Terra thought back to the past couple of weeks. Upon looking back, she realized that she had used her shieldwatch unintentionally a few times before now. “So I just think and it works?”
“More like it's another part of your body. You can't just think about it, you have to will it. Just thinking about raising your hand doesn't make it happen.” Alya pointed to a green humming bird at a nearby flower. “Focus your eyes on that bird, then Speed your sight.”
Terra looked at the bird. It shifted from flower to flower, its wings a blur of motion. She focused on it and felt something different. It was as though she possessed a second sight waiting for her to use. The hummingbird came into focus. She saw the jewel colors of its feathers with its wings moving in perfect detail. There was no motion blur at all. Everything now appeared in near perfect detail.
Terra turned to Alya, confused.
Alya held up her arm and moved it from side to side slow, then fast. “When I move my arm, your mind can only process the image so quickly. When I move slow, your mind has time to process the images so there is no blur. The shieldwatch can Speed your nervous system so you have time to see every detail.”
“So I would never want to turn that off?”
“That would not be a good way to conserve power.”
“Conserve power?”
“We will get to that in a moment,” Alya said. She then ran and jumped into a tall tree, landing with grace on a high branch.
“How did you do that?”
“I Slowed gravity. You have already done this. Try it.”
Terra jumped once and stumbled to the ground. She tried again and felt the flow of time on gravity just like during Zaid's training a few days ago. After a third try, she acted on the feeling and Slowed gravity around her. Her body slowed and fell like a feather drifting on the wind. When she landed on the ground, she ran towards a nearby tree and jumped. She flew through the air. Terra grabbed a large branch as she drew near, though she hit the tree harder than she had expected. After struggling, she climbed onto the branch.
She tried to jump down a moment later when she heard her shieldwatch beep. “Battery power critically low. Shutting down non essential functions,” came Minerva's voice from Terra's shieldwatch.
“What?” Terra said just before her connection with time vanished and she stumbled to the ground.
Alya jumped next to Terra, offering a hand. “And that's the most important lesson. Conserving power.”
Terra rubbed her knees as she stood. “Well that didn't last long.”
“Your connection to time is new.”
“What difference does that make?”
“The more you use your shieldwatch, the more you become connected with time. The longer the connection, the more efficient you become with using your power. Shieldwatch battery power never changes, but you can accomplish more with less effort as your skill increases. Your shieldwatch recharges itself over time, but cannot Restore itself if broken. Remember too that while you can take another shieldwatch, you cannot use it to Restore yourself if injured. Every shieldwatch is attuned to the original user and using any other ability will drain the stolen shieldwatch quickly.”
Terra considered this. It made sense for there to be limitations. Still though, this was the first time she hadn't regretted coming to the Academy. This is what Alya had meant about getting a taste of the shieldwatch's power.
As they made their way through the garden Alya taught Terra how to put things in stasis fields by Stopping time. After her battery charged, Terra practiced Stopping several butterflies in stasis before releasing them. She learned that larger more complex creatures were immune to being trapped in a normal stasis field though you could slow them down with it, sometimes. Alya also explained how to use the shieldwatch to enhance reflexes and speed, but when they approached a small hill at the center of the glade Alya became silent. When they drew closer Terra discovered why.
At first, Terra thought she was standing in a field of crosses, but saw that they were, in fact, aeon edge swords that had all been plunged into the ground tip first. Alya walked between the countless swords somber and silent. She glided between the blades like a silent and gentle breeze, her expression stoic. As they walked through the field of blades Terra wondered why these weapons, so valuable, lay discarded here to rust. Flowers grew around them and each had a name engraved on them. Then Terra realized this place was a graveyard. A memorial to the fallen.
Alya stopped in front of an aeon edge sword that stood near the center of the garden. Engraved on the blade was the name Kairos and black roses twisted around it. She knelt, running her fingers across the face, feeling each letter and smiled slightly. She touched the black rose, holding the blossom. “Orion put this blade here and told me I needed to move on. She always liked black roses. Said they were like her.”
“Were you close friends?” Terra asked softly.
Alya nodded before her gaze became distant.
Terra hesitated. “Who was Kairos? I mean if it's not too painful to talk about her?”
Alya stood and looked at the sky. “She was my greatest squire. A true savior,” Alya said before sitting in the grass in front of the sword.
Terra sat beside Alya. “What was she like?”
Alya thought for a moment. “Actually, she was a lot like you. She loved the soil like you loved stone. Always with her nose in a book. She had a passion for gardening. In fact, she made this garden. She planted every flower by hand. This was her favorite place. Her one place where she could be at peace, much like your quarry.”
“That's odd. Most of my instructors keep saying how I'm not like her.”
Alya's eyes narrowed on the sword while she frowned. “They remember Kairos the savior not Kairos the person. Not the Kairos who cried every time she had to leave a comrade behind. Or the Kairos who loved her garden. Or the Kairos who was my friend.”
“What happened to her?”
Alya closed her eyes. “They came. About a century ago we encountered... things. We called them Faceless. They were monsters in every sense of the word. An avatar of decay, a plague that spilled from the End of Time itself,” Alya said, cringing. She took a moment before continuing as though suppressing old nightmares. “They spread across time in a wave of death. The Legion had never met anything like them. These monsters also used time as a weapon and they were difficult to kill. Even worse, they absorbed our casualties into their ranks. For the first time we were fighting a hopeless war. We couldn't even contain them. Our allies fell one by one. Soon the Legion stood alone. Then Kairos ascended through the ranks.”
Alya stood and smiled, looking at the sun. “I wish you could have seen her. She was glorious. Standing like the burning sun at dawn, bringing light back into the world. Her blade always fell at the right moment, cutting away the darkness and rot. The death and decay of the Faceless parted for her, breaking like waves on a rocky cliff. The Legion drew up, rallying to her call. She drove decay itself into oblivion.”
“Where did they come from?” Terra asked.
“No one knows. Some say they are time travelers who went to the End of Time. They say it twisted them into the Faceless who take from time what they lost at the End. They first appeared in the Bleak near the End of Time. Others think they were a singularity weapon that went rogue. Kairos also wanted answers. When the war was won, Kairos came to me and gave me her blade, saying she didn't need it. She told me she was going to the Beginning of Time. She was certain the answer was there. I offered to go with her, but she wanted me to stay and rebuild the Legion.”
“The Beginning of Time?” Terra asked, trying to wrap her mind around all this information.
“I know little about it, but if you travel back in time far enough past the beginning of the universe then you enter the Beginning of Time. Those who go there rarely come back. The few that do are always changed. No one comes back from that place the same. Kairos left. I never saw her again.”
“I'm sorry.”
<
br /> “Kairos isn't the only one I lost,” Alya said while looking at the sky. “They told you that all my squires are famous. That they all went on to achieve great things. They probably didn't tell you they all died achieving those great things. They died heroes and I lived on even though I don’t deserve to. I am no stranger to loss, but I do grow weary of it. I am tired of losing squires. I am tired of losing friends.”
Alya then turned to Terra with a warm smile. “But I have faith in you. You will survive. You can take a hit and keep going. Tough as stone and twice as stubborn. I want you to be the squire that survives.”
Chapter XV
Missing in Action
Historical armies sometimes use the designation MIA or Missing In Action. The majority of tirones are reported as missing in action or some similar designation in their home times. They are all lost to history, therefore recruiting them for Legion use can be done without disrupting the flow of the continuum.
-Excerpt from Chapter Two of the Aeon Legion's Squire Recruitment Manual by Praetor Lycus Cerberus
Shani and Nikias's conversation maintained a casual tone even as they took shots at the tirones with rifles. Each had a tactical light on the end of their rifles they used to spot the tirones hiding in rocky crevasses.
“I mean I just don't know,” Shani said as she lined up her sights on Zaid. She took a shot at Zaid who blocked with his shieldwatch. “I mean we thought about moving to a better zone for a while. Between us we have about three centuries of time saved up.”
Zaid ran as Shani's light followed him. He rolled out of her light, disappearing in the shadows of the dimly lit area.
Terra assumed the point of this test was to hide and remain quiet, though it was hard to tell. They had arrived at the salient an hour ago for an unspecified team activity when Nikias and Shani showed up with guns and started shooting at them. One couldn't hide for too long though, for the instructors constantly surveyed the area with their lights and fired upon spotting someone. She wondered why they didn't use the night vision feature of their shieldwatch.
After a moment, Nikias spoke. “You could find a third person to split it with I guess. Though I don't know why everyone is so keen to get tier three residential homes. A tier one apartment is like a palace compared to what I grew up with.”
Shani growled. “The top scoring tiro in my class ended up joining Endymion. He already has a home in the Elysian Fields. It's so unfair. There you are!” Shani said, firing at Zaid again. Her gun then clicked. “I'm out.”
Nikias fired two more shots before his gun clicked. “Me too.”
“I suppose that's enough,” Shani said, touching her shieldwatch holoface. The lights came on and illuminated the area.
Nikias discarded his rifle. “Good job. This test is over.”
The tirones approached with caution, still expecting this to be ruse. Terra thought so, for she remained hidden in a small cove that the lighting didn't illuminate.
Shani looked at her shieldwatch. “Tiro Hikari, I am giving you just one point for this test. You shouldn't have rushed us at the start.”
Nikias then looked at his shieldwatch. “Zaid you get zero points. You were spotted several times.”
Shani awarded points to the rest of Zaid's strike team before nodding to Nikias. “Well I think this is done. Let's reset the salient.”
A ring descended, erasing the rocky arena. Terra yelled when the ground disappeared beneath her and she fell to the floor with a hard thud.
Nikias laughed. “Looks like we forgot one.”
Shani faced Terra. “Well, Tiro Mason, congratulations. I think we found something else you are good at.”
Nikias still chuckled. “Yeah. Being ignored.”
Shani touched her shieldwatch's holoface. “That's three points. If you had been any better concealed, you would have been labeled missing in action a second time.”
Terra dusted herself off as she stood. She felt thankful that she had spent points on knee and elbow pads at the armory since they absorbed some of the fall. “Wait. Missing in action again?”
Shani nodded. “Yes. Most potential Aeon Legion squires are MIAs from various wars. That way it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the continuum.”
“That can't be right,” Terra said more to herself than anyone else. She wasn't missing in action. Terra stared for a moment before checking her shieldwatch. “Minerva. What would have happened to me if I hadn't joined the Legion?”
“Sorry I cannot answer your query,” Minerva said.
“What? Why?”
“Access to your records is restricted by order of an anonymous centurion.”
∞
“What are you hiding from me?” Terra said hands on her hips as she glared at Alya.
Alya leaned against the tree at the top of the hill, reading something on her shieldwatch. She shifted her gaze to Terra. “Hiding what?”
Terra pointed at the screen on her own shieldwatch. The screen read Access to records locked.
“Oh that,” Alya said as though it were a minor detail. “Crash. I thought I unlocked that. I didn't want others looking into it when I was trying to recruit you.”
Terra scowled. “What is this about?”
“Minerva. Unlock it,” Alya said in a dismissive tone.
“Unlocked,” Minerva said. “Terra Mason age nineteen. Cause of death, internal trauma and bleeding due to a vehicular accident. The source of the accident was concluded to be the intoxicated driver whose vehicle collided with Mason's car.”
“Killed by a drunk driver?” Terra said in a dumbstruck tone. “I had a year to live?”
“Apologies. I meant to tell you when you started the training, but forgot.”
Terra glared at Alya. “Why didn't you tell me! This is kind of important don't you think? What would have happened if I failed the training?”
“Even if they sent you back, there would be chance you would survive. Besides, you would be allowed stay in the city by working a low level job. Then you could try the training again next year.”
“Wonderful. I could be an immortal janitor!”
“You are rather lucky. Many Legion recruits don't have the option to return home. Is there a reason this bothers you?”
“Because I could have died and you didn't even tell me!”
Alya sighed. “I already told you. I wanted a volunteer, not a conscript. If you had known then it would not be a choice, but a necessity you join the Legion and you would have felt forced into it. I gave you a choice. You made it yourself. I swear I meant to tell you when we arrived at the city, but I forgot.”
Terra glared at Alya.
Alya sighed again. “Well I told you the truth,” Alya said before she walked away, leaving Terra alone with her anger.
∞
Terra's frustration with Alya the day before was now replaced with dread after receiving orders to report to Praetor Lycus's office. She had already faced the man once and had almost gotten her head smashed in for the trouble. Why did he wish to speak with her now?
Terra hesitated when she saw the open fadedoor into Lycus's office. Lycus sat not with his customary snarl, but a look of irritation. The expression seemed odd to Terra as she had never seen the man annoyed at anything. Then she saw why. Alya stood near the fadedoor, facing Lycus with her usual smile.
Terra tensed, but entered his office.
“You can't stop me, Cerberus,” Alya said in a casual tone. “The rules allow it. At least I think they do. Even if they do not, I like breaking rules.”
Lycus tapped his finger on his desk. “I told you not to call me that.”
Alya grinned. “Cerberus? After your aeon edge? It has been centuries, Cerberus. Can you still not accept your past?”
Lycus scowled and glared at Alya. “Not all of us can ignore our damnation, Bloodstorm.”
Alya's smiled disappeared at that name. After a moment, her grin returned. “That would have wounded me before Darshana. Not your most creative insult thoug
h, Cerberus. Why the Selvian Stuarts could have thought up a better one.”
Lycus clinched his fist. “I should have made you an instructor so you could test everyone's patience.”
Terra cleared her throat, hoping to distract them before this insult match grew worse.
Lycus glanced to Terra. “Tiro Mason. I have called you here to put an end to this meddling.”
“Meddling?” Terra ask before looking around to find the source of a light breeze that blew into the office.
Lycus's eyes narrowed on Alya. “Don't think I haven't seen you lurking around the Academy. I saw your meeting at the hill. Then at the climbing test as well. Again, I saw you stalking me near the Archives and around the Academy.”
Alya rolled her eyes. “Stalking you? Cerberus, why would I stalk you? You're so dull. Yes I was at hill and the garden, but I was not at the Archives. My interest is in Terra alone.”
Lycus's frown deepened. “Alya, this has to stop.”
Alya browsed the office while she spoke. “I agree,” she said before lingering on the holoface picture of twelve individuals standing in two rows. She then turned back to him. “Obviously you need to be more accommodating so I may come and go as I please.”
Lycus stood, pointing at Terra. “This tiro is mine!”
Terra shifted at the outburst.
Lycus snarled at Alya. “The moment I accepted her into my training program, she became mine. She will do as I say and I alone will decide if she passes or fails.”
Alya continued to smile. “Oh don't be so dramatic, Cerberus. It's only one little mission.”
“Mission?” Terra asked.
Alya shrugged. “I felt guilty after forgetting to tell you about the accident, so I will make it up to you.”
Terra raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“We will go on a real mission. An exciting one! Not one of those boring missions. Besides, you could stand to get out of this place for a little while,” Alya said, looking around Lycus's office with a sour expression. She turned back to Terra and smiled. “Nothing freshens up boring training quite like live combat.”
Aeon Legion: Labyrinth Page 20
