[Lauchenoiria]

Jointly written with Novella Islands

12:22 PM
Tlālacuetztla, Xiomera
Novella Islands' Embassy Compound

“What is your name?” the Captain asked.

“Amada Toledano,” the young woman said, trying to steady her breath after all the adrenaline.

“Okay Amada, where are you from?”

“Lauchenoiria.”

“And what exactly were you doing climbing the walls of our embassy?”

Amada blinked. “A climate protest.”

“Right. What sort of climate protest?”

“Like, uh,” she looked sheepish. “With the paint?” She held up her hand which had stains on it from the spray paint can.

“I’m not sure I understand what paint has to do with you climbing our wall.”

“No, I climbed the wall after, when I saw the Xiomerans - there were thousands of them!” she exaggerated. “They were just everywhere. I mean, when I first wanted to come to Xiomera to protest, I was gonna do so because they’d get all mad and then they’d probably do something that would make all the other countries mad at them, and that would get them to pay attention to us! But when I saw them all running I realised I did not want to find out what Xiomerans actually do to their prisoners, in the end.”

“So, you carried out a climate protest that involved paint, and upon sight of the Xiomeran police you decided to climb the wall to our embassy?”

“Basically, yeah.”

"You are aware that you've gone and broken another dozen or so laws, by trespassing on a foreign embassy, right? Laws far more serious than mere vandalism?"

She cringed. “Well, I, uh, wasn’t really thinking about that at the time. Besides, the Xiomerans don’t care, they execute people for wrongly pronouncing Calhu… you know what, I’m not even gonna try.”

“If you believe the Xiomerans were likely to react so strongly to your protest, why did you choose to protest here in the first place?”

“Cause, back at the WOE meeting they were looking for people to come and do this, and they said if you do then you’d be allowed to…” she trailed off. “Actually, uh, not sure I want to answer that one without a lawyer.”

“You are a member of WOE? Watchdogs or Warriors?”

“... Watchdogs,” she hesitated.

“You hesitated.”

“I’m not a Warrior!” she insisted. “At least, not yet, anyway,” she muttered.

"Not yet?"

She cringed again. She’d already said too much, so she might as well go on. “They said in the meeting that if we came to Xiomera to do this, we’d be able to join the Warriors.”

"Is there any particular reason you wish to graduate from peaceful - legal - protest, to an organisation with far more violent, less accepted means of demonstrating?"

“Because, like, they ignore us. The government, I mean. They ignore us when we do the spray painting or the performances, or even the roadblocks. They just paint over it, or laugh, or put up diversion signs. But they don’t ignore the Warriors.”

"The government? Lauchenoiria's? Xiomera's? Novella Islands'?"

"Any of th-"

"Actually, it doesn't really matter. We could talk with no end about the politics, about how we both live in democracies, and what we might think of the Xiomerans. At the end of the day, it's a moot point."

She waited, watching him.

"The fact of the matter is, the Warriors are terrorists... and as you so astutely pointed out - even if what you are saying about merely being a Watchdog is true - committing vandalism in Xiomera is a pretty stupid thing to do."

“Are you gonna hand me over to the Xiomerans?”

"That's not up to me to decide, so I'm afraid I can't give you an answer right now... though I have no doubt the ambassador is on the phone to the Imperial Police, as we speak."

She remained silent, though she cringed a third time. And despite her brother spending all of his interrogation asking after her, she didn’t even think of him.