Training the Child
Apr. 8th, 2010 07:57 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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yrae
Title~ Training the Child
Authors~![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
annarti and drazzi
Disclaimer~ Commander Zakaariss is Sallie's, Prince Sahid and the rest of Kazin are Annarti's.
Notes~ Getting a handle on these two, because they're fun~ :D Sahid is a dick expected by his parents and society to get into the Commanding Circle, but he's a dick, so he probably won't. He's currently at Sergeant (one rank up from the bottom and another three to Commander) but frankly, he reckons being a prince is far more fun. Zakaariss is the youngest man to be promoted to the Commanding Circle, and damnit if he isn't going to aim for the top spot of General. I love him. He's got smarts. Can totally see how he's made his way to the top with them >D
~ ~ ~
Sahid strode purposefully along the white marble corridors of the palace, making his way as quickly and as smoothly away from the meeting room as his legs would take him. He hated war meetings. They were all talk and no action. Why keep talking and planning their strategies and battle tactics when the real world rolled on outside? Months, it took sometimes. The planning often took longer than the actual fighting, from what Sahid could see.
'"Be patient,"' he muttered under his breath in a sneering imitation of his father's post-meeting lecture. '"Hold your tongue. Speak clearly." Gods above, General, make up your mind.'
'Prince Sahid!'
Sahid cringed, and his pace only quickened at the whining sound of the messenger behind him.
'Your Highness!' the breathless little voice shouted again, and this time the prince stopped. He was painfully aware how close he was to the royal chambers--to his bow and, perhaps more importantly at the moment, to his mother and sister.
'What?' he snapped.
The boy, no more than fourteen, froze in his running gait before approaching the prince at a more professional pace.
Sahid folded his arms, contemplating how to deal with the messenger as he gave a deep bow and tried to catch his breath.
'Commander Zakaariss has summoned you to his office immediately, Your Highness,' the boy said.
I bet he has, Sahid thought with an agitated sigh. 'Good,' he said aloud. 'Now, go back to your superior and tell her the message has been delivered. And don't forget to mention where you were when you delivered it,' he added with a poignant glance over his shoulder to the royal chambers. 'And just how loudly you shouted it.'
The messenger's face fell for a brief moment before he bowed deeply once again. When he rose, his face struggled to maintain a professional calm. 'Yes, Your Highness,' he mumbled.
'Well, go on then,' Sahid told him with a wave of his hand. 'Piss off.'
The messenger bowed for a third time and almost tripped over himself to get away.
Sahid folded his arms again and looked in the direction of his chambers, where his bow lay. Dare he risk it? He shook his head and abandoned the idea. Zakaariss had been influential enough as a Lieutenant. Any insubordination on Sahid's part now would go straight to the General.
With gritted teeth, he turned on his heel and made for the Commander's office. He could come back for his bow before the end of the day, surely.
The offices of the Commanding Circle were in the back corner of the palace, in a marble long house of their own. Two guards stood at each door, bowing respectfully as Sahid passed.
'Commander Zakaariss sent for me,' he said as he approached his superior's office.
'Of course, Your Highness,' one of the guards said. 'Go right in. He's expecting you.'
The Commander's office was large, but it could have stood to be larger. In another hard-earnt promotion it would be, and doubtless it would be almost as empty looking as it was now. Zakaariss wasn't a man for clutter or any furniture he deemed unnecessary. Perhaps he thought it made the room look more impressively large, or maybe he thought it would keep the room cooler.
In either case, it was sparse with his desk dominating the back wall, shadowed by his family colours draped in gauze over that wall. The commander sat his desk, thick fingered hands laced together and very few parchments and maps on the surface beneath them. Apparently he had nothing better to do than wait for the prince to join him. In reality, he had merely dealt with all he needed to so he could meet with the prince.
When Prince Sahid stepped into the room, Zakaariss rose from his chair. His face was a neutral, measured mask - a well practised expression despite whatever thoughts hid deep in his own mind. "Highness."
'Commander,' Sahid returned as the door clicked closed behind him. He stood with his hands behind his back, partly waiting for an invitation to approach, partly hoping this wouldn't take so long that he'd need a seat. 'You sent for me?' he tried, as though he hadn't been lectured about the incident for the past hour.
"I did," Zakaariss said simply in a deep voice that seemed all the deeper thanks to the near empty office. Perhaps another reason he kept it as it was.
In a perfect world the Commandar thought he wouldn't have needed to act so formally to the young man in his office. Frankly, Zakaariss thought the day that he was assassinated or killed in a coup wasn't fast enough coming. Doubtless if he was patient though, the prince would soon be out of everyone's hair. His attitude bred enough enemies in his own family.
Zakaariss wasn't fool enough to share these thoughts with anyone though, let alone fool enough to allow any resentment or dislike show in his heavily shadowed eyes. He gestured before his desk, "Perhaps you would wish to take a seat while we spoke."
Sahid's eyes narrowed as he let out a long breath, not bothering to hide his irritation. 'With respect, sir, I'd hoped to finish this up quickly and resume my training. Assuming this is what I think it's about, my father has already had words.'
"I am sure General Misbah spoke to you as a father would speak to his son," Zakaariss said, choosing his words with tactical care. "Regardless, he has asked that I - as your superior - speak to you as well."
Again, the Commander pointed - with calloused forefinger and middle finger together - at the chair before his desk. "Please, sit."
Zakaariss was damned if he was going to have to remain standing respectfully for this spoilt welp much longer. Besides which, remaining standing just gave Sahid more power and they both knew that. It re-enforced, incorrectly, whom was above whom in status. Sahid may have been a Prince, but in this office he was only a Sergeant, and he should have left his crown at the door as far as the Commander was concerned.
Sahid ground his teeth for a moment and thought over the Commander's words. He tried to twist them against him, warn him about how he was speaking about the General, but realistically he knew his father wouldn't care.
'This had better not be a waste of my time,' he said as he took his seat. He rested one ankle on his knee and tapped a finger impatiently against the bone.
Zakaariss chose to ignore the Prince's comment, seating himself back below his family colours. He steepled his fingers together again on the desk, his green eyes fixed on Sahid's face with no amount of disrespect, but very little other emotion either.
"For a young man who wishes to rise through the ranks as you do, highness, it must be said that you are neglecting to train your mouth as well as your arms."
'Likewise,' Sahid muttered, not quite loud enough for the Commander to have heard, but he didn't much care if he had.
Certainly if Zakaariss heard him, nothing showed on his face. Not even the slightest twitch from those heavy eyebrows. His voice remained level and deep as he continued, "If you cannot control the opinions that fly loose from your mouth, then the arrows that you let fly from your bow cannot possibly take you higher than the rank you have achieved thus far."
'What would you have me do?' the prince answered, displaying one open hand. 'Stay silent? Speak only when spoken to? I'm not a child, Commander.'
I'm not a child, the staple defence of children. That response alone told Zakaariss a great deal about the conversation General Misbah must have had with his son, far more information than Zakaariss would have gotten by asking about it.
"Although I find personally, highness, that children themselves have problems remaining silent and are often the loudest and most uninformed voices in a discussion, I am far from accusing you of being one."
That only thinly vieled barb out, Zakaariss leant back in his chair, but kept his back straight, his head high and his expression careful. He reigned in his words and took the topic back where it was required. "Being a prince you are more than aware of hierarchies, yet you seem unable to understand the simple levels of respect you are expected to act within in the army."
Sahid dropped his foot to the floor and folded his arms over his chest. 'And, being a prince, you'll need more than a title to earn my respect.'
He took a careful breath, thinking of the words that would get him out of the room most efficiently without lying to himself. 'I respect my father and most of the Commanding Circle--yourself included, Sir--but I can't respect Queen Shala, and I can't see why we should have to keep tiptoeing around her like she's a... I don't know, a wounded animal.' He shook his head. 'I already went through this with Father. Unless you've got something to add, sir, I'll be leaving.'
The Prince was feeling threatened, Zakaariss knew that. It was obvious from the way he fell back on being a prince, from the way he moved in his seat, from his attempts to be flippant. He was starting to feel cornered.
In that case it was probably time for Zakaariss to drive the killing blow.
"Perhaps you could tell me highness," Zakaariss said slowly, apparently changing topic, "what my opinion of Queen Shala is?"
It was a question that he knew the prince could not answer. Zakaariss' opinions of anyone were so closely held that it might have seemed to anyone that he didn't know them himself. They could assume one way, they could assume another, but no one could ever see the cards held against Zakaariss' chest and so there was no way anyone could falsely or rightly accuse him of anything.
True power came from remaining ambiguous and clouded. If the prince couldn't see that, he was a lost cause and Zakaariss owed him nothing. Sahid would say something to anger someone and end up poisoned in his bed, while Zakaariss remained alive and in no one's line of fire.
Sahid glared back at his superior, knowing any answer he gave would only give Zakaariss the satisfaction of a victory. The man was stone. He wouldn't even enjoy his victory. He wondered if he was a little more open with his personal opinions to Shizaaqa. He couldn't imagine his mother promoting a man without first making sure he wasn't about to organise a coup at the first opportunity.
'No, sir, I can't,' he said finally. 'I can only hope you're a little more forthcoming with my mother.'
"I assure you highness, you have little need to worry of the Empress' opinion of me." The words were dry and the intent clear. Zakaariss sat there, in a commanding position at the ripe age of twenty-five. "Although your concern touches me, it is your relationships, your opinions and how you carry yourself that we are concerned with."
Sahid straightened himself in his chair and stared impassively back at the Commander, hoping to turn some of his superior's unreadable stone back on him. He couldn't do it.
'Perhaps you'd like to ask that of my Captains, the rest of my battalion.' They respected him. They cheered on his promotion. He made a point of keeping a professional friendship with his Captains especially.
Those continued movements from the Prince only made Zakaariss more sure that his points were hitting home. What a shame they would all be forgotten by the morning. Truly General Misbah had to have been cursed the night he concieved this child.
"If your battalion or Captains ran their mouths so freely as you, they would not be allowed the leniency of merely speaking to me in this office. They would most definitely be visiting further tropics. Are you so enamoured with the rest of the empire, highness, that you would chose to neglect the brains you must have doubtless inherited from the Empress in order to visit them?"
Quite honestly, Zakaariss was growing bored, although his expression showed none of it. He didn't know why he was even bothering to try and show this child - and a child Sahid was, regardless of how he loudly proclaimed otherwise - any sense.
Sahid narrowed his eyes at the underhanded threat. 'No, sir,' he almost muttered. He just wanted to get out of there and shoot something.
"Then I do hope you choose to remember that, and that the memory weighs heavy on your tongue in the future."
The Commander had said more than what needed to be said, and he was more positive his words had been somewhat more influence than the good General's may have been. Zakaariss was also very aware though, that it was all ultimately useless in the end. The only day they would all be free of his flapping mouth would be the day his tongue was cut out.
Zakaariss stood, sliding his hand through his hair and removing any stray strands from his face. The momentary vast different in height as the Prince remained seated would just be a final knock on Sahid's mood. "You are free to spend your time as you wish, highness. We are through here."
'As he wished'? Zakaaris spoke to him like he was an insolent child, just daring him to go and waste his time on target practice. The prince got to his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets, lest the Commander mistake his itchy fingers for nerves.
'Thank you, sir,' he muttered again. 'I will.'
He gave a slight dip of his head, as much as he was willing to give anyone who wasn't his mother, and turned to the door. The slapping of his sandals against the marble floor echoed in the near-empty room, and he was glad to be out of it and into the fresh air.
'Of course nobody knows your opinions,' he muttered under his breath, ignoring the guards as he passed. 'Stone-faced dickhead.'
Authors~
annarti and drazziDisclaimer~ Commander Zakaariss is Sallie's, Prince Sahid and the rest of Kazin are Annarti's.
Notes~ Getting a handle on these two, because they're fun~ :D Sahid is a dick expected by his parents and society to get into the Commanding Circle, but he's a dick, so he probably won't. He's currently at Sergeant (one rank up from the bottom and another three to Commander) but frankly, he reckons being a prince is far more fun. Zakaariss is the youngest man to be promoted to the Commanding Circle, and damnit if he isn't going to aim for the top spot of General. I love him. He's got smarts. Can totally see how he's made his way to the top with them >D
Sahid strode purposefully along the white marble corridors of the palace, making his way as quickly and as smoothly away from the meeting room as his legs would take him. He hated war meetings. They were all talk and no action. Why keep talking and planning their strategies and battle tactics when the real world rolled on outside? Months, it took sometimes. The planning often took longer than the actual fighting, from what Sahid could see.
'"Be patient,"' he muttered under his breath in a sneering imitation of his father's post-meeting lecture. '"Hold your tongue. Speak clearly." Gods above, General, make up your mind.'
'Prince Sahid!'
Sahid cringed, and his pace only quickened at the whining sound of the messenger behind him.
'Your Highness!' the breathless little voice shouted again, and this time the prince stopped. He was painfully aware how close he was to the royal chambers--to his bow and, perhaps more importantly at the moment, to his mother and sister.
'What?' he snapped.
The boy, no more than fourteen, froze in his running gait before approaching the prince at a more professional pace.
Sahid folded his arms, contemplating how to deal with the messenger as he gave a deep bow and tried to catch his breath.
'Commander Zakaariss has summoned you to his office immediately, Your Highness,' the boy said.
I bet he has, Sahid thought with an agitated sigh. 'Good,' he said aloud. 'Now, go back to your superior and tell her the message has been delivered. And don't forget to mention where you were when you delivered it,' he added with a poignant glance over his shoulder to the royal chambers. 'And just how loudly you shouted it.'
The messenger's face fell for a brief moment before he bowed deeply once again. When he rose, his face struggled to maintain a professional calm. 'Yes, Your Highness,' he mumbled.
'Well, go on then,' Sahid told him with a wave of his hand. 'Piss off.'
The messenger bowed for a third time and almost tripped over himself to get away.
Sahid folded his arms again and looked in the direction of his chambers, where his bow lay. Dare he risk it? He shook his head and abandoned the idea. Zakaariss had been influential enough as a Lieutenant. Any insubordination on Sahid's part now would go straight to the General.
With gritted teeth, he turned on his heel and made for the Commander's office. He could come back for his bow before the end of the day, surely.
The offices of the Commanding Circle were in the back corner of the palace, in a marble long house of their own. Two guards stood at each door, bowing respectfully as Sahid passed.
'Commander Zakaariss sent for me,' he said as he approached his superior's office.
'Of course, Your Highness,' one of the guards said. 'Go right in. He's expecting you.'
The Commander's office was large, but it could have stood to be larger. In another hard-earnt promotion it would be, and doubtless it would be almost as empty looking as it was now. Zakaariss wasn't a man for clutter or any furniture he deemed unnecessary. Perhaps he thought it made the room look more impressively large, or maybe he thought it would keep the room cooler.
In either case, it was sparse with his desk dominating the back wall, shadowed by his family colours draped in gauze over that wall. The commander sat his desk, thick fingered hands laced together and very few parchments and maps on the surface beneath them. Apparently he had nothing better to do than wait for the prince to join him. In reality, he had merely dealt with all he needed to so he could meet with the prince.
When Prince Sahid stepped into the room, Zakaariss rose from his chair. His face was a neutral, measured mask - a well practised expression despite whatever thoughts hid deep in his own mind. "Highness."
'Commander,' Sahid returned as the door clicked closed behind him. He stood with his hands behind his back, partly waiting for an invitation to approach, partly hoping this wouldn't take so long that he'd need a seat. 'You sent for me?' he tried, as though he hadn't been lectured about the incident for the past hour.
"I did," Zakaariss said simply in a deep voice that seemed all the deeper thanks to the near empty office. Perhaps another reason he kept it as it was.
In a perfect world the Commandar thought he wouldn't have needed to act so formally to the young man in his office. Frankly, Zakaariss thought the day that he was assassinated or killed in a coup wasn't fast enough coming. Doubtless if he was patient though, the prince would soon be out of everyone's hair. His attitude bred enough enemies in his own family.
Zakaariss wasn't fool enough to share these thoughts with anyone though, let alone fool enough to allow any resentment or dislike show in his heavily shadowed eyes. He gestured before his desk, "Perhaps you would wish to take a seat while we spoke."
Sahid's eyes narrowed as he let out a long breath, not bothering to hide his irritation. 'With respect, sir, I'd hoped to finish this up quickly and resume my training. Assuming this is what I think it's about, my father has already had words.'
"I am sure General Misbah spoke to you as a father would speak to his son," Zakaariss said, choosing his words with tactical care. "Regardless, he has asked that I - as your superior - speak to you as well."
Again, the Commander pointed - with calloused forefinger and middle finger together - at the chair before his desk. "Please, sit."
Zakaariss was damned if he was going to have to remain standing respectfully for this spoilt welp much longer. Besides which, remaining standing just gave Sahid more power and they both knew that. It re-enforced, incorrectly, whom was above whom in status. Sahid may have been a Prince, but in this office he was only a Sergeant, and he should have left his crown at the door as far as the Commander was concerned.
Sahid ground his teeth for a moment and thought over the Commander's words. He tried to twist them against him, warn him about how he was speaking about the General, but realistically he knew his father wouldn't care.
'This had better not be a waste of my time,' he said as he took his seat. He rested one ankle on his knee and tapped a finger impatiently against the bone.
Zakaariss chose to ignore the Prince's comment, seating himself back below his family colours. He steepled his fingers together again on the desk, his green eyes fixed on Sahid's face with no amount of disrespect, but very little other emotion either.
"For a young man who wishes to rise through the ranks as you do, highness, it must be said that you are neglecting to train your mouth as well as your arms."
'Likewise,' Sahid muttered, not quite loud enough for the Commander to have heard, but he didn't much care if he had.
Certainly if Zakaariss heard him, nothing showed on his face. Not even the slightest twitch from those heavy eyebrows. His voice remained level and deep as he continued, "If you cannot control the opinions that fly loose from your mouth, then the arrows that you let fly from your bow cannot possibly take you higher than the rank you have achieved thus far."
'What would you have me do?' the prince answered, displaying one open hand. 'Stay silent? Speak only when spoken to? I'm not a child, Commander.'
I'm not a child, the staple defence of children. That response alone told Zakaariss a great deal about the conversation General Misbah must have had with his son, far more information than Zakaariss would have gotten by asking about it.
"Although I find personally, highness, that children themselves have problems remaining silent and are often the loudest and most uninformed voices in a discussion, I am far from accusing you of being one."
That only thinly vieled barb out, Zakaariss leant back in his chair, but kept his back straight, his head high and his expression careful. He reigned in his words and took the topic back where it was required. "Being a prince you are more than aware of hierarchies, yet you seem unable to understand the simple levels of respect you are expected to act within in the army."
Sahid dropped his foot to the floor and folded his arms over his chest. 'And, being a prince, you'll need more than a title to earn my respect.'
He took a careful breath, thinking of the words that would get him out of the room most efficiently without lying to himself. 'I respect my father and most of the Commanding Circle--yourself included, Sir--but I can't respect Queen Shala, and I can't see why we should have to keep tiptoeing around her like she's a... I don't know, a wounded animal.' He shook his head. 'I already went through this with Father. Unless you've got something to add, sir, I'll be leaving.'
The Prince was feeling threatened, Zakaariss knew that. It was obvious from the way he fell back on being a prince, from the way he moved in his seat, from his attempts to be flippant. He was starting to feel cornered.
In that case it was probably time for Zakaariss to drive the killing blow.
"Perhaps you could tell me highness," Zakaariss said slowly, apparently changing topic, "what my opinion of Queen Shala is?"
It was a question that he knew the prince could not answer. Zakaariss' opinions of anyone were so closely held that it might have seemed to anyone that he didn't know them himself. They could assume one way, they could assume another, but no one could ever see the cards held against Zakaariss' chest and so there was no way anyone could falsely or rightly accuse him of anything.
True power came from remaining ambiguous and clouded. If the prince couldn't see that, he was a lost cause and Zakaariss owed him nothing. Sahid would say something to anger someone and end up poisoned in his bed, while Zakaariss remained alive and in no one's line of fire.
Sahid glared back at his superior, knowing any answer he gave would only give Zakaariss the satisfaction of a victory. The man was stone. He wouldn't even enjoy his victory. He wondered if he was a little more open with his personal opinions to Shizaaqa. He couldn't imagine his mother promoting a man without first making sure he wasn't about to organise a coup at the first opportunity.
'No, sir, I can't,' he said finally. 'I can only hope you're a little more forthcoming with my mother.'
"I assure you highness, you have little need to worry of the Empress' opinion of me." The words were dry and the intent clear. Zakaariss sat there, in a commanding position at the ripe age of twenty-five. "Although your concern touches me, it is your relationships, your opinions and how you carry yourself that we are concerned with."
Sahid straightened himself in his chair and stared impassively back at the Commander, hoping to turn some of his superior's unreadable stone back on him. He couldn't do it.
'Perhaps you'd like to ask that of my Captains, the rest of my battalion.' They respected him. They cheered on his promotion. He made a point of keeping a professional friendship with his Captains especially.
Those continued movements from the Prince only made Zakaariss more sure that his points were hitting home. What a shame they would all be forgotten by the morning. Truly General Misbah had to have been cursed the night he concieved this child.
"If your battalion or Captains ran their mouths so freely as you, they would not be allowed the leniency of merely speaking to me in this office. They would most definitely be visiting further tropics. Are you so enamoured with the rest of the empire, highness, that you would chose to neglect the brains you must have doubtless inherited from the Empress in order to visit them?"
Quite honestly, Zakaariss was growing bored, although his expression showed none of it. He didn't know why he was even bothering to try and show this child - and a child Sahid was, regardless of how he loudly proclaimed otherwise - any sense.
Sahid narrowed his eyes at the underhanded threat. 'No, sir,' he almost muttered. He just wanted to get out of there and shoot something.
"Then I do hope you choose to remember that, and that the memory weighs heavy on your tongue in the future."
The Commander had said more than what needed to be said, and he was more positive his words had been somewhat more influence than the good General's may have been. Zakaariss was also very aware though, that it was all ultimately useless in the end. The only day they would all be free of his flapping mouth would be the day his tongue was cut out.
Zakaariss stood, sliding his hand through his hair and removing any stray strands from his face. The momentary vast different in height as the Prince remained seated would just be a final knock on Sahid's mood. "You are free to spend your time as you wish, highness. We are through here."
'As he wished'? Zakaaris spoke to him like he was an insolent child, just daring him to go and waste his time on target practice. The prince got to his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets, lest the Commander mistake his itchy fingers for nerves.
'Thank you, sir,' he muttered again. 'I will.'
He gave a slight dip of his head, as much as he was willing to give anyone who wasn't his mother, and turned to the door. The slapping of his sandals against the marble floor echoed in the near-empty room, and he was glad to be out of it and into the fresh air.
'Of course nobody knows your opinions,' he muttered under his breath, ignoring the guards as he passed. 'Stone-faced dickhead.'
no subject
Date: 2010-04-08 10:33 am (UTC)AlsoshipShizandZakky.
ButIdigress.
Man lets see how long I can keep up his smarts. I'M JUST GLAD I COULD FOR THIS FIC GEEZ. I hope you've got an idea of him if you need him to stand stonily faced in the story at any point now :3 <333
Sahid. Such a DICK. gndifgndfg <3
no subject
Date: 2010-04-08 10:38 am (UTC)