Take Me To Your Creator
Posted on Tue Sep 30th, 2014 @ 4:19am by Hyram
Mission:
Aggressive Negotiations
Location: Myaz Capital, Sovereign's Palace
The door closed behind them with an ominously quiet click. It was a small anteroom, sparsely furnished with only a couple of single, unmatching chairs and several metal cupboards that were clearly full to bursting. There were two doors, the one they had come in through and one off to the right, partially covered by a torn curtain on a bent rod. Dim natural light from the window to the left did its best to light the room, but it achieved only a gloomy, derelict feel.
Perfect Vaishaa thought as she circled around behind Hyram, motioning for her guards to cover the doors. She seemed to glide along the floor, circling the Sovereign like a lion in a cage. Her eyes were locked on him, sizing him up. He was the whole focus of her attention as he glided complete circles around him. Once, twice, three times. She said nothing, just staring him down while circling again and again, the only sound the whispered steps of her feet on the concrete floor.
Hyram squinted at Vaishaa through the gloom. He had been orbiting him like a moon for a few minutes and it was starting to hurt his head. "Why are you doing that?! Stop! Stop! Stop!"
The Sojourner leader seemed to not hear him, she kept circling, watching. Another two orbits around the agitated sovereign and then, finally, stopping. She stood right behind him and leaned down to almost whisper in his ear, "We need to discuss your surrender, Your Majesty." Her message delivered, she stood up and recommenced her circling while waiting for a response.
By now Hyram's deluded pomposity was back in full flow. "Our surrender?!" He fumed. "I will only accept your surrender!"
For the first time, the normally placid and composed Sojourner leader let her guard down. She couldn't help herself as a mighty chortle burst out. The little king's grandiose delusion was too much for her to maintain her composure. "Your Majesty," she said as she got control of her laughter a moment later. "I ... I don't think you fully grasp the situation." She smiled again, this time a curious mix of amusement and malevolence. "My troops have seized your capital. As we speak, my fleet is seizing control of your orbit space and destroying any attempt at resistance. And you, Your Majesty, are in this tiny room. Alone. With me. And my guards."
She laid a deceptively gently hand on Hyram's shoulder and said, "You really should surrender."
"You really should consider the power which I wield." Hyram bellowed. "My father, and his father before him would never give up the glory of the Myaz Sovereignty to any warlord!"
The pressure from Vaishaa's hand began to grow subtly on the Sovereign's shoulder. Not too much, just enough so that he knew it was there and could feel the pressure push him down. "And who would become Sovereign if you were to pass away, I wonder?"
"Kill me, eh?" Hyram said, ignoring the pressure on his shoulder in favour of focusing on the thinly veiled threat from the Sojourner leader. Hyram's father had once told him that no mere mortal could kill the sovereign of the Myaz. It was an allegory- a tale told to young Royals to build them up- but Hyram believed it. Hook, line and sinker. "You couldn't."
The blade appeared so quickly and moved so swiftly that it hummed through the air. Vaishaa stopped it right against Hyram's throat while transferring her left hand from his shoulder to his forehead and holding him back. "Would you like to find out?" she hissed, venom in her voice.
Hyram's eyes widened as he felt the cold metal on his neck. Suddenly there were hundreds of questions in his mind, the biggest of which being whether he truly believed those old stories."
Still holding the knife to the Sovereign's throat, Vaishaa spoke quietly and pointedly into his ear. "This is what you are going to do now, Your Majesty. You are going to surrender to my forces, but I am generous and I recognise your greatness, so I will permit you to retain your crown and your throne, such as it is."
With serpentine grace, she moved suddenly from behind Hyram to stand in front of him, but kept the point of her knife pressed gently against the flesh of His Majesty's throat. "Then," she continued, that unsettling smile crossing her face once again, "you will show me the Creator."
"I... I..." Hyram stammered as he tried to get back to an even keel. He could feel the point of the knife. "I mustn't."
Vaishaa leaned in close, pressing the tip of the blade ever so slightly harder, but not enough to draw blood yet. "But you must," she said in a gentle, almost soothing tone. "Or your blood will stain the floor on which you stand."
Vaishaa
Sojourner Leader
Hyram
Myaz Sovereignty Ruler
