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I was motivated these days^^ And now it's time to unravel everything.
As always, will be waiting for your reactions ;)
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Restrained by chains even an enraged struggle couldn’t break, the dragoness let out a long, complaining roar of pain. Not a loud one, but a necessary one. Inside her chest, she had felt a light dying, a part of her shutting down for good, a hole that enlarged painfully…
“Hey, stay calm, dragon.” The lady warrior got on her guards again, genuinely frightened by her reaction.
“He’s…. dead…” she managed to articulate in her cry of despair. She would have wanted to fight, to kill even. She could have helped him without these chains and now it was too late. Words couldn’t describe the pain she felt, even more for being so helpless…
“Calm down, okay? I’m gonna check and I come back.” She said, like she wanted to reassure herself. But Amaria could read in her eyes that she knew as well, before she ran out of the room.
Where was her honor and bravery now? Not able to handle the stare of a creature whose cherished one died so an order could be fulfilled?
It didn’t matter anymore… Nothing mattered anymore… She tried one last time to break her tie of steel, then let her head fall on the ground, crying.
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David lowered the gun, breaking the calm filet of smoke that escaped the canon. It had been so simple… so fast… The man he had wished dead for a year finally was actually dead, in a matter of seconds. And yet, he didn’t feel joy, only some sort of disgust.
The young man had been curious about how these weapons worked, but it was… disappointing. Where was the strength? Where was the honor in fight? In his guts, he felt deeply betrayed by his father at that point.
He who always claimed that life required to be strong. He who always insisted on training. Did his father really create this? A weapon that could kill by simply pressing a trigger? How pitifully contradictory it was… He started to get how he idealized a man who was probably just too afraid, only because he had been his first model in life. He was better than his father. Or at least, he believed so.
And it was strange how he felt about what he did. For a good minute, he stared at the body, like he expected a twitch. He almost felt sorry for this man. He hadn’t done this in revenge. Nor did he take pleasure from it. It was simply something he had to do. A step forward.
“So? It feels good, doesn’t it?” Alexander’s voice inquired with a little laughter. The young man could have sworn he heard the sound of pride too.
“Not really… I found it too easy… It’s not my type…” he replied flatly, giving back the weapon to the war chief. “Do you mind if I go for a check, while you… do your stuff?”
“Of course, it’s your catch. You like work well done, I can understand.”
Of course Alexander wasn’t going to refuse. David wasn’t fool, he could see when people were nice by interest. Mostly because almost everyone who ever was nice to him did it by interest.
Plus, it wasn’t like he was about to be any disturbance to his victory speech. It was pretty obvious that the war chief wanted to gloat. Alexander wasn’t only a warrior at mind, he was a strategist who knew the power of the words. Only this time, this was his final victory. It wouldn’t be part of a strategy. It would be a way to flatter his ego of conqueror.
As David walked to the corpse, a creepy feeling invaded him. Mostly because of the eyes, still opened, that seemed to stare at him, with no trace of life left in them. A silent and passive accusation from his dead victim.
In respect for his fallen nemesis, David closed his eyelids while Alexander began his irritating game of choice that wasn’t really one.
“Citizens. Do you have any authority to speak in your name left?” The war chief threw at the scared crowd and few soldiers remaining.
But no one replied. Of course no one wanted to take responsibility in such conditions. It was a way to remind these poor people that their leaders had been executed one by one. Ruling by fear and humiliation… It was so unsurprising.
“In that case, you’ll be responsible for your own lives, and your family member’s.” Alexander chuckled, making David clench his teeth. “The choice is simple. You can either fight, or you can kneel. And join a great empire that is ready to welcome a new and vigorous workforce.”
“Excuse me.”
Even the war chief interrupted his speech, probably surprised, as David stood up and made his voice known. But the young man had heard enough for the day. And he was in a hurry to get done with all this as soon as possible.
“Do you really think they deserve it?” He asked, rising an eyebrow. “I mean, they are a bunch of worthless egotistic!”
While Alexander had a movement of head that expressed all his confusion, sounds of muffled voices rose from behind. Even in such situations, people didn’t like to get their default pointed at. But bad luck, this wasn’t their day!
“Yes, you all heard me well! A bunch of worthless egotistic!” David repeated angrily, turning to face the crowd. “I was alone! I was scared! I was lost! I had lost my last living parent! And you all let me down! Instead of helping me, you ALL got past me without even looking at me, thinking another would do it! Then guess what? Nobody ever did it! So throw it in prison, where you won’t have to look at it anymore, right? It doesn’t matter, what a young man has to say, because he surely doesn’t know enough about how life works! RIGHT?! You literally created the monster that caused your demise! But is that all? Nooooo… I’m soooo little compared to what you did to HIM!”
Pointing at the corpse, David let go everything he had on the chest. The disgust, the anger, the unfairness everyone took as normality, it was the moment to tell them all!
“An annoyance in the local politics? Meh, let’s keep ignoring him! A miracle remedy? Gosh we love him so much that we don’t care he killed a man! Seriously, you even let him change his name for ‘nameless warrior’! How can you better tell someone ‘we like you only for what you bring to us’?! And when this man courageously stands up for you all, you… You, the brave citizens, proud of your identity and morals, you all stand together and unite, and… just stay there, waiting for it to happen! Bunch! Of worthless! EGOTISTIC!”
The faces were mixed. All of them held terror, but some had tints of furor or guilt. He didn’t care what they think about him! He didn’t care how they felt! They had to know which responsibility they had in this story. The people, the most numerous, who did nothing to prevent things to get worse.
The vision of the world carried by the man he killed was incomplete. He showed him, but was too blind himself to see that kindness could be a poison! They didn’t need to be cocooned and cherished! They needed to be shown their faults!
Only the sight of a face he might care about made him hesitate a bit. Rose. Terrified. Horrified. Probably the only citizen that had proved herself worthy, even for so little as talking to him disinterestedly.
“So according to you, we should kill them all, that’s it?” Alexander chuckled behind, apparently amused by such scolding toward defeated citizens.
“Have I said that?” David turned an angry face toward the war chief. He had his load about him too! “You, Alexander. You and your army you’re no better! Manipulative, cruel. You think of yourself as a great strategist with these weapons?! Why stopping in such a good way? Just create a big, red, victory button that will make the entire world on its knees! And now you’re stomping on defeated people who were just victims all along? Stupid, worthless citizens that were probably baking their bread or doing their laundry, and just hope their houses haven’t been too damaged? You’re basically that guy who take people to a game they don’t want to play, and use offensively low means of winning! They are worthless, but you are much, much below that! Who wishes to follow such a man?!”
“Well to start with, you’d better wish for it, kid…” Alexander replied coldly, tapping on the canon of his gun to send a message. No doubt attacking his person was less amusing to the war chief than seeing other people being put to their place.
A threat, from a man who thought himself in power. That was when the true nature of a person was revealed... Alexander had a level of self-esteem that would reach the skies, so how could he show a mask of a nice nature in front a younger pointing at his defects as an honorable man?
Except this time, Alexander wasn’t in power anymore. And he hadn’t been for a few minutes now…
“You know what I wish, Alexander?” David asked furiously yet smirking, pointing an accusing finger he made travel all around him to better make known that this was addressed to everyone. “I think it’s the last time that I can, so I wish to say all that I have to say! I wish that you would all look at yourself, before judging others! May it be ignoring…” His index then jumped from the crowd to the war chief. “…or underestimating someone because of his young age! I wish that you’d try, only try to reflect on yourself and improve! And above all else! Above all else!”
The young man gathered all his rancor, all his repressed anger… took a deep breath…
And clenched his fist so hard that the amulet inside threatened to penetrate the skin of his hand.
“I MOST SINCERELY WISH THAT YOU COULD ALL FEEL THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS BEFORE YOU EVEN THINK OF IT!” he yelled at everyone.
A white light instantly blew into his eyes. Not blinding and yet so intense... A bit scared, David looked down at his hand. The light wasn’t in his eyes… It connected his eyes and the amulet he held in his hand. It was painless, yet words couldn’t fully describe how messy he felt inside.
It was working…
All that anger was like materialized in his body. And he slowly felt it leaving, like a liquid that would have been sucked away by a million straws, out by every pore of his skin… And it wasn’t only anger… Sadness… Guilt… Doubts… All kinds of feelings, including some he didn’t knew he had, leaving his body… Until suddenly, like a bubble that would pop, everything disappeared.
The light had vanished. And he felt… neutral. He wasn’t sure ‘good’ would have been the right term, but he didn’t feel bad either… He knew he was mad only seconds ago. He remembered the feel. And he knew that, given the circumstances, he should still be angry. But it just… wasn’t there. There was nothing but him… and his thoughts. In between, a void. No inner voice filling the blanks, not even a remote chill. Anything but his conscious mind was gone…
Had it worked? Evidences seemed to point at it… He didn’t feel any kind of special power or ability but the lack of feelings suited the warnings he read about.
Well, he would then trust it. After all, either legends were true or false. From what he knew, there was a fifty percent chances. It wasn’t like he felt fear either…
“Are you done?” Alexander inquired, without a single smile or sign of joy. It was so easy to read how anger distorted his face, hurt in his pride. Such a trait made him sound so childish now… “I’m glad you finished your little speech, so am I.”
The war chief glanced at his men and rose a hand. Instantly, all the soldiers pointed their guns on him. David remembered how he used to have at least a little admiration for such authority, but what he saw was just trained puppets… pets, maybe.
His brain could make the connection. The cannons of the weapons were turned toward him, aiming at him, and he knew what this meant. It was logical. If they shot, dozens of bullets would come right at him, causing his death. Still, no fear… Now it was just… causes and consequences, no big deal…
“Are you sure you want to do this, Alexander?” David asked his former associate in a flat tone, rising an eyebrow. A question. Nothing more.
“Every crowd needs an example to understand the reality of the events.” The conqueror replied simply. “It is a shame, I really meant to make a great general out of you, I could teach you so much… But I understand that the young all need to express a desire to defy authority at some point, so I propose you an in-between solution, one that will satisfy everyone. I leave you the choice to kneel, or die, like every citizen in this room. Just show me you understand that you overdid it, and I give you my word that I will personally train you. But keep your comedy going and my men here will all receive one month of food supply per bullet in your dead body.”
By the glance of amazement some soldiers threw at their leader, and how the rest frowned with deep determination, David could relate that this was probably an incredible bonus to their campaign loot. They all probably boiled in the wait of the order to shoot him dead. Everyone was greedy, that was only human nature. He even found it… rather normal.
“I won’t kneel, Alexander. But you know…” he spoke, struggling to find what he knew was there. “I think it is called… Irony. Yes, that’s the word. I’m sure I would have loved this only moments ago but… Anyway, I expect YOU to kneel, and I’ll let you go. You could start new diplomatic relationship with this city. They don’t have to work for you, you could work together. Two cities accomplishing bigger dreams than killing… It would sound like a lot less of a waste of time and lives… Just a knee down, Alexander, and you might be remembered as an actual great man.”
Emotional responses were easy to read now, but so difficult to predict… David had just exposed what seemed to be logical, mathematically, humanly… But he had probably underestimated how boiling of a temper some people possessed. He who was always angry before, he should have known better. Was it irony again?
Alexander took a few second to plant a deadly stare into the young man’s eyes, to let him know of his intentions. Or at least, that seemed to be the case, David couldn’t be judge of his intentions anymore. The war chief didn’t look or sound rational anymore to him…
But he did lower his arm, and what followed was like suspended in time.
There was no detonation, no bullet fired. Only a choir of groans of pain disturbed the silence, and then the full orchestra of fifty armors falling on the ground with dead bodies inside. Only one soldier kept squirming on the floor, a hand on the shoulder.
The entire front line of the invading army, vanquished in a blink.
“What the hell?! What have you done?!” Alexander screamed in genuine horror when all of his weaponized forces dropped dead on the floor.
“Nothing. I did nothing.” David simply replied. So legends were true. It was a good thing. “I’d say around thirty aimed at the head, and twenty aimed at the heart. If anything, I shall recognize that a majority favored quicker death, despite being… well, killers. And there’s even someone who didn’t try to kill!” David noticed the man struggling to press on the hole in his shoulder. “Congratulation for being moral, soldier!”
He even smiled for the injured armored man. David didn’t feel any happiness or actual pride, but smiling was a social way to say that good had been done. And just like Alexander wanted to make an example of his former associate, David wanted to point good will even among the ennemy’s ranks.
Unfortunately, emotional behavior showed once again to be unpredictable to him now. Grabbing a knife at his belt, the war chief killed the last of his men by a precise throw that reached the poor soldier’s neck. The man in armor didn’t even seem to fight it, and let himself drift away. What a waste of a good life…
But Alexander didn’t stop to this aberration. Pulling out a dagger with a furious stare, the war chief walked toward him threateningly.
“You sabotaged our weapons! That’s treason!” He accused in obvious rage.
“I did nothing. Please just surrender, and we might work something out for you.”
“I DON’T WANT YOUR MERCY!” Alexander shouted like a mad man, arming his arm.
And it was the last thing he ever did or spoke. An invisible blade opened his throat in a rapid, clean cut. The mad man’s eyes widened and his face froze, like a mask, as blood began to flow out of the neat slice.
“Then you don’t deserve it…” David simply replied, watching him without feeling any sympathy or antipathy. Causes and consequences. Alexander only faced his choices now, more directly this time.
A conqueror. A huge warrior. A leader. A war chief. And now just a monument reminding that he was only a human after all. The glorious march, his deathly army, his dreams of conquests, all blown up in a matter of seconds. And his throat sliced, not even by a metal blade but by his own, wrong intentions. It made David wonder if the same thoughts went through the dying mind of the fallen invader, if he realized how unfitting of a warrior such an end was…
He had chosen to use unfair methods, building himself an advantage just so he could step on the weak and unadvanced weaponry. In the end, someone had shown him the other side of his sick game.
Without any other form of ceremony, David stepped toward the door and turned to face everyone, not even giving a look to the man gurgling and choking in his own hemorrhage. Alexander didn’t matter anymore. He belonged to the past. It was time to move on. And so he addressed to the crowd before the dying war chief even expired his last gurgle.
“So. First thing, you all have to know that I was most sincere earlier. I thought every word of it. And now it’s time to see if you all to meditated this. Because second, I suggest that the remaining soldiers come after me, and you come after them. This is your city. Now that the balance is in your favor, it’s up to you to claim it back. Or don’t. I don’t care what you choose.”
And without a single look to these confused people, David turned back and got out of this room. They didn’t matter anymore. He would do what he had to do. And so would they.
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From the corner of the room, Karen hadn’t lost a single word of the events. And it was with mixed feelings that the lady warrior watched the people leaving the room in order. in plain honesty, she didn’t understand half of what she witnessed...
It looked like the kid hadn’t even touched anyone. What sorcery was this? Her heart told her that she shouldn’t have complained, since he apparently won the war all by himself. But this wasn’t reassuring… This kid had a mysterious power, and although he didn’t seem ill-intended, she wouldn’t trust invisible weapons…
Well, for now it looked like she could breathe a bit, the immediate threat was gone… And she could have, if she didn’t have to be the one announcing bad news to a chained dragon…
Mixed about what she saw and heard, Karen went back to the small room, where a puddle of melt metal shined in the corner, and where Amaria waited for her return. Except… Speaking wasn’t her thing, and she didn’t know how to say it to her.
She respected that dragon. Despite her nature, she had proven more than once that she had good intentions, and that she had a real desire to help humans. And that was particularly why seeing her crying desperately on the ground was a heart tearing view to the warrior. Everyone had lost someone today. But she probably didn’t process things like humans…
“He is…. Dead… isn’t he?” Amaria asked again between her unstoppable sobbing.
But this time, Karen had the answer. She saw him getting shot. She saw him falling dead. There was no doubt he was… Honestly, what to reply? The dragoness already knew, and confirming would only increase her pain, even if it was inevitable. Finding the right words never was a skill of hers; she was a warrior, not a politician!
Fortunately, she never had to do this.
Making her jump in scared surprise, a cloud of what seemed to be light condensed next to her. A gaseous, vague human shape which materialization instantly put her on guards. She didn’t understand this phenomenon, but her training pushed her to consider it as a potential threat.
“You did well, soldier.” The entity spoke to her, making her take another step back. This day would have been quite disturbing, but the stare of two eyes floating in a cloud definitely was the most! “You completed your mission, so you’re free from your order.”
Karen looked at the shape hesitantly, not daring to answer. Was it a ghost? Or a trick of her mind? She immediately rejected the second possibility when the gaseous creature leaned on the crying dragoness, and made the chains literally evaporate.
“It’s going to be hard, Amaria.” The ghost spoke to the dragoness, like he knew her. “But you’re going to have to be strong…”
As always, will be waiting for your reactions ;)
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Restrained by chains even an enraged struggle couldn’t break, the dragoness let out a long, complaining roar of pain. Not a loud one, but a necessary one. Inside her chest, she had felt a light dying, a part of her shutting down for good, a hole that enlarged painfully…
“Hey, stay calm, dragon.” The lady warrior got on her guards again, genuinely frightened by her reaction.
“He’s…. dead…” she managed to articulate in her cry of despair. She would have wanted to fight, to kill even. She could have helped him without these chains and now it was too late. Words couldn’t describe the pain she felt, even more for being so helpless…
“Calm down, okay? I’m gonna check and I come back.” She said, like she wanted to reassure herself. But Amaria could read in her eyes that she knew as well, before she ran out of the room.
Where was her honor and bravery now? Not able to handle the stare of a creature whose cherished one died so an order could be fulfilled?
It didn’t matter anymore… Nothing mattered anymore… She tried one last time to break her tie of steel, then let her head fall on the ground, crying.
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David lowered the gun, breaking the calm filet of smoke that escaped the canon. It had been so simple… so fast… The man he had wished dead for a year finally was actually dead, in a matter of seconds. And yet, he didn’t feel joy, only some sort of disgust.
The young man had been curious about how these weapons worked, but it was… disappointing. Where was the strength? Where was the honor in fight? In his guts, he felt deeply betrayed by his father at that point.
He who always claimed that life required to be strong. He who always insisted on training. Did his father really create this? A weapon that could kill by simply pressing a trigger? How pitifully contradictory it was… He started to get how he idealized a man who was probably just too afraid, only because he had been his first model in life. He was better than his father. Or at least, he believed so.
And it was strange how he felt about what he did. For a good minute, he stared at the body, like he expected a twitch. He almost felt sorry for this man. He hadn’t done this in revenge. Nor did he take pleasure from it. It was simply something he had to do. A step forward.
“So? It feels good, doesn’t it?” Alexander’s voice inquired with a little laughter. The young man could have sworn he heard the sound of pride too.
“Not really… I found it too easy… It’s not my type…” he replied flatly, giving back the weapon to the war chief. “Do you mind if I go for a check, while you… do your stuff?”
“Of course, it’s your catch. You like work well done, I can understand.”
Of course Alexander wasn’t going to refuse. David wasn’t fool, he could see when people were nice by interest. Mostly because almost everyone who ever was nice to him did it by interest.
Plus, it wasn’t like he was about to be any disturbance to his victory speech. It was pretty obvious that the war chief wanted to gloat. Alexander wasn’t only a warrior at mind, he was a strategist who knew the power of the words. Only this time, this was his final victory. It wouldn’t be part of a strategy. It would be a way to flatter his ego of conqueror.
As David walked to the corpse, a creepy feeling invaded him. Mostly because of the eyes, still opened, that seemed to stare at him, with no trace of life left in them. A silent and passive accusation from his dead victim.
In respect for his fallen nemesis, David closed his eyelids while Alexander began his irritating game of choice that wasn’t really one.
“Citizens. Do you have any authority to speak in your name left?” The war chief threw at the scared crowd and few soldiers remaining.
But no one replied. Of course no one wanted to take responsibility in such conditions. It was a way to remind these poor people that their leaders had been executed one by one. Ruling by fear and humiliation… It was so unsurprising.
“In that case, you’ll be responsible for your own lives, and your family member’s.” Alexander chuckled, making David clench his teeth. “The choice is simple. You can either fight, or you can kneel. And join a great empire that is ready to welcome a new and vigorous workforce.”
“Excuse me.”
Even the war chief interrupted his speech, probably surprised, as David stood up and made his voice known. But the young man had heard enough for the day. And he was in a hurry to get done with all this as soon as possible.
“Do you really think they deserve it?” He asked, rising an eyebrow. “I mean, they are a bunch of worthless egotistic!”
While Alexander had a movement of head that expressed all his confusion, sounds of muffled voices rose from behind. Even in such situations, people didn’t like to get their default pointed at. But bad luck, this wasn’t their day!
“Yes, you all heard me well! A bunch of worthless egotistic!” David repeated angrily, turning to face the crowd. “I was alone! I was scared! I was lost! I had lost my last living parent! And you all let me down! Instead of helping me, you ALL got past me without even looking at me, thinking another would do it! Then guess what? Nobody ever did it! So throw it in prison, where you won’t have to look at it anymore, right? It doesn’t matter, what a young man has to say, because he surely doesn’t know enough about how life works! RIGHT?! You literally created the monster that caused your demise! But is that all? Nooooo… I’m soooo little compared to what you did to HIM!”
Pointing at the corpse, David let go everything he had on the chest. The disgust, the anger, the unfairness everyone took as normality, it was the moment to tell them all!
“An annoyance in the local politics? Meh, let’s keep ignoring him! A miracle remedy? Gosh we love him so much that we don’t care he killed a man! Seriously, you even let him change his name for ‘nameless warrior’! How can you better tell someone ‘we like you only for what you bring to us’?! And when this man courageously stands up for you all, you… You, the brave citizens, proud of your identity and morals, you all stand together and unite, and… just stay there, waiting for it to happen! Bunch! Of worthless! EGOTISTIC!”
The faces were mixed. All of them held terror, but some had tints of furor or guilt. He didn’t care what they think about him! He didn’t care how they felt! They had to know which responsibility they had in this story. The people, the most numerous, who did nothing to prevent things to get worse.
The vision of the world carried by the man he killed was incomplete. He showed him, but was too blind himself to see that kindness could be a poison! They didn’t need to be cocooned and cherished! They needed to be shown their faults!
Only the sight of a face he might care about made him hesitate a bit. Rose. Terrified. Horrified. Probably the only citizen that had proved herself worthy, even for so little as talking to him disinterestedly.
“So according to you, we should kill them all, that’s it?” Alexander chuckled behind, apparently amused by such scolding toward defeated citizens.
“Have I said that?” David turned an angry face toward the war chief. He had his load about him too! “You, Alexander. You and your army you’re no better! Manipulative, cruel. You think of yourself as a great strategist with these weapons?! Why stopping in such a good way? Just create a big, red, victory button that will make the entire world on its knees! And now you’re stomping on defeated people who were just victims all along? Stupid, worthless citizens that were probably baking their bread or doing their laundry, and just hope their houses haven’t been too damaged? You’re basically that guy who take people to a game they don’t want to play, and use offensively low means of winning! They are worthless, but you are much, much below that! Who wishes to follow such a man?!”
“Well to start with, you’d better wish for it, kid…” Alexander replied coldly, tapping on the canon of his gun to send a message. No doubt attacking his person was less amusing to the war chief than seeing other people being put to their place.
A threat, from a man who thought himself in power. That was when the true nature of a person was revealed... Alexander had a level of self-esteem that would reach the skies, so how could he show a mask of a nice nature in front a younger pointing at his defects as an honorable man?
Except this time, Alexander wasn’t in power anymore. And he hadn’t been for a few minutes now…
“You know what I wish, Alexander?” David asked furiously yet smirking, pointing an accusing finger he made travel all around him to better make known that this was addressed to everyone. “I think it’s the last time that I can, so I wish to say all that I have to say! I wish that you would all look at yourself, before judging others! May it be ignoring…” His index then jumped from the crowd to the war chief. “…or underestimating someone because of his young age! I wish that you’d try, only try to reflect on yourself and improve! And above all else! Above all else!”
The young man gathered all his rancor, all his repressed anger… took a deep breath…
And clenched his fist so hard that the amulet inside threatened to penetrate the skin of his hand.
“I MOST SINCERELY WISH THAT YOU COULD ALL FEEL THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS BEFORE YOU EVEN THINK OF IT!” he yelled at everyone.
A white light instantly blew into his eyes. Not blinding and yet so intense... A bit scared, David looked down at his hand. The light wasn’t in his eyes… It connected his eyes and the amulet he held in his hand. It was painless, yet words couldn’t fully describe how messy he felt inside.
It was working…
All that anger was like materialized in his body. And he slowly felt it leaving, like a liquid that would have been sucked away by a million straws, out by every pore of his skin… And it wasn’t only anger… Sadness… Guilt… Doubts… All kinds of feelings, including some he didn’t knew he had, leaving his body… Until suddenly, like a bubble that would pop, everything disappeared.
The light had vanished. And he felt… neutral. He wasn’t sure ‘good’ would have been the right term, but he didn’t feel bad either… He knew he was mad only seconds ago. He remembered the feel. And he knew that, given the circumstances, he should still be angry. But it just… wasn’t there. There was nothing but him… and his thoughts. In between, a void. No inner voice filling the blanks, not even a remote chill. Anything but his conscious mind was gone…
Had it worked? Evidences seemed to point at it… He didn’t feel any kind of special power or ability but the lack of feelings suited the warnings he read about.
Well, he would then trust it. After all, either legends were true or false. From what he knew, there was a fifty percent chances. It wasn’t like he felt fear either…
“Are you done?” Alexander inquired, without a single smile or sign of joy. It was so easy to read how anger distorted his face, hurt in his pride. Such a trait made him sound so childish now… “I’m glad you finished your little speech, so am I.”
The war chief glanced at his men and rose a hand. Instantly, all the soldiers pointed their guns on him. David remembered how he used to have at least a little admiration for such authority, but what he saw was just trained puppets… pets, maybe.
His brain could make the connection. The cannons of the weapons were turned toward him, aiming at him, and he knew what this meant. It was logical. If they shot, dozens of bullets would come right at him, causing his death. Still, no fear… Now it was just… causes and consequences, no big deal…
“Are you sure you want to do this, Alexander?” David asked his former associate in a flat tone, rising an eyebrow. A question. Nothing more.
“Every crowd needs an example to understand the reality of the events.” The conqueror replied simply. “It is a shame, I really meant to make a great general out of you, I could teach you so much… But I understand that the young all need to express a desire to defy authority at some point, so I propose you an in-between solution, one that will satisfy everyone. I leave you the choice to kneel, or die, like every citizen in this room. Just show me you understand that you overdid it, and I give you my word that I will personally train you. But keep your comedy going and my men here will all receive one month of food supply per bullet in your dead body.”
By the glance of amazement some soldiers threw at their leader, and how the rest frowned with deep determination, David could relate that this was probably an incredible bonus to their campaign loot. They all probably boiled in the wait of the order to shoot him dead. Everyone was greedy, that was only human nature. He even found it… rather normal.
“I won’t kneel, Alexander. But you know…” he spoke, struggling to find what he knew was there. “I think it is called… Irony. Yes, that’s the word. I’m sure I would have loved this only moments ago but… Anyway, I expect YOU to kneel, and I’ll let you go. You could start new diplomatic relationship with this city. They don’t have to work for you, you could work together. Two cities accomplishing bigger dreams than killing… It would sound like a lot less of a waste of time and lives… Just a knee down, Alexander, and you might be remembered as an actual great man.”
Emotional responses were easy to read now, but so difficult to predict… David had just exposed what seemed to be logical, mathematically, humanly… But he had probably underestimated how boiling of a temper some people possessed. He who was always angry before, he should have known better. Was it irony again?
Alexander took a few second to plant a deadly stare into the young man’s eyes, to let him know of his intentions. Or at least, that seemed to be the case, David couldn’t be judge of his intentions anymore. The war chief didn’t look or sound rational anymore to him…
But he did lower his arm, and what followed was like suspended in time.
There was no detonation, no bullet fired. Only a choir of groans of pain disturbed the silence, and then the full orchestra of fifty armors falling on the ground with dead bodies inside. Only one soldier kept squirming on the floor, a hand on the shoulder.
The entire front line of the invading army, vanquished in a blink.
“What the hell?! What have you done?!” Alexander screamed in genuine horror when all of his weaponized forces dropped dead on the floor.
“Nothing. I did nothing.” David simply replied. So legends were true. It was a good thing. “I’d say around thirty aimed at the head, and twenty aimed at the heart. If anything, I shall recognize that a majority favored quicker death, despite being… well, killers. And there’s even someone who didn’t try to kill!” David noticed the man struggling to press on the hole in his shoulder. “Congratulation for being moral, soldier!”
He even smiled for the injured armored man. David didn’t feel any happiness or actual pride, but smiling was a social way to say that good had been done. And just like Alexander wanted to make an example of his former associate, David wanted to point good will even among the ennemy’s ranks.
Unfortunately, emotional behavior showed once again to be unpredictable to him now. Grabbing a knife at his belt, the war chief killed the last of his men by a precise throw that reached the poor soldier’s neck. The man in armor didn’t even seem to fight it, and let himself drift away. What a waste of a good life…
But Alexander didn’t stop to this aberration. Pulling out a dagger with a furious stare, the war chief walked toward him threateningly.
“You sabotaged our weapons! That’s treason!” He accused in obvious rage.
“I did nothing. Please just surrender, and we might work something out for you.”
“I DON’T WANT YOUR MERCY!” Alexander shouted like a mad man, arming his arm.
And it was the last thing he ever did or spoke. An invisible blade opened his throat in a rapid, clean cut. The mad man’s eyes widened and his face froze, like a mask, as blood began to flow out of the neat slice.
“Then you don’t deserve it…” David simply replied, watching him without feeling any sympathy or antipathy. Causes and consequences. Alexander only faced his choices now, more directly this time.
A conqueror. A huge warrior. A leader. A war chief. And now just a monument reminding that he was only a human after all. The glorious march, his deathly army, his dreams of conquests, all blown up in a matter of seconds. And his throat sliced, not even by a metal blade but by his own, wrong intentions. It made David wonder if the same thoughts went through the dying mind of the fallen invader, if he realized how unfitting of a warrior such an end was…
He had chosen to use unfair methods, building himself an advantage just so he could step on the weak and unadvanced weaponry. In the end, someone had shown him the other side of his sick game.
Without any other form of ceremony, David stepped toward the door and turned to face everyone, not even giving a look to the man gurgling and choking in his own hemorrhage. Alexander didn’t matter anymore. He belonged to the past. It was time to move on. And so he addressed to the crowd before the dying war chief even expired his last gurgle.
“So. First thing, you all have to know that I was most sincere earlier. I thought every word of it. And now it’s time to see if you all to meditated this. Because second, I suggest that the remaining soldiers come after me, and you come after them. This is your city. Now that the balance is in your favor, it’s up to you to claim it back. Or don’t. I don’t care what you choose.”
And without a single look to these confused people, David turned back and got out of this room. They didn’t matter anymore. He would do what he had to do. And so would they.
**********************************************************************************
From the corner of the room, Karen hadn’t lost a single word of the events. And it was with mixed feelings that the lady warrior watched the people leaving the room in order. in plain honesty, she didn’t understand half of what she witnessed...
It looked like the kid hadn’t even touched anyone. What sorcery was this? Her heart told her that she shouldn’t have complained, since he apparently won the war all by himself. But this wasn’t reassuring… This kid had a mysterious power, and although he didn’t seem ill-intended, she wouldn’t trust invisible weapons…
Well, for now it looked like she could breathe a bit, the immediate threat was gone… And she could have, if she didn’t have to be the one announcing bad news to a chained dragon…
Mixed about what she saw and heard, Karen went back to the small room, where a puddle of melt metal shined in the corner, and where Amaria waited for her return. Except… Speaking wasn’t her thing, and she didn’t know how to say it to her.
She respected that dragon. Despite her nature, she had proven more than once that she had good intentions, and that she had a real desire to help humans. And that was particularly why seeing her crying desperately on the ground was a heart tearing view to the warrior. Everyone had lost someone today. But she probably didn’t process things like humans…
“He is…. Dead… isn’t he?” Amaria asked again between her unstoppable sobbing.
But this time, Karen had the answer. She saw him getting shot. She saw him falling dead. There was no doubt he was… Honestly, what to reply? The dragoness already knew, and confirming would only increase her pain, even if it was inevitable. Finding the right words never was a skill of hers; she was a warrior, not a politician!
Fortunately, she never had to do this.
Making her jump in scared surprise, a cloud of what seemed to be light condensed next to her. A gaseous, vague human shape which materialization instantly put her on guards. She didn’t understand this phenomenon, but her training pushed her to consider it as a potential threat.
“You did well, soldier.” The entity spoke to her, making her take another step back. This day would have been quite disturbing, but the stare of two eyes floating in a cloud definitely was the most! “You completed your mission, so you’re free from your order.”
Karen looked at the shape hesitantly, not daring to answer. Was it a ghost? Or a trick of her mind? She immediately rejected the second possibility when the gaseous creature leaned on the crying dragoness, and made the chains literally evaporate.
“It’s going to be hard, Amaria.” The ghost spoke to the dragoness, like he knew her. “But you’re going to have to be strong…”
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Western Dragon
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 24 kB
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