None questioned. None even knew.

And I raised the gun, hiding it between the raised arms of two suited men in front of me.

"Samahaya, Samahaya...."

Now I had been in the moment. The sound is blurred and my vision focused on the target. My heart audibly pumping.

"Samahaya, Samahaya.."

Though the sound dimmed to my ears, my chest feels tight.

And he came closer.

And closer.

And closer.

I point it at his temple.

The gun trembles a little and then is steadied by my caution.

Not yet...

Not yet...

Almost there..

Now.

Bang.

The king is hit and falls from his palanquin. Hard onto the cobbled stone. Blood pouring from his regal head. And onto the feet of the guard who suddenly stopped their movement.

Everyone went silent.

This kind of silence scared me.

Nothing spoke. Nothing moved. The guards hold the palanquin and remain robust.

I hide the gun and join the silence.

But all knew.

And all eyes had turned to me.

And a quiet feminine voice spoke from within the skies.

"The bullet will mark the arrival of the king, who comes after the man born in gold. This is your lord. Your true lord. The lord who is what you are to be", the strange voice whispered. And I stood perplexed, a brow raised. Who or what was that?

Where did that voice come from?

Whatever it was, it commanded the people and they all screamed in joy, lifting me onto their shoulders.

Carrying me to the palanquin.

This made no sense to me at all. But I did not care. I liked this view. I killed the king and did my due. Now it was his turn. To grant me as promised.

And I was paraded through the streets.

All cheering for me until the setting sun.

For ten years, I ruled the people. Better than Samahaya. A land where paupers and princes could walk the same roads.

But he returned. And asked me of one more favour. He helped me before. I would not be unkind. And I did this favour.

I built a carapace of gold with my very own hands. An armour of material he had brought from the lands beyond. Who knows where.

But I did not care.

He had told me that this armour would increase my strength and power.

Gold and decorated with tusks on the back and a golden face with a solar plume. I named it the Demon of Gold. It would by my armour for many years. All who would challenge me in later years, would be captured and sent to the grand arena where they would face me in single combat. Against the Demon of Gold.

And with time, I had dreams of dominion and with his help I acted upon them, manifesting them to reality. Destroying and conquering the cities of Lusgan, Iulanica, Homoitec, Hulemmon and Gognica. Taking over the entire country of Fàddahd.

Now I owned the land. Who could stop me?

And he stood there laughing.

From the door of my throne room.

And I tapped my spear onto the floor.

He then stopped.

"Why do you laugh, Ymatos?" I ask.

He pulled out a card from the air and showed to me its black back, speaking to me in his transhuman voice.

"Do you remember what you asked me when we first met?

You approached me with such a confidence to you that even the skies cried to me. Weeping in jealousy."

I looked at that card. For it was familiar to me. I remembered those black cards

"You asked for revenge against Samahaya and the power of a king. You knelt to me and offered your destiny.

Now you look at it, Argon. You know what this card is. You asked me. You bled for this. And I have come to remind you now, Argon of Macha. This was your destiny."

And he turned the card over, until the image of it became clear.

In gold, was the number 7 and a king riding two steeds.

Ymatos smirked. And laughed again.

"This was when we first met. This was what you wanted. This, Argon, was your answer. The Chariot, your future. Power, correct? But it seems you had ignored something else. There was something else you had overlooked. Omitted from your judgement, my dear king."

"And what was that?" I ask.

"There was a second card."

I was confused. I remember this, but only having seen one open card on the table. The other card was face down.

"You only mentioned to me the meaning of the first one" I retorted.

"It was face down" he responded, with a smirk upon his face.

"Then why should I know it's meaning then? If it was face down" I asked.

"All who come to me are granted two cards." he replies raising two fingers with his other hand. "The first told at the beginning" he said, putting both fingers down and raising one finger back up. "..and the second told at their zenith" he continued, raising up the second finger. "When the epiphany is given. How they end. These are my cards" he said, putting his non-card hand down. "And I decide when to show them. You came to me accepting my rules. And now I play the second card that decides your fate."

"What is it then, Ymatos? Show me this card" I requested.

And another card was brought from the air and he turned it over. It was the same card, only put upside down.

"This is your destiny now, Argon. This is how you end" he said.

He laughed again.

"What is funny, Ymatos? What is the meaning of that card? Tell me" I commanded. I was irate. He was right. I came to him. Not the other way around. And from his laughter, I did not want to know the meaning. I did not want to know.

"You know the meaning of the first one don't you, Argon? So you can use your head and guess the second one. It would become the opposite to the first. This is the general rule to these cards. The tools of the arcane" he replied.

"If the first card meant ambition and control then the second card would mean..."

"Yes, go on..." he said, looking at me with open eyes.

"It would mean..."

"It is there in your mind, Argon. The meaning is there. Say it."

"A loss...of control."

I looked at the floor after saying that. A part of me had felt dejected. Lied to.

Ymatos clapped his hands, chuckling at me. "Well done, Argon. Your intellect is to be lauded. Now you know your destiny."

And Ymatos then clicked his fingers. The sound of it echoing across the throne room.

I turned and looked around, expecting something from a side. But nothing was there.

"And now, Argon. Your will is mine. You have had your time. Eat my hungry beast. Eat forever."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, perplexed.

"Lutrad, Killopem, Hunim, Hutred, Nuufar, Lornlane. Places."

"I do not understand" I said.

"All who give to the shadows, Argon, are always left in the dark. You offered to the abyss and it gave you the Chariot. Your inevitable destiny. From upright to reversed. Your existence is now contingent upon the number 7. That number will haunt you now. The number of people whom you delivered to death to receive you entire answer in full. From me, the messenger.

Thank you Argon. And I wish you success."

And Ymatos disappeared from the room.

"Ymatos. Come back" I called.

But he did not return.

I stared at the area he once stood.

My face frozen.

My body frozen.

What was I to do now?

That card meant I was to lose control.

Of what?

Myself?

My people?

My lands?

What was it that I would lose control of?