When the World Ends

6; Astrid

The walk to the office is a quiet one, with many things on each of our minds. Daye has resorted to dragging the bag of clothes, the soft scraping filling the empty halls. 

     "Elector?" I ask, glancing at him. 

    "Yes, Commander?" 

     "I hate to bring him up but-  you're nothing like you father." I continue before he can interrupt, "I appreciate that, and I know that with time, the citizens will as well. I can tell, at least I think I can, that you have many good things planned for us and I'm honored to be by your side."

     He offers a hearty chuckle, shrugging. "You know, I am like him, sometimes. I can be cold and calloused if I have to but who wants to exist knowing that everyone only complies because they are scared for their lives?"

      I don't answer. We finish our walk in silence, and Daye dumps the bag of clothes by the front door, wiping his hands on his pants before we enter. Standing in the office, he pulls a pair of cloth gloves on. There are lines of desks along the walls and the occupants at them are separated by the color of their suits. The youngest groups here wear off-white, for purity's sake. As if there's much of it here. The older the kids get, the grayer the suits get until they reach cadet, a faded black and finally Martials, a jet black similar to that of the Elector. 

     The only things that separate the Elector is that he is adorned by a cape that hangs well below his shoulder blades and an X shaped harness that holds scims on the back, and rows of daggers on the front. Golden trimmed epaulets and small chains holding the cape to his harness set him apart. Thankfully, the kids here aren't given weapons, real weapons, until they are in year eight. Any combat training before that is done with sticks. And any weakness is met with a whipping post in the academy courtyard. 

I look around, taking in the rows of portraits that line the walls. I recognize Daye's father but none before him. I swivel around to see the motion I caught out of the corner of my eye and I see that there are two groups of slaves forming by the doors. They wait patiently, surrounded by an entire flank of martials. I turn back to Daye, and catch the tail end of his cape swinging through the only other door in the room. Unsure if I should follow after him or acknowledge the slaves at the door, I take one final look between the doors and turn towards the slaves.  

I pause, and then open the door. "What are you doing here, slaves? You've been freed from your cuffs. I assumed you'd be gone by now."

     "We came to say goodbye to Angel. Is that okay?" A small, sweet looking girl asks. 

     "Angel? Who's Angel?" 

     "That's an excellent question, Commander." Daye remarked, the young girl from the amphitheater standing beside him. Now cleaned and well dressed, she was gorgeous. She had extremely long hair, as all the women did here, but it was lightly curled. She was dressed in black jeans and a black sweatshirt. 

I look between the crowds and then bow slightly, backing up by a few paces so Daye can address the crowd.  

     "Say your goodbyes. I'm sure you'll see each other again out there, but who knows where life will take us." He, once again, folds his hands behind his back, turning back to the door the disappeared into. "Commander," He called over his shoulder, "Walk with me."

I jog the few steps to his side, listening eagerly. 

"That young woman's family is being held in the prison here. We are going to assess their crimes and possibly let them out." 

We step through the door, and are immediately greeted by the bustle of the office. People running everywhere, making copies, typing furiously on keyboards, signing and exchanging documents. And as far as decor, the walls are a pale grey, almost like a hospital. No decor in here, only the click-click-click of busy fingers.

     "Here." He hands me a stack of papers and a pen. "You and I are going to take a new role count in the prison. We'll be there for quite some time, so hopefully your day was free."

     "Of course it was, Elector. And it's always free for you." I follow behind him, reading what I can on the computer screens as we pass by. "Do you know what each person is working on?"

He nodded, turning right, starting down a short hallway that led to an elevator surrounded by full glass windows on each side. Almost every wall inside the heart of the office was glass. Almost like Daye; fully transparent. "I do. Each person is working on something valuable to the Empire. "For example," we turned back to the office, watching the people work until the elevator doors closed. "The young man at the rightmost desk, his name is Micah. He was training as a gunsmith in the tribal lands before he was recruited for Ravenwood Academy and now he has been commissioned to bring guns back into our lands. They will be given to martials to begin with, and we will get one as well. We will both be trained by him and be required to complete a training course before we will be allowed to take the weapons into battle. Most countries and nations rely on steel and blacksmiths, but who would be foolish enough to bring a knife to a gunfight?"

     "You're not at all concerned that he would turn on you?" I question, looking out the glass wall of the elevator at the school grounds retreating before us. 

     "Not at all," Daye says. "Because he knows I will have his head on a pike in the school courtyard as a trophy. I may be kind, but I am not weak." 

I chew on the inside of my lip, thinking about all Daye had told me. The elevator stops abruptly and we are soon replaced by a bunch of giggling school girls who fawn and blush when Daye nods at them.

     "Ladies, why were you up here?" He asks, catching the elevator door as it begins to close. "You are not new here so you know the only rooms up here are the officials' offices."

All the stupid girls do is giggle. Daye clenches his jaw, releasing the door. He has more important things to do right now. He turns away, but before the doors close, he throws "Next time, if you needed me for something, you better be escorted by a guard or a martial or there will be consequences, and severe at that," over his shoulder.

That stopped their giggling. I smiled, quickly covering my mouth before my laughter escaped. I doubt they'd ever thought that their elector would punish them.

When Daye opened the door to his office, I started upon seeing that the entire left wall was one massive bird cage. A tall, thin girl with golden cuffs tended to the large- and noisy- birds. I am not partial to animals unless to have to hunt them for food.

Daye ignored both the birds and the girl, sitting down at his desk. "Please, take a seat." He motioned to the chair across from him. "We have much to go through, so we best get started."

He glanced at the girl. "Amanda. Divide the room. Quickly, thank you."

She nodded, muttered "Yes Elector,"  setting the bowl of food into the frame of the cage and closed the small door, going over to the wall. Part of the paneling flipped open and two rows of brightly colored buttons appeared. Once pushed, from the wall opposite us, a long, thin piece of the wall slid out and back. A false wall began to slide along the track in the ceiling, until it met the other wall and clicked into place, trapping both the birds and the girl behind it .