Spectacle of Speech

A general addresses a senate

The general, resplendent in shining green hard armor edged with white and picked out in gold, raised a commanding hand as he spoke to the council seated before him behind a massive crescent sculpting of silver threaded obsidian.

“To those that say caveat emptor is causus belli, we say vae victis.”

With his helm set upon the table before him, the twelve senators of the council could see his eyes—one a blazing red, corner to corner, the other a depthless black. He growled his words, hurling them at the senators. His statement needed no translation.

He chopped his hand down as he let the sentence hang before the council — a noose of words.

No member of the council stirred. They were unmoved.

One, a bald senator on the end to the left, leaned back slightly, hawked then turned his head and spat theatrically into the dirt beside him.

He casually wiped his mouth on the tablecloth, lifting the decorative gold edged white material to his face with one hand.

As he wiped the cloth about his lips he looked down the table, squinting, then locking eyes with one of his fellows seated towards the center.

The other senator, a dark skinned man with a simple tonsure and decorative gold tattoos all over his face, held the look and then raised one delicate golden arched eyebrow and swiveled his gaze.

He touched his elbow to the diminutive man to his right. A cue, a prod to action.

Thus prompted, Lucus - the diminutive senator's name was stenciled on his forehead - stood and leaned on the table as if to begin an oration.

The sleeves of his shirt drew up as he rested his fisted hands on the stone, revealing thin, pale arms.

"Curse you Athinus." "Curse you and your campaign of dogs who ..."

He did not finish his monologue.

Because at that point one of the general's guards stepped forward.

A stooping shadow of a man, tunic the darkened brown and mud colors of a line trooper.

His face a scrunched and knotted mess of scars.

A nothing creature surely.

But the slap he suddenly delivered to Lucus's face showed him to be no mean thing.

The slap had the force of an executioner's axe blow.

It turned Lucus's head entirely about.

The sharp report of vertebrae giving way silencing and stilling the entire chamber.

The general nodded, not having moved even an iota as the brief drama played out and Lucus sprawled backwards tipping over his just vacated chair.

The general, teeth bared in naked aggression, ground out "And none here shall give voice to opposition"

As he ended that new sentence, that new threat, the chamber screamed to life.

One of the courtesans behind the senators, probably Lucus's paramour began to shriek as he saw Lucus's body slide to the dirt floor.

The bald senator, no name stenciled to his forehead leapt up from his seat crossing over the table, launching at the general.

He collided with the general, staggering his armored body back.

The entire senate erupted into a hurricane of motion.

Two of the senators swarmed across the table and attacked the general's guard.

These old men of the senate suddenly demonstrated a new reality.

They had been wolves disguised as civilized sheep.

The brutality with which they hacked the general's guards to pieces, focusing their ire first on the stooping shadow was shocking.

They swarmed, scratched and stripped the guards, battering them with impossibly fast flying fists.

The general himself was forced to his knees by the bald senator's continued onslaught.

The general's armor could not withstand the blows and buckled, cracked and finally, the bald senator roared and brought down his hands in a double handed overhead blow, hammering into the general's head.

The general slumped to the floor, head dipped down, propped up slightly by the plates of his once formidable armor.

The bald senator placed his right foot on the general's body, looking down at his defeated foe, fists tightly clenched. A martial pose. A final punctuation to the combat.

And. at that moment Lucus sprang back up.

"Cut!"

"Scene"

"That was fantastic gang!" The director swooped down in his overhead rig, beaming from ear to ear.

Lucus bowed, as if on stage, enjoying the acknowledgement.

The general too, rose easily from his slumped position, accepting his bald co actor's proffered helping hand.

The bald senator, slapped the general on the back as he helped him up.

"Damn good work there Jupiter" "Best take this hour I think".

"You were good too Janus" "Seriously, I thought you were going to actually hit me this time".

"Yeah, I hit you and then that bitch lawyer of yours hits my wallet". "Again".

Janus snorted as he spoke. His voice oddly flat and unaccented.