by Zen DiPietro
Ina did. Without a doubt, if Kassimeigh had a passion for R&D, the people of Terath could benefit tremendously. But. “She has to want to. She’s already spent years of her life serving the people of Terath. Her choice needs to reflect her own desire, not the benefit of others.”
Luc sighed and his irritation ebbed along with his breath. His features softened. “Indeed.” He gave Ina a resigned smile and resumed his dinner. “I’ll tell you what,” he bargained. “We give her a few months to sort it out. But by the end of the year, you and I will have a wedding.”
“I accept your terms.” She held in the laughter that tickled her throat.
Kassimeigh staunched the flow of mana and focused just a tiny bit on perfecting the curve of the doorway. The stone shaved off a fraction of a millimeter on one side and grew half that amount on the other. There. She released the rest of the mana she’d harnessed and slid her hand over the smooth stone.
Stepping back, she admired the general’s new dining room with a sense of satisfaction. This space offered greater intimacy than the large mess hall, and would give Will a formal area to entertain visitors. Over the past few days she’d remodeled the entire fortress to better serve its new military purpose. The bathroom facilities now adequately provided for so many people. Only the small indoor arboretum remained unmodified. She’d decided it was perfect as it was.
Though there might be some minor tweaks here and there in regard to wall color or shelving, she considered the project complete. She felt remarkably good about how useful and productive her work had been. Her duties as a justice had given her great satisfaction, but they had never resulted in a product that she could see, feel, and utilize in this way. An unusual pride of accomplishment washed through her.
Carston Everly stepped through the doorframe and grinned at her. “You’re looking happy.”
She smiled at him, noticing his golden hair, sun-bronzed skin, and palpable sex appeal. Even among hundreds of strong, dedicated warriors, Carston had an edge of confident menace that made him stand out. He also had a wicked smile, which he wore more often than not. Kassimeigh did not find it surprising that Izzy had singled him out for her particular interest. The empath was drawn to complex personalities. And muscular men.
“I’m pleased with the remodeling,” she agreed. “It’s good to see you. I knew you were here but hadn’t caught sight of you until now.”
“I’m almost always outside. Training others or training myself. For me, there’s nothing better.” A light of humor sparked in his eyes. “Well, almost.”
The corners of Kassimeigh’s mouth slid upward. “I tried to convince Izzy to come up here for a visit but she was doing some intensive counseling and couldn’t break free. She promised she’d try to come up soon.”
“That’d be great. I haven’t seen her in a few weeks. We’ve both been particularly busy.”
“We’re living in a time of change,” Kassimeigh observed. “It creates a lot of work.”
Carston shrugged. “As long as there’s a job for me as a blade, it’s all the same to me.”
“It will be interesting to see how things change, given that there are far fewer blades available for hire.”
“Truth is, for every blade with a job, there were twenty without. Nobody made a living by being a blade. The Guard has created an opportunity to make a full-time job of it. Plus, we get to know that the next time people need help, whatever it is, we’ll be there. Ready.”
She hadn’t realized that blades had outnumbered jobs so greatly, but it made sense. Few situations required the services of an armed guard or escort. Most of the time, they served primarily as a show of prestige.
“I understand you’re still the first lieutenant, until you decide otherwise.”
Since he was right behind her in the command structure, he had good reason to ask the question he left unspoken. She studied him and detected no ambition or cunning. Only speculation.
He, along with a few hundred others who had comprised their hastily created battalion, had sworn their loyalty to her when she’d saved them all with her manahi talents. She wondered if that vow still held.
“I’ve had very little time since leaving the order. I haven’t decided anything long-term yet.”
“Ahh, then you’re considering it.”
She leveled the scrutiny of a justice at him. “Would you want me to permanently join?”
“This Guard is so new it’s still shiny. Our soldiers need time to find trust in one another. But you have the implicit faith of most everyone here. No one else can offer that. You’re the ideal first officer.”
She hadn’t thought of it that way. Now she’d have to. “I’ll take that into my consideration.”
He grinned. “Good. Meanwhile, we’ll try to find ways to make you want to stay.”
“It’s flattering, of course, to be wanted.”
Azure stepped into the room. “Oh, dear. Have I come at a bad moment? Perhaps I should go.” She feinted toward the door with a quirky grin.
“Just discussing my future.” Kassimeigh’s light tone dismissed the serious topic. “Nothing untoward.”
Azure sighed dramatically. “Well, of course not. I couldn’t hope for that kind of fun. But if you’re talking about your future in terms of the Guard, I’m all for that. My orders have just been approved and I’m officially the chief medical officer of this bunch.”
“Congratulations.” Kassimeigh enjoyed Azure’s obvious pleasure and enthusiasm.
“Yes, congratulations.” Carston offered his hand to the doctor. “Carston Everly. I don’t think we’ve ever officially met.”
Azure openly appraised him as she accepted his hand and held it a beat too long. “Azure Keating. But if you’re a member of the Guard you can call me ‘Doctor.’”
“Glad to meet you, Doc.”
She gave him a nod and a smile, then caught Kassimeigh’s eye. “Wasn’t this the last room you needed to remodel?” She scrutinized the dining room’s arched doorways and the polished stone floor. “It looks great.”
“Thank you. I’ve really enjoyed it.”
“Will you stay on at the fortress or move on to the monorail construction?”
Everyone is so interested in my plans, Kassimeigh thought. She supposed it only made sense that people would be curious, but she wasn’t accustomed to people inquiring about her personal life. She’d prefer to weigh her options privately, rather than discuss them.
Out loud, she answered, “I don’t know yet. My assistance with the monorail hasn’t been requested, though now that you mention it, it seems very sensible. The sooner the monorail runs up here, the more mobile and responsive the Guard can become.”
Carston nudged Azure. “Shhhhh,” he hissed. “Don’t send her elsewhere. I’m trying to convince her to take a commission!”
Azure laughed at his mock admonition. “All you can do is make your case and let her weigh the facts for herself. But good luck. I need to get back to work. I hear there might be some broken bones waiting for me in the infirmary.” She tilted her head to the side, appraising Carston. “I’m sure I’ll see you there soon.”
His good-natured chuckle followed her out of the room, leaving Kassimeigh alone with him again.
“I imagine she’s right. I won’t badger you about it anymore. Today.” He winked.
“Wouldn’t you rather move up to second in command, yourself?” Once she stepped out of her temporary position, he’d be the natural choice.
He shrugged his burly shoulders. “Second, fifth, third. Just a numbers game. I don’t care about that.”
She hadn’t expected such modesty from him, and it raised her opinion of him even more.
“I’m hungry enough to eat a tree. I’m going to grab some food. I’ll talk to you later.” He pivoted toward the doorway.
Kassimeigh gave him a distracted wave and took a last look around the room, thinking about her future. She knew she was lucky to have options, but didn’t know what choice would be
st serve her in the long run. If she were still a shiv, she wouldn’t have to redefine her life.
She ran her hand over the smooth arch of the doorframe again, taking pride in its precision. She’d take each new experience as it came to her and leave off any decision making until the decision felt so right, it made itself. Meanwhile, she decided to turn her attention to more physical pursuits.
The sword in Kassimeigh’s hand was wooden, but far from harmless. In fact, her current opponent sported a collection of darkening bruises. The young man’s brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to find an opening in her guard. He feinted left to attack right, but again she easily parried the blow, batting his wooden sword away as though it were a child’s toy. He took a quick step backward and raised his practice sword for a cross-body slash, but before he could put any muscle into the swing, he fell hard onto his back. He blinked up at her dazedly, trying to find his breath.
Kassimeigh stepped to his side, looming over him to offer her hand. She helped him up and made sure he was steady on his feet. “Can you tell me what you did wrong?”
“Agree to spar with you?”
Kassimeigh ignored the guffaws from the troops who circled them, just as she did his answer. “You shifted your weight to your back foot before it was on the ground. All I had to do was pull that knee and you were done. One wrong step, literally, can get you killed. Foot skills are every bit as important as weapon skills.”
The young man nodded. “Thank you. I’ll work on that.” He darted a look at her. “Really hard.”
A thought occurred to Kassimeigh. “Take some dance lessons.”
The men on the training ground froze, as if unsure of what they’d just heard.
“Did you say dance lessons?”
“I did. It’s a great way to learn balance and weight shifts. If you do enough of it, your feet will gain an intelligence all their own. Muscle memory runs deep, and smart feet save lives.”
The knot of men around her tried to hide their chagrin, but their attitudes were uniform in their wariness. Clearly, no one wanted to risk insulting her by suggesting that dance was not a desirable training method. Well, fine, she thought. “I’ll talk to Will about bringing in a dance teacher for group training.”
She could practically hear the collective groan that the troops suppressed, and she didn’t hide her smile. “Total dedication, troops. Discipline is not for the weak-minded.” She flipped her wooden sword up so that the blade rested on her shoulder and strode away, laughing inwardly. She could definitely find a niche for herself in training troops. She’d enjoyed both the teaching and the teasing. Though dance training had been a serious suggestion. Those troops would soon find that dancing was a far more demanding discipline than they’d anticipated. A true warrior’s sport.
She returned the training sword to the equipment room, glad that she hadn’t bothered with any neolite. The light fabric armor was the norm for combat training, but she hadn’t thought she’d need it. She’d wanted to impress on the new recruits how much they had to learn. Challenge could inspire tremendous motivation, and kicking their asses with little effort and no armor had done the job well. As a bonus, she needn’t spend time wrestling herself out of sweaty neolite.
She entered the fortress through the new side entrance she’d fashioned. A zing in her chest slightly preceded Arc’s arm catching her around the waist. The familiar tingle of energy sparked between them as she leaned into him.
“Out teaching the troops a lesson?”
“A few of them. They’re coming along well.”
“Does it make you want to stay here?”
“Some. I like training and teaching. I have numerous friends here.”
He touched his forefinger to her temple and wiped away a bead of perspiration.
“What brought you out to find me?”
“I’d like to be offended and say that I don’t need a purpose to come see you, but I do have one in this case. Aunt Ina sent a pair of messengers. She wants both of us to join her in Capital to discuss the results of the tests.”
“Did she give you any hints about why?”
“No, no hints. The message arrived on a hand comm via courier. She didn’t go into detail, but those two guys looked tired, like they’d worn themselves out just getting here. Too bad we still don’t have a comm link up here.”
“I’m sure they’re doing all they can for the comm link, as well as the monorail.” She saw regret cast a shadow over Arc. “What?”
“I was just thinking, we won’t have time for a leisurely trip back.”
Despite her concerns about the situation, a smirk twisted her lips and she had to fight a smile. “I think you’ll live.”
“I might. Can I come help you pack?”
This time she couldn’t fight her grin. “No. Ina must have sent that message days ago and it will take us days to return to the mid-lats. We shouldn’t waste any time.”
“Oh, it’s a time waster now, is it? You weren’t saying that on the way h—”
She cut him off with an authoritative finger point. “Go to your own room and pack.”
“I don’t even know why Will gave us separate rooms.” When she opened her mouth, he held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, I’m going, but you’re missing out.” He whistled a jaunty song as he strolled away.
Six days later, Arc and Kassimeigh joined Ina Trewe, Luc, and Dr. Finnan Sparks in a meeting room at the Capital Research Laboratory. Dr. Sparks was average height and weight, with curly brown hair and kind brown eyes. He paced the room with barely controlled enthusiasm. Kassimeigh guessed him to be in his early thirties. She’d expected the lead scientist of the most cutting-edge scientific research lab to be a bit older. She supposed he must be particularly brilliant in his field.
The trek from Apex down to the mid-lats had gone as well as it could, but Kassimeigh had made the journey far too many times to do anything but dislike it.
Seated next to her at a long, narrow table, Arc squinted at the black dot displayed on the comm panel. “I kind of expected . . . more.” He looked a bit disappointed.
The scientist’s chin lifted defensively. “The sample’s tiny, yes, but that’s the unmagnified image. Here it is magnified a thousand times.” He switched the view.
The image appeared larger now, but failed to become more interesting. The dark blob with irregular, fuzzy edges offered no enlightenment.
Kassimeigh gestured at the blob. “What is this?”
Sparks stood next to the comm panel, his eyes scanning the sample as if it might suddenly have some new information to impart to him. “Of all the analyses we ran of the samples from the deforested areas, this was the only thing we could not identify. Yet it shows up consistently in all of the samples. There are two interesting characteristics. First, it’s organic.”
“So it’s alive?” she asked dubiously.
“No, but either it once was, or it came from a living thing.”
“Can you tell us, precisely, what it is?” she asked.
“Nope. It doesn’t have any cell structure or DNA pattern that we recognize.”
“So you don’t know if it’s animal, vegetable, or mineral?”
“There’s nothing like it on record, so as of yet, we haven’t determined just what it is.”
The conversation was circling around itself and going nowhere. She gestured at herself and Arc. “So why are we all here looking at this thing?”
“Because it has its own mana signature.” Sparks’ eyes widened with excitement.
Kassimeigh stared at the image on the screen. Inanimate objects exhibited a trace of a signature if a person used mana to manipulate them. But the idea of an object having its own signature was like suggesting a rock could have its own personality.
“Only living manahi have their own unique mana signatures.” She felt foolish stating such an obvious fact.
“We’ve always taken that for granted, until now. We were shocked, but when we did bioluminescence
tests, we got results that suggested mana. These things have a faint light emission outside of our visual spectrum.”
Sparks touched the side panel of the comm, causing the image to change to a table showing the results of numerous emissions tests. “Luc examined the aggregated samples and confirmed that he could detect a signature, though it was minute.”
Dr. Sparks’ face flushed. “It’s the first time an inanimate object has ever possessed its own signature. This thing has its own mana. What does that mean? How does it happen? We don’t know!”
Utter glee danced in his eyes and Kassimeigh wondered if the man might pass out from his excitement. That would be bad in this room of hard surfaces and sharp angles.
Her eyes shifted to Luc. She knew she could count on him to remain grounded. “What did you sense when you examined it?”
“Just a tiny, inert mana signature. Nothing that I’d even notice had I not been looking for it.” He glowered at the overzealous scientist, who made a visible attempt to collect himself. “Bring in the sample for her to examine.”
The scientist nodded eagerly and hurled himself toward the door. A couple minutes later he returned with a shallow, round sample container and handed it to Kassimeigh with reverent care.
She focused her senses on the sample. Indeed, she detected an infinitesimal signature. She probably would have overlooked it if she weren’t actively seeking it out, but it was there, and she had no idea what that meant. She met Luc’s gaze and nodded, then handed the specimen back to Sparks, who cradled it in his hands like it was his own nearly microscopic newborn child. His deference to a speck of unknown something or other made her want to smile. But it did present some puzzling possibilities.
“You said it was an aggregated sample?”
“Yes. We combined all of the individual samples. That’s what allowed Luc to sense the signature. Apparently, those areas were littered with teensy little instances of whatever this is. They vary in size from a speck of dust to a grain of sand.”
“So what does this mean? And what do we do next?” Kassimeigh glanced at Ina, but the magistrate remained silent.
