She Cannot End

Long ago, the price of life was . Blood bought blood, and by custom, only royal blood was worthy of the resurrection of a royal heart.

The First Ritual was committed by the sacrifice of a princess, well loved and pure of heart. The nation mourned. It was a pain that had been long forgotten. It was a pain that could not be endured again.

The Second Ritual was performed by a prince, and a half dozen volunteers of the aristocracy. Their blood, freely given, granted The Queen a few more years of rule. Their sacrifice, freely given, gave The Nation a few more years of health, prosperity, and morality.

The Third Ritual was the first of the Common Rituals. To give up another prince would be to risk the bloodline entirely, so the good and honest common folk of The Nation stood up and made their offerings on behalf of The Queen. The strain was great, their blood was weak. But with four dozen souls, life returned to The Queen and Her nation.

When the time of The Fourth Ritual drew near, questions began to be raised. How could She be returned to us once more? How could we continue to bask in her wise presence? A thaumaturge by the name of beckelsby stepped forward with a hypothesis: The Queen was more than capable of motivating her own motion between life and , it was The Membrane that required our assistance. beckelsby held that upon dying, a soul detached from its body, and drifted downwards, as motivated by gravity. The Membrane could only naturally be penetrated in a downwards direction, however it was soft and thin, and prone to tearing. When a person died, their soul often plummeted through the membrane, damaging it somewhat, for a time, and creating an opening that The Queen could return through. The closer to Her Royal Vessel they were, the more readily She could make use of their holes.

However, the heart of The beckelsby Conjecture was that was not the only time that a soul could penetrate The Membrane. There was one more time when a soul passed through it, and while it was only a speck of a soul in that moment, hardly even a seed, it still passed through with enough vigour to disrupt The Membrane. This was of course, the moment of conception.

The implications were of course, quite something. The Ritual did not need to be cruel. The ritual did not need to be a period of mourning. It could be a celebration of the vitality of The Queen and her nation! Many were dubious. The previous three rituals had worked, it seemed disrespectful to gamble with Her life like this, so a compromise was made.

The Fourth Ritual was performed in such a way that either outcome could be achieved. According to beckelsby's calculations, at least one hundred conceptions would be required, but the ministers all insisted that the number be brought to 150 to be sure. Additional thaumaturges were brought in to ensure peak fertility, and a bevy of volunteers and executioners were also requisitioned in the case that beckelsby's conjecture did not hold, and The Queen's revival required more typical measures.

So follows the tale of The Fourth Ritual, and The Fifth, and the Sixth, and so on into eternity, for so long as She deigns to bless us with Her reign.