Hexenmeister Aleksann, the famous prophet, produced a withering blue flower from the sleeve of his white and navy robe. Aleksann, quite young and handsome, had been found in the deserts of
Rozundus in an abandoned military outpost as a child. Several seers of the Marivauxen Order, led by persistent and frightening visions, organized an expedition that led to them find the child Aleksann, building a fortress of stone around the outpost from large building blocks of sandstone.
Now years later, and after much training by the Marivauxen Order, Aleksann was producing a withering blue flower for the Emperor of the Madronnesian Galaxy. The little throne room aboard the KCWD-II flagship of Friedrich I was almost too small for both the seated monarch and the clairvoyant standing at a respectable distance before him.
"Have you brought me a flower, Lord Aleksann?" asked the Katarnus in a curious and critical tone of voice.
"This is a desert flower from my native planet, Rozundus," replied the Hexenmeister, twirling it slowly in his fingers. As he did so, the flower seemed to pulsate light, growing and shrinking rhythmically in size.
"Oh," replied the greying leader.
"You sound disinterested, Lord Katarnus," continued Aleksann as his fingers suddenly froze and the wilting flower ceased to do anything except wilt. "And you are right to be so. No one cares for even the most radiant beings when they begin to wilt. Flowers are beings too, your highness, and this one has a very compelling life story. Would you care to hear it?"
"You are aware that if you were not my favorite Hexenmeister, that you would be dead at this point, Aleksann?" asked Friedrich, smiling faintly. "But do continue with this ridiculous affair."
"It is impossible to kill a Hexenmeister, silly monarch, but I will shorten this biography for your sake, and because we're nearing the Capitol. This bluish flower grew in a vast field of such flowers, one of many such fields on many worlds. Yet it was the most radiant and captivating of all of these flowers, for a time. And it's true, dear majesty, what they say of floral glory. Flowers do not die; rather they fade away."
"Are you saying that because I'm old, no one cares what I think anymore? You could have convinced me of that without your magic flower, Aleksann," Friedrich replied, laughing aloud.
Aleksann smiled sadly. He looked at the Katarnus and in a slow, methodical voice replied, "no...I am saying that what is true of flowers like this one that I hold in my hand, is true of men as well."
"Men die, Aleksann," muttered Katarnus Friedrich. He did not like to be reminded of his age, and never expected such from Hexenmeister Aleksann.
"No they do not, my sovereign," Aleksann informed. "They merely fade, as you shall see in time."
Katarnus Friedrich stood up in anger, leaning frailly against his throne, "you have said too much Aleksann. If you were not my favorite, you would be-"
"Dead, Katarnus Friedrich," said Aleksann, his form dematerializing in the Hexenmeisten way of travel, "I know. But what is true of men and flowers, is not of the Hexenmeister."
Katarnus Friedrich opened his mouth in shock, but Aleksann was gone. The blue flower remained on the ground where the monk had stood. It was now not wilting, but appeared to be rotting and decaying. Shaking his head, Katarnus Friedrich sat back down and called his Fleet Admiral in for a routine report. Aleksann, ever amusing and dramatic, would be waiting for him when the ship arrived at Marianstat.
