The Price for Good Intentions

by Riana Rivers

In the world of Voyna, countries everywhere are at war with each other and themselves. Some have raged on for years. On a large secluded floating island, there are two of these such countries. Mirnoye and Nakazaniye

have been at war for over a thousand years over the precious land of splendor. The first a free republic putting freedom and independence above all else. The second a communist empire where the emperor and state makes sure that the kingdom has exactly what it needs no matter what the cost.

The Mirnoyian times

    Today the Nakazaniye army wiped out twenty fleets of Mirnoyian airships at the cost of at least one of their own fleets and their colony that was beneath the fighting zone. It is assumed at this time that there were no survivors of the colony. The Mirnoyian army did manage to take several prisoners of war which will hopefully lead to some negotiations with Nakazaniye for the safe return of our own troops if they are even still alive. Given Nakazaniye's actions throughout the war there is no telling what has been done to them.

    Asif walked down the halls of the floor to ceiling window and columns just slow enough and calm enough for it now to be considered full on sprinting. Asif was sixteen and he was already almost done with his military training. He had excelled and forced his way through determined to do whatever he could to help end the war he had already lost all his brothers and sisters as well as his mother to the war. So he had pushed harder than anyone else ever had to get in. and now all his hard work seemed to be finally paying off. Either that or they were getting low on men. He had been asked to escort a war prisoner that was getting here just today to the high-security cells and he was to be her main guard. He had not been told much only that she was rather young and a seemingly highly decorated general.

     He made it out to the landing deck and smiled. There were Jacob and Isaac. They were five years older than him and seasoned soldier but they had still become close friends. I waved at them and made his way over. They probably had the prisoner. I made it up to them and stopped dead in my tracks in cuffs standing behind them was a VERY young girl with light blond hair in a braid and slightly bluish grey eyes. She was younger than I was for sure standing in a Nakazaniye general uniform that still had an impressive amount of medals on it. You could tell there used to be more. I looked up at Jacob expecting him to tell me it was a joke. He was smiling at my expression. "THIS is the Nakazaniyain general?" I asked a little stunned. Isaac laughed " I know right. We had similar impressions when we first saw her. Nakazaniye does bring in troops young but they NEVER are ranked so high. I've never seen anyone this young above captain and even those are rare." "Just how young do they bring them in?" His expression dropped. Both him and Jacob looked sort of sick. It was Jacob who responded "The youngest I've seen is around ten and they're not that hard to find." Now I felt as sick as they looked. The papers and reports make the war sound bad but still not as horrific as it actually is. I nodded deftly and turned my attention to the general. "I'm to relieve you of the prisoner now." I said trying to snap myself back into work mode and not think about all the children they must have had to kill, all the children I'LL have to kill. They smiled lightly at my formality as always. "Well at least let us walk her to the cell with you." Isaac said I raised my eyebrow. It was an unusual request. "She's pretty well behaved. You might even end up getting attached to her." Said Jacob in a voice that almost made it sound like he was joking. Almost. "You're telling me you got ''attached'' to one of our most sworn enemies?" "Well it might have been different if we had the slightest idea what this adorable little girl was trying to say. But yeah at least in captivity she's kinda sweet." said Jacob in a mocking sarcastic tone that made it clear that in his mind she was just a brainwashed little girl that was unfairly dragged into this hell hole. Maybe he wasn't far off from the truth but it was dangerous to think like that and he should know better. I took her moving her in front of me a hand on her shoulder in case she tried to run. I didn't stop Jacob and Isaac from coming along though.

     She didn't put up the slightest struggle, just looked around at everything like she had just gotten the ability to see. She was so small and young and curious. She seemed delicate like she might break if you looked at her wrong. I could see how they had gotten attached. But this just made her more dangerous. Maybe this was part of their reasoning behind putting people in their army so young. Who would want to hurt someone who looked so helpless and innocent?

    I had to open two airtight doors before entering a round room there was another door across a long deep chasm that seemed to go on forever. There was a keypad at the edge. I put in the code I'd been given and a bridge came out for us to cross. I had to put in another code on the other side to open the last door and disable all the lasers. "Wow. When they say high security they really aren't kidding." Isaac says shocked that we have something like this. "They had to prepare more for this kind of situation after one prisoner decided to, at lunch use some mold he had been growing in the corner of the cafeteria to contaminate the water supply over time so he could overtake the guards and blow the generator incinerating the whole place." Jacob sounds like he's seen something similar happen before.

    The cell isn't big but it's not small either there's a bathroom then the main room. The bathroom is nondescript white tile. The main room is old blue wallpapering of some odd pattern probably meant to be calming, the floor is metal. There's a bed with white and blue sheets and a metal table and chair welded to the floor. There are multiple navy blue jumpsuits in the bathroom even. I sit her down at the chair and wait for the interpreter to come and question her.


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