Thursday, January 17, 2013

Marcus Shrewd: Empathy and Spies

Marcus drove up to the Sanctuary at exactly 9:00. It was a long drive to Manhattan from Baltimore. When there were still plenty of Teleporters, he could occasionally get a lift from one of them, but not anymore. He walked into the Sanctuary and stopped dead.
"What happened?" he asked one of the people hurrying back and forth.
"Mevolent attacked! We won, but a lot of people got hurt." The woman scurried away, trailing bandages behind her.
Marcus hurried to his office, where he met a bedraggled looking Empathy Thyme.
"They said that I should leave, but that I needed to tell you something first. Persephone Grief has killed Leila Nightshade, but she hasn't come back yet."
"Why do you need to leave?" Marcus asked.
"Everyone's in so much pain. They say that if I don't leave now, they'll kill me. They're sick of me complaining. It's not my fault that I'm feeling everyone's pain!" Empathy burst into tears. Marcus patted her awkwardly on the back.
"Nobody blames you for your power. But it might be wise to go home now." Empathy nodded, and ran out of the Sanctuary, tears streaming down her cheeks. People occasionally came in and checked with him, he was after all in charge of keeping track of outside agents. No information about the attack had come from their spies, and they needed to check for double agents. As far as Marcus could tell, the attack was so well planned that their spies hadn't heard or seen anything about it.
The ones that were alive, that is. Cleopatra Nox, Bernard Wayward, and Paradise Artful were dead. They'd been discovered as spies and killed. Marcus suspected they had been tortured, and prayed that they had remained silent. Mevolent was already strong enough, without knowing Sanctuary secrets.

6 comments:

  1. Nice, Sev!
    I always say that...

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  2. Poor Empathy... I feel sorry for her...
    WAIT! Now she feels sorry..
    I feel happy for her, but now I'm being mean!
    GOD! WHAT DO I FEEL!!!!!

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    Replies
    1. And that right there is why no one likes her

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  3. I love that you showed us a vulnerable side to Empathy- all we've seen her do so far is give a lecture about chess pieces, but this just makes her seem so much more real and I love her for it. Great chapter!

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