"Woe!" The Patriarch held the crown of King Stephan Karameikos above the corpse of the first King of the Kingdom of Karameikos indicating to those Women huddled in the left side of the church, Queen Olivia and and Princesses gathered at their stead. "That I see you here."
The Patriarch adjusted his position, the crown having a heavy weight.
"Woe!" The Patriarch held the crown of King Stephan Karameikos above the corpse of the first King of the Kingdom of Karameikos indicating to those Men huddled in the right side of the church, the Princes Valen and Justin gathered at their stead. "That I see you there."
The Patriarch turned to direct his gaze at the centre of the Isle and the distant, open doors.
"Though I cannot be with thee in these days ahead, aggrieved ast thou art in this, the moment of mine passing..." The Patriarch felt pain begin to settle into his hands at the weight of the crown. "...do not feel slighted by the days to come, as difficult and burdensome as they may be, for there will you only find grief."
The Patriarch paused, perhaps slightly longer than he would have, had he been a young Priest. The Weight of the King's crown, and the exhaustion of old age as settling in. The Patriarch nodded to his assistant that he would continue none the less.
"Instead, forgive the slights and clumsy hurt that you inflict on one another in going about your daily lives, for you all are equally aggrieved and wounded, and hurt," The Patriarch grew tired, but held his position. It was almost done. Magic ensured that all in the church, and the Plaza, and the city of Specularum, and every town and village across the Kingdom beyond it heard and saw what was happening here. "...and look apon these days ahead as a renewal of your shared journey, where friendships might be forged in place of animosities."
Zweis Radu-Sulescu, adopted son and heir to the late Lord Sulescu thanks to some well placed documents that earned him an unexpected release from prison on the death of Lord Sulescu, watched as the Patriarch placed the crown on the Coffin of King Stephan Karameikos.
"You are the People of Karameikos," The Patriarch seemed to be taking it better with the weight of the crown removed. "Unified as one Kingdom."
He was fifty-one years of age, and would likely have perished of old age in prison for his part in the Conspiracies of the Radu family. Now he was unexpectedly, granted clemency just in time to look on the death of the First King of the Kingdom of Karameikos.
"Let use heed the call of our first King," The Patriarch cleared his throat and continued. "And set aside our animosites."
The old Patriarch, barely able to lift the crown, and he speaks of setting aside animosities? The Lord of Sulescu stared at the back of the heads of the Barons of Kelvin and Vorloi. They were practically geriatric. Might as well have a couple empty coffins they could be buried in with their King.
"We are a Kingdom that has overcome so many slights," The old Patriarch was now in to the final monologue. "and wounds, and hurts."
He looked across the crowd of highborn men at the women gathered in the left half of the church. There were some young beauties he would have definitely seduced in his younger years.
"Let us take the shared path," The Patriarch again coughed. "For we are the Kingdom of Karameikos."
Zweis Radu-Sulescu noticed something moving in the top of his field of view. The great statue of Petra had been installed on the women's side of the church, the gaze of the Goddess staring down at the coffin matched by the Statue of Halav on the men's side of the church out of a plan to unify the Churches of Traladara and Thyatis as the Church of Karameikos. Behind the head of the Goddess a red and torn cloth seemed to have caught some air current and fluttered into view.
Zweis felt a feeling of surprise at what now appeared to be the disembodied corpse of a red haired hag that descended silently brandishing a long pole that shifted to reveal itself to be a scythe of pure shadow - a Reaper descending toward the Patriarch still standing over the coffin.
Was he hallucinating? Zweis watched it descend into the field of view of everyone else in the church and they erupted with fear and terror at its unexpected presence. No, it was all too real.
The gathered Clerics and even the Patriarch held their holy symbols aloft attempting to destroy this undead, yet even the Patriarch proved powerless against it.
Wizards thinking it a malicious illusion unleashed dispel magic but it continued to persist in its approach. Its scythe, weilded more like the battle-axe of some maddened berserker, striking repeated blows into the hardiest, cutting through gathered Priests, Wizards, a dozen Knights of the Order of the Griffon hurling themselves in it's path, the elderly Patriarch, the Ambassador of Darokin who valiantly stepped in front of Queen Olivia taking a blow that would have left the Kingdom in the hands of her children, and the coffin of the King's corpse leaving a bloody wake of death.
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