Post by Levorek on Apr 25, 2007 18:31:16 GMT -5
Place of Execution
City of Zekran
Oron 5, Salgan 1, Adonsik 41 Vylor Cledman VI
Onlookers watched as the prisoners were brought to the place of execution. Only two days before, they had been leading members of high society in Zekran, capital of the Zekresh Empire that ruled virtually the entire known world. Now, they were in chains, dragged to the place of execution by members of the Kantora Solurenesh.
The place of execution was located in a small public square adjacent to the defensive wall of the Starmet Vyloresh (Imperial Palace).
Most of the prisoners were men, a few were women. There were dozens of them. A crowd of about two hundred had gathered to witness the spectacle. Normally there were even bigger crowds for public executions, but this one, despite the extraordinarily large number of prisoners and their high status, had come so quickly and with so little notice that many people did not know it was happening.
The executioner wore a cloak and a mask to obscure his identity. This was traditional, but more necessary than usual with this execution. The executioner's assistant carried a box with the tools of his master's trade. For simple beheadings, he used an axe, but there was no need for the axe today. The penalty to be imposed was slower and more complicated. The executioner's assistant had already prepared a fire and placed some of the implements into it to heat them up. Other, implements for cutting, piercing and mangling he now took out of the box and arrayed upon a red cloth on a table beside the large stone block where the prisoners would be shackled while the executioner worked on them. Then the assistant took out the flails and whips and set them aside. He was not sure if they would be used today or not.
The first prisoner was brought to the raised dais where the block stoot and the masked and cloaked executioner waited.
"Is there to be no trial? What am I charged with?" the prisoner demanded. He was an older man dressed in bedclothes as if he had been dragged from his bed and thrown straight into the dungeon without a chance to get dressed.
No one answered him. The guards merely prodded him to mount the steps of the platform.
"Do you know who I am? I am Toryva Yafray damn you! I am Toryva Yafray! I am descended from the warlords of Frayethay! I am the Gurikan Falanorata yaa Ushin ya Kantoro Rimarkesh yaa Vyloran! (Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of the Empire.)
From above, high on the wall of the Starmet Vyloresh (Imperial Palace), a familiar figure answered sternly, "I know who you are."
The prisoners and onlookers all looked up at him. Guards and several henchmen stood with him on the wall.
"Levorek!" Toryva Yafray shouted, "stop this madness!"
"I could..." Levorek said, "but there would be no point in that since it is I who have ordered your demise."
"You ordered this? What have I done wrong?" Toryva exclaimed.
"You have displeased me. You have insulted my honor. You have sneered at me and snubbed me every chance you got. You felt safe doing so because of your position in so-called society. I warned you to show more respect or someday you would regret it. That day has come."
"What?? Are you serious??? You would have me killed just because I didn't listen to something you said at a party?"
Levorek smiled, "It was not just one party. It was every opportunity you had. Above all, you thought your order of knights was too good for me to be a member. I will give you a fighting chance, knight. Now that the empire needs every soldier it can get, will you volunteer to fight?"
"Whatever the Emperor requires of me. He knows that," Toryva says desperately.
"The Emperor is dying. I now hold all his authority since I have been elected Imperial Regent by the Stavuk Vyloresh (Imperial Council). Furthermore, when the Emperor dies, I shall become emperor. That is his last will and testament, his final decree."
"Then I will fight as you command," Toryva volunteered.
"How will you do that?" Levorek demanded, "When you have no armor, no lance, no war horse. Do you even own a sword?"
"My guards have swords, or I can procure one. Is this why you are angry?" Toryva asked.
"I am angry that you dared to look down upon me, a member of the house of Cledman, the royal house of the Empire! I am angry that you and your cronies ponced about my capital city for all these years putting on airs and calling yourselves knights, but when I needed you, my real soldiers pointed out that you knights have no weapons, no armor and no horses. Your Order is nothing but pretense and puffery and yet you thought I was not worthy to be a member!" Levorek's voice rose in anger towards the end.
"I'll make you a member!" Toryva pleaded.
"Too late," Levorek declared, "I have no need of knights without horses."
"I have a horse. I own a dozen horses," Toryva said.
"To pull your carriage and for your servants to ride. Have you any warhorses?"
"Please, I'll do whatever you want, don't have me killed."
Levorek said, "Oh, you misunderstand the situation. My order was not merely to have you killed. It was to have you put to death by slow torture."
"NO! Please! Is there a magistrate? I demand a trial! I have done nothing wrong!"
"Your pleas are being heard by the Imperial Regent. That is far better than pleading before a magistrate in a court of law," Levorek said, "the imperial court is the highest court of appeal, after all."
"Is there nothing I can say that will bring mercy?" Toryva asked.
"I have no mercy," Levorek said, "Guards, put him on the block."
Toryva resisted, but the guards dragged him to the block.
"Curse you Levorek!" Toryva shouted, "I call upon the Gods to rain curses upon you for this monstrous injustice!"
"I do not fear your curses," Levorek said.
The guards shackled Toryva to the block of torment and the executioner's assistant tore open his shirt.
Toryva was red in the face with anger and shouted out at Levorek, "I'll tell you why we wouldn't let you join the order! I'll tell everyone! Not a single knight in the order wanted you to be one of us! There's a reason they call you the weasel! You're faithless and untrustworthy! You're a conniving little spoiled brat who grew up to be a mean little man obsessed with usurping the throne that does not belong to you! You're not the heir to the throne! I won't believe it no matter what you say! I was a friend of the Emperor for thirty years! He told me he would never let you become emperor! NEVER!"
By this time, the executioner had put a torture device called a thumbscrew on Toryva's left thumb and was tightening it.
Toryva began to cry out in pain.
"STOP!" Levorek ordered angrily. The executioner stopped.
"I do not want to hear any more of this. Toryva, you think that you have nothing left to lose and you are free to heap insults upon me. But you are wrong. For these vile and unpardonable insults and lies, I hereby condemn your wife, your daughter and your two sons to death."
"What!?? NO!!!!" Toryva said.
"Beg for mercy and I shall see to it that they receive a simple beheading. If you do not, they shall be tortured as well."
"You evil rat bastard!" Toryva shouted.
Levorek nodded, "You have decided their fate. They shall be tortured. Not only that, you will be spared. Your execution will be delayed just long enough for you to watch them suffer, one at a time."
"I'll get you for this! Somehow I will kill you!" Toryva shouted.
"No, you won't," Levorek said. "And since apparently you will not shut up, you leave me no choice, executioner, cut out his tongue."
The executioner looked up and said from behind his mask, "Your highness, there is some chance he would die from that. If you want him alive to witness the other executions, that is not the best."
"What do you recommend?" Levorek asked.
Toryva continued to shout, "Curses upon you all! Upon your descendants forever, upon you, executioner of the innocent, upon all you guards and those of you who watch as if this were justice being done! Curses for all of you for all eternity!"
"Shut him up!" Levorek said.
The executioner's assistant came forth with a gag and forced it into Toryva's mouth, quieting him somewhat, but he was still trying to shout.
The executioner looked up at Levorek on the wall. His executioner's mask was adorned with a painted face with a grim, unchanging expression. The executioner thought for a moment and said, "If you wish, I can burn his tongue so that he cannot speak. You will still be able to hear his cries of agony, but no words. He will likely not die of it, at least not for many days. Time enough for the sentence to be carried out in full."
Levorek said, "Yes, do it now. Then crush his fingers one by one. Then take him back to his cell while we arrest his family," Levorek turned to the man at his right, "Garoman, have his wife and children arrested. And his sons' wives and their children as well."
Garoman departed.
The executioner turned back to his work. The other prisoners turned their faces away so they wouldn't have to see what was done, but they couldn't avoid hearing the screams.
City of Zekran
Oron 5, Salgan 1, Adonsik 41 Vylor Cledman VI
Onlookers watched as the prisoners were brought to the place of execution. Only two days before, they had been leading members of high society in Zekran, capital of the Zekresh Empire that ruled virtually the entire known world. Now, they were in chains, dragged to the place of execution by members of the Kantora Solurenesh.
The place of execution was located in a small public square adjacent to the defensive wall of the Starmet Vyloresh (Imperial Palace).
Most of the prisoners were men, a few were women. There were dozens of them. A crowd of about two hundred had gathered to witness the spectacle. Normally there were even bigger crowds for public executions, but this one, despite the extraordinarily large number of prisoners and their high status, had come so quickly and with so little notice that many people did not know it was happening.
The executioner wore a cloak and a mask to obscure his identity. This was traditional, but more necessary than usual with this execution. The executioner's assistant carried a box with the tools of his master's trade. For simple beheadings, he used an axe, but there was no need for the axe today. The penalty to be imposed was slower and more complicated. The executioner's assistant had already prepared a fire and placed some of the implements into it to heat them up. Other, implements for cutting, piercing and mangling he now took out of the box and arrayed upon a red cloth on a table beside the large stone block where the prisoners would be shackled while the executioner worked on them. Then the assistant took out the flails and whips and set them aside. He was not sure if they would be used today or not.
The first prisoner was brought to the raised dais where the block stoot and the masked and cloaked executioner waited.
"Is there to be no trial? What am I charged with?" the prisoner demanded. He was an older man dressed in bedclothes as if he had been dragged from his bed and thrown straight into the dungeon without a chance to get dressed.
No one answered him. The guards merely prodded him to mount the steps of the platform.
"Do you know who I am? I am Toryva Yafray damn you! I am Toryva Yafray! I am descended from the warlords of Frayethay! I am the Gurikan Falanorata yaa Ushin ya Kantoro Rimarkesh yaa Vyloran! (Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of the Empire.)
From above, high on the wall of the Starmet Vyloresh (Imperial Palace), a familiar figure answered sternly, "I know who you are."
The prisoners and onlookers all looked up at him. Guards and several henchmen stood with him on the wall.
"Levorek!" Toryva Yafray shouted, "stop this madness!"
"I could..." Levorek said, "but there would be no point in that since it is I who have ordered your demise."
"You ordered this? What have I done wrong?" Toryva exclaimed.
"You have displeased me. You have insulted my honor. You have sneered at me and snubbed me every chance you got. You felt safe doing so because of your position in so-called society. I warned you to show more respect or someday you would regret it. That day has come."
"What?? Are you serious??? You would have me killed just because I didn't listen to something you said at a party?"
Levorek smiled, "It was not just one party. It was every opportunity you had. Above all, you thought your order of knights was too good for me to be a member. I will give you a fighting chance, knight. Now that the empire needs every soldier it can get, will you volunteer to fight?"
"Whatever the Emperor requires of me. He knows that," Toryva says desperately.
"The Emperor is dying. I now hold all his authority since I have been elected Imperial Regent by the Stavuk Vyloresh (Imperial Council). Furthermore, when the Emperor dies, I shall become emperor. That is his last will and testament, his final decree."
"Then I will fight as you command," Toryva volunteered.
"How will you do that?" Levorek demanded, "When you have no armor, no lance, no war horse. Do you even own a sword?"
"My guards have swords, or I can procure one. Is this why you are angry?" Toryva asked.
"I am angry that you dared to look down upon me, a member of the house of Cledman, the royal house of the Empire! I am angry that you and your cronies ponced about my capital city for all these years putting on airs and calling yourselves knights, but when I needed you, my real soldiers pointed out that you knights have no weapons, no armor and no horses. Your Order is nothing but pretense and puffery and yet you thought I was not worthy to be a member!" Levorek's voice rose in anger towards the end.
"I'll make you a member!" Toryva pleaded.
"Too late," Levorek declared, "I have no need of knights without horses."
"I have a horse. I own a dozen horses," Toryva said.
"To pull your carriage and for your servants to ride. Have you any warhorses?"
"Please, I'll do whatever you want, don't have me killed."
Levorek said, "Oh, you misunderstand the situation. My order was not merely to have you killed. It was to have you put to death by slow torture."
"NO! Please! Is there a magistrate? I demand a trial! I have done nothing wrong!"
"Your pleas are being heard by the Imperial Regent. That is far better than pleading before a magistrate in a court of law," Levorek said, "the imperial court is the highest court of appeal, after all."
"Is there nothing I can say that will bring mercy?" Toryva asked.
"I have no mercy," Levorek said, "Guards, put him on the block."
Toryva resisted, but the guards dragged him to the block.
"Curse you Levorek!" Toryva shouted, "I call upon the Gods to rain curses upon you for this monstrous injustice!"
"I do not fear your curses," Levorek said.
The guards shackled Toryva to the block of torment and the executioner's assistant tore open his shirt.
Toryva was red in the face with anger and shouted out at Levorek, "I'll tell you why we wouldn't let you join the order! I'll tell everyone! Not a single knight in the order wanted you to be one of us! There's a reason they call you the weasel! You're faithless and untrustworthy! You're a conniving little spoiled brat who grew up to be a mean little man obsessed with usurping the throne that does not belong to you! You're not the heir to the throne! I won't believe it no matter what you say! I was a friend of the Emperor for thirty years! He told me he would never let you become emperor! NEVER!"
By this time, the executioner had put a torture device called a thumbscrew on Toryva's left thumb and was tightening it.
Toryva began to cry out in pain.
"STOP!" Levorek ordered angrily. The executioner stopped.
"I do not want to hear any more of this. Toryva, you think that you have nothing left to lose and you are free to heap insults upon me. But you are wrong. For these vile and unpardonable insults and lies, I hereby condemn your wife, your daughter and your two sons to death."
"What!?? NO!!!!" Toryva said.
"Beg for mercy and I shall see to it that they receive a simple beheading. If you do not, they shall be tortured as well."
"You evil rat bastard!" Toryva shouted.
Levorek nodded, "You have decided their fate. They shall be tortured. Not only that, you will be spared. Your execution will be delayed just long enough for you to watch them suffer, one at a time."
"I'll get you for this! Somehow I will kill you!" Toryva shouted.
"No, you won't," Levorek said. "And since apparently you will not shut up, you leave me no choice, executioner, cut out his tongue."
The executioner looked up and said from behind his mask, "Your highness, there is some chance he would die from that. If you want him alive to witness the other executions, that is not the best."
"What do you recommend?" Levorek asked.
Toryva continued to shout, "Curses upon you all! Upon your descendants forever, upon you, executioner of the innocent, upon all you guards and those of you who watch as if this were justice being done! Curses for all of you for all eternity!"
"Shut him up!" Levorek said.
The executioner's assistant came forth with a gag and forced it into Toryva's mouth, quieting him somewhat, but he was still trying to shout.
The executioner looked up at Levorek on the wall. His executioner's mask was adorned with a painted face with a grim, unchanging expression. The executioner thought for a moment and said, "If you wish, I can burn his tongue so that he cannot speak. You will still be able to hear his cries of agony, but no words. He will likely not die of it, at least not for many days. Time enough for the sentence to be carried out in full."
Levorek said, "Yes, do it now. Then crush his fingers one by one. Then take him back to his cell while we arrest his family," Levorek turned to the man at his right, "Garoman, have his wife and children arrested. And his sons' wives and their children as well."
Garoman departed.
The executioner turned back to his work. The other prisoners turned their faces away so they wouldn't have to see what was done, but they couldn't avoid hearing the screams.
