The days are getting longer: a prince kills his brother to take his crown, his wife, and his ambition, so things are looking up for him.

He gets one glorious summer, marred only by the stifling madness of his nephew-son, which seeps into more and more aspects of the castle, and he realizes too late that he should have been paying attention.

The days are getting shorter: everyone’s life is forfeit and it is clear that there is no way out, so when at last he is handed a chalice and the swipe of a sword, he shrugs and, following his queen, succumbs to the darkness.