James walked atop a stone wall, spear in hand, it had been 5 years since the day he joined the peacekeepers and his life truly began. Before that day he had been a scared, weak child, but now he stood tall as a soldier of the empire. He had been given the honor of being assigned Kyren, the capital of the empire, and was currently patrolling the palace walls. There was usually just a skeleton crew at the palace as it wasn’t really needed, but tonight there were nearly twice as many peacekeepers as usual because of the spark of freedom. A mysterious revolutionary who had recently been causing all kind of havoc, from attacking peacekeeper prisons and freeing criminals to stealing peacekeeper supplies and giving them away. No one had seen them clearly, just a figure in a black cloak, and every peacekeeper where they attacked had vanished. As a result, the emperor had ordered all peacekeeper compounds and prisons to have extra guards, and to be extra vigilant. He had been on patrol for 6 hours when another peacekeeper came to take his post.
“I have come to take the burden of the watch upon myself.”
The speaker was Randy, a good friend of James’s, and responded appropriately.
“it is no burden to serve the emperor, nevertheless, I relinquish my post to you.”
James gave a salute and made his way down the wall. He was on his way down the mount to the peacekeeper barracks halfway up it when he saw a figure sprinting up the path to the keep, their details obscured by the thick black cloak cloak they wore. It could only be one person, the spark of freedom, and James raised his spear into a ready stance, and though it was pointless James still roared out
”stop in the name of the empire.”
The figure didn’t stop, and as they got close James thrust toward her, but they easily spun out of the way and tapped him on the head, and he collapsed as his body stopped responding and he was plunged into a memory.
it was the day he became a peacekeeper, he remembered the joy he felt when he of all people was selected to join the peacekeepers and the ride to the palace with other new recruits. He watched as he went to the palace and stood before his emperor, and the emperor welcomed him into the peacekeepers. But then the day seemed to rewind, and he watched the same day play through again, but this time it was different, this time he was petrified when he learned he was chosen, eh didn’t want to be a soldier, he wanted to work at the tavern with their father, and maybe one day inherit it. He abruptly realized how long it had been since he had contacted or even thought about his family, and he was shocked, why hadn’t he, they must think he had died. He watched the emperors spear defend on him and watched das he went from terrified to delighted. And he realized the truth, the emperor had rewritten his view of the world, making him his servant. No wonder no peacekeepers were found where the spark of peace had been, they had probably all deserted.
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he abruptly sat up, the vision over, and all his desire to serve the emperor was gone, replaced with horror at what had happened, he had been brainwashed, made into a soldier of the emperor, someone who showed no mercy, a monster. He remembered stabbing a man for trying to flee after he was caught stealing apples and stealing those same apples days later under the authority of the emperors peacekeepers, and hundreds of other terrible thing he had done, people he had hurt, all in the name of the emperor, and all he could do was sob, sitting there on the path to the palace in the dark, a scarred boy once more. He didn’t know how long he sat there, at least an half an hour, but the horror was replaced with anger, the emperor had made him a monster, taken his life and soul, and he wasn’t going to just silently disappear. He realized it was stupid, he would just get killed again or brainwashed once more, but he would do something, and with those thoughts powering him he got up again and started toward the palace, only 50 feet from its door.
As he got to the door his resolve was almost gone and he was just about ready to turn back when he looked in and saw a sight that he couldn’t understand. The doors to the throne room at the end of the great hall were destroyed, laying on the foot of the throne room, and the throne was laying on its side. He ran forward, not sure what had happened, and as he got to the room he saw the most unbelievable sight yet. The emperor, on the floor face down, a gaping hole in his chest and a arm out stretched toward where the door. A grey spark sat upon him, and just by looking at it James felt at peace. He approached it, mesmerized by the sense of stability it gave dispute his world having just been turned upside down twice in an hour, and not thinking he reached toward it. When his hand reached it it seemed to fade into his palm and move from there into his chest, filling him with a sense of stability and peace. Then a burning pain filled him as a gray light filled his vision.