![\"\"](\"http:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/star_david-small-700x992.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThere once was a King who had ruled his kingdom for many years, and there remained no-one who dared to question him. Such was his power that there were none upon the earth who he considered his equal, and so one day he called down a star from the night sky and bade her walk with him. It was there, in his vast garden, that he asked her to be his wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere would I live?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my castle,\u201d the King replied.<\/p>\n
The star laughed, and said she could not, for she was used to the vastness of space, and walls were not to her liking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell then, if not in my castle how about in the fields of my kingdom?\u201d he said, and he showed her the extent of his fields and the vastness of his domain. \u201cAll this is mine, and within it you can go where you please, for you would be Queen and none but me would dare stop you.\u201d<\/p>\n
But still she refused.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven your kingdom has borders. And borders themselves are walls,\u201d she said. \u201cWalls of another kind, yes, but they constrain all the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, if not my wife, my prisoner you will be,\u201d the King said, and he called for his guards to capture her.<\/p>\n
To this the star replied, \u201cWife, servant, prisoner, slave – what difference would it make what you call me? Without choice, the imprisonment is just the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
The King\u2019s guards led her to the deepest and darkest part of the castle\u2019s vast filthy dungeons, and there, in the smallest cell, they locked her inside. \u201cPerhaps when this cell has dimmed the fire in your heart you will see the error of your ways,\u201d the King said to the star.<\/p>\n
To which the star said to the King, \u201cIt is not only me this cell holds in place, for you as well are bound by it.\u201d But the King would not listen, and he left her there, glowing to no-one in the dark.<\/p>\n
After a week, the King returned and asked once more for her hand in marriage. The star looked just as bright as before, if not brighter, and still she refused. \u201cIf a week is not enough to change your mind, then so be it,\u201d said the King.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to you I say the same,\u201d said the star. But the King would not listen.<\/p>\n
After a month, the King returned for a second time, and asked her again to marry him. The star\u2019s radiance was brighter than ever and she refused once more. \u201cIf a month is not enough to change your mind, then so be it,\u201d said the King.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to you again I say the same,\u201d said the star. But the King would not listen.<\/p>\n
After a year, the King returned for a final time. \u201cI have asked you three times to marry me, and three times you have refused. If you refuse me a fourth time, I shall abandon you here and you shall know nothing more but imprisonment for the rest of your days.\u201d<\/p>\n
By now the star was so bright the King had to shield his eyes against her majesty. \u201cI have spent a year in this cage, hoping each day that you would come to understand that these walls have imprisoned you just as much as me. But you have understood nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The star reached out and took the King by the hand. \u201cLook, I shall show you,\u201d she said. And with that her brightness flared and the King\u2019s castle was burned to the ground, and the people within were set free.<\/p>\n
And then she shone more brilliantly than ever before, and every wall and building in the country was reduced to ash, although the people within were left unharmed.<\/p>\n
And then her brightness exploded outwards once more and the walls and the borders of all the Earth were destroyed and everyone across the world was set free. And in the comfort of her light there was much rejoicing and a shared sense of kinship between all which would never fade.<\/p>\n
The people of the world did give her praise, but they did not make a God of her, nor even a Queen, for her light had shown them that those that rule are another wall imposed upon the world, and the Gods themselves yet another.<\/p>\n
To the King she said, \u201cTo you, and only you, shall I show a truly wall-less world, out beyond the binds of gravity.\u201d And she bore him up into the immensity of space, and took him to the deepest and darkest part of her infinitely vast domain, and she set him down there in the darkness, where the only light was her own, for the rest of the stars were too far away to cast their light upon him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, my King, you are free.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she left him there in the dark, in the cold, far out beyond the walls of the world.\f<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
__________<\/p>\n
Notes: <\/p>\n
1. This was written in May, 2014<\/em> There once was a King who had ruled his kingdom for many years, and there remained no-one who dared to question him. Such was his power that there were none upon the earth who he considered his equal, and so one day he called down a star from the night sky and bade her walk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[20,126,130,21,23,22,29,42,86,125,127,129,124,128],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-thousand-and-one-tales","tag-a-thousand-and-one-tales","tag-arachne-press","tag-cliff-chapman","tag-fairy-tales","tag-fiction","tag-folk-tales","tag-holly-english","tag-illustrations","tag-kings","tag-liberty-tales","tag-stars","tag-the-angels-of-light","tag-the-king-and-the-light","tag-the-universe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2. But was first published in November, 2016, in the anthology Liberty Tales<\/a>![\"\"](\"\/\/ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=accumulationo-21&l=am2&o=2&a=1909208310\")
\n3. You can see this story being performed by the actor Cliff Chapman<\/a> at a Liberty Tales launch event here<\/a>.<\/em>
\n4. The illustration is by Holly English<\/a>, the final of four illustrations she drew for these fairy tales.<\/em>
\n5. The original title of this was The King And The Angel Of Light, but the angel bit got removed during the publication process.<\/em>
\n6. I was really obsessed with the song not here\/not now by the angels of light<\/a> at the time I think<\/em><\/p>\n__________<\/br>Support An Accumulation Of Things<\/a><\/h3>If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon<\/a> or my ko-fi<\/a>. <\/br><\/br>Patreon subscribers<\/a> get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.<\/br><\/br>(Ko-fi contributors<\/a> probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). <\/br><\/br>Thank you!<\/i><\/br><\/br>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"