Cautionary Tale

By TwinEnigma

Warnings: Fairy story-ish. Feels like 7th Doctor, but you can insert Doctor of choice, read, and there you go.

Once upon a time, there was a warlord. His empire was vast, resplendent with the wealth of his conquests and built on the backs of his many, many prisoners. His name inspired terror and none dared challenge him, for his empire was great and strong.

And yet, he was not satisfied.

The warlord wished to assure himself that his empire would last forever and so he consulted his scholars. They assured him there was but one way to know for sure – he must ask one of the shadow people, who have eyes that see all that is beyond and all that will be and all that was. Truly such eyes would know the answer!

But the shadow people are hard to catch, for they walk in silence as to their nature and cloak themselves in stardust and sorcery, and so the warlord had his scholars design a trap and trick them into appearing.

It worked very, very well and so it came to pass that a single man of the shadows was brought before the warlord, a strangely dressed man with a magic blue box.

"Tell me of my empire, honored guest, and the great future before it! Shall the name of my empire echo in eternity or dwindle in despair?" the warlord asked.

The man of shadows smiled and said, "Your empire shall never be forgotten, sir. I have seen that the name of your empire is fixed in the stars eternally. Now, please let me go."

The warlord was more than pleased and offered to make the man of shadows his adviser if he would stay and continue to tell him of the future. But the more he offered, the more steadfastly the man of shadows refused to accept them, for he only wanted to be free. Enraged, the warlord had the man of shadows imprisoned. Each day, he would have the man removed and brought before him, the same questions asked, and then each night, the man would be brought back to his prison.

But all the while, the man of the shadows smiled.

One day, the slaves and prisoners rose up and took to arms all across the empire. They knew all the cities and castles and barracks, for they had built them and so they brought them down on their masters. The warlord watched in horror as his empire burned.

By and by, he saw the man of shadows escaping through the flames. "You did this!" he cried, "You lied to me, foul creature!"

The man of shadows merely smiled at him and said, "Oh no, sir, I did not! You simply did not think to ask why and now you must pay the tithe for your foolishness."

And then the man of shadows was gone, disappeared into his magic box, which did vanish into the winds with the rising sun.

"Common legend – lots of systems have variations on it," the Doctor said, trying to look innocent, but failing miserably. "It's really not that unusual. Hardly could have had anything to do with me. Could have been someone completely different."

Judging by the looks he was getting in response, he wasn't convincing anyone.

"Well, regardless, the point stands: you get what you ask for," the Doctor concluded.