Chapter 13

“Oyez, oyez, oyez, all persons having anything to do with this court, the court of Nicholas, of House Durant, the First of His Name, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, God-Emperor of Man, King of All Romany, Maker and Giver of Law and Justice, Father of the Homeland, Prince of Peace, Ruler and Autocrat of All Nations, First Citizen, Lord of Hosts, Master of Soldiers, Protector of the Realm, Guardian of Earth, Emperor of the Romans, Pontifex Maximus, and Supreme Judge of the World, come forward and give your attendance, for this court is now in session. Every person shall keep silence on pain of Divine Wrath. Gods save the King!” my father, Walther Durant, intoned, no doubt grateful that I had reached into his soul and freed him from any lingering fears of Hell.

“Walther Durant, step forward, and receive of me My pleasure, my dictate, my judgment of you and all things pertaining to you. Bend the knee, my father in the flesh,” I told Dad, who quickly knelt, sensing that I, too, wished to be done with his case sooner rather than later.

“Walther Durant, my own natural father and sire, I do hereby create thee Prince Walther Durant and grant thee the permanent offices of Lord Steward of the Realm and Lord Herald of the Court, together with an annual salary of exactly sixty-nine thousand marks and the former Windsor Castle of the United Kingdom and its adjacent lands as thy hereditary estate. These rewards shall be thine for the good and loyal service which thou hast rendered to me since my late, rightful, and lawful accession of supreme and absolute power. Prince Walther, you may again stand your post,” I decreed Dad’s fate in a way that left him immensely pleased with himself.

The vast, global audience that stood watching heard everything without need for amplification, as my voice was like a celestial trumpet right then. Everyone present knew that their fate was now in my hands, the hands of a fifteen-year old youth. A boy king, some might call me, but so be it. I was a “boy king” who now had the power of life and death over them and they knew it. I could reward, as I did with Dad, or I could punish, as I was about to do rather dramatically in some cases.

“Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, step forward and bend the knee,” I instructed the former Prince Consort of the United Kingdom to present himself for judgment.

The aged Prince trembled as he knelt, but he bent the knee all the same. His hands visibly shook, his body shivering as he did so. I reached out and patted him on the head before deciding his fate.

“Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, for various crimes of neglect and omission, I hereby sentence you to house arrest in Holyrood Palace, which I award thee for thy own hereditary estate with its adjacent lands, for the remainder of your natural life. You shall be reduced in rank and title henceforth to Prince Philip Mountbatten-Windsor, for the duration of your confinement, as well as an annual pension of sixty-nine thousand marks for the rest of your life,” I decreed and then instantly teleported the husband of Queen Elizabeth II to Balmoral Castle to spend the rest of his days.

It was clear that this was a relatively light or lenient sentence, but I just began to judge, hadn’t I? Only two men had been judged so far after all. I summoned Argos Smithson into my presence and contemplated his fate briefly before handing it down.

“Argos Lavelle Smithson, formerly known as Daryl Matthews, for yes, that was your name, I hereby decree that as of this moment you are a steward and chamberlain of the Court, that you shall have no memory of your prior identity for the rest of your days, that you shall remain at Court for the remainder of your days as a resident thereof, and that you shall receive an annual salary of sixty-nine thousand marks. Your amnesia was only, temporarily, lifted for this cause, but shall now be reinstated. Stand behind Sir Walther for now,” I instructed Aunt Tessa’s ex, delivering a mixture of reward and punishment in his case.

“Fawn Anne Durant, please step forward step forward, and receive of me My pleasure, my dictate, my judgment of you and all things pertaining to you. Bend the knee, my mother in the flesh,” I now called upon Mom, of course, making her sweat a little, though my wink and smile reassured her a bit.

“Fawn Anne Durant, my own natural mother and dam, I do hereby create thee Princess Fawn Anne Durant and grant thee the permanent status of Queen Mother and Princess Consort of the Realm, together with an annual salary of sixty-nine thousand marks and Neuschwanstein Castle and its adjacent lands as thy hereditary estate. I further take thee to be my consort and bride, as yet the first of many wives which I shall claim and espouse under the laws of my domain. Mother, you shall be seated with me upon the dais,” I instructed Mom, which while raising her station above that of Dad, kept it far below my own.

If Dad was bothered by sharing Mom as his wife or being of lower status than her, he didn’t show it. Instead, he beamed with happiness at her exaltation and pride that HIS wife was a Queen in some form or another. He was married to royalty and had sired royalty, which by extension made him royalty in some sense of the term. He was certainly of the inner circle, the very elite of the new social order, a prince in good standing of House Durant itself.

“Tessa Katrina Durant, my own aunt in the flesh, my sweet lover, I do hereby create thee Queen Tessa the First, Queen Consort of the Realm! I hereby take thee to wife, claiming thee as the highest and greatest of my wives, granting an annual salary of sixty-nine thousand marks and gifting thee the Palace of Versailles in France and its adjacent lands as thy hereditary estate. My beloved Queen, you may seat yourself upon my very lap, close to my bosom,” I invited my favorite aunt, now my Queen, to sit upon my lap in public.

This was a rare sign of esteem and the fact that it was incestuous and polygamous, as was my union with Mother, now definitely drew envy, jealousy, hatred, and self-righteous indignation. Some three hundred sixty-four men and eighty-one women, consumed by their fanatical Christian zeal for “holiness” and not yet getting the memo that I now set all of the rules of the new world order, then charged at my throne. Laura Van Pham and the other guards killed and wounded sixteen of them. The rest continued, only to drop dead when I crushed their bones inside their own flesh with just my mind, particularly their skulls and vertebrae.

“Burn them ... all of them. Even the living ones. I want the price of an assault upon my person, upon my kindred, and upon House Durant itself to be unmistakable and undeniable. I sentence these surviving vermin to death by fire. Set their bodies ablaze, both the quick and the dead,” I ordered Laura and her team, none of which even hesitated for a moment to burn those people, alive and dead alike.

It probably helped that there was already a cold fury that someone would dare presume to attack and attempt to assassinate their King. Never mind that each of these people had once plotted to arrest me under orders from their former superiors in the Federal Government. That was beside the point. Their fealty and loyalty were to me now, so if I gave a command that these vile assassins be burned alive, so be it. I fully intended, however, to remove any feelings of guilt that might later plague their consciences, if necessary.

In my own defense, I should note that death now clearly meant annihilation. I should also point out that I had been given power to claim all of their bodies and I had. They were my thralls and I had every right to burn them if I saw fit to do just that. Unlike Jehovah, who tormented people for eternity with fire, sulphur, and “outer darkness,” among other things, I at least ensured that their agony ceased when they perished. That alone made me vastly superior to the Christian god in my view. As god-kings went, I wasn’t all that bad.

People heard the screams of my burning adversaries for several minutes that probably felt like eternities themselves. After that, they waited patiently for their turn at judgment, hoping that this teenage boy-king chose mercy instead of severity in their cases. Many of them threw up, turned white as ghosts, and lost control of their bodily functions, but that was to be expected as well. The fact that they were all naked, of course, terrified them as well. Why did I rip their clothes off their bodies ... and why were all of us nude, including me? Why was my name stamped on all of their bodies, for that matter, each of them virtually branded like cattle?

I went through a good deal of regular folks now, leaving the rich and famous alone for the moment, at least partly showing my “good cop” side. The “bad cop” side had just been made manifest by my decision to burn my foes alive, after all. I showed what I deemed to be mercy mixed with humor, such as when I turned many clergy of most faiths into German shepherds, not to mention many of their wives or husbands. I transformed much of the laity into sheep, cattle, deer, bison, wolves, foxes, swine, goats, birds, reptiles, insects (especially honey bees), whales, dolphins, fish, etc.