Rise Of Pandora

Rise of Pandora: LXII. A Concern of Yours

"."

-

VI. Gift

Confusion was her face as she glared deeply into the gloomy expanse where light teardrops fell from the dark and clouded sky and onto the vacant forests.

"Where are we now?" Pandora asked.

Prometheus, in a manner that suggested he was prepared for this question, responded quickly and with conviction.

"We are leaving the land they call Kaoacien."

"Kaoacien?" she asked, unable to recall what it was.

"Yes, Kaoacien. That is the nation in the south. Was a nation," he corrected.

"Uhhh...Kaoacien I scarcely recall. But Freelands? I don't know really what that is. I am sorry but this is all still new to me."

"Freelands are the places the humans do not claim. Some live there but not many. It is mostly natural land like forests and lakes. But some people do take refuge in there, often the ones who reside in those parts are lowly villagers or outcasts of their former societies.

"I will leave them alone. They do not deserve what is coming."

"Deserve? You may have been away a long time, my queen. But this is still the same world. You know there are so few deserving of life-"

"I don't know that. No one can possibly know that. No one is allowed to make such a decision."

"That is where you are wrong. You make the choice. It is never easy, but at least it is a decision only you can make."

"What they did to you and your people is inexcusable. But I cannot sit here and pretend that all of their lives are forfeit because of the actions of others. I know I said I would punish them all, but bringing upon pain and misery to the innocent few will only beget more pain and suffering. The long series of misery can never stop then."

"Pandora...there is no such thing as innocence," he said with a sigh and both eyes shut.

Pandora looked at him with a curious expression spilling across her face. She turned away from him and looked forward from there, hesitant to speak to him again. Internally, she was thinking very hard, preparing a response that would shut out his downtrodden disposition.

After a while, she finally said something to him. "I—believe. Well I think...I don't know how to say it."

"Pandora, if you cannot find the answers within yourself now then you never will. The moment one has to convince him or herself that something is true, then that something is not true. Truth is embedded in you just as the flesh, the mind, the heart, the spirit. No more, no less. There is no middle line, you either know it or you do not. It is either true or it is not. I know the truth. I will let you in on another. If you wish to achieve anything, you must endure all the sacrifice that comes with it. And if that means trampling over a tens of thousands to tens of millions in the process, why should it be a concern of yours what fate becomes of them? Why should human lives be a concern of yours?"

"I care because they are apart of our world and what becomes of them becomes of the world, Prometheus! Here is a truth, the minute anyone devalues the preciousness of life is the moment they no longer are deserving of their own life."

"I understand your feelings but in times like these, feelings will only serve to destroy you. The dangerous individuals out there know that, that is why my people are where we are today. They did not care when they casted us out all those centuries ago and kept us there. My ancestors suffered at their hands. Pandora, by the end of this, I will show you what it means to be a conqueror."