Sparrow lay naked in darkness. There was nothing above him or below him but silence.

He wondered what would happen now… he’d lost. He’d died. He hadn’t become the largest orb. Am I set to be damned for eternity?

A flame grew above him, and through the flame stepped the demon queen. Horrifying and beautiful all at the same time. Her lips looked as though they’d been painted with blood. Large dark rings highlighted the whites of her eyes, the swell of her breasts and the sublime curves of her hips.

Sparrow coughed, black dust lept from his lungs.

‘I failed, didn’t I?’

The demon queen raised an eyebrow, ‘Because you got eaten?’

Sparrow nodded, her eyes seemed to take him all in at once. He thought maybe she was biting her bottom lip as she eyed him.

‘It doesn’t matter that you got eaten Sparrow, it matters that you won.’

Sparrow nodded, ‘So… just pride…’

‘And then lust,’ she purred, reaching out a finger, and touching it to Sparrow’s chin. The finger made the hairs on Sparrow’s neck stand up as it trailed down his chest, towards… she lifted her hand away, ‘I’m looking forward to lust,’ she whispered.

‘So am I,’ Sparrow said. The words coming out of him before he had a chance to think them.

‘Well, now hoo-man.’ the demon screeched, ruining all sexual tension in the space, ‘Time for some pride.’

The demon queen touched his face then turned, ‘I will be ready for you.’ She bent down so her lips brushed Sparrow’s skin as she spoke, ‘I have waited a long time for this Sparrow.’

****

Pride is different from the other challenges hoo-man,' the demon said as it bowed goodbye to its queen, 'In pride, you will become a different person every single day at the end of which I will ask you what the lesson is. If you cannot tell me the lesson then you spend another day as someone else.'

'So I'm guessing the lesson?'

'Not guessing hoo-man, you must know the lesson, and the only way to know is to experience hoo-man.'

The demon clicked its claw-coated fingers. The hairs on Sparrow's chin grew longer and longer, until he had a full white beard. His chest and stomach grew out and his body was coated with a fine purple robe.

Beneath the robe was a freshly pressed white shirt of the finest cotton. On his head, there appeared a large shiny gold crown. In front of Sparrow, a hundred people appeared. Some wore fine clothes, some carried spears, others bowed before him.

A stained glass window threw light over his face as he sat on a giant throne made from the swords and shattered shields of opponents his ancestors had defeated in battle.

A man in knight's armour stood before him speaking in a husky, noble voice, '...they are upon us my king. Thorino has invaded the lowland forests, my scouts report their armies are large, almost as large as our own and we'll lose at least ten thousand men if we try to take them.'

Beside the knight was a man with a feather in his cap and a purse of gold around his waist, he spoke with the laugh of a man well-fed, '...But the lowland ones are our grain producer my liege,' he said, 'without them, our economy will be crippled. We must save the lowlands.'

Sparrow scratched the side of his head, where was the lesson in all this? Perhaps it had something to do with not fighting, mind you he was in the underworld so maybe the more deaths the better? But then 10,000 mean was a lot to die for grain. Was any country really worth that many lives?

'Have our armies ready,' Sparrow said, 'station them on the border but do not attack, we will speak with the enemy.'

The two men bowed and left, neither of them looked particularly happy. They were replaced by two more. Their bellies were large and their clothes made of fine cloth. The slightly shorter of the two spoke first.

'My lord, our uncle has died and he had no sons, and now we are dividing his possessions. I am the eldest of our family so I believe I should receive the uncle's farm.'

The other man shook his head. I'm the second eldest brother. Therefore when our father dies my eldest brother will inherit everything and I am set to receive none, should I not be given the farm?'

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Sparrow scratched his chin, enjoying the feeling of having a beard there. The men before him, were clearly wealthy. The fact they weren't covered in random spots and scars or missing fingers was a dead giveaway, yet here they were squabbling about some uncle's farm.

'Does he have a daughter?’ Sparrow asked. The brothers looked at each other, then back at Sparrow. Neither seemed willing to speak.

'Are you going to answer your king?' one of the court staff said.

The younger brother scratched the back of his head, 'Well, yes, he does my liege A single daughter who we’ve already decided will be sent off to marry a-.'

'Then we have our answer.' Sparrow smiled enjoying the sight of the smiles dropping away from the brother's faces, 'The man's land should go to his daughter for her to do as she sees fit. That is my judgment.'

After the pair came an ambassador from the emporer of some far off land, speaking about a treaty, then there was a league of farmers calling for aid to replace their crops, a trio of monks who sang a song then begged him for gold to help them build a new monastery, then some prince who wanted Sparrow to fund a sailing expedition.

The day dragged on in an endless string of decisions which Sparrow didn’t give a damn about, but clearly mattered a lot to the askers.

'So what was the lesson hoo-man?' the demon said, at the end of the day as Sparrow hung up his jewel-studded crown, which actually hurt his neck quite a lot.

Sparrow blew his nose on the royal robe, 'I suppose the lesson is that king's power isn't all that great, you're weighed down by responsibilities, and a very heavy crown'

The demon laughed and shook its head, 'Not even close hoo-man.'

Darkness warped around them and Sparrow felt himself falling backwards, he landed in a wet patch of mud. A slab of stone was sticking into his back. He pulled himself from the ground and found his hands were tiny. He peered into the murky water he'd landed in and found he was a little girl about the age of five. Mud stained his holey, far-too-big clothes.

A large, smelly man grabbed him and without a word dragged Sparrow screaming through throngs of people who didn't even bother to look down. He was taken to a large room where little girls and boys his age gathered around tables and churning treadmills.

'You're late gurrrl,' a man, with a large stick in his hand said, 'you know what that means? First half of your day is deducted from your pay.'

Sparrow looked away, a few of the other kids spared him a glance, but most were focused intently on their work. Some were threading matches onto long strips of metal, then bunching them together and placing them in boxes. In front of Sparrow was a large vat of molten chemical. He watched as the girl opposite dipped a large bundle of tiny match sticks into it and then pull them out, gathering little knobs of chemical on the ends of the matches.

Sparrow followed what the girl did, all day he suffered from burns, stings and even melted the tip of his little finger off.

He wished he had stoneskin. No, actually, he wished he could create fire with his hands and burn the entire factory to the ground and release all the little kids working there into the wide world so that have a chance to explore the beauty and the variety and offered beyond the dark, damp little factory they were sent to every day.

At the end of the day when he was handed a single bronze coin he found the demon waiting for him outside. 'Well hoo-man,’ the demon said, 'What is the lesson?'

Sparrow wiped his stinging hands on the rags that clothed him, 'The lesson is that maybe it's not so bad to be a king after all, there are many others who have things worse.'

The demon shook its head, ‘At this rate the queen is going to be waiting for a very long time.'

'Well she can just-'

'-she can what? an old woman's voice said to Sparrow as he lay on a stretcher staring up at a bamboo-clad ceiling. Pain wracked his body, but there was one area of pain that was louder than the others, it was sort of mid-stomach and pulsing with a fatalistic rhythm.

He tried to hold up a hand and found it withered and weak. Great. Looks like I’m about to die.

A woman entered his vision, she was old and tired and wore an infinity symbol around her neck.

A follower of Jai Den, Sparrow thought to himself. The woman placed a cold, wet towel over his forehead.

'The time comes soon brother, are you ready to say your final prayer?'

Sparrow shook his head, the small motion triggered every cell in his body to commit suicide, the pain was aimless and some waves were larger than others. But always they were there as the seconds passed by one by one towards infinity.

It was late afternoon the woman came around again, 'Are you ready to say your final prayers brother?' she said and Sparrow nodded.

‘Good.’

She put two drops of scented oil on his forehead, then made him repeat a series of words that had no meaning to him.

'Can I have water?' he asked, his throat felt like the gates of the underworld.

And the woman shook her head, 'No water. We save that for the living. You will not be needing it where your journey is to take you.'

Sparrow coughed, the cough lasted minutes, which dragged into hours.

Why am I still here? He thought, I have said the prayer, got the oil on my forehead. I am ready to depart. Please let me go. Still, time dragged on. He tried to count the strips of bamboo that were attached to the ceiling. He reached 215 then a fit of coughing overcame him and he lost his place.

The edges of his vision began to dim. Blood pulsed through his eyes and blindness replaced the bamboo. His heart was thumping to the wrong rhythm. His hands and feet start to grow cold but the pain never lessened. It concentrated, building more and more in one spot until it exploded right through him and his heart was like a thousand horses' hooves and then it stopped. Everything stopped and the demon was there, 'What is the lesson hoo-man?'

'Nothing matters,' Sparrow said, 'we're all going to die. Life is short, painful, barbaric.' tears streamed down Sparrow's cheeks, ‘I cannot go through any more of this.'

The demon shook its head, not a shred of sympathy floated in its dark eyes, 'That's not the lesson hoo-man.'