June 18, 2025: I wrote this (very) short story, almost a parable – though I’m not sure a parable for what – for my wife when we were in Istanbul in the spring of 2024.
There were once two lovers who lived in a pristine land which they ruled. The king and queen walked through their realm every day, meeting their subjects and keeping watch over all the people, flora and fauna. They would speak to the people, work with them in the orchards and tend to the sick animals. Their subjects were to them as their own family, the land as if it was their dearest friend, and for this they were loved throughout the kingdom. And the kingdom flourished. There was peace and tranquility, and though the problems of the world did arise here, they were dealt with as justly and as swiftly as it was humanly possible. There was not a more idyllic realm on the earth.
Then, everything changed. In a rare moment in which the queen was on her own tending to their home and the king was not present, a demon visited the queen and told her that it was on the way to take the king’s life. She could not bear it. The king, more than a ruler, was also her lover. Even the thought of his death tore at her heart. Wise as she was, the queen knew the demon would be open to a bargain. It thirsted for life, and she might get away with offering it her own life instead. She entertained the idea, but knew it was useless. Without her, the king would still be as good as dead. So she thought of another bargain that the demon would settle for.
She smiled at the demon and said,
“You could try to take the king’s life, foul demon, but you and I both know that you don’t have it in you to kill my noble husband. You may be a demon but you do not possess the strength. Nor the nerve. But knowing that you will not settle until you’ve tasted the lifeblood of nobility, I offer you a part of my lifeblood instead. You shall taste my life, but I shall keep enough to become a noble oak tree and live on in this land. In this way both the king and I shall live and you shall have your due as a demon.”
The demon was overcome with the queen’s words, and how she did justice to even a demon’s demand. It accepted the bargain. It was further agreed that the queen would live as a great noble oak on a hill where she and her lover spent their most precious moments together. She would live there with her most loving memories of time spent with the king.
The king soon realized that his wife was missing. He looked everywhere in vain and when finally he was broken he sought refuge on the hill. When he reached the top he saw a tree which he had bever seen despite knowing every animal’s paw and every tree branch in the kingdom. He was even more bewildered when it spoke to him in his wife’s voice. She told him the story of the bargain struck with the demon, and how she sacrificed her life as a human to satisfy the demon and still live so that she may know and love her husband and he may know and love her.
From then on, having witnessed the greatest act of true love and loyalty, the king visited the great noble oak every day, reporting to his queen everything from the kingdom and seeking her counsel. She never disappointed him, and he loved her more than ever. As the king grew older, he grew more and more weary of the burdens of rulership, especially as his queen was not present with him as she once was, and spent more time with the noble oak with every passing day. An hour every day became two hours. Two hours became six. Finally the day came when the king turned 40, and that day he decided to surrender his position as sovereign.
Abandoning the burdens of kingship, the king devoted himself to his queen, and built a shack under the noble oak’s shade, and devoted himself to his lover as she had been devoted to him. That is how he would spend the rest of his days. The kingdom was distraught and in disarray at first, but then the people and the creatures understood what their king and queen had done for each other, and they remembered everything they had learnt from the lovers. In doing so, the kingdom resolved to care for itself in a way that would reflect the dignity of their king and queen. And life carried on as it had before.
The king lived a simple life in his shack, no different than a man who might look like a peasant of the realm. But he was noble in bearing, and with the noble oak tree to keep him company, he was full of life, light and love. Most of all, he was content and happy to spend his days with his queen, speaking to her of his love for her and her unmatched beauty. In this way the queen’s love and loyalty to the king was returned to her and she too was full of joy and laughter. She may not have been human anymore, but she was with her lover, and he with her.
After another 20 years, the demon returned to the king, stronger now having taken part of the queen’s life and now facing a weaker foe. The king, knowing that the demon was still no match for him, offered to strike a bargain of his own:
“You can have a part of my life, demon, but I shall live on as a sage plant, right here next to the noble oak. And we shall both live as long as our kingdom lives, and we shall die if our kingdom fails and falls.”
The demon, knowing in its heart that he had overestimated himself and underestimated his foe, took the bargain. He would not leave empty handed, and that counted for something.
And so the king became a sage plant next to the noble oak, and the two spoke of their love every day and every night. The hill with the oak and the sage became the site of pilgrimage for all the lovers of the kingdom who wanted their union to be blessed. The kingdom, founded on the strength and the wisdom of the oak and the sage, carried on. And the king and queen lived on, not what they once were, but what all lovers would aspire to be for all days to come.
Daniyal Khan 