A king's speech

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We have had war. Upon the edge of the sword have we lived for the past few years. Children without fathers, born by the sword. And so many of our sons dead by the sword.
Now, we have a day of peace. Gained by the sword. But it will not suffice. Not for me. I would have a peace beyond the sword. Beyond the blood in the land. I would have roads built, not barrows and I would walk amongst flowers, not the buried bodies of my brothers.
We have fought a long war, my people. And you have fought it as fiercely as I have. And have lost much more than I ever will possess.
Jory Walbick left his mother and wife behind, to fight for me. And fight he did. Never swerving, never faltering. He died, blocking a spear meant for my neck.
William Joyhold, Billick Fastwick and Jaen Masthill. Brothers in all but blood. Young and restless, they were my wolves upon the fold. And so they fought. I saw them pass from fresh faced idealists to grim men and grim soldiers. Our enemy grew to hate their names. And cheered mightily when they were taken from my side, one by one. Each gave their lives for me. And received naught but a glorious death in return.
So many names. So many more faces flash before my eyes as I think back to those days of infamy. All gone, like mist before the burning sun.
I will never regret their glorious sacrifice, but I will regret the lives they will never lead now. The wives they will never meet and the children they will never have. I will miss the ribald songs they sang in the early days before the silence of death robbed them of their voices.
Never more! Today is a day of peace and also of remembrance. My men may be gone, but their names will never die. I will burn their names into memory and write it upon the very stone of this castle, for they were my walls.
And as long as stone stands upon stone, I implore each and every one of you. Long for peace, shy from war and above all, never forget!

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