Morning all. I had a very strange dream that I was trying to file an insurance claim after an alien shot my vehicle with laser beams. It melted two of the tires and left scorch marks all over the vehicle. The attack was filmed by multiple sources and even made the news but the insurance company kept claiming that as I hadn’t gotten the insurance info from the other vehicle it didn’t count as an accident. The agent was very smug. No clue what corner of my subconscious that dream was kicked out of. Hopefully my brain will be as creative during the writing prompt. Ready to get started? Good, then let’s go.
Huh. Interesting. Not something that grabs me and says write this now, but something I will think about.
Thursday, July 21st: As much as he wanted to stay, the emperor had other plans for him.
As much as he wanted to stay, the emperor had other plans for him. He listened to the details with half an ear as others laid out plans for their journey. He was to be the emperor’s emissary to this far off place. He had never heard of the city or the kingdom where it was located. He had never seen it on the map. Getting him to the location was someone else’s job. He was simply to be the emperors emissary while there. To convey the emperor’s good will and to be an eye and ear within the caravan.
He knew that the emperor feared spies. Thirty years prior when he rose to his father’s throne the court had been full of them. They caused much damage in the first few years of his reign. From what he could tell the emperor stamped out the spies he found with ruthless efficiency. However the emperor never stopped looking for more to take their place.
He was trusted because he served at the whim of the emperor. He had nothing to gain by serving another faction. He was only in his position because the emperor willed it. To the others, he was useless. Since he had no one else, he could be trusted. He knew refusing to go would be pointless. He was not asked, he was told. He would go and that was it.
There was a translator who was going along with the group. A small fellow who watched all of the preparations with a keen eye. He answered questions when asked but kept silent and watched for the most part. When the planning was through, he decided he would seek the interpreter out. He would learn as much of this new language as possible before he left and he would add as much information about the city and it’s inhabitants as possible too. He would be a better witness if he understood more than he did at the moment.
He knew there would be no one else vying for information. Those in the Empire considered themselves above such things. They were of the Empire. Others needed to learn their language to converse with them. They needed to conform to their ways to be considered civilized. He had grown up on the outskirts of the empire. While many from his town were as traditional as the rest of the Empire, if not more so attempting to prove that they were just as civilized as those who lived at its heart, his family were traders. They saw the value in learning of others. They too thought that the ways of others were beneath the ways of the Empire, but they understood the value in occasionally keeping that view to themselves and discussing matters in the barbarian tongues as though they were equals.
It was subterfuge and he was cautioned never to let himself believe that outsiders were on the same footing as those of the Empire. Lately however he was beginning to think that the Empire had some deep flaws. His position let him spend more time in the imperial library than most. For the main library there were only books of the Empire. However there were offshoots. Rooms that were considered more curiosity than library. These rooms held books from other nations, conquered peoples and barbarian enemies. They were held as a curiosity, see what others consider literature was the thought he could see swimming in the eyes of others when they saw them. But many of the languages these tomes were written in were languages he knew from the days of his family trade and when he started to peruse them, the information he found was astonishing.
Ten til Midnight 