A Tragic Tale

This tale is of ambition, of love, of wishes. This tale is of how one can sacrifice everything for nothing. This tale is of how greed can destroy even the best of us.

And it does not have a happy ending.

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Once upon a time, in a world not unlike ours, was a young prince of a powerful clan, the twelfth son of an aging emperor. The young prince had everything he needed and more, so was happy; nevertheless, he knew that he would one day have to rise up and above his many siblings and fight for his right to the throne of this great and prosperous country.

Despite the fact that he had known no other lifestyle than his own, the young prince was grateful for his high position, and never abused it. He was brought up in a lavish imperial palace, fed delicious food three times a day, educated in everything from politics to martial arts – and never once forgot how lucky he was to have all of this.

There was one more thing the young prince had: a bodyguard. This bodyguard was from a family line that had protected the royal members of their clan since years and years. She was highly skilled in martial arts; she commanded an array of grenades and bombs; but most important of all was her unwavering loyalty to her young prince.

He was intelligent and he was compassionate and he was ambitious. His dearest wish was for the throne, in order to make his country a better place. That was all the young prince wanted.

Time passed, and finally, when the emperor became suddenly ill, the young prince knew the time had come. The young prince had had many years to plan how he should go about gaining the soon-to-be-empty throne, and he had in mind the perfect gift to impress the dying emperor: immortality. So, accompanied by his faithful bodyguard and her grandfather, he set out to a faraway land to chase the fairytale of eternal life.

Many things came to pass on their journey for immortality. The bodyguard, in order to protect her prince, cut off her own arm. The young prince cared greatly for his bodyguard, and did everything he could to ensure the bodyguard's survival. She was strong, and came through – with a cold arm of metal instead of a warm arm of flesh and pounding blood. But, bent on becoming emperor, the young prince forced down his guilt and struggled on.

The bodyguard's grandfather, in order to protect the prince, lost his life. The young prince was devastated at the loss of a faithful servant, but also at the bitter sadness it brought to his surviving bodyguard. But, bent on becoming emperor, the young prince forced down his sorrow and struggled on.

Finally, the opportunity of eternal life came before him – but for a price. For immortality, the young prince had to take into him something that cannot be described by any other word but a monster. But, bent on becoming emperor, the young prince sacrificed his body to be shared with this terrible creature.

So, after much pain and suffering, the young prince and his bodyguard returned to their home country. The young prince successfully took the throne and became emperor, and was as fair and considerate and decisive as the country could ever wish for.

But this is not the end.

Though the young emperor's dearest wish had been realised, it had only destroyed any hopes of fulfilling his other wish – the wish he had always known he had, the wish he had always pushed away in favour of the other one.

He could never be with the girl he loved – not a bodyguard and a king, not in their country – he had always known that. He could have run away with her, away from the strict social ladder that forced upon them so many boundaries and rules – but he did not. And now, with a monster raging in his head, reminding him of the life and the love he could have had; the young emperor knew that he would live on for all eternity, forced to watch everything and everyone he ever loved wither and fade away.

Blinded by one wish, the young emperor never seized the chance to realise the other. He wanted too much, and now he is to be forever tormented by the thought that maybe, just maybe, he chose the wrong wish to chase. Whether he did, no one will ever know. All we do learn from this tragic tale of ambition and love and wishes, is the incredible power of the sleeping sin that resides within all of us: greed.

And perhaps, with this wisdom, we may stand a better chance of having our own happy endings.

15/05/10