My King, I Offer You Freedom

As the protagonist moves through a quiet conspiracy, the most unruly, red-haired playboy cavalier appears to be the hardest of the four knights to turn.

The writing never states it outright, but gently implies a shared past, that a former friend has become a tyrant, bound to him by something older than loyalty itself.

He calls the king“the prince anointed by countless blades.”…..

The golden serpent coiled around the knight is the shackle of his sworn vow, a bond that can only break at the moment of the king’s death.

And when the rebellion succeeds, it is his hand that slowly removes the ring - the emblem of kingship, seduction, and control -
as he looks at the fallen king and says:
“My king, I offer you freedom.”

I attempt to capture the moment after the ring is removed - the hush of a setting sun, as the king falls with it.

I imagine the two of them once running side by side,
sharing a past bright as the sun,
before everything began to shift.
Whether it was the ring that changed him, or something else entirely, no one can truly say.