Meeting The Goblin King
I first met the great Goblin King, affectionately Gobbie, when a half human named Blyde introduced us under false pretenses. A selfish, self-absorbed, spice-addicted humanoid from the twin planets of the Lydian system, Blyde lured me into the goblin king's secret underground lair under the pretense of acquiring pure white spice at fair dark market rates.
I later found out that Blyde is one of the goblin king's underground scouts charged with befriending and luring new recruits for the goblin's army as well as victims for the king's cruel court system. Turns out Blyde made the mistake of trying to lure a fallen angel to the lair, which the king was quite displeased with, and was eventually exiled to the outskirts of his home planet.
The twin planets are the third and fourth from their star, spinning closely around each other as their gravities mesh into a unified orbit around their respective star. Travel between the planets is frequent for the elite citizens able to afford the luxury of travel as well as traders, including the trade of goods in the dark market, such as the many varied flavors of spice that are mined on those two planets; hence the interest of the goblin empire in ruling the two planets.
The twin planets are the third and fourth from their star, spinning closely around each other as their gravities mesh into a unified orbit around their respective star. Travel between the planets is frequent for the elite citizens able to afford the luxury of travel as well as traders, including the trade of goods in the dark market, such as the many varied flavors of spice that are mined on those two planets; hence the interest of the goblin empire in ruling the two planets.
The king keeps a secret lair on each of the planets he has conquered; that's common knowledge. The main kingdom of the galaxy resides a few light years from the Lydian system on the largest of three neighboring planets known as the Divine Three. They orbit a blue star as the seventh through ninth planets able to sustain life. The indigenous intelligent life forms have four arms and communicate mainly by mental telepathy. The queen handles most of the royal affairs as the king travels among the kingdom's planets, recruiting and reinforcing the galactic laws.
Blyde's contract with the goblin king required him to find evil, rotten, spoiling or even just tainted souls and bring them before the king for judgment and subsequent recruitment into the goblin king's dark army or execution for those who refuse per court proceedings.
I am the first exception to reject recruitment and live to tell about it. His reluctance to release me is of course unprecedented and most likely not to be repeated anytime soon. The question of how and why I survived is not easily answered or understood, but the short of it is that I am a zen master with the highest flow of chi known in the goblin empire; even greater than the king or queen.
I was sober for two years when I met Blyde, avoiding all flavors of spice in the dark markets except for the occasional green spice. I was still selling opal spice in dark corners of the market, out of the sights of other predatory sellers, but not partaking myself while maintaining a full time job as my cover.
Blyde assumed I was just another guilty lamb to bring before the king for slaughter when we met at Afton Suites pub a few weeks prior. I broke my two year streak by sharing some white spice with Blyde, which later resulted in him leading me to the lair under the guise of a secret spot in our hood where he could score some decent, not amazing or great, but decent, white spice. He warned me that the spot was hot and to avoid it if possible, not rely on it as my primary, and made no other mention of what was inside besides someone or somehow of getting us some white spice for that night.
I had no idea the king would soon become the last of a long line of teachers on my path towards zen awakening, because at the time, I was unaware of how strong the flow of chi was within me. Of course, taking on the role of my teacher required more reluctance than not killing me, but since I cannot die anyway, he saw the potential value in training me in the hopes of securing me as an ally.
The king is a large man, half human, some robot, mostly goblin, standing a little shy of six feet, more metal alloy than man, and carrying the heavy burden of wisdom along with his robotic parts from a young age. I first heard his name about eighteen years before I met him. At the time, he was probably fourteen hundred years old and unaware of the path he was destined to fulfill, though already a great king with a substantial empire.
This post first appeared on Prelude To The Distraction Fiction Collections, please read the originial post: here
