CLOCKWORK Eternal Love’s Curse

Dusk came rather quickly. King Rami and his men were led out in chains from the dungeons to their public execution.

An altar was prepared for the ceremony of the Him Die, a punishment much worse than death to begin. This ceremony was performed only on the worst criminals of ancient Egyptia. It entailed a blood ritual trapping condemned souls in artifacts to suffer eternal torment and damnation, never dying but having a cursed, worthless existence within the confines of an eternal prison within a carefully selected artifact.

For this particular Him Die, the artifact chosen was the sacred sundial. An invention born out of the mind of the former King of Petrah with the help of the greatest minds of his kingdom.

Engraved beneath it was the symbol of anakph symbolizing eternal life and reincarnation.

Queen Cleophethrah rose from her throne where she sat and proceeded to the altar where her prisoners were waiting.

Her executioner soldiers each took one of King Ramis traitor soldiers and held a dagger to their neck, waiting for the signal from the queen to begin the mass slaughter for the ritual.

”Rami, my love… ” she spoke in obvious pain and resignation. ” I will not let anyone but myself perform this ceremony because of your significance to me. ”

Rami nodded seemingly accepting his fate. Setting his eyes on the altar, a smirk walked across his face. ”A sundial? Hm, the irony. Haha…you know Ive always admired your sense of humor. ” He laughed mockingly.

Cleophethrah ignored the mocking of her former lover and took up her double sided dagger from the altar. ”This hurts me more than you could ever know my love. ” She said with a quivering heart that wailed deeply inside of her.

As she readied herself to perform the ceremony, the former king he began to warn, ” My love, you do remember our oath of undying love, do you not? The ritual sealed our souls together forever. Whatever you do now will hurt you possibly more than it hurts me. I implore you, do think about what you
e doing one more time and be sure you
e ready to face the consequences. ”

” I have thought, and I have consulted with my sorcerers. I have therefore decided that eradicating you is the best thing for the kingdom of Egyptia. Leaving you alive will only assure the destruction of this kingdom. This is the only way. ” She said kneeling before him and caressing his face like a priceless treasure.

”If I could but touch your face one last time, that would be the appropriate goodbye I need to accept this fate. ” Rami looked deep into Queen Cleophethrah eyes, searching for a sign of hope.

”Guards! Unbind his hands but leave his feet bound! ” Queen Cleophethrah commanded. ”For I want to feel his touch one last time. ” She whispered to the hearing of her husband.

The guards quickly unbound the hands of the former king and he immediately grabbed his wifes face causing her to drop the dagger and gave her the deepest, most passionate kiss he had ever given her.

”Ahhhhhhhhhhh! ” The Queen suddenly screamed. King Rami had stabbed her straight through her stomach with the same double sided dagger she had dropped.

The scream from the queen was interpreted by her soldiers as the signal for the mass slaughter to begin causing her soldiers to roar ”For Egyptia!!!! ” before slitting the throats of all King Ramis men all at the same time.

Suddenly the bright sky transformed into a thick dark night. A heavy wind formed in the atmosphere and began to blow away everything in its path. Thunder claps and lightning strikes filled the skies causing the great audience to run helter skelter with intense panic.

King Rami in this chaos watching the Queen die by his hand smiled maniacally and then whispered in her ear, ”Didn I tell you? Till. Death. Do. Us. Part. ”

He then roared with a loud voice into the chaotic atmosphere, ”I swear by my blood that no matter how long it takes, I WILL have my revenge on your precious new world!! ”

Lifting himself up, he thrust his stomach straight into the other blade of the double sided dagger facing him and immediately perished.

At that moment, all the souls of the slaughtered including that of dearly departed Queen Cleophethrah were lifted up to the skies. The voices of the freshly fallen filled the air as wails and cries of the dead.

At the last strike of lightning, the souls warped themselves all together and all got sucked into the sundial trapping them for all eternity in eternal torment.

The storm suddenly stopped as the ritual was completed.

The kingdom of Egyptia entered into a great mourning that night as it had lost both of its leaders in one day.

A burial was performed for the Queen where a prayer was made to the gods on her behalf, that she would find a light even in the midst of darkness to guide her into her next life. And that she will retain her good heart even in eternal damnation.

A ceremony was performed where the symbols of the anakph (the symbol of eternal life and reincarnation), the eye of Huros – the sun god (a symbol of protection and the eye of Ro -the sun goddess (a symbol of good luck) were engraved into the grave of Queen Cleophethrah, made out of pure gold, to help her even in her unbecoming afterlife.

A league of the greatest sorcerers known to all the kingdoms called the Mijer was set up by the High Council and charged with the duty of being the guardians over the sacred sundial containing the souls of the King, his men, and the Queen. They had the task of renewing the seal over the sacred sundial every century to prevent the escape and reincarnation of the evil King and his men for they feared what will happen if they ever got reincarnated. The apocalypse maybe.

The sacred sundial got passed down to the descendants of the Mijer generation after generation.

With the passage of centuries, the sundial was built into more modern disguises fitting to the particular age to conceal its true nature in plain sight and for mobility sake.

It took many forms and was rumored in the 21st century to have taken the form of a grandfather clock.

Many however cannot confirm the truth of that fact or if its even a fact at all. But the people of the long forgotten kingdom of Egyptia pray even in death that the soul of the evil King Rami, a man capable of murdering his lover for the sake of world domination would never ever see the light of day again.

For if he does, the end of the world will be certain.