Tracy Charles Varnell

Longing For Paradise Tracy Charles Varnell

With a confident grin on his face, the arrogant king finally took notice of us quietly sitting in our mobile cages. He was a middle-aged man, not particularly handsome, but he bore the mark of someone who was very confident in himself and his right to rule. He studied the six of us for a moment, then loudly said with a smirk on his face, "I guess you Disians and Kertas are not so invincible after all. Everyone has their weakness and your foolish compassion for others was your final undoing. What a terrible shame to come all this way in your missions, only to fail and become my prisoners. You each must be extremely disappointed, which to me, is the very best part of all."Now. You have been found guilty of being spies and traitors to the Tolan emperor, so I will now pass sentence on each one of you. But before I do that, I have a surprise for you that I simply am going to love. I have chosen one of you to die this day."When he said that, I aggressively surged against my chains to try and find a way out of my cage! I turned on the Gift of Speed, but to no avail - the chains and locks were well design and unbreakable. Each of the Disian team members did the same as we frantically fought against our unyielding restraints. Finally, the mission team gave up and we all just glared up at him. The audience broke out into applause and the king laughed with absolute delight, saying with dark humor, "That was a wonderful display of your lightning warfare capabilities. I am so glad I got to witness it, but now we know that you are not without weaknesses."I also have chosen the individual whom will die this day and I think this person will be the most painful for the mission team members to watch. The middle-aged woman, the one you call Karoon, shall be the one to lose her life."Talena flew against the bars of her cage and shouted at the king, "Please let her live and take me instead! I promise, I will not resist, if you will just allow me to be the one! She has not done any of the things you accuse the mission team of! Let her live; please, please don't do this!"The rest of us also began repeatedly shouting to him in our own desperate attempts, to also take her place!