They waited until the car slowed to a safe enough speed for them to jump before they made their exit. Quickly, the two dashed across the tracks, avoiding any with moving trains. Finally, they reached the station and joined the throng of people heading out onto the cobblestone street.
Beccilia was a large, industrious city. The buildings were several stories tall, mostly made of brick, crammed tightly together on the walkway. Timed oil lamps lined the streets, there for lighting the way for the ornate carriages passing by after sunset. The men and women surrounding them were dressed in dapper suits, complete with tailcoats, and beautiful ruffled gowns, tight at the hips to show off their lovely forms.
Ibrienne immediately felt conspicuous in her worn traveling cloak and dusty pants. “Everyone’s staring,” she hissed to Kanilas.
He rolled his eyes and started down the street, leaving her no choice but to follow. They walked for some time, until the well-kept buildings gradually became older and more worn down. The few people they saw seemed tired and shifty, always in a hurry, unlike the regally slow pace of the uptown streets.
Kanilas halted in front of a particularly unremarkable building and examined it for a moment. Ibrienne was about to ask what Kanlias was looking for when he suddenly turned to her. “When we go in there,” he said, voice low, “you can’t say a word. This isn’t like home. Just keep quiet and stick close to me.”
She nervously bit her lip and nodded.
He took a breath and led her through the door.
-:- -:- -:-
Sulica built up her strength slowly by exploring the ship. Each day she’d venture a little further, eager to mingle with people after her months spent in captivity. The Kiaran crew was surprisingly friendly towards her, probably obeying Ekani’s orders, but she still appreciated it. At first, she took her meals in her cabin, but by day three, she was dining on the mess deck with everyone else.
She easily readjusted to ship life, and not as a commander. Sulica spent hours in the galley helping prepare food, dedicated time to assisting the helmsman, and holed up in a cabin with the mapmaker for a while, studying navigation charts. She learned more in one week aboard the Kiarian ship than she had in the years she’d spent on her father’s.
One evening, Ekani knocked on the door to Sulica’s cabin. He opened it to find her curled up on the bed, deeply enthralled by the book in her hands. Her silvery blonde hair masked her face. In the short time since he’d rescued her, Sulica had made a fairly swift recovery. Her hair was shiny and thickening, the shaved spot less and less noticeable, and the clothes seemed to fit a little tighter.
Ekani cleared his throat to alert her to his presence. She looked up, her hazel eyes bright. “I apologize for interrupting you,” he said, entering the room.
Sulica smiled, “Quite alright. What can I do for you, Ekani?”
He did not answer her straight away but came further into the cabin, letting the door shut behind him. Sulica’s smile faded instantly. Her instincts screamed at her to get out, wanting to never end up trapped again.
Ekani stopped moving, apparently noticing her discomfort. His smooth voice slightly reassured her. “We will be passing alongside some Kiaran vessels shortly. I think it would be best if you remained below decks for the next day or so.” Seeing her confused expression, he clarified, “Women do not often come aboard Kiaran military vessels, diplomatic or otherwise, and it would be sure to stir up some rumors, ones we don’t want getting around until we are ready.”
Sulica nodded slowly, realizing the Kiarans had taken a cultural practice from some of the other nations rather than continuing with the Resarian tradition of equality in all matters.
“That being said, I would very much enjoy your company in the interim.” Ekani gave her a charming smile which she gratefully returned, visibly relaxing.
He led her to his own cabin. It was a stately room, elegant but practical. In the corner was a small bed adorned with blue sheets that were most likely satin. Three large trunks were strapped to the bulkhead. On the far side stood a grand mahogany desk, firmly secured to the deck. Sulica followed Ekani over to the desk where a book lay open. She sat at one of the plush chairs he indicated for her and picked up a frame that sat on his desk, the only thing not bolted or strapped down.
Expecting to find some beautiful Kiaran woman, she was surprised to see a painting of Ekani himself with a man who looked very much like him but much more aged around the eyes. His hair was jet-black, streaked with white, but his eyes were strikingly blue and pupil-less.
“That’s my father,” Ekani said, looking fondly at the image.
“Are you close with him?” Sulica asked, surprising herself.
Ekani studied her for a moment before answering. “Yes, he’s the only family I’ve ever known.”
“I know the feeling,” she muttered sadly, thinking of her own father.
“Tell me, what is it that makes you so upset?”
The gentleness in his voice unlocked something inside of her, and all the unshed tears from the past few months fell freely. She found herself confessing all to the Kiaran. They spent the following several hours talking in Ekani’s cabin, telling each other stories of everything from their childhood to their careers.
“Our training is a bit intense,” she admitted. “I was in the Dominion military training for the entire four years. It consists of training in every type of weapon, hand-to-hand combat, endurance and strength training, even naval warfare. It was pretty miserable; I was nearly sent home. But someone helped me halfway through, lied for me, and encouraged me. I had nearly forgotten that she spent six months doing this for me and another girl, Ibrienne. And then I betrayed her, Ekani. I fucking sold her!” She hung her head in shame.
Ekani took her hand in both of his. “Sulica, we’ve all made bad decisions; we’ve all hurt someone to better ourselves without fully thinking things through. Sometimes it’s best to forget those people and move on. It’s not as if you’ll ever see her again.”
Sulica inhaled deeply. “You’re right. I won’t see her again. We were both dying, and suddenly I woke up in your ship. Unless you saved her and she’s on her way here as well, I imagine she’s dead by now.”
Ekani arched a brow. “The other girl in that Lantheun horror house with you was her?”
Sulica nodded.
“Then yes, she is dead by now. I couldn’t save her. We needed only your mystics, and I wouldn’t have been able to risk bringing aboard a destructive spirit. Starvation and infection certainly took her.”
Chapter IV
Brisethi hadn’t yet fully recovered when the small group needed to start their journey. The DSV Reliant did not return for them, so they would have to travel south to the Aspion empire, resting after every few hours of brisk walking. She was slowing her companions down, and the heat of the late afternoon sun wasn’t making her feel any stronger or friendlier.
“Come on, ‘Sethi, this isn’t the best place to rest – we’re out in the open,” Etyne told her. He glanced around at the grassy plains in search of trees for shade then back at her. When she fell to her knees and scratched at her scabbed arms and legs, Etyne dropped down beside her. “Don’t do this, not now, please. Fight it!” he urged.
“We’re losing her,” Korteni said, watching her dilated pupils reflect lightning that wasn’t there.
“Spirits, not again!” whined Livian as she crossed her arms and watched the evolution unfold for the second time in two days. “I really wish Ibrienne had finished healing her before running away.” she muttered. She was dripping with sweat in the heat, her mood soured by irritation with her former friend and the female captain’s illness.
“We don’t have hours to wait for it to pass. Give me your coat, Korteni,” Etyne ordered.
He removed Brisethi’s coat first as she screamed at him and incessantly beat at his chest. He was easily able to overpower her in her weakened state and tied her coat around her arms and waist. He tied Korteni’s coat around her l
egs so that she would stop kicking at him.
“Get off of me you fucking piece of Lantheun shit!” Brisethi screamed, biting at Etyne, not realizing who he was. Her hallucinations brought her back into the sick time she had been living not so long ago.
Finally, Etyne removed his own coat and started to tie the sleeves around the back of her neck and place part of his coat in her mouth to silence her screaming and cease her biting. It broke his heart to be the one to demean her in such a humiliating way. He hated the teary-eyed look she gave him as if he was the enemy trying to hurt her, begging him for her freedom. It tore Etyne’s spirit apart that he was treating her like a rabid dog. He gently lifted her off the ground and carried her over his shoulder until she gave up trying to wriggle her way out of his grasp. She fell into a restless sleep, exhausted from the physical exertions.
With the exception of the pain his soul had felt from hers, he had no idea what exactly Brisethi went through in the Lantheun building. For all he knew her agony might have started on the transport ships. He didn’t want to ask her, he never wanted to find out for fear the anger would propel him to do something rash. But he would listen to her should she ever decide to voluntarily tell him.
They took one last break after an hour of walking to allow Etyne to rest his arms and back from carrying the restrained captain. Unsure if she was herself again, he knelt down in front of her to remove the coat tied to her mouth.
“Etyne…” she exhaled his name. “Why? Did it happen again?” The forlorn look in her eyes destroyed him.
He removed the coat from her arms and then the coat from her legs. He nodded in response to her question. “I’m so sorry that I had to do this,” he quietly told her, wiping the tears from her face with his thumbs.
“Did I hurt anyone?” she solemnly asked.
He shook his head. “Fortunately for us, you seem to think your mystics don’t work when fending me off,” he assured her.
“Oh spirits,” she gasped. “I can’t even imagine what I’d do if I awoke to learn I had incinerated any of you,” she buried her face in her hands at the thought.
He thought to pull her in close to hold her; something he had been wanting to do since the night he found her. Instead, he reluctantly placed his hand on the side of her arm, feeling held back from showing her physical affection. “It’s a good thing I can shield myself from you,” he replied with a half smile. He wasn’t only comforting her, but comforting himself as well. He was genuinely scared for her, and of her.
He helped her to stand when Livian and Korteni returned from scouting ahead.
“Not a single person in sight,” Korteni reported. “Are you able to go on, ‘Sethi?” She couldn’t keep the concern from her voice.
Brisethi nodded, smiling to her. She gave Korteni her Dominion Navy coat back. She examined Etyne’s before handing it back to him, saddened that she had left teeth-marks in his sleeve. “I’ll replace your coat as soon we get back,” she told him.
He donned his coat and half-smiled at her small bite-mark. “Nah, it adds character,” he told her. “I’m more concerned about getting you back to Dominion standards so you can keep up with us.” He handed her his bow and arrows. “It’s your turn to hunt as soon as we get to that hill up ahead.”
-:- -:- -:-
She drew back the bowstring to her cheek, aiming for the boar’s heart. Without a second thought, she released the arrow, watching it swiftly pierce her target. She ran up to her kill, realizing it was bigger than it looked from far. She placed two fingers to her lips and whistled loudly.
Moments later, Etyne emerged in the tall grass, eyeing the wild boar. “I see you haven’t lost your bear appetite,” he teased her for such a mighty kill.
She smiled sadly at the memory of the name he had once given her almost a decade ago, when life was simpler. “You haven’t called me that…” she didn’t finish her sentence.
“I thought it irritated you so I stopped,” Etyne admitted when meeting her eyes. He unraveled the rope and tarp he had in his pack to wrap the boar and hoisted it over his shoulder.
“It didn’t irritate me,” she continued. She squatted down instantly at seeing a tarantula just smaller than her hand. “Hey look!” she excitedly called Etyne over.
He placed the boar down and knelt beside her. “Since when have you been infatuated with spiders?”
“I’m not. Tarantulas on the other hand, well I’m fascinated by them,” she smiled and allowed the fuzzy eight-legged arachnid to slowly crawl onto the palm of her hand.
They both stared at the docile tarantula until Brisethi set it back down. “I wish I could take you with me.”
Halfway through their hike Etyne made Brisethi carry the carcass to begin her strength training.
Livian and Korteni’s eyes lit up at the sight of dinner. “You really are still hungry,” Korteni jabbed at Brisethi.
“And weak,” Brisethi replied, picking up Etyne’s sword. “I’m going to whack at that tree to work on rebuilding my strength till the food’s ready.”
“I’ll go with you,” Korteni said.
“Before you go, could you, uh…” Etyne nodded toward the fire pit Livian and Korteni had assembled.
“Spirits forbid we make a fire the way we were taught in expedition training!” Brisethi retorted then set the twigs and branches ablaze.
“Appreciate it,” Etyne replied with an unusual monotone.
-:- -:- -:-
Livian removed her recruit coat. “Do you want help, Sir?”
Etyne looked up from cutting at the boar. “I can take care of it.”
“Unlike Captain Sen Asel, I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty. Remember the bear I took down when it was chasing after Sommin?” she reminded him.
“Yes, that’s why I allowed Chief to promote you to Sergeant for your bravery,” he ignored her jab at his friend and politely smiled at her when she knelt down beside him to assist in removing entrails.
“Do you think she’ll be crazy for the rest of her life?” Livian bluntly asked.
“Who, the captain?”
Livian nodded.
Etyne cleared his throat. “She isn’t crazy. She’s just not fully recovered.”
“She’ll probably be discharged from the military. I don’t feel safe at night, sleeping while she’s near, Sir,” Livian expressed, glaring into the scarlet fire.
“As long as you’re not touching her when she’s having a flashback, she won’t have reason to harm you. And it would behoove you to give her the same respect as you give me, regardless of her mental state,” he sternly replied.
Livian was chagrined from his sudden outburst toward her. He was treating her as if she was an undisciplined private once more. She acknowledged the chastisement and went back to work.
-:- -:- -:-
“Etyne hasn’t quite been himself since…” Korteni’s voice trailed off as she let her sword hit the ground.
“I’ve noticed,” Brisethi sighed. “I’ve seen him in every emotion, even heartbroken. But, when I look at him, his mind is wandering elsewhere. The way he looked at me last, it’s the way a father would look at his dying child. I’ve never seen him with watered eyes until yesterday when I first awoke from that relapse.”
“When you were out for ten hours the first day, he didn’t talk to any of us for the first six or so hours. He walked over to a boulder to sit on and just stared into the forest. He was almost catatonic, ‘Sethi,” Korteni relayed to her.
Brisethi frowned. “I haven’t really had the chance to speak with him, alone, anyway. I’m kind of afraid to.”
“How so? You two spent nearly every day together during officer training, not to mention however many years during expedition training,” Korteni added. “I thought by now you two held nothing back from one another.”
“It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost as if I can feel his spirit - and it seems a bit off,” Brisethi continued.
Korteni assumed the Spirit Reclamation had somet
hing to do with it but wasn’t sure if Etyne had revealed to her yet what he had done. “Off, how?”
“Well, as I said, after spending so long with someone I can tell what mood he’s in. This is more severe than a broken heart - his soul is in some kind of pain,” Brisethi concluded.
“I don’t know what’s worse than a broken heart. You should really go talk to him, though. Of all the spirits here, yours is the one to best mend his,” Korteni confidently told her. “Maybe he just needs time to cope with almost losing his best friend. I was more fretful while on our way to finding you. I was overjoyed and all of my fears washed away at finding you alive.”
“Maybe you’re right. He’s barely teased me or laughed at anything I’ve said. I miss the way he used to smile at me,” she whined.
“Hey, what’s that?” Korteni ceased their spar and peered over Brisethi’s shoulder.
Brisethi turned to view the road in the distance where a procession of eight mounted horses could be seen. Two trained dogs were leading the men off the road and toward the direction of their camp. “Korteni, just when and where exactly did Etyne lose that fire-starter? Did he lose anything else while you were on your way to rescue me? Because I have a feeling those dogs have our scent.”
They shared a split-second look of concern and darted off toward Etyne and Livian.
“Put this fire out!” Brisethi whispered loudly, extinguishing her own flames with her mystics to prevent the smoke that would have risen if it had been doused by water and dirt instead. She grabbed her pack and took out a smaller pack to help gather both the cooked and uncooked meat.
Etyne needed no explanation when he heard the sense of urgency in her voice and helped to gather their belongings. He followed after her and Korteni with Livian at his side to disappear into the grasslands. They paused when they heard the dogs bark and watched as the men on horseback started charging in their direction.
Spirits of Falajen Page 34
