[ WP ] `` Keep your head low , '' my mother said . `` That 's the woman who killed our gods . ''

`` But is n't she the queen? ``, I asked innocently. 
 
 My mother sighed deeply. The noise in the street quieted as the Queen passed by and continued her way through the city. 
 `` My dear child, a queen she may be but it is n't a title she earned'', she said in a somber tone. 
 
 That was the end of the conversation that day. We hurried home for dinner and it was n't for a few weeks until I remembered what Mother had said about the Queen killing our gods. As far as I could remember I only knew one God, THE God. My parents had mournfully worshiped other gods in the privacy of our home, but would never tell me about them. 
 
 `` It does n't matter little one, they are no longer with us, now run along! ``, would be their response. 
 
 I gained up the courage to ask my mother while she was preparing some food for lunch one day. 
 
 `` So how did the queen do it? How did she kill the gods?'' 
 
 My mother gave a sigh, and put down the food as she gestured for me to sit in her lap. 
 
 `` My dear child, it all starts one day when the king wished to find a wife. So he set out to find the most beautiful wife within our own city'' 
 
 `` But do n't kings usually marry princesses? ``, I asked. 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 `` Yes usually my dear child, but we were at peace, one that seemed likely to last for many years to come. The Gods had blessed us so.... He had no need to marry a princess he hardly knew. He had the freedom and chance to find love.....and indeed he has been fooled into thinking he found it... The queen is a young woman of great beauty, but inside she is as ugly as a corpse. She fooled the king with her looks, persuaded his heart with her flesh. The wise royal advisor saw through and tried to help the king but he would n't listen. The queen and her family came from a place far away, and her craftiness is beyond that of this land....Then the queen made it so her own relatives were elevated into positions in the palace, one even got a parade for his'heroism'. She began to fill the kings head with her foreign ideas. Again the advisor tried to stop this, and almost persuaded the king to get the entire lot of the queens family eradicated from the land, but again she was able to twist the narrative and had the advisor killed. With no voice of reason the king began to take his wife's words to heart. He turned his back on the true gods, accepting her false one and making him reign supreme. Our temples were repurposed, our idols were smashed, and our gods were dead. All because of that vile woman...'' 
 
 I look up at my mothers face, noticing that tears had been streaming down it for some time now. I hug her and cry myself. 
 
 The next day at the temple I say a prayer, for the first time it is not to the god, but to The Gods. 

