Spirits of Falajen

by Ginger Salazar

  Etyne stared blankly. “Has it been over two years already? Time flew by in the mountains. Captain Sen Asel, you said? They finally promoted her? And gave her a training division?”

  Korteni chuckled. “Why are you surprised? She’s a great leader!”

  Etyne agreed, “That doesn’t mean I won’t tease her first chance I get.” He suddenly grew anxious knowing it was her division that was meeting up with his.

  Korteni smiled widely at his sudden change of demeanor. It was only last year during their winter mountain training that Etyne unexpectedly admitted to Korteni the unlikely thoughts he’d had about Brisethi. “Oh, Captain, you still think about her? Did you ever think maybe to tell her?” Korteni laughed heartily.

  “You promised me you’d never bring that up. I’m not ready to give up my career nor would I ask her to do the same if she shared the feeling.” He sincerely hoped she couldn’t see his face flush in the dim glow of the lantern. Etyne silently cursed that silly drinking game he’d played a year ago with the rest of his enlisted commanders, revealing the inner thoughts he believed had dissipated since the last he’d seen his former combat partner.

  The next evening, a familiar Dominion cadence could be heard echoing through the grasslands with footsteps marching in time coming up the path. Captain Vorsen summoned his commanders and recruits to stand in formation on the outskirts of the camp, ready to greet the young division approaching.

  A stout master chief halted the division just before Captain Vorsen’s formation. The captains saluted one another. Etyne almost didn’t recognize the woman in front of him. Captain Sen Asel’s uniform was pristine, if a little dusty from the trail. Her dark burgundy hair was styled to fall to one side in waves, but pinned back for the march. There was not even a hint of recognition in her eyes, and her expression was solemn.

  When the formal greeting was over, Captain Vorsen turned to address his division. “They are our guests for the time that they will be training with us. I expect there to be no incidents of misconduct between the two divisions, is that clear?” His eyes fell on a few of the more troublesome recruits.

  “Yes, sir!” came the response. The two groups were dismissed among orders from the senior enlisted commanders for setting up the new division’s camp alongside the other.

  Captain Vorsen led the other captain to his command tent to delegate administrative roles, strategic plans and combat training lessons for their integrated divisions.

  “General Satnir must be suffering from Mysticsomnia to have signed you off with your own training division,” Etyne said, the first to tease.

  “Nice to see you too, Captain, your division looks small,” she snapped back, having heard his division had already sent quite a few recruits home during a rough winter in the mountains.

  “Whoa now, it’s not the size that matters, but the effectiveness and quality of their flawless training,” he replied, smirking at her. “Speaking of small, did you lose more of your ear?”

  “Is the size of my cut-off ear intimidating you? Ah, I’ve missed this!” Captain Brisethi Sen Asel finally smiled back at her friend. “My senior enlisted can’t compare to your crappy humor.”

  Two years had passed since he last saw her captivating smile, heard her infectious laugh, smelled her blossom scent, and hugged her goodbye. He didn’t remember her having such a spellbinding smile. I must be lonely is all, he thought, the smile of every woman is spellbinding if you’ve been away from them for this long. He hoped the time and distance between them hadn’t changed either of them too much and they were very much still best friends.

  “Fortunately for me, I have Pyraz to keep my humor going,” he finally said.

  “Don’t you mean unfortunately for her that she has to put up with you for another two years?” Sen Asel had waited a year to use that one, ever since Korteni had first written to her.

  “You’re not going to make these two weeks very pleasant, are you, Sen Asel?” He conceded.

  “I believe you brought this on first, Vorsen.” Now that it had started, she couldn’t keep from smiling in his presence. She wondered if the next two weeks would continue to be as if they had never been apart. She looked up at the small painting hanging on the side of his desk. “You brought it with you?” she said incredulously.

  He glanced at the dark painting of clouds and lightning over an erupting volcano in the middle of a restless sea. “Of course I did. You painted it for me – what good would it be stored away in my quarters back at the Citadel?”

  Her grin broadened even more. “Where the shit is the one I made for Korteni?”

  “She didn’t want to risk damaging or losing it like I probably will with mine,” he replied.

  “You better not!” she grimaced. Her voice seemed a little reluctant as she said, “I should go help my camp lest they set up the command tent inside out.”

  “I’ll be out there shortly, just locking up all of this classified paperwork Korteni left out,” he replied, still leaning against his desk and wondering where his sudden anxiety flared from.

  Brisethi used her spirit’s mystic to enhance the lantern lights to burn brighter as evening approached. She snapped at two of her recruits who had stopped setting up to chat and then attended to helping her enlisted commanders to set up the various weapons racks, supply and artillery tents.

  “Captain!” Korteni surprised her when it came time to set up her own tent.

  “Chief!” she shouted back, returning the salute then embracing her.

  “What in the bony collar bone?” Brisethi asked when poked in her sternum by something protruding from Korteni’s chest.

  Korteni revealed the gift that Brisethi had given to her two years prior of a rather large pendant of a rat’s skull, plated in silver. “I don’t go anywhere without this!”

  “Gosh, that could be used as a flail,” she joked.

  They took some time to chat about their last two years, comparing their best recruits with one another, commenting how uneventful the divisions had been since their own training expedition. Finally, Korteni asked Brisethi how Joss had been, eager for the mindless gossip.

  Brisethi didn’t reply right away and shrugged. “He’s great,” she sighed.

  “That’s very convincing,” Korteni said pointedly and pried more.

  “He’s great for anyone else other than me,” she reiterated.

  “Well that only took a couple of decades to determine. Are you actually done torturing him?” Korteni pressed, her concern obvious in her soft expression.

  “By the spirits, you sound like Etyne,” Brisethi chided. “I know, I’m a horrible person for always going back and giving him hope,” she continued quickly, “But it’s not as if I’m the one pressuring him into these bouts of mindless correlation. I feel guilty for not living up to his expectation, for leaving him before and make it up to him with quick fixes. I’m not even certain if we’ve ever been in love; it was just a matter of convenience that we kept going back to one another.”

  Korteni made as if to attempt to strangle her dear friend. “Can you just - you’re both very good people, but in different ways. He needs a stay-at-home wife, and you need an adventurous warrior.”

  Brisethi sighed. “Most ‘adventurous warriors’ tend to join the Dominion and end up in the same command as me, so, that’s a no.”

  “Are you meaning that you and Etyne, can’t...?” Korteni winked.

  Brisethi paused while her face flushed. “Who the fuck is Etyne?” she jested, hiding behind her water flask.

  Korteni bursted out in laughter. “I still don’t understand how you kept forgetting his name.”

  Brisethi shrugged. “Lack of attention to detail, I suppose, which is why I didn’t join the Navy or I would have sunk an entire fleet by now.”

  Korteni chuckled once more. “Stop deviating the conversation. How are things between you two?”

  “Korteni, I don’t really crave intimacy the way some of you girls do. I crave mouth-watering cons
umables more than intense copulation with an intriguing human,” she replied when her stomach growled.

  “Well when you word it that way,” Korteni griped with an arched brow. “Are you saying, if you had to choose between dinner at my house or an intense hot night with, ‘he who shall not be named’, you would choose dinner?” she teased.

  Brisethi thought for a moment. “If you’re making that delicious salmon, yes, I would choose your dinner over hot sex with your captain,” she grinned, wondering why she was even humoring Korteni with such adolescent talk. “Honestly, Korteni, I love my job too much to throw it away for a fling with my best friend,” she replied in an attempt to deny having any feelings for him.

  “I thought I was your best friend,” she pouted when they finished Brisethi’s tent.

  “I’m certain I have a new best friend every four years,” Brisethi laughed. They both moved on to assist with the final steps of setting up the command tent and furniture with the other enlisted commanders and Captain Vorsen.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t go to commission school with you, ‘Sethi. I mean, Ma’am.” Korteni often had trouble maintaining proper decorum, especially with her two good friends as officers. “I just didn’t want to train another four years at the Citadel and wanted to go straight to the sea!”

  “If I was beyond an expert swimmer such as yourself, making the waves able to increase my swim speed, I might have gone Navy with you,” Brisethi concluded and looked down at her pocket watch. It was well into the second hour of morning by the time the camp was finished being set up. The recruits were sent to their tents as she crawled into her own tent, exhausted from the day’s trek and fell asleep as soon as she found her bedroll.

  At dawn, the Master Chiefs of both Division Sixty-Four and Sixty-Six sounded reveille on the horns for both camps. The notes echoed throughout the lines of tents, bringing sleepy recruits out of their sleep to set about the morning routines. Both divisions were soon formed up on the grassy plains in their combat armor listening to the briefings of the sergeants.

  Captain Vorsen and Captain Sen Asel casually walked up to the formations, side by side with stern faces. Their black and scarlet leather uniform coats swayed in the wind behind them revealing their ornate swords and pistols at each hip. Their demeanor alone demanded authority without saying a word. They came to a halt next to their respective Master Chiefs.

  The two Captains glared silently at the recruits until Vorsen shouted his order to both divisions, “Attention to the Dominion Creed!”

  The spirit of our land resides in us through the breath of dragons.

  Our fire from the sky scarred the nations.

  From the scars of Sariadne, the Dominion was born.

  I will defend her from her enemy. I will die before I commit treason.

  I represent the antecedents who have passed their spirits unto us

  And I will use such spirits to honor our nation, never against my brethren.

  Master Chief Denil’s voice bellowed, “Division Sixty-Four are you ready to teach the baby division how to fight like warriors?”

  Vorsen’s division shouted back wildly.

  Captain Sen Asel nodded to Master Chief Riquez, a small smile playing at her lips. He complied with his own chant, “Division Sixty-Six, are you ready to embarrass the senior division?”

  Although the division didn’t reply wildly, they had replied as one loud voice that echoed throughout the grassy plains sending chills up the Master Chief’s spine.

  “Your captains will demonstrate how you could be fighting by the time you get to your fourth year of not only the enlisted expedition, but at the end of officer training as well,” Chief Pyraz announced, addressing both divisions as one. “We will teach you each of their beginning moves one at a time throughout the next few years, starting today.” She motioned for the recruits to break formation and group up. “Watch and retain, children!” she called out with a laugh.

  Corporal Livian Reej gasped at the sight of her enlistment officer. She was eager to watch her captain face off against the recruiter captain. She had come to admire the half-Kiaran, unexpectedly, when he spoke to her one on one, while fearing him during drills and reprimands to the division as a whole. She had yet to witness anyone use their mystics during combat and was craving an impressive show.

  The two captains faced one another, saluted, then each wordlessly leapt back, breaking into a fighting stance with swords instantly drawn. With a wink from Sen Asel, seen only by Vorsen, they suddenly lunged at each other and clashed their swords. The grassy plains soon rang with the continued strikes and parries as the two swung furiously. They had deflected each other’s swings with swiftness and precision as though it were a choreographed dance. In fact, they did know what move the other would make because of the length of time they had spent as combat partners. The two years apart did not negate the seven years of time dedicated to learning each defensive and offensive move and even inventing new skills together.

  Livian had to keep closing her mouth each time her jaw dropped from the remarkable bouts. Her eyes widened watching the two experienced captains fight one another. To her, they weren’t just simply fighting, but dancing exotically with swords flying dangerously close to their flesh. She gasped when Captain Sen Asel’s sword had been thrown behind her and quickly drew her pistol. Shots fired at Captain Vorsen but he deflected each shot with his sword until she ran out of ammunition. He closed in on her but she squatted to dodge his sword, rolled back onto her elbows and brought her foot up to his hand, knocking his sword free.

  It was now his turn to fire his pistol at her but she evaded each attack with a roll to the left, or falling on her back only to bring herself up with the leverage of her legs. When he had finally emptied his own chamber, she sprinted toward him and leapt into the air, landing a foot to his chest to knock him to the ground. He held onto her leg and brought her down with him as they commenced into hand-to-hand combat.

  Neither of them spoke a word to one another; they were able to communicate with their eyes each rehearsed move they would make and when. Vorsen threw a fist toward her face but she caught it, pulling him toward her and leapt onto his back to attempt a choke-hold. He somersaulted to lay her flat on her back and was now the one holding her in a choke-hold.

  Livian knew her captain would win, it seemed too easy. She grinned with anticipation to listen for th e other captain to yield. Instead, however, she witnessed her enlistment officer use her powerful legs to untangle herself from his grasp as they rolled with each other, more kicks flying out and punches deflected as the mock battle went on. Livian caught herself cheering on Captain Sen Asel, infatuated with her martial prowess.

  They were far from tired when Brisethi finally signaled to Etyne that she would be summoning her mystics. An avalanche of red flames hurled toward him but he summoned his shield to absorb her mystics. The recruits cheered as he turned himself invisible and instantly re-materialized behind her, kicking her forward. He lunged on top of her but she summoned a layer of fire around her, causing him to roll off and extinguish the flames of his uniform. He didn’t want to admit how clever she was for that trick and thanked the spirits he had kept his gloves on. They both stood once more to face one another. She let loose sparks of purple and blue lightning straight for him but he was too quick to summon another shield that, instead of absorbing her mystic, reflected it back to its source. Brisethi unexpectedly felt the power of her own lightning and was sent flying into the taller grass.

  The recruits applauded wildly. The enlisted commanders rushed to their captains.

  “Ugh,” she finally exhaled, struggling to stand. She’d never been struck by her own lightning before. “When did you learn to reflect?”

  He shrugged, walking toward her, “It’s harder to do with just your flames; did that hurt?”

  “You could have killed me!” she shouted dramatically even though she knew that she couldn’t possibly take fatal damage from her own mystic. She braided her lon
g hair that had fallen out of her bun while strands of lightning still passed along her vessel’s surface.

  “So you were trying to kill me?” Etyne mocked, a shocked look on his face as he crossed his arms, captivated by the strands of lightning flickering throughout her uniform and skin.

  “I figured you’d absorb it in your shield not deflect it back at me,” she shook the remaining sparks of light off of her. “Besides I can resuscitate lightning victims if I choose to get to them in time,” she smirked.

  Livian was spellbound by the fiery captain, wishing she could approach her and ask if she remembered her. She was the female warrior she only ever dreamed to become. Her new ambition in life was suddenly to become as strong and agile as Captain Sen Asel. The Captains collected their weapons, holstered their pistols and sheathed their swords. They relinquished command to their senior enlisted amid cheers and shouts from the recruits and returned to their respective command tents.

  Brisethi stared at her log book, listening to the divisions in the distance learning advanced combat tactics. She realized she didn’t want to spend her two weeks of integration alone if she could work side-by-side with Etyne. She gathered her log book, pens and various other forms and found her way to Division Sixty-Four’s command tent.

  Etyne was instantly distracted by Brisethi’s entrance of his tent, making himself vulnerable to the ball of twine being thrown by Master Chief Denil. Etyne groaned and leaned over, cursing to himself when the ball had found its target between his legs. Sergeant First Class Tevor cheered the Master Chief on for his shot.

  “Are you really playing this game right now, gentlemen?” Brisethi chastised them. “Are we back in grade school?”

  Etyne recovered from his temporary pain, aiming the ball at her. Her glare dared him to throw it. When he found his voice, he relayed to her, “If I recall correctly, Ma’am, it was you who once told me, ‘if we’re always serious and never stop to live life, then what’s the point in fighting to live?’ or something like that,” he imitated her voice horribly while folding the tip of his left ear over to also look like her. He instead threw the ball at Sergeant Tevor, causing him to double over this time.