The Man who sold the World

"Chancellor Opium took off his hat and placed in upon the floating chair in the lobby and went straight to the dining room. He had been working late, as usual.
Right beside the table, his servant was expecting him with his meal and a document that the High Council of The Forum had sent for him to sign. The Chancellor took it off his servant's hands and read it quickly, while he sunk the tip of his pen on his ink well. The smell of the fresh dinner awaiting him and the sound of water and wine filling the crystal glasses distracted him and he wanted to be over with this bureaucracy, until he saw a name that froze him.
The document was a Death Sentence for Homicide issued form the 100th Level (Security and Peacekeeping), and the prisoner's name was known to Opium.
'That bastard!' he thought, while his mind travelled back years until his very childhood. He remembered he'd always been an outcast; a boy laughed at by others. Coming from a poor family in the urban levels, Opium was never what you'd call a 'gracious' person and his shyness aggravated each time the other kids hit him for being a 'freak'. His parents had almost sold their souls to send him to the best Educational Institutes in many levels, but nothing could change where he came from. And Opium grew bitter and ill at others and their jokes. 'I will be the one laughing one day' he used to say to Balgor when the young son of Chancellor Baldar spat him on the ground and hit him with his heavy metal boots.
Time passed and Opium's features didn't become any more beautiful; they actually got quite worse, and he gained even much more weight than his already obese body could tolerate; bionics were needed and he paid them himself, because he had made interesting contacts within the halls of The Forum during an internship provided by one of the Institutes where he attended. His powerful friends increased and their number grew, which offered Opium the chance to have his own agenda and carry it through. He became a wealthy and powerful man and people feared him.
The only person who still presented Opium with a reminder of his days as a shy and poor boy was Balgor who now occupied the sit that his father had left when he died. Slowly but firmly, Opium continued to gain power in The Forum and soon became Chancellor; and not only that, a few years later (due to many obscure moves) he became Prime Chancellor. But Balgor was still there, gnawing at him with his wry smile; reminding him that he was alone and had no friends but only enemies. Balgor knew that Opium had even ordered for the Engineer Supreme to provide him with genetically modified female clones of himself as his servants because he trusted no one. What an act of egotism and narcissism!
But Opium let Balgor talk and accuse him; he had a plan. Slowly through the years he had been pulling strings and building a strategy that had finally paid off that night. He had the life of his most hated enemy on his hands; the man who had turned him into a bitter and wretched being was finally paying its debt.
His hands hesitated... what would've become of him had he not suffered so much when he was just a child, full of fears and sadness? Was it 'justice' to put a man to death for being cruel? Aren't all children cruel? The pen shivered over the paper for another instant...
Yes. It was justice. He had the power now; he was laughing in the end.
Opium signed the document with a smile on his fat face. In the morning, Balgor would be dead, and he would be sitting there in his final moments staring into his desperate eyes... O! How fun! How JUST!
The Chancellor gave the paper to his servant and sipped a bit of wine. 'The pen is mightier than the sword, indeed...' he said to himself. And his laughter echoed across the halls."

This is another illustration from UTOPIA, which will be realeased in the "Preview" due for January.

I hope you enjoy it!

Aerion the Faithful