07/14/2026
THE KING’S MOST PRECIOUS TREASURE VANISHED IN THE NIGHT.
A single goblet toppled, wine crawling across white cloth.
King Alric’s voice thundered: “Who stole my ring?”
Five ministers, faces drained, sat frozen in the glare.
The doors groaned on their hinges, no one dared move.
“No one leaves this hall until someone confesses.”
Silence pressed down, colder than the winter wind outside.
A flicker of movement just beyond the lamplight.
A beggar boy crouched, heart pounding in his chest.
His fist tightened around something heavy, something forbidden.
The ruby’s glow spilled red fire over his cracked, dirty skin.
He stared at it, wonder flickering in his starving eyes.
Bread, he thought. Warmth. A bed without straw.
Inside, voices shattered against stone walls, rising in panic.
Another minister sobbed, “Please, Your Majesty, I swear—”
The boy’s breath fogged in the gloom as the king’s footsteps pounded nearer.
He remembered the moment his hand closed around the ring.
Not courage. Not malice. Just hunger driving fingers that couldn’t stop.
The laughter now gone, replaced by cries echoing off the rafters.
Five men—innocent, trembling, terrified—watching the king’s fury burn.
One voice pleaded, “We are loyal, we would never—”
The boy’s own smile threatened to break, torn by hope and guilt.
Would he run? Or would he step into the light?
“What did you do with it? Speak!” the king roared—
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