Miriel gets close to Mig’s face, as her breath reaches his face, Mig can’t help but feel strange. Miriel whispers into Mig’s ears.
“You Humans, so weak when it comes to your desires. Why do you not just give in to it?”
“It…would be…easy”
“Yes dear Mig, it would be simple and you could tell me all you know”
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Through his eyes Mig sees a different world, not the small room he is being tortured in, but a world perfect for him, a nice home in the countryside. In front of him is not the Elf Militant Commander Miriel, but through Mig’s influenced eyes he sees a beautiful woman that he believes is his wife. Miriel engages in a kiss with Mig, and the look on his face seems like one lost in temptation. Until a small gleam in Mig’s eyes shines through, after Miriel lets go of her kiss Mig is somewhat less tranced.
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“Wait…this isn’t… No! You won’t get me to talk through seduction”, said Mig as he looked around the false world disappearing and seeing what was really in front of him.
Miriel steps back in confusion as Mig seemingly breaks out of the trance he is in.
“That cannot be. The drug should be working. Perhaps I pushed him too far. Let me try once more”
Miriel goes back to asking Mig questions about his past to get to know him better and learn more about him and his beliefs. Mig who once seemed free of the trance falls slightly back into a funk as Miriel changes her attempt to get information.
“Tell me, what was your lost family like?”
“Uh…My family? They were good people. I loved them dearly, and I could never forget the moment I saw them lying on the floor of our home, dead, with Elf Militants standing over their bodies. When those Elves spotted me I ran away. I hid until I was found by Human Forces”
Miriel views Mig with sympathy, she gently strokes Mig’s head to comfort him.
“That must have been traumatic, you were a child at the time, seeing everyone you love lose their lives. Do you still carry this pain?”
“Every day. I still think about them. This is why I fight in this war so that no one else has to suffer the same pain I do”
Small tears flow from Mig’s eyes as Miriel gently brushes the tears off of Mig. She looks at him with a swirl of emotions and sympathy. Unsure why Miriel opens up to Mig and reveals some about herself.
“I truly understand what you have been through. I have lost those close to me through this war. My dear sister was an early casualty of this war. She was sent to check up on some unknown reports within towns and cities across the Veradigris Vale. During one of these checkups in one of these towns, she and the Elf Militants there had encountered hostile Human Forces”
Mig looks up at Miriel and he can see she is holding back her own tears from her story. Mig, although trying not to, sympathizes with Miriel, but he can’t help but find oddities and familiarities within Miriel’s story.
“Those Human Forces opened fire and fought with the Elf Militants that were in that town. Many Elves were able to escape, although my sister was not one of them. Those who escaped reported the event and shortly after the Enchanted War began”
“So you and I are alike, huh.”, said Mig sarcastically.
“I am saying I can understand what you went through. After my sister was lost in combat, I quickly joined the Elf Militant, to get answers and find closure for her”
“So, our pasts are similar. I think I would prefer the beating from before to these mind games and emphatic attacks”
“I tell the truth, not as a means to trick you. As a way to relate to you, for you said something earlier that I too believe. I fight so that others do not have to fight, I aim to see a world where this war is over and no one has to go through the pains of war”
Mig looks at Miriel with a look of endearment as he sees that Miriel is genuine in what she says, but Mig quickly moves to hide his expression from her. He doesn’t want Miriel to see him agreeing with her, he would fear that it could be used as a weakness against him.
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“Even if I believe you, what’s the point, I’m not going to speak. You won’t get information about the Human Forces out of me. So why don’t you just stop wasting time and get me over with? I’m no use to you. Get it done quickly”
“I am not going to kill you. Both of us know that by now. I am far more interested in learning more about you, you have piqued my interest. Although I may not have gotten as much as I would have liked, know this if you were to speak more to me I may be able to help you as well”
“I’m no traitor and you don’t look like one either”
“I believe that is enough time for today. Think about my offer will you not”
Miriel unties Mig from the chair, but leaves his hands cuffed, as she begins heading towards the door she is halted by Mig.
“You say Humans attacked Elves, I know I saw Elves attack Humans. Now what happened on the Veradigris Vale, how did this war begin”
Miriel gives Mig one more look before she exits the room leaving Mig to his thoughts and the night.
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Miriel walks back to her quarters, with the words of Mig ringing throughout her mind, she sits on her desk ready for bed. Before she can sleep the thought of the war would not leave her mind.
“I have never been one to leave an unknown be. He claims that us Elves attacked first, preposterous, although he does say he is from the Veradigris Vale area. So he would have seen firsthand the breakout of this war. Within his story, Elf Militants were already attacking his town as he fled it wasn’t until hours later that he was found by Human Forces”
A sudden thought enters Miriel’s mind, one that shouldn’t make sense, but a thought which persists to fill Miriel’s growing understanding of the start of the war.
“Mig was taken by the Human Forces that found him. Yet he did not say anything about those Human Forces engaging in combat. If Elves attacked that town they would have kept it, so why was there no engagement between the Human Forces and Elf Militants at that time”
Miriel turns to her note-filled desk, she spends a small portion of the night looking through her documents.
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Back in Mig’s room as he sits on the chair, his thoughts are the only thing keeping him company. In the middle of his thoughts, he thinks about his past that he remembers well and then changes his thoughts to Miriel.
“That story that she was telling me; I know there were many conflicts on the Veradigris Vale, but she speaks of her story as if it was the start of the war. To my knowledge that’s not how the first recorded battle of the war went. I know. I studied that battle for years”
Mig thinks back to his time on a Human Forces base. He was a young child at the time confused and scared as he and a few other survivors were being taken care of. A few days after Mig was brought to the Human Forces’ Shadowfalls Fort, alarms went off as orders came for all active troops on the base to be ready to move out for combat. Mig watched as Human Forces personnel moved left and right getting ready to head out for a fight. By the next day's end, the first battle of the Enchanted War had been fought and won by the overwhelming Human Forces troops sent.
Such a victory came by capturing the Elf Miliants off-guard, using the new next-generation weapons, some Human creations and others bought from the Dwarves, the Elves in that town had outdated weapons even by their standards, almost as if they weren’t standard Elf Mililant Division, but they fought to keep the captured town nonetheless. The Human Forces were able to take back the town with minimal loss. Once the town was clear of any active threats a small force of Chimera Tanks and Rail Artillery were placed around the town to ensure that retaliation by the Elves would not be easy. At the same time, reports were sent back to Primer Christoffel, who began to mobilize more Human Forces into the Veradigris Vale.
Afterward, when a portion of the troops were sent back to Shadowfalls Fort, Mig asked the highest rank officer of the base if he could be taken in and taught military training. The base officer refused but saw the potential conviction in Mig’s eyes. With slight pity and determination for potential, the base officer agreed to take in Mig and teach him until he was of age to enlist, by the time Mig was he was already a competent individual who had no problems showing his skills and earning promotions.
Back in the present, Mig moves from his thoughts of the past back to Miriel’s story.
“Some details of her story match the reports of other battles, yet similarities between both my memories and her story are clear. Something about this war isn’t adding up. Is it true or is she playing tricks with my mind?”
Mig lost in his thoughts drifts on into a sleep, some rest that he hasn’t fully gotten since he was first brought into this place.
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Come the morning Miriel wakes up on her desk surrounded by her documents and notes, she gets up and readies herself for the day. After changing from her night clothes to her Commander’s uniform she heads out of her quarters to retrieve some food for Mig.
Miriel greets the Elf guards in front of Mig’s room as she enters to hand Mig the food for him. Placing the food in front of Mig and releasing his hands, she steps back and gives Mig a studious look.
“Well, did you do any thinking about my offer?”
“Did you? You look like you were up all night”
Taken aback and slightly blushing, Miriel moves past Mig’s comment.
“Do not tread with me. I will not take any of it lightly”
“This war, it was one of self-defense, wasn’t it?”
“That is well known. So what point do you have”
“Who struck first? From the short talk we had. You Elves think it was us Humans, and we Humans think it was you Elves. What if both sides are wrong?”