Waiting for the Barbarians

The Magistrate runs the remote desert outpost with patient diplomacy, keeping the peace through careful administration. Over years, only minor misunderstandings disrupt the routine. He relies on restraint and established custom to prevent escalation.

Colonel Joll arrives as the Empire's hard-edged enforcer, pushing a procedural, coercive approach to 'truth.' He asserts authority that overmatches the Magistrate's diplomacy. The centre's mysterious plan looms, but is not explained.

Joll insists on following his process, subjecting an innocent man and his nephew to interrogation through force. The tortures are swift and brutal, shaking the outpost's sense of ethics. The Magistrate watches, torn between legality and mercy.

To press his claim, Joll forces the tortured nephew to guide him and a detachment into the tribe's territory, where numerous women and elderly men are taken as prisoners of war. The act demonstrates the empire's willingness to break families to extract confessions. The outpost becomes a stage for a harsher order.

The next day Colonel Joll departs, leaving the outpost behind. The Magistrate uses the absence to act, immediately releasing the detained prisoners and sending them home in the hope of restoring some humanity to the situation.

A former prisoner, with two broken ankles, is seen panhandling in the streets. The Magistrate offers food and shelter, and attempts to heal her injuries. He learns of the torture she endured and the death of her father, strengthening his resolve to help her return to her people.

Some soldiers misread the magistrate's kindness as an act of lust, assuming he intends to keep the girl as a concubine. The rumor spreads through the fortress, corroding trust in the magistrate. He faces investigations and social punishment along with the girl’s trauma.

After a long desert journey, the Magistrate approaches the nomads in the mountains, hoping to restore relations. The tribes are wary and angry, but his act of mercy toward one of their own buys him a fragile respite. He returns with only guarded acceptance.

Officer Mandel, Colonel Joll's underling, is assigned to command the fort and immediately arrests the Magistrate, accusing him of treachery and stripping him of office. The political grip tightens as the empire hunts for signs of disloyalty. The Magistrate is dragged into custody and treated as a suspect.

The Magistrate is publicly shamed, and his home and possessions are confiscated. He endures a crushing fall from grace while Colonel Joll departs with a large force to wipe out the mountain nomads. The state drama leaves him isolated and powerless.

Disgraced and poor, the Magistrate is taken in by a former servant who feeds and clothes him. He exists on the margins of the town, his authority erased but his humanity momentarily rekindled by the care of a friend.

Colonel Joll's campaign unites the dispersed nomads into a single, formidable army. A horse bearing the mutilated corpse of one of Joll's men rides into the fort, a grim symbol of the campaign's cost. As the army closes in, the remaining townsfolk feel the shadow of an approaching siege.