Chapter 6: Chapter 6: The Less I Know the Better..

Chapter 6: The Less I Know The Better...

The moment of quietness allowed my sanity to saunter back to when I first encountered Yana...though I hadn't paid any attention to her during her stint at my palace--I distinctly recollect the day we met. the bunker's cold smooth walls shined into a golden hue as the fluorescent lights turned to chandeliers. everything stirred me deeper into the moment as my psyche betrayed me with another episode of the past.

"fuck this stupid party...I don't even know why im here" I grimaced at the noble throngs crowding the glittering Buriti ballroom. The tall walls of the palace were mauve and smooth as ever. Each little corner and nook has some elaborate quality design most likely gleamed from forced labor. The amount of people was dizzying even with such a large room. Nearly everyone was touching as they mixed their vapid intentions with their flying saliva.

Such events always teemed with schemes masquerading as manners. As heir to the Vascan throne, producing royal offspring was my 'duty', no matter how the prospect withered my soul. I hadn't been interested in courtship, which boded well as the black sheep of the family. No lady in Buriti had half a mind to even attempt.

I watched as my fat cousin Dennis was getting awfully close with the new driver we had flown in from Svet. The stupid automobiles they invented clogged our streets and demolished children's skulls. I had no idea if royals and nobles were already crashing....how introducing these metal ram drivers to the commoners wouldn't cause untold death.

My sister Kash circulated eagerly through the perfumed nobility, exchanging coy barbs to annoy our distantly related family. Her twinkling laughter barely masked the anxieties our roles imposed as her long braided hair nearly swept the floor. Kash shared my red eyes in life, but hers were much lighter and inviting. I had spent many years in her shadow though societally I was her better. She motioned for me to come to her but I simply raised a glass of beer and flipped her off.

The string ensemble pounded a livelier melody unexpectedly as narcissism-fueled nobles took their lodgings for some stupid made-up Svetlan customary dance. All the old Vascan nobility appeared to be secretly turning their faces as they watched their palace being danced on by the past oppressors.

A commotion by the refreshments interrupted the overly long dance. Lush party-goers brayed in derision as a Buriti common servant girl scrabbled frantically to clean a spilled goblet from the floor. A slim mixed Svetlan-Buritan young noble with long black hair eyed the others around with anxiety. The mystery girl watched tight-lipped, hands clenched at her sides, clearly acquainted with the doomed maid. I saw Vadim step forward pushing his belly into the crowd of people loudly.

"You stupid animal! Tell me you didn't nearly spill any of that Buriti swill on MY daughter!" He raised his cuffed arm in a display of power. My father drank heavily as his one eye gleamed with zero care given to the plight of our people. "the smell of figs will never come out!"

As the frenzy built I stepped inches forward, only to meet Kash's knowing look. This was not our storm to ride obviously.....I shook my head angrily as she mouthed to stop. I had already made myself a target in the Vascan political sphere, if I stepped in now I would surely be exiled to the searing dunes.

Yana met my tense gaze across the sweltering hall. In her eyes, anguish for the squandered life warred with relief at escaping the wretched maid's fate. As the 'noble' Vadim struck the sobbing servant, fires banked but smoldering in the girl's stare promised awakening fury if stoked by righteous flames; the same inferno that blazes within me every second...

I snapped back as the clangorous clamoring of the Large blast doors came swiftly I heard the soft click of a button near Aiko's side of the smooth black chrome table. Vadim's horror was mounted on his face like a dying albino wilder beast. "MY LIEGE! Not only is this a disgusting misuse of power but you have no right to punish me by our people's treaty!" Each moment that passed his eyebrows furrowed more and his flat lips trembled heavily.

"Even if you try to pass off my petulant brat as Svet nobility..." He couldn't help but permit himself to put down women who function as the spine of our civilization as if it were an expectation of their existence.

I couldn't help but model a smile that was so wide it nearly touched my ears. "Alright, those blast doors take a minute to unlock....if you can persuade the untried Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance that you are not a pustule on the oozing wound our country is attempting to cleanse...." I held my hand out pretending to give him a chance.

For the first time he looked at his daughter Yana in the eyes, he had only addressed me and Aiko thus far with such 'respect'. " My darling, Yana--You know I can be too hard on you..." He swallowed slowly as another lock shifted out of place.

"oh...I'm allowed to speak now?!" The sudden bolster to her voice made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "I was told--though I've lived in the palace-to never DAIN to speak out of turn. You mocked my mother's intelligence like all the other Vascan nobles you claim are 'below' your status" Another lock sunk back into the blast door but without much fanfare. Yana's voice was nearly shaking with rage as her mother stood there with a stone-cold expression boring into her soon-to-be late husband.

"YOU SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH! I served in this hell hole of a backwater country for-" He has what he wanted yet paused now...All eyes fell on him. A lone Svet among the sand dogs-I had never felt so much pure love between the Vascan nobility and the common Buriti people until now.

Yana stood over him her slender frame seemed to be bursting with raw hatred for her progenitor as she began pointing at me with fervor. " Huck, you know better than anyone that he blocked even Kash from obtaining any autonomy or power based on simple 'Svetlan rules'! I watched as he signed over Buriti land to Svet, Doigan, and Vascan geedy fat fingers! OVER AND OVER!"

My ears perked at this new information. I was finally getting somewhere with this madhouse beginning to form. "Tell me about that, Yana...of course, we must walk and talk. Once the Rebels get their hands on him he will be no use to us anymore."

The final lock finally came undone as the doors slowly slid open. I could hear armed soldiers making their way into different spaces of the bunker. The pale and portly man now stood endeavoring to dash out the door before anyone passed the proclamation to carry him away. Pools of sweat smeared the seat he had left rocking. The distinct fragrance of mammal stress invaded my sinuses

"well Yana you are the one in charge of foriegn affairs-How should we handle this wayward diplomat? A pardon....A slap on the wrist...." I was being a little too cute for my station as king but I couldn't help myself.

Yana seemed to contemplate for a moment, smoothing her black hair down anxiously. The rage seemed to die down as the opening blast door came with much more eyes. " We need first have him write a renouncement of his position signed also by him...Then we will have him cast into the dunes in a burlap sack."

The man turned in horror as a large royal guard seemed to sense who the elephant in the room was. "YOU BLACK SKINNED ANIMALS....The cold north will take you by storm! SVETLAN BLOOD NEVER FREEZES"

As I stood to retort Yana quickly stepped to him, her gate was writhe with violent purpose. She began pummeling her father, it didn't have much effect due to his overbuilt size but--With each punch, she became more fluid and found more of his bobbing head.

The royal guard's full Nelson turned this proud delegate into a simple training dummy. Aiko and I walked in unison making our way over to them. Both Yana and Vadim seemed to be holding back tears as small flecks of crimson blood stained her hands and face.

"Do not release this man...Until ordered by Yana other wise." Aiko's elbow punctuated my sentence finding its sharp end into the socket of his eye wetly. Yana let out a small gasp at the ferocity of the strike as he let out a small wale. "Remember when you forced old King Vasca to send Kash away to your slave camps?! Boarding schools dont brand their students!"

Aiko gripped his swollen and bloody face with her black-gloved hand. "Do you remember....when you made that servant girl kill herself? SVET's don't like bastards right?!" She struck him so hard I swore I nearly heard the crunch of his skull on his brain matter.

I put my hand between Yana, Aiko, and Vadim. "Let me say this on behalf Vascan royalty and also for all Buritians everywhere that now fall into my hands..." I lowered my hand to the guard as he put the broken man to his knees violently.

The pitiful abuser could do nothing but moan and spit blood mixed with drool. My body tensed as I felt the words fill my chest before even speaking. "FUCK YOU DIE SLOW!" I knew I was going to lose it but the feeling of 4 consecutive headbutts in front of my new cabinet was an unexplored level. With each blow, I felt my forehead push deeper into his squishy decicrated cranium.

Wrath washed my mentality when one of my dreads came back wet with brain matter and bits of eye. The next few moments of feral kicking he accepted was surveyed silently as the room mirrored vultures over a carcass. After nearly twelve kicks to his now shattered rib cage, I composed myself.

pushing my red dreadlocks out my face and slicking them back with his blood, Yana's voice was the first to speak. "dautros be swift! you are making an ass of yourself Huck! " She put her arm gently on the royal guardsman almost scaring him due to the sudden shift in dynamics. "Take Vadim to the Outlands and sew him into a burlap sack....I do not think he deserves the ammunition."