HOPE
Suddenly, the door slides open, revealing our hostage. Chained from hand and foot, the guards dragged him in like any other captive. Despite his regal attire, befitting a prince of Rune, he's a pitiful sight. Blood trickles down from his forehead and from the corner of his lip, staining his majestic garments.
He collapses to the ground, too battered to maintain his balance. The guards yanked him up roughly, forcing him into a chair. His head hung low, hands bound behind him. There is nothing to obscure his identity; he is utterly exposed and vulnerable before us. As the guards exit, he lifts his head and shake it, brushing his hair away from his face. He matched the file's description perfectly, just as I had seen him earlier in Zaffre.
With his face now fully uncovered, his indescribable beauty shines through, almost otherworldly in its allure. Yet, there is something about him that stirred a deep sense of familiarity within me. It's not that I know him; I had never seen him before, but his features bore a striking resemblance to someone else.
"Well, let's start this interrogation that can turn into a very stressful one or a very friendly one. I don't want to be too offensive, your majesty, so please cooperate with me, we may be able to get into an agreement." I say and Tarak just looks at him blankly, he seems like he has no interest in what we're doing. "What's your name?" I ask.
"Didn't you read the file?" He ask just as I excited, with an annoyed and bored tone.
"I told you I wanted to be friendly. Let's get to know each other." I say looking at him into his eyes.
I know my rest face is not friendly and my tone of voice either, but trust me I'm trying my best.
"Let's be friendly then." He said and smiles falsely. "My name is Crown Prince Tarak Hylite Opal, and you are?" He says and looks at me askance.
"Lieutenant Hope Teal, and I'm Lieutenant Tracy Green." Tracy says.
"I know you. I'll call you Trista." He says looking at Tracy.
Tracy tensed up and suddenly Prince Tarak started laughing like crazy out of nowhere.
"You are very expressive you know." He says looking at Tracy.
Tracy gets serious and slams his hand on the table.
"I thought you wanted to have a friendly chat." Prince Tarak says looking at me.
"Hope."Tracy says trying to take my arm but I move my chair closer to the table.
"We have a deal for you." I start saying.
"I'm listening." He says looking at me relaxed.
"If you answer all our questions and confess without lying and beating around the bush we might get our hands a little dirty and you'll get out of this hell a little faster. It's up to you." I say.
"Can I think about it?" He asks and I nod.
"You have 5 nano seconds." I say putting the hourglass on the table.
"Are you serious?" He asks with eyes wide open.
"You have 3 nanoseconds left." I say and his expression changes to a more relaxed one.
"I have no choice anyway. Deal." He says and Tracy turn on his panel.
I smirk and the prince smirks at me, as I take the hourglass hologram in my hand; and it is stored in the circle on my hand.
"Let's start then." Tracy says. "So... are you the heir to the throne?" Tracy asks.
Tracy let me do the job.
"I will not talk to you. I will only talk to her. Vanish." Prince Tarak says looking at me
"This is not Rune, you don't decide who you talk to." Tristan says annoyed.
"This will be a waste of time then." He says looking at him with amusement.
They always paint princes as people who don't know how to do anything but look cute, with ridiculous and sick tastes, extravagant costumes and huge crowns on their heads, but why doesn't anyone talk about how intelligent and manipulative these people are? They know the power they hold.
"Crown Prince Tarak." I say calling his attention and he looks at me.
"Just call me Prince Tarak, the title is too long." He says relaxed.
"As you wish." I say taking the panel away from Tracy.
"Can you talk to me about the crown games? How are they going?" I ask and he smirks.
"It's going alright just as expected. Everytime gets a bit harder, but it's alright, nothing we can't handle." He answers without moving his eyes away from me.
"So you are a crown prince of Black Stone."
"That's correct Lieutenant Hope." He says and I review the information.
"You and all your brothers?" I ask.
"That's correct, Lieutenant Hope." He answers.
"How many siblings you have?" I ask.
"24, counting me we are 25." He answers.
"You have a very clean record here in Indigo unlike some of your brothers." I say impress.
"Glad to know. I prefer to think of myself as the more peaceful and, no offense, but I don't care about Indigo at all. My thoughts about you are all neutral, I have not hate, not remorse towards you." He says with honesty.
I'm impress.
He hasn't lie.
"I like your sincerity, we don't always have someone honest in our presence." I say.
"We are not all equal. You more than anyone, should know that." He says.
"I will not contradict you because you are right." I say and he smiles. His smile seems sincere and calm and that gives me a good feeling.
"I'll get right to the point so we can get out of this as quickly as possible." I say.
"You're the lieutenant here and you know the best." He answers.
"Prince Tarak, can you tell me... " I pause and he adjusts himself in the chair. "Who is in the lead?" I ask.
"Enough! What the heck are you asking?" The colonel asks by the headphone and I ignore him.
"Who is in the lead would be hard to say as the lead is not held by a single person and it changes every 3 hours after the event is held." He answers.
"I see... Could you give me an estimate, an idea? Who normally goes in the head?" I ask.
"Well, sometimes my older brother, the second sometime, my fourth brother, sometimes the fifth, the sixth, the eighth, the eleventh, the fourteenth, and sometimes the twenty-third. They usually have the upper hand." He answers.
"It seems your older brothers are more thirsty for the crown than your younger brothers." I say.
"Maybe." He says with a shrug.
"And what brother number are you? Are you out of the competition?" I ask raising an eyebrow.
"I am the twelfth. I'm not disqualified yet." He replies.
"Congratulations. I read that the challenges are very difficult." I say.
"Thanks. What can I say? When you really want something, challenges are more of a motivation than a challenge." He answers wisely.
"We share the same thought then." I say and he smiles. "What are the names of those brothers you mentioned?" I ask and he chuckles.
"I knew you would ask that. You're easy to read." He says.
"Do you have an answer?" I ask.
"Yes, but I'll go to my grave with them." He answers.
He's not stupid at all.
"Okay, as you wish." I say.
"Who was it that made Obsidian's battle plan? It wasn't your father." I say.
"I don't know, I wasn't in the palace when the plan was been planed." He answers.
"Where were you?" I ask.
"In The Emerald Empire." He answers.
"Emerald Empire?" I ask confused.
"It's city." He says and I nod.
For a moment I thought they were divided.
"What were you doing there?" I ask.
"How honest do you want me to be?" He asks.
"As much as you can." I Reply.
"I was fucking some girls." He answers.
Okay, I think that was too honest. I really didn't want to go into so much detail.
"You know you could have said that without saying it, right?" I say.
"You wanted me to be honest." he says and smiles as I nod my head.
This is the best hostage I've ever interrogated in my entire existence. Now that I think about it, the princes don't seem as creepy, scary and disturbing as people say they are.
I'm enjoying this interrogation.
"Tarak. I mean Prince Tarak." I say and put the panel on the table. "Who is Tahitie?" I ask and he looks at the panel.
"There's too many Tahities in Rune, in memory of our beloved late Empress Stormi Tahiti ." He says
"I'll be more clear, okay? Do you have a brother named Tahitie." I ask.
"Maybe." He says.
"I'll refresh your memory a little more. He devised Obsidian's battle plan." I say and I finally obtain a reaction from him.
"Really? Wow." He says amazed. I look at him seriously and he changes his expression to a neutral one. "Look Hope, I have absolutely no idea what happened in Obsidian. As I told you, I was not present when they made the plans and I have been avoiding all parties at all costs." He answers.
"Why?" I ask.
He seems like he is telling the truth. So far he has been very sincere and the camera in the room has not caught any hint of a lie.
"Personal motives, nothing to do with the imperial house or Indigo." He answers.
"Okay I believe you." I say and he smiles cutely. "Who is the heir to the throne?" I ask and he looks at me with a neutral expression and his eyebrow raised.
"For a moment I thought that you had a lot of knowledge about our culture, but I see that you only have a vague knowledge. And I'm not trying to offend you, cutie. The games are not over yet." He answers calmly.
"According to Itri one of your spies, Danica Lapis an Indigo rebel, makes deals with the emperor himself, and the heir." I say and he starts laughing like crazy, so much so that I think he's going to fall off his chair, but before he falls he stops laughing and returns to his position.
"Danica is a slave. Danica is nothing, nor anyone in Rune, he is just a slave. The heir has not yet been chosen, the games are not over." He says
This guy really doesn't know what's going on around him. Danica looking me in the eyes, without any trace of lies, he confessed that he is part of the court, that means that the rumors are true. I think we've caught the wrong prince.
Suddenly the cabin explodes and we all fall to the floor from the impact of what appears to be a bomb.
My body hits the ground, the impact sends a jolt of pain through me as my head slams into the floor. I don't see anything, everything is cloudy, like if I'm trapped in a dense fog.
I feel the pink dust from the quartz bomb seeping through the fabric that covers my face, and I start coughing violently when I feel the tiny particles of quartz particles that broke in when I opened my mouth, and entered to my throat. The tiny quartz particles scratch and tear at my throat, each cough sending sharp, stinging pain throughout my chest.
The pain, the confusion, and the suffocating dust combine to create a terrifying, almost surreal experience.
Quartz pump? How elegant.
With my head throbbing in pain I manage to stand up and I put my hand on one of the pillars that is still standing. The dust from the bomb is still very thick and I can't see anything.
I cough like there is no tomorrow trying to get the quartz particles out of my throat. I open my hand and take the mask that was on my bracelet.
I put the mask under the cloth and when I put it over my nose and mouth it sucks the particles into my throat. When I manage to get rid of the quartz inside me. I take off the mask and put it on my hand and bracelet swallow it through the circle in the middle of the palm of my hand.
The particles may not be inside me anymore, but my throat is sore and I feel the particles shattering my throat, but it's just the wounds they've left behind.
I try to spot Prince Tarak who has chains that shine even in the thickest fog, but I can't even see my own hands. I don't think he managed to escape, those chains are ridiculously heavy and almost impossible to destroy.
I feel an overwhelming sense of isolation as I stand amidst the chaos, the silence only broken by the distant sound of someone coughing. The dust begins to settle, revealing the aftermath of the destruction.
Through the haze, a gaping hole in the wall becomes visible, enlighten with lights of a ship, a stark reminder of the violence that just occurred.
Surrounding it, bloodied soldiers lie strewn across the snow, their lifeless bodies forming macabre mounds.
The scene is surreal, the crimson stains rigid against the pristine white, witness of a tragic tale.
"Put the gun down, Snow." I hear someone say behind me and I immediately turn around.
My eyes spot Tracy who has grabbed Prince Tarak by the hair as he points him with his gun at his mark.
Before I could help him, I found my self trapped in the thought of if it is a good idea to help him, when the 5 tall men dressed in fancy clean kimonos, some of them in black combat suits, with circlets over their heads, and jewels brighter than our own moons, are targeting him with arrows, lasers and guns.
He's fucked.
We're fucked.
It looks that only Tracy and I are the only ones who are not so deeply wounded and can stand up.
I can't leave Tracy alone, he wouldn't leave me alone if I were in the same situation. I pick up my courage and picked up a bomb that was on the floor and was about to throw it when my arm refused to drop it, but it wasn't because my arm wanted to, it was because someone has their hand wrapped tightly around my arm.
I look at my arm and see the elongated hand covered by gloves that cover all his fingers except his middle and ring fingers.
Black nails?
And Indigo?
Lane?
"Don't you dare."I hear a male voice next to me and I see Danica next to the man I saw in the palace with red hair that talked to Lane. Danica dressed in a combat uniform and part of his face covered by the black cloth.
Without thinking twice I elbowed the one holding my arm and I don't know how, I ended up with my body hitting the ground again, what I know is that I have a nice wound on the back of my head.
I stand up and try to get on my feet again and not far from me, I see him.
He's wearing a combat uniform, but not so tight like the last time, and it's not a kimono like in the palace. Open halfway revealing his sleeveless mandarin collar black shirt with golden details, and an a golden bracelet around his arm that only can be seen because in his lose long sleeve have holes as part of the design.
He looks like a prince.
Is he a prince?
He runs towards me and he hits me in the abdomen with his fist. I take my hands to my abdomen and I taste my blood mixed with saliva. Without leaving me time to feel the pain in my ribs, he advances towards me and he tries to plunge his fist into my face but I crounch down.
I try to hit him but his movements are fast and when I hit him, what I hit is his hard forearms. I kick him but it is in his leg, while I try to hit him in that specific part of his crotch, but I know that because of his good technique in fighting, he will not allow me.
He blocks my punches with his arms and hands, over and over and I start to get mad and feel like I'm in an endless circle.
When I'm about to give up I decide to try one more time. When I stretch my leg, my leg hits his neck and he falls on the floor. In the couple of seconds that he separates from me, I feel my circle flicker trying to regain strength.
He rolls on the floor and he's back on his feet ready to destroy me. We both run to each other and I'm about to give him the beating of his life, but he grabs me by the waist and spins me around so that I'm only inches from hitting the ground. One movement and the one left on the floor will be him.
This time you won't make it.
I try to keep my balance with my feet on the ground and I pull his arm letting all my weight fall on that arm. The movement takes him by surprise and I take that opportunity to get to my feet and kick him in the face. He wraps his arm around mine and pushes me causing me to fall to the floor.
"Zion, next to you." Someone yells and he looks to the right side and I look to that direction too.
A tall boy with a thin circlet on his forehead and a small gold oval on his forehead, short white hair with not very long black braids with golden details, dressed in a black leather shirt with gold details, cargo pants, a hoddie covers part of his hair; and obviously what can never be missing is the jewelry accompanied by the fabric in his face.
I see how Lino runs towards him, but the other dude quickly moves aside and stretches out his hand and Lino's abdomen hits his arm and he falls to the ground spitting blood.
I see Tracy fly through the atmosphere and I try to get to my feet but he pushes me back with his boot and I hit the pavement again.
My body hits the ground, I wince and feel my circle crack further and blood run out of my mouth. I open my eyes and my body is trapped in his legs, while he points his bow at me. A bruise begins to take color on his eyebrow as he looks at me angry.
Even if I wanted to move I can't, I feel a lot of pain.