The Heaviest Blade
Inside the palace…
Everything looked peaceful.
Almost deceptive.
Centuries back, workers raised the main compound beside a huge spring bubbling from the earth. Water moved without hurry through stonework shaped long ago, branching then meeting again while threading between open yards and green plots. Along shallow paths, streams murmured across slick stone. Stone arches, old and hushed in form, arched over currents below - each surface softened by years, touched by many passing soles.
Mist curled around the base of towering green giants, their trunks rising without sound. From above, thin whispers moved between leaves each time air slipped by. Vines heavy with bloom climbed cold stone columns, color draping sideways as if refusing stillness. Light pierced overlapping layers overhead, falling in uneven pools - shifting coins of gold-green on narrow trails below. High branches held the quiet while shadows stretched.
It looked like paradise.
