The Emperor was left alone with Alexander and the palace guard and a few other guards that hadn’t fled from the Emperor’s roar. Everyone else had fled the building in a panicked fear. The Emperor personally assisted the guards with helping Alexander and the chief palace guard out of the lioness' pit. After everyone was safely above ground, the emperor gave commands to the remaining guards to fetch the General, who had also fled in a panick, and the hostage prince (we can now call him Sebastian), to the cleansing pool room. He motioned Alexander and the chief palace guard to follow him through a series of corridors and passages into the huge cleansing pool room. He immediately got naked and slid over the pools edge into the beautifully cool crystal clear waters where he sat back and relaxed. He told the chief guard and Alexander to disrobe and join him. They didn't question the order and were soon in the pool as well. A few moments later, several of the guards marched into the chamber with the Sebastian, still bound about the wrists and nude, and the General. The Emperor ordered the ropes removed from the Sebastian and told the General to disrobe and enter the cleansing pool too. Once everyone was in the pool, the emperor ordered the guards to leave. After several tense moments, the Emperor lightened the mood by farting under water and bursting out laughing. Everyone was so taken back by this, they couldn’t help but lighten up a bit. Light talk ensued, with the General joining the Emperor in conversation, and the Chief Palace guard, Alexander and Sebastian, the hostage prince, talking amongst themselves. Alexander and Sebastian continued taking a liking to each other. The Emperor began. “My new friends, for I hope you will become my friends when this story is over. I have got some things I must get off my chest. I almost did something terrible today! I realize what a fool I have been these past many years. My mother raised me. She a very severe and mean spirited woman. She poisoned everything and everyone she touched. A lot of her meanness rubbed off on me, I am afraid. At any rate, my father, the King, tried his best to deflect some of her venom, but without much success. So he stayed away most of the time. So, as you can imagine, without my father’s influence growing up, I developed more along my Mother’s temperament. One day, my Father brought a young lady, about my age, to the palace to wait on the Queen, my mother. The Queen was very suspicious of my father for this, but she took the young lady in. She was very mean to her and made her do as much drudgery work as she could. My father would try and intevene whenever he could, but as soon as he left, Mother would continue persecuting this lovely young lady. I must confess, I took some perverted pleasure in torturing her as well, with the full approval of my Mother. As the years passed, my Father’s health started to deteriorate and one day, he passed away. When I became the King, my mother took control of affairs from me right away saying I was too young and stupid to rule. I was just as afraid of her as most of the palace populace, except for our brave chief palace guard here, so I let her have her way. She immediately set out on a course of conquest, in my name, and started wars with all our neighbors. She had spies everywhere and knew the weaknesses of all the surrounding kingdoms. Based on that information, she was able to conquer all of our closest neighbors in short order. Before long, she had enlarged our kingdom to ten times it original size. It was so large, in fact, that mother insisted I assume the title ‘Emperor’, and made sure everyone became aware of it by throwing a huge ceremonial coronation festival for me with two months of feasting and celebrations. The people loved it for she spared no expense in entertaining the population. She later added another huge tax on everyone to pay for it all. She ruled with an iron fist and compassion for no one. When she passed away several years ago, I had to learn the real role of a leader.