The House of Red and Black Conclusion
The mechanism that made the world turn was a machine of uncomplicated means, but it required weekly winding. The Key to the Dawn allowed the operator to wind the machine and was necessary to keep hooligan youth from disrupting the ways of the world below. The people on terra firma did not adjust well to change.
The people on Earth knew that every single day, night's darkness would end and the sun would rise precisely at 7:15am. This is how life on Earth had begun since before the memory of time. If the Mechanism of the Dawn were to go without being wound, the turning of the Earth would begin to slow and as such the night would become longer and longer. Gradually, all life on Earth would change until enveloped in a cold state of ever-night.
Lady Farcey knew that with all of the scandal following the realization of her fall from grace that the Kingdom of the Clouds had forgotten the previous fiasco - that Covetina had been given that precious task of winding the mechanism weekly. People were far too busy assuming the reason why Lady Farcey fell; they thought it was because she had crept into the house of Lord Night with the intent of becoming his bride. None but Lady Farcey knew that Covetina no longer possessed the Key to the Dawn and that foul creature was so busy reveling in her greatest wicked achievement that she failed to remember the task that had been given to her.
Revenge would be only too easy.
As Lady Farcey walked about the clouds with the eyes of former friends adverting from her, every step made her plan more and more clear. It tickled her to think that it would be so simple and yet so powerful.
'This will work,' she deduced as she sat alone watching the rose and golden hues of sunset. 'And it will be something that none in this kingdom will ever forget.'
~*~*~
It was almost to that hour when the stars took their mid-shift nap when at last she found him.
Lord Night was busy conducting a lovely, glittery concert of shooting stars when Lady Farcey drew beside him.
A small smile came across his face as from the side of his perception he saw the woman in black. She did not interrupt him and she took great pleasure in watching this master work. In all of her years, she never failed to be amazed by the subtle beauties of the universe.
Lord Night eventually pushed away the dancing stars to another sector of the galaxy so not to be rude to his unexpected company. "My dear Lady Farcey," he kindly, softly greeted. Though he spent most of his time alone, he was always the most amiable company. "How may I be of service to you?"
The fact that she now wore black clearly did not disturb or bother Lord Night, which was precisely what Lady Farcey had been anticipating. This man was far too pure a soul to give a damn about the boundaries between their classes.
Quietly, Lady Farcey began to explain, "I know that you are aware of my fall. I know that you are also a keen and clever man; you know that the hours of your work are beginning to elongate."
Lord Night smiled again. He chuckled and said, "I had begun to notice, yes." He rested his hands over his hips, striking a 'what next' stance. "Allow me to guess; Covetina is failing at the task given to her. A task, may I assume, that she tried to give to you? For why else would you have been coming into my home, but to give me the key?"
Lady Farcey was filled with hope. If he had already pieced together all of this, asking a favor would seem like nothing at all. "Yes," she answered at length. "Yes, she thought that you would take this willingly." She pulled out from her black robes the Key to the Dawn. "You are a master of your craft. Covetina pursued me into bringing this to you as you would surely never fail to see through the task of waking the mortal world below. And though I know that this is true, I have a monumental favor to ask of you."
The way that the stars he arranged above shone upon the white glowing face of Lady Farcey made any task seem as small as a breath. "Anything," he answered, enchanted by how lovely she looked in black.
"Help us," she whispered, enclosing her fingers around the key. "Help us to show her catastrophic faults to the universe by letting the dawn go. Let the night close in below."
The prospect was fascinating. Terrifying, yet intriguing. The ramifications of not winding the mechanism could be disastrous. Not reporting that the night was growing longer and longer placed his position in the kingdom in jeopardy. However, helping this beautiful soul before him to avenge those wronged by the fool hearty king appeared to be the most noble of deeds.
Sweeping his red cloak back, inviting Lady Farcey to take his arm, Lord Night said, "Come, Lady Facey, have I ever shown you the lion that I have drawn with the stars?"
~*~*~
That is until in the night one cool breeze blew. It was so soft and so subtle that no one took notice. The next night, the same coolness doubled. The next it tripled. People thought it strange, but nothing to fret. Life went on.
However, one morning, the fields, the trees, the eaves were laden with something never before seen. All the villagers in all the lands came out from their homes to stare at the foreign substance that invaded their perfect lives. It was white, cold to the touch, and it clung to every surface; frost. 'Frost!' they deduced in a hurly burly with bitterness and fear. How could their perfect world be changing? What had they done to deserve this wicked cold?
The queer happenings did not stop here. The very leaves in the trees began to change colors. The beautiful rich greens faded to shades of earth never before seen. Browns, golds, reds. Beautiful, yes, but foreign, unnatural!
The fall of the perfect lives of the people on Earth soon further devolved. Food would no longer grow. People began to drop from starvation and cold. They had no idea how to prepare or how to face this emerging foe.
The citizens in the Kingdom of the Clouds were growing scared and confused. In memory, Earth had never grown so lost in grey and white. In enormous droves people began to go to their king. With Lady Farcey tucked away in shame, the king was the only one to whom they could turn for aid. However, for weeks the king turned a blind eye to the woes and whims of his people, hoping, praying that this would all go away. His secluded world with Covetina was filled with nothing but perfection, so his subjects HAD to be exaggerating.
Weeks turned to months before finally the constant complaining drew the king out from his high walled bastion.
"LOOK!" Regulars and members of both Red and Black houses demanded of their king.
The king, still thinking his subjects to be nothing but dramatists, slowly swanked his way to the window to the world. His subjects gathered around the eye to Earth and pointed anxiously to the lands. The king bent over to peer below, expecting to see nothing but life and prosperity below. However, what he saw was a cascading landscape of white in great want of life.
"How can this be?" the king cried. "Why is the world covered in ice?"
It was in this moment that Covetina realized to her horror her error. But she was no fool. She kept her lips sealed. She slowly began to creep away from her king.
The people were as flabbergasted as the king. A whirl of rumors and guesses surfaced in a loud mess of voices until a body in the crowd realized, "The dawn! The mechanism of the Dawn!"
"It must be broken!" another shouted in response.
"It must be fixed!" replied the king. He was resolute to see this procedure through. "To the Mechanism of the Dawn!"
The masses began to rush away, but for one woman in black.
"Wait," her sage voice called out to the crowd.
Once all heads were facing her, Lady Farcey began to speak. "The fault lies not with the machine."
The king pushed his way forward to the front of the crowd. He wanted to scream and shout at her to step down, but his instincts were stopped short. A small object had taken his attention.
Lady Farcey held up the Key to the Dawn for all eyes to see.
People began to whisper and wonder how it was possible for Lady Farcey to have the key.
"Wasn't Covetina given that task?" several began to ask.
"Did she lose the key?"
"Why does Lady Farcey have that?"
Lady Farcey tried to find Covetina within the crowds, but she knew that the coward had likely stolen away. This prospect did not bring her any worry. The costs of that woman's actions had come back to haunt her at last.
"Explain yourself, Farcey!" the king demanded.
Keeping her ever calm, Lady Farcey nodded her head and began; "On the eve of my fall , Covetina approached me with this key. She asked that I pass on the task to Lord Night. It was for this reason that I was caught within his home - I was merely performing the task given to me by my future queen. You see, in her folly-driven efforts to have me fall from grace, Covetina forgot one thing; that the Mechanism of the Dawn had to be turned so that life would not become a frozen wasteland on Earth. As you can see," she motioned to the window to the world, "She has failed at her task."
"YOU, Farcey," the king screamed, "You have failed at the task. Why did you not surrender the key to me?"
A small smile swept on her face. "I tried on the day when I fell from grace. After that, I obeyed; for you see, I wear black, which means that I am in the house forbidden to speak to the king." Lady Farcey threw the Key of the Dawn to the feet of the king. "Your mistress has brought the fall of Earth, not I. Your mistress has stricken ice and suffering into the hearts of the people below and for what? To slake the jealous rages of her heart. She could not stand to see any other other woman be respected by you, our king. And what has this win brought t' her but the death and despair of our people below?"
The king stared at the key laying at his feet.
The people in the crowd watched him and Lady Farcey in disbelief. They could not believe that so much suffering had come from one soul's foolishness.
To everyone's shock, the king bent his knees and reached for the key. It felt like the weight of the world in his hands. When he stood, he quietly asked, "Why did you let this go on for so long?"
Lady Farcey inhaled deeply. This was the most difficult choice she ever had made, but there had been no other way. "To save you, my king, and our world." The people were beginning to understand, far faster than their king. "The constricting grasp that woman held around you left you blind to her wickedness. Your friends and your people have been coming to you for months to tell you of the changes below, this started in October, but it is only now in February that you notice. The world below will be restored to its original glory, but it will take time. It will be weeks before the Mechanism is able to be wound back to its proper speed without damaging Earth."
"Very good," the king said, starting to stand up proudly once more. "And then we'll ensure that this never happens again."
"Precisely," Lady Farcey agreed, but she knew that her means were quite different from the king's. "I propose that in order to ensure that you never lose sight again of what is right and just, that each and every year from now until the end of time, the world below repeats this cycle. I propose we make it so that the people below may spring out from this era of darkness to enjoy their summer's sun, but that they endure a fall again so to ever remind us of the win for her...best yet, let us call this period of suffering 'winter.' Let us never forget, let us never be blinded by glory for hollow victories."
The king had never before felt so ashamed. He knew that this was all of his fault. He peered around at all of the faces around him. Their kingdom had never before felt so cut and dry. It didn't matter which way he looked - there were only three colors and they had never before appeared so plain. Perhaps it was the void of color below that inspired his next decision, but in retrospect he would always accredit the wise Lady Farcey for this choice. The king sighed heavily. There was but one thing to do. "My dear Lady Farcey. I would not hold an ill will against you if you never forgave me for my actions against you and this kingdom. But please, I pray that this begins to make amends to you and to you, my people, for my foolishness." The king swept his arms up and in one brilliant all encompassing flash, all of the colors that had been stolen from Earth in winter filled the dresses, trappings, and clothing of the people. The colors of red, black, and white that had long defined the classes in the kingdom were nothing more but subtle hues in the intermixed, colorful dressings of the people.
Lady Farcey's eyes filled with tears. She never had anticipated that the king's newly found humility would drive him to at last erase the only thing in this kingdom that was a true source of shame.
The king looked out all around. The looks of sheer happiness on the faces of his people made him feel proud once more to be their king. Once the initial waves of joy were passed, the king raised his hands and said, "Let it be known that shame and pride will no longer be measured by colors or house or class. Let us never covet power, attention or greed. Indeed, let us follow the example of Lady Farcey who risked everything to remind us all of what is right."
Dressed in hues of blues and white, Lady Farcey had never felt happier. She knew that there was one citizen who, if not literally, would always wear black in the eyes of their Kingdom. Covetina may have escaped persecution today, but she would never be allowed to forget what her wickedness caused. Lady Farcey knew that her king would never again fall into the trap of desire or folly. Her own fall was at an end. There was nothing left to do but to rise.
End
I hope you enjoyed your stay in the Kingdom of the Clouds and I will see you next week!
Your humble author,
S. Faxon
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