Imperial General Tread beheld the rebel leader Hyacinth, subdued by Thaum suppressing chains. His followers have been growing in numbers at an alarming rate, their attacks grew more disruptive, and their treason more brazen. All of that has made the people's fate in the empire waver, each other being in a love-hate relationship to begin with.
But now General Tread had the renegade leader on a silver platter. A very public trial and execution ought to shatter his followers and his rebellion with them.
"You wish!" boasted Hyacinth. "Go ahead, do your worst! I'm only a man; the resistance has a spirit of its own, unable to be contained in a single vessel. You will not get rid of the spirit by simply killing me any more than we can get rid of the empire by killing the emperor, or killing a man by clipping his fingernail."
The general was taken aback: "You spout nonsense, rebel scum! The noble and civilized institution of the empire has contingency plans through the laws of succession. You are not a toenail, but a head, and your savage traitors will roll under our mighty tread as soon as we part the head from the body!"
Hyacinth: "You think the resistance doesn't have contingency plans in case of my death? You think I don't plan my affairs, knowing every day may be my last?"
General Tread: "Your people are a rabble of terrorists united under your voice to raid and pillage to their heart's content! And they will scatter once your voice will stop guiding them!"
Hyacinth: "You're wrong. The resistance is the voice, the scream of the downtrodden. Of the good men and women who have grown tired of the abuse directed by the likes of you. I am but an instrument among thousands. An entire orchestra singing their ode to justice and freedom. Though you may silence me, the song shall keep being sung, until the empire puts an end to its sins. One way or another!"
He said the last words with an ominous tone. General Tread was unshaken: "You are the conductor in this preposterous metaphor of yours!"
Hyacinth: "Kill one man, and the ones he's leading will forget the injustices wrought upon them. The mind loves to trick itself into finding simple solutions to complex problems!"
The general exploded: "Like how you raid and pillage and terrorize the empire to fill your own bellies and fatten your purses? You think acting like savages and taking what's not rightfully yours is justice? That betraying your own country is going to give you the life you covet? You and your ilk do not deserve this justice you claim to seek! Your rebellion is nothing but a bunch of murderous dogs doing what they do best, and you are the mangiest and most rabid of the dogs!"
Hyacinth: "We seek nothing but the fair treatment that was and is denied by both my people and the civilians who do not take up arms either for or against us. We are attacking the parasitic empire at the points where it sucks the blood of the people."
General Tread lost his temper with that one: "YOU ARE THE PARASITES!!!"
Hyacinth: "We'll have to agree to disagree on that one."
The general weighed his words. He did not know why the man kept babbling his sophistry, as even he must know there's nothing he can say to make himself walk out of his predicament. Tread chucked it to desperation. Whatever the point of his words, the general had had enough of them.
He drew his sword, pointed it at Hyacinth's chest and said: "Maybe killing you will not quell your band of traitors. Maybe it will. Either way, it will be my pleasure to ensure you will not get to see for yourself what shall it be!"
He plunged the sword into empty air, the rebel dodging out of the way, having somehow worked his way around the suppressing chains. He grabbed a stick off the ground and reinforced it with his Thaum. The general's next strike was blocked by the stick, now hard as steel.
"You have no thaumaturgical skill!" Hyacinth told him. "It is a sign of the empire's decline to appoint such a general to hunt me down!"
General Tread tried to riposte, growing ever tired: "The chains we supposed to suppress you!"
Hyacinth: "They did, but I kept you talking long enough to work my way around the imperfections of the formation. But I believed every word I said!"
General Tread: "Oh, shut up!"
He went for the throat, but Hyacinth moved out of the way. He plunged the stick through General Tread like a hot knife through butter. The general gurgled a scream as he felt his heart torn. Darkness was closing in. Before succumbing to eternal torpor he heard the rebel say to him:
"You're not a good general. The only reason the emperor keeps you around is because he sleeps with your daughter."
