The Fables of Power – Old grudges, new costumes, timeless quarrels
📖 The Black Knight of Muscovy ⚔️
✍️ Introduction
In the East rode a knight cloaked in shadow. His armour gleamed black as midnight, his purse heavy with gold, and his tongue sharp with poisoned promises. Wherever he rode, he whispered of strength, loyalty, and destiny — but his friendship was always sealed in chains.
🎭“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”
—Machiavelli
🪄 The Tale
The Black Knight rode from village to village, offering gifts of coin, oil, and power. To witches, he offered cauldrons. To warlocks, he promised thrones. To quarrelsome cousins, he vowed protection — if only they would bow their heads and sing his praises.
He told the people that he alone could defend them from chaos, that his sword would strike down the enemies they feared. Yet those who accepted his gifts found their barns empty, their wells dry, and their voices silenced beneath his boot.
And when whispers of disloyalty reached his ears, the punishment was swifter than any sword. Courtiers stumbled from high windows. Merchants sipped from cups laced with poison. Friends were unmasked as traitors, their loyalty repaid with graves.
Some rulers in far-off lands welcomed him with smiles, dazzled by the gleam of his gold. Others trembled at his shadow, too afraid to stand against him. And still, he rode on, sowing doubt, fanning fear, and binding every bargain with iron chains.
The Black Knight of Muscovy did not fight only with armies. He fought with whispers, with rumours, with poison poured into ears until even old friends quarrelled among themselves. For what he could not conquer, he sought to divide.
And behind him, in his wake, the fields lay barren, the villages burned, and the people mourned — wondering too late why they had trusted a knight who rode always in the dark
⚖️ Moral of the Tale
Gold from the Black Knight always buys chains in return.
🎭 Closing Line
The stage of the world is never empty. The next fable is already being written…
🏛️Next Fable Preview
The Black Knight in the Labyrinth
Wandering his Kremlin corridors, the Knight is haunted by czars and generals, torn between ambition and decline. In seeking to secure his legacy, he finds himself lost in the very maze of power he built.
📌 Blog Excerpt
The Black Knight of Muscovy rides with poisoned words and bags of gold, whispering promises of strength and destiny. But every gift he offers comes at a price — and the price is always chains.
WJJH, September, 2025
