The God Complex: The Book Of Alan, Destroyer Of Worlds

Chapter Ten

Gliding gracefully across the manicured lawn of the rose garden, in the south west corner of her family estate, a young princess Pembo practiced her posture. She hated these lessons with a passion, hated being taught to be a 'lady,' but as next in line to the throne the weight of her family history hung heavy across her slender shoulders.

That summer she was due to start her first public relations tour, previously having only travelled with her family on state visits - however with the Queen's health weakening they believed now was the time for the Princess to be seen as the capable, independent stateswoman she must become.

The hazy sun drifted east across the pale sky and the warm smell of honeysuckle filled the air when her concentration was broken by the calls of her younger sister, desperate for her to come inside. She could see her father standing solemnly by the door surrounded by his advisers. An emergency meeting was to be held.

Up until that day, her future was written in stone: a privileged birthright of loyal servitude to her people; a birthright of Palaces, Princes and Kings; a birth-right she had been training for since she was old enough to train, now gone forever.

Soon there would be no need for Princesses or Queens anymore, soon there would be no need for Statesmen, Dukes, Lords or Ladies. The social structure that held them aloft was a castle made of sand when placed against the end of the world.

Death, the great leveller.

She demanded answers and for those responsible to be held to account and she was adept at getting what she wanted, promptly, yet when no answers were forthcoming, she called upon every person of note in her little black book and found each of them to be seeking the same truth.

It seemed there was no question as to whom was ultimately responsible for the devastation of the Earth's natural resources, or the suppression and denial of the many warning signs it gave us.

Yet in the years that followed the Princess was distraught to find that no action was ever taken, not by Governments, Authorities or Governing bodies and the more she dug, the more people she found in the pocket of Mr Abaddon.

While the Princess used her position of power to attempt to expose those responsible, Abaddon continued to build up his empire.

It was then that he broke what was left of her world.

His newly formed Serpentine Media focussed all their attention on her; her family; her kind.

The social elite became the scourge of society, the wasteful drain on resources that ultimately tipped the balance of an already fragile planet, all the while the common man worked themselves to the bone.

It was a ludicrous claim with no base but it didn't seem to matter, people were looking for someone to blame and his rolling twenty-four hour news channel drip fed it to them from every conceivable angle.

They were branded an enemy of the people and driven from their homes. Her family managed to escape to foreign shores, welcomed into safety by sympathetic friends when others weren't so lucky - but the Princess refused to leave; refused to run and hide.

Instead she went underground with those who still dared to point the finger at Abaddon. Forever outcast, she was never seen in public again.

Years of fear and darkness followed, hardening a Princess consumed by anger and injustice, but it was those dark years when her real training began.

She was taken into the protection of exiled Lords and Dukes with countless years of strategic military experience, each loyal to her mother, each loyal to her.

They could see the fire in her eyes, the path she was determined to follow through to the bitter end, so they taught her everything they knew in the hope of protecting her.