by Jarod Meyer
“If you do not mind, young Guardians, I believe I will begin my meditation,” Meredox said, closing his weary eyes. Almost immediately he went still, and William’s eyebrows rose. It normally took him a long while to find the concentration needed to meditate. Apparently he would get better with time.
“Juarez, how is the healing?”
“Slow, William, but we are finding ways to mend these dark injuries. We will be prepared next time,” Juarez stated resolutely, placing glowing hands upon the now still Meredox.
“What makes you think there will be a next time?” William asked.
“Come now, amigo, I was the one that healed you after the battle. I know that Meredox’s twin brother got away,” Juarez said.
William nodded. “You can’t tell anybody. The Synod doesn’t want panic.”
“Of course, Captain,” Juarez said, bowing.
“Whoa. Don’t do that,” William said, waving his hands around.
“Do not do what?”
“Don’t call me ‘Captain’. It’s weird,” William said.
Juarez nodded, and smiled.
“I have to go train new recruits now. Can you do me a favor? If he wakes up can you tell him I need to speak with him?” William asked, before turning.
“Of course, Captain,” Juarez said, bowing low with a cheeky grin.
William rolled his eyes as he walked away.
By now he was already late for his instructional courses and he was in enough trouble as it was. With a burst of energy he shot into the sky, leaving the endless lines of beds below him. Almost every room in the castle had ceiling access to the outside. These portals were created long ago when the ability to fly became commonplace.
Within moments he came to the training grounds. The field was massive, and from above it looked like a giant football stadium, but instead of bleachers, high mounds of land rose to create a makeshift valley. Many towers lined the outside of the dirt mound, holding torches that would be lit at night if needed.
At the end of the field stood the ominous warning beacon, a bell tower easily fifty stories tall. It rose gracefully from the ground, and seemed to mold into the horizon like it was a naturally occurring structure. The bright sun heated the day, and William watched the soldiers in droves of thousands, each in a different color of training gear.
He spotted an old friend and landed next to him.
“Hello, Henry.”
“Well if it isn’t the hero of Mt. Olympus.”
“I didn’t do that much, man.”
“Well, you did enough to get noticed, Captain.”
Ugh.
“Are these my new recruits?” William said, eyeing the men standing in front of Henry.
“Indeed, they look rather…”
“Thuggish?” William finished for him.
“I suppose that would be fitting. Well, I’ll leave them to you,” Henry said, before walking off.
William was a bit nervous. He had never held a command, always preferring to be given orders instead. But his commission had come through yesterday and there was not much he could do now.
There were six of these… thugs, all men. William remained silent, and stood with his hands behind his back, assessing them.
They all had modern looking hairstyles, telling William they were relatively young to Archonia. He recognized the rebellious looks in their eyes as well, another familiar trait. He studied them a bit longer, and they began to look at one another in confusion. One finally spoke up, a hulk of a man with dark, brown skin and dreadlocks that draped down to his shoulders.
“Uh. Hello?” he said, his tone quizzical.
William turned to look at him.
“Where do you come from, soldier?” William asked, trying to impart some authority in his voice.
“Me? I’m from California,” the man said in a deep voice.
“When were you born?” William asked quickly.
“1985,” he said, furrowing his brow.
“You there. What’s your name, where were you from, and when were you born?” William demanded of another soldier. This man was tall and gangly, with a buzzed head and stubble covering his cheeks.
“I’m Joey… I’m from da Bronx. Born June 1979,” he rattled off in a thick, New York accent.
William turned his gaze on the next man, and the soldier didn’t need any prompting.
“Wei. Tokyo. 1990.”
They all went down the line, William struggling to hide his astonishment. They were all so young, and more, they were all new to this world.
“Who brought you to Archonia?” William asked, skeptically.
The men looked to each other, but the man with the dreadlocks spoke up first. His name, William learned, was Darrel.
“He called himself Gabe. He had like blond hair, and was like super relaxed and nice and stuff,” Darrel said.
William’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t know if it was from excitement or anxiety.
Gabriel had given up his place in his own world so that William had a chance to live here. Tainted souls had never been allowed to dwell in Archonia until recently.
It clicked in William’s mind almost immediately. These men were all tainted souls, like him.
They must have been brought here by Gabriel.
He also assumed that they too were forced to swear an oath to defend Archonia until they redeemed themselves from their past deeds, if only because that was exactly what William had been charged to do. And yet, none of these men looked like soldiers. They looked confused, and some scared. The only possible answer William could think of was that they had been forced to be here, to train and learn to fight.
He didn’t know if morally it was justified to require these men to train and fight in a war they knew nothing about. However, he did believe that a person needed to make up for their mistakes, and not for everyone else’s satisfaction, but for their own. These men hadn’t earned the right to live in this world, not yet, but this was their opportunity. If they were lucky, they would succeed.
Not everyone gets a second chance, William thought with grim satisfaction.
“First thing’s first. My name is William. I’m your captain, but if you call me ‘Captain’ I will personally take you to the edge of oblivion, and punt your ass off. You address me as William, or yes sir,” he growled.
William didn’t like authority and habitually shied away from it. He had only ever seen it corrupt.
“Second,” William said, holding up his hand. As he did a flash of light engulfed it, and William used his inner energy to form a razorblade. “Haircuts!” He smiled.
His new recruits looked at one another in fear.
He saw the fear in their eyes. After all, to them, he’d just done magic.
Oh, how much they still had to learn.
William spent the next hour scraping his projected razor over their heads. Darrell protested, and grabbed William’s arm. Using his free hand he pried loose the recruit’s hand from his arm. Darrel let out a cry of pain as he crumpled to the ground. His arm was broken, and William hadn’t even exerted much force. Light flooded over the ruined limb, and he could feel the bones in Darrel’s wrist realign.
“Number one rule in this world: obey my command,” William said loud enough for the group to hear.
Soon his soldiers were standing at attention in front of him, each one as bald as the next. He glanced at the stones they were standing next to. William knew them well. They weighed easily ten tons each, and were at least a story tall. This had been his first lesson. It was a lesson in mind over matter.
“Your task today is simple. You each take one of these stones,” he said, patting his hand against the closest one, “and stack it over there.” He motioned across the massive training grounds, to where a large stack of the stones had seven openings.
Joey laughed. “Yeah. Is this some kind of joke?” he asked.
William shook his head.
“That is impossible,” said Wei, another of the r
ecruits.
Funny… exactly what I said to Brock.
With his well-developed mind, William pushed against the stone he was standing next to, and it tilted. Then he squatted down, and lifted the stone above his head, holding it in one hand. To William it felt almost like holding a large piece of Styrofoam. It was large, and awkward, but not heavy in the least.
He decided he wanted to one up Brock, and he heaved the massive stone towards the pile of bricks five miles away. The recruits jumped in fear as they were sucked forward by the rapidly departing stone’s vacuum. The stone soared through the air, before hitting the ground in a plume of dust. It stuck out of the ground at an angle, coming to rest right in front of the pile.
“Dang, shorted it,” William said.
The recruits looked at him in wonder.
“Don’t just stand there get to work,” William barked, and the men ran over to one of the six remaining stones. “Put mine away too,” he added with a grin. Leadership had its perks.
For the remainder of the day he watched the new Archonian souls make feeble attempts at moving the massive hulks of stone. He kept offering encouraging words, and advice, but they still had learning to do.
A rush of air swept over the group, and some of the recruits were almost knocked off of their feet from a new arrival’s shockwave. William looked over at the petite woman now standing next to him. Her wavy chestnut colored hair was a little longer than when he saw her last. She winked at him, her freckled face scrunching up.
Her emerald eyes would have made any man melt. As a matter of fact, several of his recruits stared slack-jawed at her, as if she was an angel. William, however, made a fist and slugged her in the arm.
“What’s up, Kat?”
“Captain,” she said in a mocking tone. “It looks like your fresh meat is having a little trouble.”
“They lack conviction,” he replied, shaking his head.
Katrina had been promoted to scout after the great battle. Her speed made her ideal for keeping a close eye on the realm. She spent her days running all over Archonia, ensuring that no new portals appeared.
“Well, William, when you were in their shoes, you had an anger problem. I would say that your greatest strength was the fact that you wanted to live here,” she said.
This was true. He fought with every ounce of willpower to be able to earn his right to live in this world. It wasn’t always easy, or pretty, but through his many trials he finally earned redemption.
“Do you know how long it took me to pass this trial?” Katrina asked. William simply shook his head, and shouted at one of his recruits.
“Did I say to stop!” he looked back at Katrina, smiling.
“William, it took me weeks,” she said, seriously.
This surprised him it had only taken him one day to complete this task. Perhaps his purpose had given him the willpower he needed.
“Recruits! Fall in,” he shouted.
Clearly none of these men had been soldiers before, because they turned and looked at him, obviously confused.
“Get in a line in front of me,” he explained.
They lined up hastily, many of their eyes still roaming over Katrina.
“Eyes on me, newbies. You have to earn the right to look at her. You also have to earn the right to live in this world. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that many of you lived less than…honorable lives, before coming here. Thugs, gangbangers, pickpockets, etc,” William said.
“Hey, like you’re so frickin’ perfect. This whole damn thing is ridiculous,” one of the recruits, a man named Joey, said.
Before he could say another word, Joey was flying across the field. Katrina stood where he had just been, with an elbow raised. William almost burst into laughter, but managed to keep his composure.
“You do not speak unless you are spoken to, recruit,” Katrina shouted. Then she looked up at William as she returned to his side. He nodded in approval.
Katrina may not have looked intimidating, but she was as tough as any soldier he had ever seen.
Joey didn’t get up from Katrina’s blow, so William cried “medic!” then turned back to his recruits. “Leave him. He will be fine.”
The remaining five stood as straight as ever and didn’t move.
“Let me make one thing very clear. You aren’t in heaven, but this place is as close as you are going to get. You don’t have to worry about money. You don’t have to worry about food. You don’t have to worry about time. What you do have to worry about is losing this world. There are forces out there that want to take this world from us. If you want to continue to live here, then you’re going have to fight. In doing so, you will earn your right to live here,” he said, pausing for effect.
“If any of you decide to break the laws of this world, there will be no due process. I will personally rip you limb from limb,” he said sternly.
He looked at their frightened faces, and then relaxed his tone slightly. “There are good men deep down inside every one of you. I know this, because I too was once like you. According to the good people of Archonia, I have earned my right to live here. I now give you that chance, but you must realize how serious this is. Everyone has the ability to change. You must dig deep down inside yourselves and cast aside your old ways,” William said, imploringly.
The scene became silent, and Katrina nodded her approval.
“Now get back to work, recruits!” she shouted.
William did laugh this time. “You make a good drill instructor, Kat,” he said.
She beamed at him.
“I have to report to Achilles. I may have done something really stupid in the council meeting today,” he offered, turning away to hide a cringe.
“We all heard already, William. That is why I respect you. You have never been afraid to stand up for what you believe to be right.”
“Okay, enough mushy shit, Kat, now would you please make sure my new recruit is not dead?” William asked, pointing over at Joey, who was still lying motionless in the dirt. A healer had only just now arrived.
Though her statement made him feel proud, the feeling soon passed as his thoughts returned to his meeting with Achilles, which he felt was not going to be pleasant. He ascended into the sky, leaving his recruits to finish their challenge. As he soared through the open air, hundreds of scenarios rushed through his mind. Perhaps they would imprison him, or simply relieve him of his command. Silently, he hoped that might be the extent of it.
Achilles’ private quarters sat near the top of Valhalla. William had noticed a large balcony on many of his flights to and from Angelica’s home, and guessed that it was connected to Achilles’ chambers. He decided that he would make his entrance there, and save himself the long, shameful march through the castle.
Swooping down from the sky with the grace of a hawk, he landed deftly on a platform of granite, and continued unimpeded towards a pair of glass double doors. Impatience quickened his pace, as William found himself driven to have the meeting over and behind him. His bare feet slapped the cold stone floor.
William looked around the room as he passed through the balcony doors, and found only an empty room. The last time William visited this place it was a beehive of activity. A place where Achilles most trusted warriors trained. The so-called Myrmidons never seemed to stop training. Today however, it was empty. William paused inside the doorway, and considered his options.
“Come in, Captain,” said a familiar voice from a connecting room. It was calm and deliberate, and William recognized it immediately as the Guardian lord.
He crossed the threshold between rooms in an instant. “My lord, reporting as requested,” William stated, bowing.
The commander sat in a large, plush chair behind a mahogany desk. Stacks of parchment littered the surface, Achilles feet carelessly resting upon them.
“Please, William, I grow tired of formality. I am surrounded by it every waking moment. Let us speak to one another as equals,” the ancient warrior said, ca
lmly putting down the parchment he had been reading and standing up.
“Uh, sure,” William replied with a shrug.
“You met with the new recruits, I take it?” Achilles asked.
“Yes, sir…I mean…Yeah I did.”
“Not what you were expecting?”
“Their souls are tainted…like you and me,” William offered.
“How did you guess I bear a tainted soul?” Achilles asked, walking towards a tall window next to his desk and gazing out at the plains of Archonia.
“I saw your armor in the battle. It was the same dull steel like mine. I imagine you killed many men during your time on Earth. I’m still trying to figure out how you came to this world at all,” William admitted, honestly.
“That is what I admire about you most, William of Archonia. You do not have a problem with speaking your mind.”
“Sorry, just habit I guess.”
“You are correct, young Guardian. I have slain many men in combat. And yet, I held no hatred for them in my heart. I was raised in a time when killing in battle was glorious, when the path to immortality lay not within the next life, but within the memories of our kin. What I did was out of duty, and our friend Gabriel saw that,” Achilles said.
“I’m sure he also saw a powerful ally,” William replied. The old Greek warrior nodded in response.
“So, why is Gabriel sending these tainted souls here now?” William asked.
“He believes that more souls can be saved. You proved to the council that those on the edge can be pulled back, forgiven. Today you made the council realize how cold they have truly become. They claim to be caring and giving, but you silenced them,” Achilles said.
“But how cold is Gabriel that he would send these tainted souls here to die in a war they know nothing about?” William inquired.
“William, you are much wiser than you let on, but Gabriel is not so cruel. He offered them a choice, young one. They could earn their salvation like you have, or they could walk the ides of Valchonia alone. They have chosen this path, my friend,” he finished softly.
Admittedly, this did make William feel better. “Then I’m on board,” he stated, standing at ease with his hands behind his back. No matter how informal the situation, his military training was innate. “So what is to become of me now?” William asked rather pointedly.
