Work Text:
You are the king of Mezalea, and you have not left your castle (split in two, quite symbolic you think) in two years. The portraits of the dead stare at you from your walls. With hollow eyes they ask you why you couldn’t save them. You spend most of your days stuck in the past, imagining all the things you would’ve done (you would’ve done everything the same, you knew nothing of the coming disaster). Wind. An open window, its curtains long gone. You look out over your kingdom for the first time since that day. A bridge. It stretches from one side of the chasm to the other (more symbolism, but that sort of thing was never your specialty). Maybe it is time. Your people are rebuilding, your kingdom returning to life, and with it so do you. You take one last glance at the painting of your past, and decide to focus on your future.
When you die they will call the greatest king of Mezalea (maybe you would laugh, you had been the first king). They will continue to honor you, in writings, in prayers, in song. In their book and paintings (would you have liked it? Would you have been embarrassed?). Mezalea will flourish because of your efforts. Alas, maybe the mesa was never the right home.
A drought. Cracked earth and dead plants. The people try their best, but in the end all they can do is pray. To the nature spirits (they have long been gone), to the sea gods (she cannot hear them), they pray to you. Rain. It comes heavy in sheets, returning life to the dry earth (was it a coincidence? Was it you?). They will remember this. They will tell their children, who will tell theirs, who will speak to each other of the time you sent down a storm to drive off an approaching army and they will honor you.
They will honor you long after they forget your name, long after they trade cracked red earth for lush green hills. They will honor you long after the name Mezalea has faded from their memories. They will honor you, god who brings the rain, the holder of thunder, the king of the heavens, the god of storms. That’s who you’ve always been after all (isn’t it?).