And now the watch has ended

Many played the game for the throne

King this

Queen that

One by one they fell

The throne many fought over, lusted after and died for

Now flows through the halls like melted wax

The wheel has been broken

Things are no longer the same

If you thought The Game would have a fairy-tale ending

You were not paying attention

The Game took eight long years to play

Five books and more yet to come

A tale about long ago and far away

Yet a story for today and beyond

Years pass, humanity learns very little

Ten thousand, five thousand, two thousand or even two years

Time means nothing to the sun, moon and stars

Mere mortals never fully grasp their place in the universe

So in their folly they play God and even become god

When winter comes bringing death and despair

Testing the strong and devouring the weak

After the fires have burned and the ashes have covered the land

Lords and peasants alike count the cost and lessons learnt

The wise might ask, ‘What do we know? What don’t we know?’

Let the children be told

Alas, there is no divine right to rule

Only a sacred call to service

Our word should be our bond

We can be born to riches but honour is earned

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Every teacher has a message

Every student has a mission

The bastard of today

Might be the King of tomorrow

The ugly dwarf we have been taught to despise

Might be the one blessed with the most wisdom in the land

The breaker of chains and the saviour of children

Is also the merciless tyrant who burns the helpless and defenceless to a crisp

The orphaned girls who were tortured, raped and beaten

Rose to reign as Queens

The least of us might one day become the greatest of us

The heavens have a way of healing broken bodies, minds and spirits

The strong can only prey on the weak for a season

One day the forgotten and invisible will find a voice and a reason

Terror, tyranny, plague, oppression

Love, betrayal, loyalty, passion all rule the hearts of men and women

From one eternity to the next, the wheel keeps spinning

If you play the game of thrones, you either win or you die

Those who played lost and those who were not in the game at all won

The wheel has been broken, it is a new world now

We all yearn for when men and women will rule the land on merit

With courage, devotion and sacrifice

Then the age of entitlement will be over – we pray

If all lessons have fallen on deaf ears, please remember this

Valar Morghulis

All men must die

Valar Dohaeris

All men must serve

• Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a gender specialist, social entrepreneur and writer. She is the founder of Abovewhispers. com, an online community for women. She can be reached at [email protected]