I Can See

"We have made a great mistake this day. In coming here, in laying waste to this land." Pandora exclaimed. 

'She wants to save us with a speech? Fine. Just don't stutter.' 

Damian looking on next to me, Mickey breathing down my neck. Would this be the last time? 

"...Whatever do you mean?" Vicram inquired.

"The Gimen. We were lead to believe they were a force of raw and powerful evil. That they posed a enormous threat to us. And yet I ask you, all of you. how that can be, based on what we have seen today..."

Vicram cocked his head, stepping towards her. He could try to disguise his anger all he wanted but it simply boiled through his skin. Every half-movement dripping with unrighteous fury. 

"You mean to say that they are good-natured? That we must show them mercy?"

"...No,"

My eyes narrowed onto her.

"I mean to say that they are powerless, dull creatures. Weaklings that could never dream of matching us, and have ran too far from us to even try. We both know Amandla has enough slaves to build itself five times over, so why still bother to entertain them?"

Soldiers shared glances. Sparse murmurs. It could have been agreement, or something else entirely. A grin curled onto Vicram's face. The kind that knows what's coming. 

And me. Was I offended? No. She had stated her plan was to get them to leave at all costs. Making us all friends was far-fetched. And no again, because as much as I wanted her to be, she wasn't wrong. We were nothing. Powerless and clueless. That's true. And that day I understood it. 

"This is a waste of resources. A waste of these good soldiers' time. In a Gimen siege, they would starve before they reach your walls. In a battle, they could not even crease your garms. In fact, one could argue we bring ourselves more risk by offering them the privilege of entering our--"

"Yes. Yes. That's quite enough Pandora." Vicram choked back a snicker. "Continue no more. You wouldn't want to offend your new friends now would you...?"

'He saw through it?!'

Pandora flinched like prey caught in light. 

"Your mistakes were twofold, Dora." Vicram started, holding up two fingers as he slowly paced amongst the blood. "One. You assume I desire respect."

Pandora stuttered. "I have no ulterior motive--"

"Is that not why you tried to embarrass me in front of my troops? Regurgitating what they have already pointed out to me a hundred times?"

"I-"

"I know it all. I know that they despise every moment I drag them here, chaining those who were born in chains. I know they think it a waste. And I do not care. They will serve me all the same. You forget I am the Gale King, blessed with the Storm Assurance. If they will not be inspired by duty then they will be by wrath. Those who disobey me shall live like the gremlins we look down on. Human or not."

Pandora opened her mouth, yet no sound emerged. She was caught. There was no point. Gaze collapsing to the grass. Mine loosened like a severed arm.

"Two." Vicram continued. "And more importantly..."

She looked up.

"You forget that I can see into your soul."

'...'

"You forget even the basics of Assurance. Have your family taught you nothing? I can read your spirit as if it were written. I could see that you'd taken pity on them the moment you emerged. And that you would try to hide it by appealing to my hatred. You thought it would blind me? No. I hate them because I see clearly."

Pandora grew stiff. Stranded. Exposed.

"Although I wonder, how your mind might have been changed so dramatically, emerging from an empty house..."

"He's onto us!" Damian whispered.

"Get down, stop looking!" I said, forcing his and Mickey's heads down.

We could still hear Pandora trying to dispel his suspicion.

"Yes. You are correct. Someone once lived there. A long time ago, it seems. It was upon looking at their livelihoods that I grew sympathetic towards them! They sleep in beds akin to ours, they herd and harvest the same. What if they think and feel the same too?" she said.

I hoped to gods unknown that he'd believe it. For mom's sake.

"Ah, now you're panicking! The soul shivers when you utter words that oppose it's beliefs, and I have a careful eye for it! How about you desist with the lies? Tell your first word of truth today, before the truth is ripped from you!"

She paused. Feigning resolve, but he was right. Her soul flickered like torchlight. Fizzling, dwindling.

"I have told you the truth. There is nothing to find in there. Or do you wish to waste more of your soldiers' time? Hunting those who cannot and would not have wronged you?"

Vicram turned away. Shrugging. 

"...Why not? Search the house."

The three closest soldiers burst into motion. My soul had fizzled out too. 

"NO!" Pandora let up her guard, nearly exploding to the door. Two soldiers pulled her back. 

"RUN!" I bellowed. "OUT THE BEDROOM WINDOW!"

The door tore off the hinges like pages of a book. Soldiers turned to face us. Their surprise halted them for just a second. Then they bolted our way. 

Damian and Mickey rushed ahead to the bedroom. I dashed close behind. Trying to slam the door on the soldiers. Far too strong. 

"JUST LEAVE! I'LL HOLD THEM BACK!" I commanded. Throwing myself to the wolves after all. 

I punched and kicked through gap left in the doorway. A soldier reeled back. A stumble, not a fall. And they returned the favour. Barging the door open. I crashed into the wall beside as they stomped through. 

"NO, ELI!" Damian yelled. A soldier grabbed him by the feet, dragging him like a sack as his nails dug into the wood.

My head pounding, I ripped myself from the floor, charging at them both. Another reared his ugly head to pin me down. I struggled like a strangled wolf. Howling at the moon. 

Mickey's head nearly through the window, the third soldier wrenched him back. Kicking, screaming, pounding at him. Snot and tears pouring down his face. 

"MICKEY!" I wrestled for dear life. The soldier pierced his knee to my back. And once my brothers had left, he dragged me last along with them.

The sunlight I had once grown so used to now blinded me. The golden-green grass now stained with crimson. The wives who used to sing now kneeled in petrified silence. Their husbands who used to banter face-planted in the mud right next to them. The sight I saw each morning, the one I had grown so used to, the one I dreamed would one day change. It finally had. Now it was just a cherished memory. A distant dream to covet. It seems I am always chasing what I cannot have. Change when all lies still. Stillness while everything changes. 

The sun set over the horizon, Almost a brand new day. Perhaps the nightmare would end in the night. All was now upside down, after all. But of course not. 

My nightmare was only beginning.