The Crystal Heart

The Vow

"Have a seat Miss Anvindir." the man said moving to the wall behind the desk as two of the escorts found their places near the door, it wasn't until then that she glanced back and realized that they had lost a guard or two along the way. Looking between the two chairs on her side of the desk she started wondering if they would automatically lock her into them or zap her somehow.

Nothing was making sense so far. These people were known for brutality, force and merciless torture of their prisoners and those they shot down in combat. As she took her seat she waited for him to speak only to find an awkward silence between the four of them until the door opened. A young girl barely sixteen by appearance carried a silver tray as she followed Vernantheis Wyndham into the room. As if her day could've gotten any better, his cold golden eyes, thin frame, and uniform marking him as something close to a Master Sergeant made him look as though he was every bit the horrid man rumors made him out to be. His movements were even too graceful and silent. "How do you like your tea?" He asked politely as if he was speaking to a guest rather than a prisoner as he took his seat behind the desk.

Surprised she hesitated a joke, a trap? "Hot, not poisoned or drugged, and with two cubes of sugar." She said waiting for something, anything to show her that they were who she had been trained to think they were.

"Well then this will work perfectly, but do tell me. Why are you so rigid?" He asked as he watched the young girl prep the two cups, one directly as she had said.

"Your people are known throughout the seven sectors as brutal merciless warriors, your man over there shot me down, a handful of men pull me from the rubble and aside from the boring cramped cell on the ride here, there's no discomfort, no torture, no sign of anything you're said to be." She said wanting to get everything on the table, if they weren't what they were said to be, then she had no idea what she was in for with her stay.

"Oh, those rumors started centuries ago with a man who couldn't graduate our pilots course. Story says he went through the training and schooling several times and couldn't pass, so he got a private mentor who used physical discipline in his trainings and when the man went through the course again he barely passed, went out into combat and was a monster who had to be shot down by one of his own for disobeying a direct order." He said as he accepted his tea.

"The rumors make it out to be everyone, not just one man." She returned not believing the simplicity.

"Oh, it was never corrected because who wants to attack the territory of people who shoot down their own pilot? If we're so brutal why are our so called prisoners of war living happily mated and wed to our own people? They could leave any time they see fit, yet we have at least several who remain citizens in our corner of the sector.

"That's impossible." She mumbled accepting her tea, parched from being without since her snack on the ship she wondered if it really was safe to drink.

With a sigh he leaned back in his chair and sipped his tea before setting his cup down to the side. A short wave of his hand had the girl leaving the tray and heading for the door in quick short steps. "Fine, if you don't believe me you'll simply have to see for yourself. However we do have one matter to discuss." He said, turning his golden eyes to her. "Why was Krystal Anvindr flying in our territory when we're supposed to be enemies at war? You were not given clearance in passing, that area is my jurisdiction."

The change in posture and tone was all well noted as she listened and watched. As he addressed her with her name, she wanted to shrink down and hide beneath the cushions. There was no way anyone would believe that the famous fighter pilot known in almost every corner of the seven sectors would break protocol and fly through enemy territory to meet a man from a dating site. Her hesitation brought a look of building curiosity to his golden eyes. "I was going to meet someone." She mumbled just clear enough that he understood her, bingo he was hooked.