The Bard's lost scrolls by Rhapsody

The Sun King's legacy

Maglor, as Marco Fean Ata and courtier, reflects on the end of an era after King Louis XIV of France has passed.

This was supposed to be a double drabble written for the Maglor in History 2 card prompt B4: Baroque period. But you know.. pesky muses and such.

The autumn sun has set and he, Louis Dieudonné de Bourbon, is no more. I neither loved nor feared him, for that I have seen too much over the ages with different rulers and others in power.

For so long did he rule his country, bringing it to its knees in poverty and despair. His palace, probably his final legacy, mirrors all that we wish to remember, and shows that which we would rather hide. The good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly.

Was he mad or just power hungry? Was he hiding uncertainty behind his golden mask, had himself crowned as the Sun King, not wanting to ever live in poverty?

"J'aimais trop la guerre," he finally uttered before his feä was summoned. Did he love war too much? Or was it the cold addiction to war, the adrenaline rush to conquer and the satisfaction to subdue? We shall never know for certain.

The courtyard is silent and the hall of mirrors reflects no sound and images. I wonder how many have packed to flee from this place, after having lived here for many years. All imprisoned in this golden cage by the King's demand. All that remains are memories, scattered like ashes on the wind, perhaps to be regaled by those he once protected.