Page 83 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

I answered, “Mine and another.”

She exhaled and nodded. “As you have conquered, you have changed the split and push of humans, and this applies to their skulls and skeleton crews also. There are yours, and then there are all others.”

“And all others rise up against me. So skulls represent the ruling of kings on the whole.”

“I guess you could say that,” she answered, as the other princesses sat in confusion. “Over centuries, the concept of skulls and skeletons has become the flag for those who oppose how the pulses are run—the resistance, so to speak.”

Resistance to pulses.

That was a human disguise for resistance to a new queen’s rule. The humans and skulls represented all kings… So did the skulls’ unrest signify the inner resistance of Kings? Or did their unrest continue because I was yet to conquer King Bring? “Orhave I underestimated the role that humans play? Is this a detail of obsession? Must they also be conquered for a queen to rule in truth?”

“Kings never ruledhumans as such,” said Princess Bring. “The kings might whisper here and there to trigger war, and also tend to their needs to keep them strong for the next war, but kings were never concerned with how humans otherwise lived.”

Monsters had stayed hidden while living in darker hours. “There must be a scrubbing away of all things king. I must reset humans as all monsters have been reset. I have greatly underestimated the importance of humans.”

“You believe the resistance of humans is causing the plague?” Princess Change spoke for the first time, and derisively at that.

I replied, “I am interested in doing everything I can to save the monsters around me, including your king.”

“He does not wish to be saved. This plague is designed by ancients. This is ruin taking hold at last.”

She was right, of course. “Yes, Princess, the scales have been tipped to ruin, and now ruin runs its own course.”

The other princesses gasped.

Princess Change smirked.

“Shame and guilt made Princess Change less likeable,”said the skeleton from her armchair.

The princess lost her smirk.

“Perhaps this is not the slide of ruin,” mused Princess Raise. “Recall that we once spoke of a time when all kings were unified at the olden rock. That is how we first figured your obsession, my queen. When kings all agreed, the concept of skulls was formed. If the plague is linked to the time when all kings were united, then dealing with the unrest of these human skulls could indeedhealpawns and kings. Perhaps the beginning must be revisited.

“Perhaps the answer rests in… reversal.” There was a telling kind of innerclickwithin me.

She brightened. “Exactly. Reversed! If monsters affect humans, then cannot humans affect monsters?”

I had needed her kingly connection, and she had not disappointed. The princess was exquisitely correct.

“Princess Raise,” I said. “Thank you for great insight. Kindly use your staircase to check the locked door in the cave of the olden rock, then report back.”

“What am I looking for?”

“Confirmation of my thought.”

She hesitated, then left the lounge. I tapped my finger on the armchair after.

Princess Take cleared her throat. “We might also consider the origins of the plague, my queen. Was King Bring not the first to succumb?”

Princess Bring squelched in haste to look at her.

“He was,” I said without actually speaking. The remaining princesses shivered and gasped at the breeze of my voice.

But my mind considered something new. “King Bring samples each curse and charm he makes. He survives these samples and is strengthened by them, because the victims of his charms and curses drink them too.”

We all looked at Princess Bring.

Princess Change stated the obvious, “You never drank the curse intended to kill you.”

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