12-21-2020, 05:02 PM
(Jointly written with [nation]Xiomera[/nation])
The Cauhloc, Xiomera
10th December 2020, 5:17am
Mariya Adema, personal torturer for the Xiomeran Empress, practically ran into the deserted office and scrambled to pick up a phone. She still had some blood on her top, not her own, and she'd left various instruments of torture strewn along the corridor in her haste to get to a phone. She picked up the handset and quickly dialled the Attendant of the Office of the Golden Chamber, heedless of the hour.
The Attendant had been sleeping, but woke when the phone rang stridently. Her apartment at the Palace of Flowers was directly connected to the Golden Chamber. She was expected to answer any calls or business for the Empress at any and every hour. She picked up the phone, doing her best to sound awake and coherent. “This is the Attendant to the Empress. Please state the reason for your call,” she said, wishing yet again that she got overtime pay.
"This is Mariya Adema," Mariya said slowly, in her imperfect Huenyan. "I must speak with the Empress. It is very important." She wished, not for the first time, that her command of the language was better so she needn't concentrate on every single word.
Even with the imperfect at best Huenyan, the Attendant knew who Mariya was. She also knew it would be unwise to delay her call, even at the equally unwise chance of angering Calhualyana. She quickly placed the call through, giving the Empress a brief explanation when she answered.
Calhualyana listened in silence, irritably gesturing to the man who had been sharing her bed to leave the room. Once he was gone, the Empress sighed. “Mariya, as much as I enjoy speaking with you, this had better be damned important.”
"It's Tlālzixiuhxa. The Aurora. She's finally talking. And you need to hear what she's got to say for herself. I'd think she was lying, if I didn't know when I'd broken a person. She's being truthful," Mariya spoke English, knowing the Empress would understand and losing the patience for working out how to pronounce the words in Huenyan.
”I will come and hear what she has to say,” Calhualyana finally said, already out of bed and walking to her bathing and dressing chambers. “I am guessing this will be worth my early morning effort.”
*
About forty-five minutes later, the Empress had arrived at the Cauhloc and descended to the interrogation levels. “Alright, Mariya, what is so important that I had to come here before the sun was even up?”
Mariya led the Empress to Tlālzixiuhxa's cell, and signalled for the man who stood there to unlock the door. Inside, the Aurora was chained to the wall, covered in bruises and sitting next to a pile of blood that hadn't quite finished drying in.
"Repeat to the Empress what you told me," Mariya commanded. "Or I will repeat what we did this morning."
"NO!" the Aurora half-yelled, half-croaked, shaking. She looked up, at Calhualyana, though her eyes were struggling to focus. "Yauhmi doesn't know! She doesn't know... but you'll know. You'll know and you'll be happy and you'll stop, yes? You'll stop her?" Tlālzixiuhxa glanced at Mariya then looked pleadingly back at the Empress.
Calhualyana decided that a routine of good-agent, bad-agent was in order. “If you are truthful with me and tell me everything you know, Tlalzixiūhxa, I will make sure your suffering ends. All you need to do is talk to me.”
"I work for Councillor Robinson," the Aurora blurted. "Well, I mean, we all work for the Council, right? But Robinson isn't part of the Council, not really. Wasn't, not isn't. Well she was but she wasn't, y'know? Not the current Robinson, Carmen, that one, she was a kid, teenager, involved kinda but not really. Sarah, Sarah Robinson, Councillor in the war. The civil war, the Kerlian civil war."
She was speaking fast, too fast, tripping over her words in her hurry to get out what she needed to say. "But Robinson, she was recruiting Auroras, ever since she was young, her mother's death, her mother's murder, yes. She was recruiting Auroras right from under the nose of the Pierres! There's many of us, I know who they are, yes I know who they are. Not who they were, who they are. Where they are, their names. Their use-names. I can tell you them, I didn't tell Yauhmi them, I didn't tell her."
Tlālzixiuhxa started coughing, her throat dry, but continued, her volume lowered. "We weren't on the Council's side. In the war, no we weren't," she laughed. "We gave information to DKS. Robinson worked with them! If they knew, if they knew they'd kill them all. All the Robinsons, the children and the babies too. She told me, not Sarah, the new one, the kid, Carmen. She told me... they saved them. The DKS people. The ones supposedly executed in 2003. They're hiding... hiding. In Zongongia and Eiria. Waiting, waiting, waiting... never being called."
"She wants to start the civil war again, you know," the Aurora whispered, leaning forward as far as the restraints would allow. "Robinson. She wants to destroy the Council, not reform it, destroy it. Just to get revenge, yes, revenge, on Pierre for the death of her grandmother. And we Auroras, she used us, double agents, triple agents, I don't know. She used us..." Tlālzixiuhxa began to laugh and sob at the same time.
Calhualyana stood in silence, stunned. If this information became known to the Council, or became public.....
The Empress smiled slowly. “Provide us their names and where they are. And then I will keep my promise.”
"Veronica Penners, Lauchenoiria... not still there, went home she did. Made a deal with Alvarez, Alvarez doesn't know, Pierre doesn't know, Robinson does... divided loyalties, that one. Gemma... Whitney Seet... she died in Zamastan. Explosion, running away, killed herself to avoid capture. Smart one, smart Gemma. Bin Zhi, Fern... vanished. Nobody heard from her. Riley Nelson, Eiria, a prisoner there now. Xing Yawen, assigned to Laeral, went back to the Matriarchy when the evacuation order came. Alyssa Robinson, was in Lauchenoiria, now home. And Samantha Collinsgate, home too. So few... so few. Robinson didn't want people to get suspicious, no she didn't."
Tlālzixiuhxa closed her eyes and swayed from side to side as if drunk, humming a little to herself. "It corrupted us... many of us failed, they went to failure prison. Hmm yes, failure prison. Casey, Trina, Kristen, Georgina, Janey... May be free now, may not, Kerlile didn't tell me."
Mariya leaned closer to the Empress to fill in the gaps. "The concept of 'failure prison' has come up multiple times. It appears Auroras who fail certain examinations are imprisoned somewhere on their training complex, for life. Usually as children. Apologies for her behaviour, she is on several substances to aid in interrogation."
Calhualyana nodded distractedly, clearly not caring about the odd behavior Tlalzixiūhxa was exhibiting nor how it was caused. “You will attest to everything you know about this subterfuge and these Auroras that the Robinsons recruited, both in writing and on video. After, of course, you are fed and cleaned up. See to it at once,” Calhualyana said to one of the guards. “Truly, Mariya, I am displeased with how you have treated this prisoner. We will discuss this further once we are alone,” the Empress said in a severe tone as Tlalzixiūhxa was helped up by the guards. With her face turned away from the Aurora so she could not see, however, the Empress winked at Mariya.
"Failure prison," Tlalzixiūhxa muttered to herself as the guards unlocked the chains keeping her attached to the wall. "We all end up there in the end... failures."
Mariya leant back against the wall, looking pleased with herself as the guards led Tlalzixiūhxa away to mop up some of the blood stains and give her less tattered clothing. Mariya herself hadn't bothered to remove Tlalzixiūhxa's blood from her clothes, but she enjoyed the way it frightened people.
"She didn't tell Yauhmi," murmured Mariya to the Empress once the Aurora was out of earshot. "Not as loyal to her little saviour as she claimed to be. The Council, Robinson, Yauhmi... all that one can do is betray and betray. How do you plan to use this information?"
”I plan to hold onto it for now,” the Empress replied. “Kerlile is cooperating with me right now, but if the time should come when they stop being cooperative, or if a change in leadership is needed....this is very useful information indeed. I shall have to arrange for ASI to begin monitoring the location and whereabouts of the double agents that Tlalzixiūhxa revealed.” Calhualyana smirked. “Undoubtedly she will now see me as her savior, rescuing her from the torture. We do make an excellent team that way. I’ll have to keep that gambit in mind in the future. Your work, as always, was excellent. I didn’t think we could break an Aurora, to be honest.”
"Everyone breaks eventually," Mariya replied. "The question is whether or not they do so before their mind is so addled they no longer have the mental capacity to tell you anything. The only escapes are death or insanity. Auroras fear the latter, and I would not permit Tlalzixiūhxa the former. What do you plan to do with her now?"
”We shall keep her in custody for now, in case any other useful information can be obtained from her. Or, if nothing else, she is needed as living proof of her claims if I decide the Kerlian Council needs re-arranging,” Calhualyana laughed. “I hate to reward your fine work with more work, but you’ll soon be quite busy. I assume you saw the briefings about Cozamalotl returning to lead the ‘opposition’?”
Mariya barely flinched at the talk of rearranging the Council. It was not her country any more, it was nothing to do with her. "I did, and frankly I'm concerned that he already lacks the mental capacity to make sensible decisions," she snorted. "There are less painful ways to commit suicide; no Kerlian dissident ever returned voluntarily before the grubby reformists got their mitts on the Council. I would recommend you make an example of him, prove your strength, Empress."
”I agree with you. But first, I will use him as a tool to show how much support we truly have. And then, once he has served his purpose, I shall let you and ASI deal with him and his followers. Interrogating them should help us track down even more malcontents. Cozamalotl will draw many of those who oppose me out into the open, which will make the task of cutting them out of the herd so much easier.” The Empress smiled. “I assume you’re up to the task.”
"Of course, Empress," Mariya replied, smiling sinisterly. She was going to enjoy this very much. Coming to Xiomera had been the best decision she ever made.
The Cauhloc, Xiomera
10th December 2020, 5:17am
Mariya Adema, personal torturer for the Xiomeran Empress, practically ran into the deserted office and scrambled to pick up a phone. She still had some blood on her top, not her own, and she'd left various instruments of torture strewn along the corridor in her haste to get to a phone. She picked up the handset and quickly dialled the Attendant of the Office of the Golden Chamber, heedless of the hour.
The Attendant had been sleeping, but woke when the phone rang stridently. Her apartment at the Palace of Flowers was directly connected to the Golden Chamber. She was expected to answer any calls or business for the Empress at any and every hour. She picked up the phone, doing her best to sound awake and coherent. “This is the Attendant to the Empress. Please state the reason for your call,” she said, wishing yet again that she got overtime pay.
"This is Mariya Adema," Mariya said slowly, in her imperfect Huenyan. "I must speak with the Empress. It is very important." She wished, not for the first time, that her command of the language was better so she needn't concentrate on every single word.
Even with the imperfect at best Huenyan, the Attendant knew who Mariya was. She also knew it would be unwise to delay her call, even at the equally unwise chance of angering Calhualyana. She quickly placed the call through, giving the Empress a brief explanation when she answered.
Calhualyana listened in silence, irritably gesturing to the man who had been sharing her bed to leave the room. Once he was gone, the Empress sighed. “Mariya, as much as I enjoy speaking with you, this had better be damned important.”
"It's Tlālzixiuhxa. The Aurora. She's finally talking. And you need to hear what she's got to say for herself. I'd think she was lying, if I didn't know when I'd broken a person. She's being truthful," Mariya spoke English, knowing the Empress would understand and losing the patience for working out how to pronounce the words in Huenyan.
”I will come and hear what she has to say,” Calhualyana finally said, already out of bed and walking to her bathing and dressing chambers. “I am guessing this will be worth my early morning effort.”
*
About forty-five minutes later, the Empress had arrived at the Cauhloc and descended to the interrogation levels. “Alright, Mariya, what is so important that I had to come here before the sun was even up?”
Mariya led the Empress to Tlālzixiuhxa's cell, and signalled for the man who stood there to unlock the door. Inside, the Aurora was chained to the wall, covered in bruises and sitting next to a pile of blood that hadn't quite finished drying in.
"Repeat to the Empress what you told me," Mariya commanded. "Or I will repeat what we did this morning."
"NO!" the Aurora half-yelled, half-croaked, shaking. She looked up, at Calhualyana, though her eyes were struggling to focus. "Yauhmi doesn't know! She doesn't know... but you'll know. You'll know and you'll be happy and you'll stop, yes? You'll stop her?" Tlālzixiuhxa glanced at Mariya then looked pleadingly back at the Empress.
Calhualyana decided that a routine of good-agent, bad-agent was in order. “If you are truthful with me and tell me everything you know, Tlalzixiūhxa, I will make sure your suffering ends. All you need to do is talk to me.”
"I work for Councillor Robinson," the Aurora blurted. "Well, I mean, we all work for the Council, right? But Robinson isn't part of the Council, not really. Wasn't, not isn't. Well she was but she wasn't, y'know? Not the current Robinson, Carmen, that one, she was a kid, teenager, involved kinda but not really. Sarah, Sarah Robinson, Councillor in the war. The civil war, the Kerlian civil war."
She was speaking fast, too fast, tripping over her words in her hurry to get out what she needed to say. "But Robinson, she was recruiting Auroras, ever since she was young, her mother's death, her mother's murder, yes. She was recruiting Auroras right from under the nose of the Pierres! There's many of us, I know who they are, yes I know who they are. Not who they were, who they are. Where they are, their names. Their use-names. I can tell you them, I didn't tell Yauhmi them, I didn't tell her."
Tlālzixiuhxa started coughing, her throat dry, but continued, her volume lowered. "We weren't on the Council's side. In the war, no we weren't," she laughed. "We gave information to DKS. Robinson worked with them! If they knew, if they knew they'd kill them all. All the Robinsons, the children and the babies too. She told me, not Sarah, the new one, the kid, Carmen. She told me... they saved them. The DKS people. The ones supposedly executed in 2003. They're hiding... hiding. In Zongongia and Eiria. Waiting, waiting, waiting... never being called."
"She wants to start the civil war again, you know," the Aurora whispered, leaning forward as far as the restraints would allow. "Robinson. She wants to destroy the Council, not reform it, destroy it. Just to get revenge, yes, revenge, on Pierre for the death of her grandmother. And we Auroras, she used us, double agents, triple agents, I don't know. She used us..." Tlālzixiuhxa began to laugh and sob at the same time.
Calhualyana stood in silence, stunned. If this information became known to the Council, or became public.....
The Empress smiled slowly. “Provide us their names and where they are. And then I will keep my promise.”
"Veronica Penners, Lauchenoiria... not still there, went home she did. Made a deal with Alvarez, Alvarez doesn't know, Pierre doesn't know, Robinson does... divided loyalties, that one. Gemma... Whitney Seet... she died in Zamastan. Explosion, running away, killed herself to avoid capture. Smart one, smart Gemma. Bin Zhi, Fern... vanished. Nobody heard from her. Riley Nelson, Eiria, a prisoner there now. Xing Yawen, assigned to Laeral, went back to the Matriarchy when the evacuation order came. Alyssa Robinson, was in Lauchenoiria, now home. And Samantha Collinsgate, home too. So few... so few. Robinson didn't want people to get suspicious, no she didn't."
Tlālzixiuhxa closed her eyes and swayed from side to side as if drunk, humming a little to herself. "It corrupted us... many of us failed, they went to failure prison. Hmm yes, failure prison. Casey, Trina, Kristen, Georgina, Janey... May be free now, may not, Kerlile didn't tell me."
Mariya leaned closer to the Empress to fill in the gaps. "The concept of 'failure prison' has come up multiple times. It appears Auroras who fail certain examinations are imprisoned somewhere on their training complex, for life. Usually as children. Apologies for her behaviour, she is on several substances to aid in interrogation."
Calhualyana nodded distractedly, clearly not caring about the odd behavior Tlalzixiūhxa was exhibiting nor how it was caused. “You will attest to everything you know about this subterfuge and these Auroras that the Robinsons recruited, both in writing and on video. After, of course, you are fed and cleaned up. See to it at once,” Calhualyana said to one of the guards. “Truly, Mariya, I am displeased with how you have treated this prisoner. We will discuss this further once we are alone,” the Empress said in a severe tone as Tlalzixiūhxa was helped up by the guards. With her face turned away from the Aurora so she could not see, however, the Empress winked at Mariya.
"Failure prison," Tlalzixiūhxa muttered to herself as the guards unlocked the chains keeping her attached to the wall. "We all end up there in the end... failures."
Mariya leant back against the wall, looking pleased with herself as the guards led Tlalzixiūhxa away to mop up some of the blood stains and give her less tattered clothing. Mariya herself hadn't bothered to remove Tlalzixiūhxa's blood from her clothes, but she enjoyed the way it frightened people.
"She didn't tell Yauhmi," murmured Mariya to the Empress once the Aurora was out of earshot. "Not as loyal to her little saviour as she claimed to be. The Council, Robinson, Yauhmi... all that one can do is betray and betray. How do you plan to use this information?"
”I plan to hold onto it for now,” the Empress replied. “Kerlile is cooperating with me right now, but if the time should come when they stop being cooperative, or if a change in leadership is needed....this is very useful information indeed. I shall have to arrange for ASI to begin monitoring the location and whereabouts of the double agents that Tlalzixiūhxa revealed.” Calhualyana smirked. “Undoubtedly she will now see me as her savior, rescuing her from the torture. We do make an excellent team that way. I’ll have to keep that gambit in mind in the future. Your work, as always, was excellent. I didn’t think we could break an Aurora, to be honest.”
"Everyone breaks eventually," Mariya replied. "The question is whether or not they do so before their mind is so addled they no longer have the mental capacity to tell you anything. The only escapes are death or insanity. Auroras fear the latter, and I would not permit Tlalzixiūhxa the former. What do you plan to do with her now?"
”We shall keep her in custody for now, in case any other useful information can be obtained from her. Or, if nothing else, she is needed as living proof of her claims if I decide the Kerlian Council needs re-arranging,” Calhualyana laughed. “I hate to reward your fine work with more work, but you’ll soon be quite busy. I assume you saw the briefings about Cozamalotl returning to lead the ‘opposition’?”
Mariya barely flinched at the talk of rearranging the Council. It was not her country any more, it was nothing to do with her. "I did, and frankly I'm concerned that he already lacks the mental capacity to make sensible decisions," she snorted. "There are less painful ways to commit suicide; no Kerlian dissident ever returned voluntarily before the grubby reformists got their mitts on the Council. I would recommend you make an example of him, prove your strength, Empress."
”I agree with you. But first, I will use him as a tool to show how much support we truly have. And then, once he has served his purpose, I shall let you and ASI deal with him and his followers. Interrogating them should help us track down even more malcontents. Cozamalotl will draw many of those who oppose me out into the open, which will make the task of cutting them out of the herd so much easier.” The Empress smiled. “I assume you’re up to the task.”
"Of course, Empress," Mariya replied, smiling sinisterly. She was going to enjoy this very much. Coming to Xiomera had been the best decision she ever made.
LIDUN President 2024 | she/her | Puppets: Kerlile, Glanainn, Yesteria, Zongongia, Zargothrax