Le Diamant! Le Diamant! LE DIAMANT!

Thus did the King of Blythewold wish his assumed name to be screamed through the entirety of Silverveil, with the inhabitants of towns fleeing before the might of his arms! Yet, no matter how quickly they ran, how high they flew, they would not escape him! Submit they would, or be slaves! There was no other option for the Silverveilians than to serve M'sieur Le Diamant, Paramount Lord of Silverveil and King of Greater Blythewold.

These were the thoughts that swam throughout M'sieur's head, night and day, sweet as the crooning of a lover to some innocent girl. Power was within the grasp of Le Diamant, and power brought with it that greatest of gifts, bestowed only on the precious few: Purity! With the power to dispense of a life with the wave of a claw, to grab up a horde of diamonds and gems from the old Royal Hollow, to be ultimate lord of all he surveyed! These things were to give him the purity M'sieur so desired.

The first step to this reign of terror was M'sieur's castle, built in a lovely glade deep within the mysterious forests of the Kingdom. Rising slowly from the ground, this castle, built stone by stone by the labour of nigh on an hundred slaves, was M'sieur Le Diamant's ultimate legacy to the world. Great was its' beauty when completed! Majestic were its' walls and portcullises, its' keeps and its' barbicans! Even the slaves, to whom it must necessarily not have been a favoured building, viewed it with awe - for nothing like it had ever before been seen in that land, since the fabled time of the Others themselves.

The castle was mathematically perfect, the angles of the walls able to induce a swoon in a weaker mathematician. Cut the castle in half, and all would be the same on each side. It was, to use a phrase much in favour in M'sieur's Court, quite architecturally pure.

Yet inside this wondrous building, all was chaos. The soldiers of Le Diamant were bad representatives of even their own coarse breed. Bedclothes were hung about the halls, poleaxes lay abandoned in the receiving rooms, molted feathers lay scattered upon the stairwells! How disappointed would be our mathematician! 'Twould be like opening a perfect oyster to find two dozen grains of sand!

Even the Throne Room of M'sieur, that exacting master, was not of the quality one would wish. The throne was but a temporary thing, a wooden structure ill-gilded, with two or three diamonds pounded into the surface.

Yet, to M'sieur Le Diamant, it was perfect. It was his castle - all his! After years of toil, he had finally succeeded in becoming the true King and master of Silverveil! All that remained was to complete his conquest of the borderlands, enslave all his enemies, and then - then he could rest.

M'sieur wriggled uncomfortably in his throne, then, looking up, cast his eyes about the cages in the Throne Room, filled with birds of pretty colours whom he had ordered captured. "Come along, my little darlings, sing to me...."

~~~

Wimpfur sat on his paws and glanced warily around the room. Even though the mathematician might view the interior of the Diamond Lord's Castle as crude, Wimpfur believed it wonderful, fragile as glass. Should he touch anything, he was sure My Lord The Diamond One would beat him senseless - he seemed to enjoy that.

The good, stupid servant of M'sieur had been summoned to the castle from the quarry just recently, and he was rather unsure for what reason. Wimpfur was sure of only one thing - it was probably not good. Wincing in anticipation, Wimpfur waited.

OOC: SDWI.