zero plus nothing equals - 18. betrayal

by jeremy witherington

part eighteen of 31

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the stranger rode across the desert,. he was bitterly disappointed at not keeping his rendezvous with the queen. he decided to get his revenge. but against whom? against the queen, who had not kept her promise to meet him, no matter what the obstacle? though the heavens turn to ash. and the oceans turn to sand. those had been her words to him. under the old oak tree, on the night before she was to be delivered to the king. accompanied by ten thousand horsemen of her uncle, the great emperor. whose empire had turned into sand. the very sand the stranger was riding across on his strange beast. night fell, and the stranger decided, having put a hundred leagues between himself and the town, which was the only remnant of the empire, to stop for the night. when he fell asleep, the strange beast wandered away in the direction of the great mountain. the stranger slept, blissfully unaware of the beast’s perfidy. everybody had betrayed him. the queen. the beast. and the world. he had a dream in which he was walking down a dark road. he decided to get his vengeance, not against the queen, whom he still loved. not against the beast, whose betrayal he was unaware of. but against the world. against the world. next