Empty Eyes

General Falcon was the master tactician who had brought the Avian Nation to victory in their Conquest of the Western Lands. He had even been the one to slay the King of the Coast, the last unconquered region. He’d left the nation without a ruler and led his forces to take the exotic east. It was supposed to be the last he heard of the nation known as the ‘End of the World’ until he returned as King of the Known. Then he would lead a Fleet across the ocean to find out if there was more land to conquer. However he received rather disturbing news from a scout.

The Queen of the End had risen up and rallied the people. Falcon hadn’t broken the people’s will like he intended. The nation still had a Monarch, a symbol, to follow and a resistance of a few hundred strong formed to follow her into battle.

Reports of the Queen of the End's activity made Falcon lose his appetite for dinner, the bread untouched on its plate. When her small army of Rebels found an Avian Colony on their lands, they decimated it. All were slaughtered, and though the Queen demanded children be spared the brutality of quartering, the limbs of adults lined the rivers of blood the Rebellion left in its wake. The Queen's actions abandoned all civility normally found in war, but then, he’d made the Queen watch as he did so himself. As he read the reports, Falcon’s mind drifted to the day he’d accepted the invitation to the Castle at the End of the World.

             The King had opened peace talks with the hopes of avoiding war. Instead Falcon had looked into his eyes of what he considered a weak man as he ran him through on the blade of his sword. The Queen had moved to avenge him, but Falcon’s guards had knocked her back and beaten her within an inch of life. Of course the attack had angered Falcon, and so he invited his men to indulge in the Spoils of war, including the two Maiden Princesses. The Queen had been forced to watch as her eldest tried to fight off Falcon’s personal guard to protect her younger sister. She’d only backed down when Falcon threatened to kill the youngest. As he left the three women to violation at the hands of his men, Falcon had noticed the fury in the Queen’s eyes. What had terrified him however was the oldest daughter as her sister screamed. There was no despair, fear, rage, or any emotion in her eyes. He had taken it mean she’d resigned to her fate, but those empty eyes disturbed him more then any war crime he'd witnessed.

“Damn it, I need to focus!”
            Falcon swore as he sat in the wooden seat beside the table. It was well crafted and sturdy, another spoil of war claimed from the castle that day. Falcon’s army, the entire fighting force of the Avian Nation, was returning to the land that should not have offered resistance. The next day his troops would surround the meager rebellion from the End of the World, and crush it. This time he would not leave a soul alive. There would be no one left to rise up against the Avian Nation, and it would serve as a lesson to any other people who had the idea to resist their control.
          Yet everywhere Falcon looked all he saw were the Queen’s furious eyes, judging his every action.
“Wine!” He cried out and waved his hand to motion in the serving girl outside. The moment seemed too long as she entered carrying the pitcher of wine and a goblet on a tray. Like all the servants that traveled with the army, she faced the ground respectfully. She was taking much to long and he growled before glaring at her.
“Hurry it up!” He snapped, “I’ll have you flogged for this insolence!”
            The serving girl said nothing in response, out of fear he concluded, and placed the goblet on the table beside him before pouring the red liquid in. Only when Falcon reached for it did he realize his hand was shaking. He swore once more and shook his head before taking a long swig. He turned back to the girl with a raised eyebrow.
“Is there something else you’re wanting? Do you intend to offer me relief or-” Falcon’s words were cut off when he felt his throat clench and he began to cough. One of his hands moved to his throat and it took a moment for him to realize the red stain on the reports was his own blood.
“Poison?” He gasped as he clenched the goblet and stared at the red liquid as he wheezed, desperate to breathe.
“Yes.” This was the first word the serving girl had spoken as she moved to the other side of the table. “From the End of the World.”

Falcon looked up weakly and stared in horror as she picked up the knife from his abandoned meal. The girl’s hair was burning orange like those from the far west coast. It wasn’t that this girl was from the End that scared him. It was her brilliant green eyes. They were eyes he’d seen once before, for they were eyes that had haunted him. Eyes of a girl who’d watched him murder her father, nearly kill her mother, and leave her and her sister to his men’s urges.
“Y-You!” Falcon stammered as the girl-circled chair. He did not like it when she left his line of sight.

“Me.” The eldest Princess of the End replied. “This was my father’s favorite chair, you know.”
“Take it!” Falcon wheezed, afraid for his life as he gasped for breath. “Take whatever you want!”
“Here I was scared of you, the mighty General Falcon.” She sighed. “I know tomorrow you intend to wipe out the Rebellion and make an example of my mother. The problem is my sister hasn’t recovered from what your men did to her. Her mind isn’t hers anymore. If something happens to our mother on top of whatever fate awaits us?” He heard her sharp intake of breathe as she walked back around the chair. “I failed to protect her once. I won’t again. This conflict will not make it to the battlefield tomorrow. It ends tonight.”

            It occurred to Falcon what his mistake was as the Princess of the End moved toward him. Her eyes had not been empty for lack of emotion. She didn’t consider him worthy to see any feeling she had. He was not worth her rage, despair, or even her fear. It was not vacancy or blind acceptance in her eyes, but dismissal. In that last moment he realized the reason her empty eyes had disturbed him so was because he had not understood their meaning.

            The last thing Falcon saw as the Princess he’d so wronged slit his throat was her eyes. Those shining green, ever empty eyes that had haunted him for so long, flickered with emotion upon seeing the life fade from his. Relief.