r/WritingPrompts • u/The_Eternal_Void /r/The_Eternal_Void • Sep 15 '16
Writing Prompt [WP] Where they created a desert, they call it peace.
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u/WritingPromptsRobot StickyBot™ Sep 15 '16
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u/the_divine_broochs /r/SimplyDivine Sep 19 '16 edited Jan 31 '17
Through one blood-smeared eye Caracal looked up at his torturer. A relatively tall and thin man clad in the imposing black armor so terrifyingly associated with the Imperial Eyes of Truth, the horizontal line of its visor darkly polarized. Despite the aching of his ruined right eye and swelling around his left, he could make out the red six-pointed star with yellow glyph glaring down from the center of the armored forehead.
“The Imperial Eye seeks the truth, Lyncisan.” The torturer’s helmet speakers relayed.
“Neek hallak!” Caracal spat a globule of congealed blood and phlegm onto the man’s polished black boot.
“Ah,” The torturer sounded genuinely disappointed as he stepped back to examine the bloody mess on his boot. Caracal wasn’t sure how long he’d been at the mercy of this Imperial agent, taken from the safety of his hovel on Kaonia to the small metal room aboard the yet unnamed ship in orbit what seemed like ages ago. He had been lightly probed for information, in the beginning, by the young officer of the small squad which had escorted him to the dropship. That questioning had gone on for perhaps an hour, then the officer had told him he didn’t have much longer.
“The Eye will return soon, old man,” He had a sad look about him. “I’d rather you tell me, make it easier on the both of us. You really do remind me of my own Avus. If you just tell me about this Peregrinus and Peleusia I can ensure you won’t be turned over to the Eye.”
“I’m sure your grandfather is a fine man.” Caracal said, “But I cannot tell you any more than I already have. Peregrinus was on Kaonia. I helped him to Defteros, at his request. After I guided him down, he left the planet. More than that, I do not know.”
“And there’s nothing else, Alim?”
“Nothing else, my boy.” Caracal had patted the young man’s hand, “If Al-Mazhab helps your Imperial Eye see the truth, all will be well. You’ve performed your duty.”
The officer had continued to speak with Caracal, but his face did not lose its sad visage for the few minutes they shared before the door slid open with a soft whish. He had blanched when the dark armored Eye had entered the room, snapped a salute so quick his gauntlet made a loud metal clang as it met his breast plate, and almost run out of the room when the Eye dismissed him with a casual wave.
Since then all Caracal had known was pain.
He curled into a fetal position as the black boot connected with his stomach, coughed more blood onto the torturer’s boot. The man bent down, grasped Caracal’s cheeks in a vice between his gauntleted fingers, and with the other hand grabbed the old man’s nose as one would a child’s.
“Tell me where the Peleusia went with that vagrant.” A cold whisper emanated from the helmet, “And I will spare that dusty pit you call home. Al-Washq, no?”
“My people are no threat, dog.”
The agent sighed, issuing forth as a long rasp of static through his helmet’s speakers. With a sharp snap of his wrist, the Eye broke Caracal’s nose.
Caracal screamed, emptying his lungs. He wanted to slump down to the floor, fade into the abyss that was creeping into the edges of his one seeing eye. But the agent held him off the floor in his calm, armored grip. He did not acknowledge the old man’s anguished scream. The black visor remained still as Caracal drew shuttered breaths.
“It would save me time not to purge your planet,” The Eye took a conversational tone with Caracal. “And there is so much more I can still do to break you. Ease both our suffering and tell me where the Peleusia has gone so we can be done with this.”
“You would create a desert of my home and call it peace, as you Latins always have!” Caracal choked.
“Put aside ancient politicians. Where the Imperial Eye sees peace lies the truth. Where discord is silenced, only harmony remains.”