A New Kingdom

The king rules differently now.

Not from towers built to impress,
but from ground he walks daily,
hands steady, accounts in order,
stores prepared well beyond the season.

When the gates closed,
the land did not go barren.

New ground opened beyond the walls
quiet, unclaimed,
waiting for seed and patience.

What was planted there took hold quickly,
not by inheritance,
but by timing and resolve.
Roots set after the division,
growing without dispute,
strengthening in their own season.

Nothing here clamors for attention.
Nothing needs to be displayed.
What matters is held,
patient and sufficient,
ready when called upon.

The kingdom stands whole,
not because it was seized,
but because it was kept.

And now, the kingdom deepens
not outward,
but inward.

Within its walls, new structures rise.
Unused ground finds purpose.
Strength gathers where intention is placed.

Nothing stretches thin.
Everything bears weight.

The boys move freely through its halls now,
half their time under this roof,
learning by watching rather than instruction.
They see a man who stands alone
without being lonely,
who builds without fear of losing what he loves.

No chains rattle at the gate anymore.
The law has spoken.
The ground holds.

The king no longer practices magic in isolation.
Once a wizard of systems and symbols,
he learned the rules of hidden worlds.
Now he sings them into being.

A bard, too
telling truths that travel farther than spells,
weaving story and structure,
logic and lyric,
craft and voice.

Dual paths.
One mind.
A fuller art.

The kingdom is not quiet because it is empty,
but because it is settled.

Friends gather here now
strong ones, laughing ones,
builders, thinkers, walkers of long roads.
Not subjects.
Not saviors.
Companions.

The king does not rush to fill the throne.
He studies himself in stillness,
learning the difference
between solitude and absence,
between desire and need.

He is not waiting for love to arrive.
He is practicing it
in discipline,
in patience,
in the way he speaks to himself
when no one is listening.

This kingdom does not expand by conquest.
It compounds.

Time is its ally.
Integrity its walls.
Joy its currency.

And for the first time,
the king is not proving anything.

He is simply living.