The pires were being slowly constructed under the instructions of the new monarch, king Roland the l who had ordered the public execution of the former king Albert and all of his supporters.
Chief among them being the arch Duke Loran L. Gordan, who the new king had slated to be the main event of the seven day execution event.
Former Duke Gordan was put into a cell that allowed him to overlook the preparations for his and all of those who had stood by the former king.
Looking at the preparations Gordon had a blank expression, he felt nothing for his impending doom, all his life he had been nothing more than a tool controlled by those around him so it was not suprising to him that he should end this way.
The one thing that perplexed him was that he had been chosen as the main event, it was usually the former king that would be the main event.
He watched the joyous expressions on the peoples faces, how long had it been since he had been able to express an emotion?
He subconsciously lifted his hand to his face and felt it, as always his face was like a blank slate he looked neither happy or sad, the only thing that you could tell about him was that he was tired.
Gordon was rather tall and well built but his figure was concealed by his ever present baggy clothes, his ever tussled brown hair matched well with his vibrant green eyes that always made him look like he was half asleep. His skin was quite tan for a noble and his hands were covered in calluses.
Among the nobles he was seen as a blight, and even those who were on his same sight did not wish to be associated with him in general. But he was the noble man of a rather important land that was used as a major supply route for the kingdom so the former king had made sure that he was fully loyal to the king at a very young age, something that landed him the nickname 'The King's Fool'
He was by no means a fool though he had spent years refining his talents both mental and physical in order to serve more effectively, he was he supposed rather a fool, after all he never did anything against what he was told, he had expected something like this to happen eventually.
On the first day of the celebration they brought out the former king who was now dressed in rags, many of the people jeered at him as he walked up to the first pire but not everyone did some had actually liked the king who had never mistreated his subjects.
As they were readying the pire Gordon rested his elbows against the windowsill and placed his head on them looking out at the proceedings, the king raised his hand for the fire to be ignited.
As his hand was coming down it froze in mid air, gordan was slightly surprised but calmly surveyed the surroundings to see what was happening, the sky had grown dark and no one was moving it was like the whole world was frozen in place.
Birds were paused in mid flight and the small nat that had been tormenting him in his sleep was flying directly in front of him, he raised up one of his hands and using his thumb and index finger he crushed it and returned to his observations, he noticed that one other was able to move in this state, and that was the former king.
Gordan stayed perfectly still even when the former kings gaze fell on him, he soon turned his attention to a bright light that appeared Gordan squinted his eyes to get a better look at the situation.
A lady appeared from the light and looked around as if to survey her surroundings, she had a look of distaste written in her eyes but she wore a smile on her face as her eyes fell upon the former king.
"I am the goddess of the wind and I offer you the chance to escape this situation if you will join into the game"
Short and simple, but he wasn't sure about strait forward, the offer sounded alittle suspicious to Gordan but then again a way out was a way out.
the former king did not see anything wrong with the idea and quickly agreed
"Anything to survive this"
Gordan held back a scoff, he had not resistance and had agreed without thinking leaving all of those who had fallowed him to suffer and die without him.
Gordan had long since accepted his impending death but he had taken comfort in the fact that the former king was going to die as well, but now this lady was taking that away from him.
the lady reached out and lightly touched the former kings forehead, he began to glow and then disappeared, fallowed soon after by the lady but not before looking around again in disgust.
After a minute of utter silence the world began to move again, Gordan briefly wondered why he had been brought into the frozen world but decided that it did not matter, he was much more interested to see how the people would react to the situation before them.
For a moment all of the jeering stopped and the square fell into silence and then the sounds of confusion wrung out among the crowd, Gordan simply let his arms dangle out the window and rested his head on the sill he was suddenly quite tired.
The knew king looked around with a confused looks etched onto his usually calm face, as he did so his eyes landed on Gordan who was watching the whole thing calmly without a shred of emotion in his eyes, he yawned and went back to observing which made the knew king red with anger, he hated Gordon above all else that was why he was saving his execution for last.
Looking at the panic that now filled the square the knew king needed a way to calm down the crowd, what they needed was blood and he would supply that to them. His gaze landed on Gordan and suddenly an idea came to him, the perfect person to use as a scapegoat in order to focus the kingdoms attention on something else while he figured out what to do.
The new king quickly signed for one of his men to come over and he whispered something into his ear that made the man break out into a smile, Gordon knew that look ment that he would be going threw his execution alittle sooner than expected.
A group of guards barged into his cell and dragged him out without bothering to even put on restraints he just fallowed them without question, he had no reason to continue living in the first place and if he could escape where would he go?
Surprisingly they did not emidiatly take him out to the square but instead forced him to kneel in a small room and raze his head, a man came in and painted his face like a clown with a great smile, he had a feeling he knew what they were planning to do but he hopped he was wrong.
He was however spot on with his feeling, they brought him into the square and using rope and hung him on the castle wall in front of the kings throne by his arms.
The king was planning on making a sport of his execution, his voice wrang out over the uncertain crowd.
"Calm yourselves, in light of this unexpected development, I have devised a game that all may participate in"
He gestured tword Gordan who still just looked tired, but now the clown face made him look rather creepy and ghoulish but it made the king laugh.
"The game is called pin the traitor, in this came all of you will be given one spear to try to peirce this traitor, anyone who does will be given five silver coins"
The average subject made three silver in a year and was enough to feed a family of five comfortably the crowd all cheered and excitedly ran for the box of spears that one of the kings guards had brought out.
Gordan let out a sigh the group of subjects were laughing at his appearance and the money they could make from this execution, he was alittle uncomfortable since he was being held up by his outstretched arms.
At the signal from the king the subjects began to take turns hurling the spears, one after another some hit some missed, the process went on for about an hour and by the time everyone had finished he had twenty spears lodged into him.
He hadn't even flinched during the whole time, the spears were holding him in place since some of them had lodged into the wall behind him so he didn't have to worry about his arms anymore well other than the fact that he had five spears in his arms.
The king seemed rather unhappy with Gordon's seeming indifference, so he called for his golden spear to be brought out.
Gordan let out a small sigh, he was in quite a bit of pain and about to fade out when he saw the new king pulling out his golden spear and poised to throw, his head started to nod as he faded out but then he felt a strong pain in his head as it was suddenly jerked back by the spear lodging into his skull and into the wall behind.
He expected to die instantly from the hit but instead he felt full of energy, he looked confused for a split second and then he understood, the new king wanted to drag out his suffering as possible so he had put magic into the spear head that would keep him in a state of suspended pain, he guessed that it would fade after a couple of days but still that was just cruel.
None of the subjects understood that the kings spear had been infused with magic so they just went on with the celebration, all of them had forgoten the disappearance of the former king and were all to busy laughing at their gain and the appearance of the once feared Duke.
For Gordans part he stopped himself from moving since that would cause the spear blades to rub against his wounds causing the pain to increase.
Looking on the bright side he now had a better seat to watch the executions which were held for the next six days.
The first three days were all about the same he did not sleep at all for fear of moving, by the fourth day the bleeding stopped and the spell on the spear ran out, Gordan was content that he was able to at least see the other nobility meet their ends at the pires.
By the sixth day he could feel himself growing tired again, when ever the people would see him they would burst out laughing, he didn't mind it would be over soon, he had served the kingdom for his whole life with everything that he had, and now he could finally get some sleep.
On the seventh day it started to rain which canceled the events for that day, Gordan was barely breathing but he looked up toward the sky, it was nice that someone was crying for him at least.
And then the everything froze again, he looked to the pire and saw a dark light begin to form. For a few seconds the light stayed still and then turned into a dark shadowy figure the sight of it reminded Gordon of the battlefield, which brought a ghost of a smile onto his face.
The figure looked around seemingly lost and a small laugh escaped Gordon's lips, the figure turned toward the sound, its soulless eyes fixed on him and seemed to get smaller.
At this point Gordan did not have the strength to say a word he just stared at the figure matching its gaze, the figure suddenly appeared in front of him standing on the air, it seemed to be both confused and annoyed.
"What is going on here human? The inspector said that the execution was to take place today"
Gordan had no idea what the figure was taking about but it seemed to be referring to his execution.
"Why do you not respond, can you not speak or something?"
Gordan stopped smiling and just looked at the figure and then down at his neck were one of the spears had been lodged into half of his neck leaving just enough room for him to breath. The figure looked from him to the spear.
"Oh, that explains it"
was all that the figure had to say before waving its hand making all of the spears disappear, Gordan could feel his skin start to close over the injures, once it was fixed enough that he could speak the figure nodded its head in satisfaction.
"Now what happened here"
Gordan then explained in detail the events of the last six days like he was giving it like a normal report to his superiors.
The figure just stared at him as he did so, nodding his head in satisfaction, after he had finished his report the figure put his hands on Gordan's shoulders and smiled.
"Yes you will do nicely, I am the god of the battlefield and I have chosen you to be the thirteenth, you have succeeded in amusing me so I will give you the title of Jester."
The figure continued to smile as he said these words, Gordan had no idea what was going on but he desided not to question it.
The figure seemed satisfied and snapped its fingers before giving him one more bit of information.
"The game will begin in five years, I will send you to a safe place were you can gain strength and finish healing. Best of luck see you in five years."
The figure waved its hand again and a light started to surround him, when the light died away he was standing in the middle of a forest facing a rather angry looking boar, Gordan set out a sigh, this would be a long five years he could feel in in his bones.