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The murmurs that filled the Solterran halls dissipated into the dry stone walls but were not unheard. The rumors and gossip were not confined to these walls and had quickly spread like wildfire across the Day court... they spoke of a massive beast, green as the brightest and most alive forest. They spoke of a slick, seeping substance - but was it gel? Venom? Acid? They spoke of all-seeing eyes and strange tongues, of unrecognizable words twisted to be warped and aggressive.
He could not stay away with all the gossip that had saturated Solterra, so he slipped silently down into the dungeons where they were keeping the prisoner. She seemed timid but at the same time confident and well-versed, even though no one could understand a thing of what she had said. Tor watched as others questioned her and were met with puzzled, incredulous looks - they didn't understand a trickle of what she said, nor did she of what they said. Frustration was overcoming the guards, who switched out aggressively as each got tired and ran out of tactics.
Solterra had come a long way from the days of Zolin (something that was just a history book to Torstein), and torture was something that was far out of the question. Regardless even less morally sound tactics would ultimately be useless. What good is it torturing someone who has no idea what you're asking them to tell, after all?
Red eyes, two looking and one seeing, studied the curious creature. And several times, she caught his gaze - calling out through the bars past the guards that were snapping at her, calling out to him. He did not understand but the other soldiers still looked at him curiously.
Maybe they perceived him a monster as she was. Maybe they assumed all monsters spoke the same.
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Hours passed and the soldiers grew tired of their questioning. Long ago, Tor had retired to the upper halls of the castle, a floor above where they had the prisoner. He heard rotating soldiers talk as they mingled in the halls, heard them mention how she was perceived as a relatively low threat - how they had "seen weirder and she was probably just another new inhabitant." He also heard them say she was on an unguarded watch for the night, a pleasure provided thanks to her low threat status. Tor spoke to none of them but instead just took all this new information in.
And when the last shift had retired for the night, he slipped down into the dungeons and snagged the lock's key on the way down. The prisoner had dozed off in a corner but quickly awoke as soon as she heard his footsteps. She spoke to him again in a foreign tongue, and he met her with silence. He still did not know what she was saying.
But he approached her regardless, unlocked the gate, and stepped inside. He shut it behind him and there they stood - his eyes peered into her own, but his Triennial eye spoke to her mind. It locked onto her gaze with an uncanny calm and it read. Volumes.
She spoke soft words, but her mind said so much else. Words he could not understand.. their meanings were so vivid and bright in her mind.
'I must report back to my people, else they will think I and this planet are a lost cause. I do not want to be left behind.'
Such vulnerable thoughts for such a strange, intimidating creature. And despite what his Eye saw, his gaze met hers once more. He saw that she was scared of what this place meant for her, scared that her people would leave her for dead. She was expendable.
They had no intention of returning to Novus if they did not hear back from her, and in that moment Tor knew what he had to do.
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He stepped quietly up the stairs that led to the upper level and peered down the hall. All shifts had taken rest and his leave was unnoticed.
Come morning, the guards would return to the prisoner: body stiff, throat slit as she had bled out, alone, on the cold floor of her cell. It was not Tor's place to act but he did not care. Not like they would know who had done the act, anyway.
@Random Events
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He could not stay away with all the gossip that had saturated Solterra, so he slipped silently down into the dungeons where they were keeping the prisoner. She seemed timid but at the same time confident and well-versed, even though no one could understand a thing of what she had said. Tor watched as others questioned her and were met with puzzled, incredulous looks - they didn't understand a trickle of what she said, nor did she of what they said. Frustration was overcoming the guards, who switched out aggressively as each got tired and ran out of tactics.
Solterra had come a long way from the days of Zolin (something that was just a history book to Torstein), and torture was something that was far out of the question. Regardless even less morally sound tactics would ultimately be useless. What good is it torturing someone who has no idea what you're asking them to tell, after all?
Red eyes, two looking and one seeing, studied the curious creature. And several times, she caught his gaze - calling out through the bars past the guards that were snapping at her, calling out to him. He did not understand but the other soldiers still looked at him curiously.
Maybe they perceived him a monster as she was. Maybe they assumed all monsters spoke the same.
- - - - - - - - - -
Hours passed and the soldiers grew tired of their questioning. Long ago, Tor had retired to the upper halls of the castle, a floor above where they had the prisoner. He heard rotating soldiers talk as they mingled in the halls, heard them mention how she was perceived as a relatively low threat - how they had "seen weirder and she was probably just another new inhabitant." He also heard them say she was on an unguarded watch for the night, a pleasure provided thanks to her low threat status. Tor spoke to none of them but instead just took all this new information in.
And when the last shift had retired for the night, he slipped down into the dungeons and snagged the lock's key on the way down. The prisoner had dozed off in a corner but quickly awoke as soon as she heard his footsteps. She spoke to him again in a foreign tongue, and he met her with silence. He still did not know what she was saying.
But he approached her regardless, unlocked the gate, and stepped inside. He shut it behind him and there they stood - his eyes peered into her own, but his Triennial eye spoke to her mind. It locked onto her gaze with an uncanny calm and it read. Volumes.
She spoke soft words, but her mind said so much else. Words he could not understand.. their meanings were so vivid and bright in her mind.
'I must report back to my people, else they will think I and this planet are a lost cause. I do not want to be left behind.'
Such vulnerable thoughts for such a strange, intimidating creature. And despite what his Eye saw, his gaze met hers once more. He saw that she was scared of what this place meant for her, scared that her people would leave her for dead. She was expendable.
They had no intention of returning to Novus if they did not hear back from her, and in that moment Tor knew what he had to do.
- - - - - - - - -
He stepped quietly up the stairs that led to the upper level and peered down the hall. All shifts had taken rest and his leave was unnoticed.
Come morning, the guards would return to the prisoner: body stiff, throat slit as she had bled out, alone, on the cold floor of her cell. It was not Tor's place to act but he did not care. Not like they would know who had done the act, anyway.
@Random Events
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[ please tag @Torstein in all replies ]
I have three eyes
TWO TO LOOK ONE TO SEE
