The dead outnumber the living. In the end it was the past that turned the wheels of the future.

The Ancients had only to do the math. The more that will live; will be the future masses of the dead.

Glory in the sacrifice. Glory in war.

But how will the dead know who to serve?

We are enslaved to the next life by what we loved in this one.

So the old king in his ancient tongue begged the gods to direct him to build slaves of the dead to build his walls and raise his armies.

But the gods were not the kind sort of things you might call a deity. They helped the old king. They helped him make mighty cities and undying soldiers.

Their names they concealed from the king. They told him, to his great delight, that they served him. So they directed him to send so many to death. Always more. Never less.

Their true names were Death and Slavery. And the king idolized them: Not knowing they waited to eat his Soul.

© Jesse Selin