American Gate

Chapter 15: Princess Maribelle

Princess Maribelle was sitting in an American interrogation room yet again. The American who brought her here this time only asked a few questions before leaving. That was over an hour ago. They seemed to take pleasure in making her wait in the empty room. Not that it made much of a difference. Aside from her hands being chained to the table, it wasn't much different from her cell.

As far as interrogation chambers go, it was unbelievable. Clean floors, good lighting—they even left her some of the cleanest water she had ever seen. For some reason there was a large mirror on one wall.

She still couldn't figure out whether or not the Americans used magic. She kept seeing marvelous things that couldn't otherwise be explained, but they still maintained that they don't use magic. She thought back to when they first brought her here. Their 'camp' looked more like a permanent fortress that had been here for years. It was hard to believe they had set foot through the portal less than a month ago.

Maribelle heard a sharp buzz, followed by a mechanical click—the telltale sign of someone about to open the door. She looked over, and two American soldiers came into the room. They were dressed in their identical, ugly uniforms.

One of them stepped forward and said, "I'm Lieutenant Daniel Ramirez, and this is Lieutenant Liv Anderson. We'll be your escorts for the day."

"Escorts? Where are you taking me?" Princess Maribelle asked.

"To see some of the prisoners we're holding and then the refugees under our protection. We thought you'd want to make sure they're being treated fairly."

Maribelle thought that was odd. The treatment of battle captives wasn't something the losing side had any say over. It was pretty standard for captured enemy soldiers to be enslaved or killed. She was more intrigued by how many people had gathered around the American base. Foreign armies were something commoners avoided at all costs. She was curious about what was going on out there.

"Very well," She said as she stood up. "Take me to my people."

Liv came over and unlocked her chains. Earlier, she had heard them referred to as 'handcuffs'. They were fantastically crafted shackles.

Daniel and Liv led her out of the interrogation room. Standing outside were two steel golems, or droids, as she had learned to call them. She may be a prisoner, but she was learning a great deal about her captors. Each of them carried one of their strange black weapons. The soldiers led her down a hallway, while the droids followed behind.

The hallway was completely straight, lined with metal doors that had glass windows on them. Inside each of the doors was a small room with a handful of captured Rontak soldiers. They all wore the same bright orange clothing that she herself was wearing. They looked defeated and confused, but otherwise they were perfectly fine.

"As you can see," Daniel said, gesturing to the cells, "Your people are being held humanely and are being provided for. They're given three meals a day, plenty of water, they're taken outside in groups, and their medical needs are taken care of. Everything abides by the Geneva Convention."

"The 'Geneva Convention'?" Maribelle asked.

"It's a set of guidelines that govern the rules of war," Liv explained. "There are detailed instructions on how prisoners of war can and cannot be treated."

Maribelle was taken aback by that. "Why do you have such rules?"

"We don't," Liv Replied. "The Geneva Convention is an international treaty written about a century ago after our second world war. The United States is a signatory to it, along with 238 other nations."

She spoke as if that explained it completely. Maribelle still didn't quite understand its purpose. What was the point of having so many rules about battle captives? She didn't know what 'world war' meant, but it must have been pretty terrible if it made so many different kingdoms agree on something. She wondered what kind of world the Americans came from.