Tale 76- The Greedy King

 The Traveler arrived in a village square, where a jester was juggling and playing with a puppet, sat inside a travelling caravan. He called the passerby over, the girl being surprised but unafraid, and asked her to choose a card from the deck. Ace of Spades. She stared down at it, the jester then taking it and not looking, before pulling it out of the shuffled deck flawlessly, surprising her. She nodded, confirming it was her card, and the man smiled. “Ace of Spades, this little card here has a lot of meanings. In some contexts it can indicate bad luck and even perhaps death, whilst in others it can indicate pleasure and voracious love. It can mean overcoming an emotional hurdle due to lack of appreciation, and it can even mean a happy future in some cases. Interesting card to be pulled by a wanderer.” he winked, the girl averting her eyes slightly but nodding. Voracious love was the last thing she wanted out of life, but to hear she could overcome this hurdle…she couldn’t help a small smile forming. The jester then pulled his own card, a king, and offered to tell her a silly story about the king he once served, the girl agreeing. The jester grinned, making the card disappear into nothing, and told the tale of ‘the Greedy King.’

‘Once, there was a kingdom ruled by a cruel and greedy king, who only desired wealth and prosperity and did little to care for or protect his people. He’d charge them enormous taxes and force them to go into difficult lines of work to be paid enough to feed their families. One day, the cruel king employed a young boy as his jester, the young boy agreeing on the condition that he was well paid and could support his family who lived abroad. Signing an agreement, the jester performed each and every day for the king, creating amazing performances and demonstrating wondrous tricks that attracted crowds and entertained all. However, the king barely watched them, as instead he would leave a bag of coins for each month’s pay and spend his hours in his study, creating piles and piles of wealth all around and investing in lavish decor to make himself a castle of pure gold. One week, the jester decided to take a short holiday and informed the king, as he had to visit his family. While he was away, though, a drastic heatwave passed over the kingdom, hot enough that it not only destroyed everyone present but also melted every single piece of the king’s gold to nothing. Any trace of his ruling was gone, as was he, and no legacy was left behind, for he had failed to invest his time in the beautiful intangible, such as forming friendships or finding love. Due to his greed, no trace remained, and the jester lamented that he was never paid that week.’

The Traveler wrote down the story, the jester giving a smile before gently passing her the Ace of Spades card, pulling a replacement out from his pocket. “For luck.” he whispered, the girl smiling and slotting it into her book, before wandering away and waving him goodbye.