Bethalshine had four kings. They each sat in the corners of a large square throne room. Nobody really remembers why there were four. I’m sure it’s written down in a book somewhere.
Every day at midtime they would come together to drink tea and sing a song. If a king was late or missed the first note ceremony for whatever reason, they were ejected and replaced. The replacement rules get pretty complicated, but it’s something like – next in line as long as they are old enough to sing the song. You can imagine that before a Bethalshine baby could talk, they could sing that damn song.
Each king’s part of the song was different. It’s represented the coming together the four lands, the four families. But, they don’t sing the song anymore.
Early one morning a few years ago, the Brakens decided they didn’t want to sing anymore. They kept bringing in the next in line. They all refused to sing. Soon there were no more to consider.
None of them wanted to sing anymore. None of them wanted to be part of Bethalshine anymore.
The other three kings tried to continue on singing the song, but it didn’t work. The song could not be sung by three. They tried. Believe me, they tried. Every day they tried. After awhile the kings stopped singing. After awhile they stopped coming for tea.
After awhile there were no more kings in Bethalshine.