by Day Leitao
“Of course! And you know what it was? A trap. For those gullible enough to forget their commitments.”
“You were there.”
Marcus tilted his head. “True, but I didn’t remain long. I mean, fine, maybe I didn’t sleep as much as I should, but still. Anyway, you know what they want? They want to see who’s bitter and jealous, that’s what they want. And that’s why you’re supposed to go and pretend you’re not bothered in the least.”
Dess took a deep breath. “I am bothered. Their process is unfair, stupid, and they feed us lies for years. Why should I pretend everything is fine? If all they wanted was to get people with powerful parents, why make us go through all that? The people they chose are all a bunch of dimwits.”
Marcus looked down. “Sylvia was accepted.”
Dess shrugged. Strange that he hadn’t barely registered it. “I guess if they don’t pick at least one initiate with brains it’ll be too obvious.”
His friend looked him in the eye. “I know you’re upset, but look at the bright side. Nobody will notice it. You’re always gloomy and quiet. Come with me, please. I don’t want to go alone. This one time.”
“Can’t you go with her?”
Marcus looked away and back. “It’s not like that. We aren’t together or anything. And… I’m not you. I can’t just quit the army. My father would never let me do that. I need to go and make a good impression, but I need my friend with me.”
It was odd how sometimes Marcus spoke as if his life was worse than Dess’s. Still, he got up. “I’ll get ready.”
It felt good to dress in something other than the uniform, and get in his old clothes. His pants and shirt weren’t exactly appropriate for the occasion, but he covered it all with a long coat. The temperature was never too cold in Saphirlune, powerful heaters in the city dome keeping it just comfortable enough not to require thick coats. He lined his eyes, aware of the irony in the fact that he’d never seen his failure coming. Not his failure, though, the academy’s. Still.
That reminded him to stop and see—really see. There was always more to be known. Perhaps there was something hidden behind his cloud of anger. Perhaps this had some meaning. He didn’t even want to start to think how he’d make a living tomorrow. Either way, on to the party. Perhaps he had to forget he had no plans, no job, no prospect for tomorrow and enjoy today while it lasted.
The mood was gloomy at the grand salon at the academy headquarters. Or perhaps it was just Dess. Sam and Amil, who’d been accepted, were boisterous and noisy. Some of the failed initiates were also having the time of their lives. The truth is that, for most of them, not getting in command training meant things were about to get real. If armed conflict resumed, they’d be in the thick of it. Not Dess, though. He had no idea where he would be, since he’d just thrown away an entire life. Not entire. There had been a life before that, a life with stories, magic, and great hopes for a future that never came. He ran his hands on his rings. Infinity and power.
“What are you thinking?” Marcus asked.
They were both leaning against a wall, and he didn’t want to consider if it looked casual or as if they were just moping. “The war. It might restart. You’re going to be there.”
Marcus hit Dess’s shoulder. “So will you. You think they’ll let a talented initiate like you get away?”
“Maybe a talented initiate like me wants no more of this bullshit.”
“Maybe.”
Dess couldn’t convince his friend that he wasn’t going to change his mind or that they wouldn’t accept him back. Denial. He’d get over it. Dess would get over it. The other unspoken issue was that they would be pulled apart. He hadn’t considered it when he’d thrown his insignia in the trash, but, to be fair, in his state of mind, he hadn’t considered anything.
Sylvia and Layla walked in. Another two friends who would be split. Sylvia had her dark hair tied in a tight braid, and didn’t act as though she’d been one of the few picked for command. Neither of them greeted Dess and Marcus or even looked in their direction.
“You think she’s angry?” Marcus asked.
“How can I know? Did you do anything to make her upset?”
His friend fiddled with one of his braids. “I don’t think so…”
“Then no worries.”
Dess wondered if Sylvia would have done the same thing to him. He’d better stop wondering anything related to him and her, though, as that path no longer existed. Still, he kept thinking about how sometimes people treated each other as if they were disposable. In this case, he wasn’t sure who was treating who like that, and didn’t care. Fine, maybe he did. His friend was the one worried, so it was her.
Marcus still stared at Sylvia, looking dejected. It was sad how their group of friends was crumbling. He closed his eyes. No wonder Saphirlune had no access to Mainland, and it probably never would, if its future soldiers were more interested in hooking up with each other than in fighting. Youth. Perhaps if a large part of the adult population hadn’t died in the Battle of Stars, five years before, they wouldn’t need to depend on teens like him to defeat that stupid planet.
He opened his eyes and saw his friend still looking at Sylvia.
Dess turned to him. “You can congratulate her.”
Marcus had a puzzled look.
He added, “It’s polite, and doesn’t mean anything.”
“I guess,” Marcus said, still leaning on the wall looking almost as if he’d been asked to volunteer on a dangerous mission.
Dess stared at him. “Just go.”
His friend took a deep breath. “You’re right.” He stepped away from where they stood.
Dess closed his eyes again. He needed to be alone with his mind, just for a moment. When he opened his eyes, Marcus was gone. For fun, he snapped his fingers.
“What are you doing?” Nadia was standing beside him. She was Leader Aziz’s daughter, obviously chosen to go on to command. The fact that her father owned Staralloy didn’t make things any better.
“Snapping.” He didn’t bother to look at her, since she was there just to humiliate him.
“Listen, I… I feel really bad. This was a horrible mistake. I could speak to my mother. If anyone should be in command training, that should be you.”
“Save your effort.” Like he predicted, she wanted to humiliate him.
“You’re going to tell me you don’t care?”
Dess finally looked at her. Her blond braids were neatly tied, unlike most people in the party who had adopted a more casual look. He said, “I shouldn’t have to depend on anyone’s favors.”
She tilted her head. “But it’s not a favor, it’s setting things right. Justice’s not a favor.”
“Justice is relative.”
“I’m serious, Dess. Is there something I can do for you?” She looked at him expectantly.
“There is. Leave me alone.”
She sighed then walked away. Perhaps offending the leader’s daughter wasn’t the best idea. But then, it wasn’t as if it could make any difference, and at that moment he hated her family and everyone in the military leadership.
Neither Marcus nor Sylvia were anywhere near Dess. Layla was with another group of people. Having accompanied his friend, his mission there was completed, and Dess walked outside. That was a tiny garden, with some bushes, but still, he’d spent more hours there than he could remember, between lessons and training.
Not real nature, though. The only resemblance of nature in that moon was in the Staralloy mansion, in the garden that had once been his. Real nature was hundreds of kilometers away, on the planet he’d never set foot on. All his readings on the Terens spoke about nature and power, and how the two were connected. But from here, all he had was the magnificent view of the Mainland Planet, with its great oceans and gigantic storm clouds. He looked at the rings in his fingers, then, for fun again, snapped them.
This time nobody approached. For once he could prove his friend wrong, except that his friend was probably
too busy to know. He decided to head back home to try to find answers in the quietness of his bedroom. Maybe he had to know what questions to ask.
“Excuse-me?” a woman’s voice called from behind him.
Dess wasn’t sure if she was talking to him, but turned. She was looking at his direction, so he asked, “Yes?”
She wore a fake leather attire, and didn’t look like someone in the military, a mine worker or any of that. She asked, “Are you Dess Starspark?”
He frowned. There was something odd about her. “Why do you want to know?”
“It came to my knowledge that you might be looking for work. Come to the civil port tomorrow at noon our time.”
“The civil docks are abandoned.”
They had been for a long time, since trade and flight out of the system had been banned.
“I never said they weren’t.” She looked around, then leaned on him and whispered, “Tomorrow,” and walked away.
Weird. At least that was one person who knew he had to make some big decisions soon. Soon. What kind of decisions required going to an abandoned port was the question hanging in the air.
5
Mainland
The night sky was clear as they continued their journey. Saytera contemplated the surrounding universe before Saphirlune rose again, menacing and terrible, and yet beautiful.
Rocks appeared among the moonbeams on the water. Vivian still guided the boat at a great speed even in darkness. She knew. It was not about seeing the rocks, but feeling them. One Great Ocean. Everything connected. Still, Saytera had always thought guiding a boat through the Dotted Sea was about knowing it. But Vivian couldn’t possibly know the entire ocean, could she?
Saytera again stared at the darkness outside, when she saw a light on the horizon.
Vivian approached the girls. “That’s a monitor ship. Make sure you don’t use the kitchen downstairs. If they catch us, they’ll ask too many questions.”
She seemed a little apprehensive. Saytera asked, “Won’t they see us?”
“Their sensors look for artificial electricity. Fire can sometimes set them off.” She smiled. “But they don’t know there are other ways to travel.”
As they got closer, that thing looked scary. It was actually gigantic, with its lights illuminating the water by them. They spent many minutes passing by the ship. It was hard to believe that Vivian’s boat was invisible for that massive structure, but since nobody approached then, it must have been.
They reached Mainland a few hours later. Vivian’s boat docked in an underground cave connected to a large house through tunnels. Eating house, sleeping house and more were all in the same building, which was illuminated with lamps powered by artificial electricity, with switches on walls. Saytera turned the light on and off in one of the rooms. That was an easy way to control it with her mind… She could even understand why Nowla thought her exercises were useless. That thought reminded her of Yansin, but this wasn’t the time to think about her master.
The bed Saytera lay on was by a window, but the air was stuffy that night, and she couldn’t feel the ocean breeze the same way she felt in Ken Island. Ken Island… For a moment she feared never seeing it again. Nonsense. Vivian had given her word, and she meant it. Still, Saytera had a tight feeling on her chest. Her sleep was accompanied by troubled dreams with gigantic ships and dark corridors that led nowhere.
A soft whisper woke her up, “Saytera, run”.
Kerely’s voice. Saytera sat up, startled, but apart from Nowla, still sleeping, there was nobody in the room. A dream, most likely.
The sun shone outside, so she got up and went to another division in the same house. Vivian ate at a table. Maybe it was Vivian that Saytera had heard. Maybe. She sat down, thoughtful.
“Saytera, Saytera”, the woman said. “It’s not time to worry. Enjoy now for what it’s worth.”
Indeed. There was a reason she had come. “Can you show it to me now?”
“The village? You should perhaps wake up your friend so you two can go.”
Saytera looked down. “No. I mean, the things you said about my, uh, destiny.”
Vivian smiled. “You’re curious, aren’t you? Don’t worry. I know why you came, and you should know that’s why I brought you. You will learn the truth about you.”
“And you can’t tell me now?”
She sighed. “I gave my word that I would never tell you, and you’ll never, ever get anything from my mouth or my writing. Now, if by any chance you happen to meet someone who can tell you… that’s different, isn’t it?”
So Saytera would meet someone else. “Who is going to tell me?”
“Don’t spoil the surprise. You’d better eat now, and I’d better wake up your sleepy friend.”
Saytera sat back. Vivian sounded certain. That was promising and exciting. Strange how only now she realized she had doubted Vivian. And still she had come.
Vivian had to go out and do some things, but told the girls that they could go for a walk. Saytera definitely wanted to get to know the village.
Outside, there was a dock with several boats, bigger than rowboats, but smaller than Vivian’s boat. None of them had sails, and none of them looked like the boats in the islands. This was just the rest of a former merchant village, now ruined because of the war.
According to Vivian, there was a fishing station and a military base a few kilometers from there, but the village had nothing to do with any of it. Villagers fished or farmed for subsistence or did small work. Some hunted squid. Monetary exchange was rarely used over there; the inhabitants traded food, goods or services. Still, even if the village was small, Saytera enjoyed getting to know somewhere different from the islands where she’d grown up.
The people had clothes similar to the ugly ones she was wearing, and most men had very, very short hair, cropped near the scalp. Saytera made an effort to avoid staring after one of the men looked at her and smiled in a way that made her uncomfortable. The ocean looked calmer than it was around the islands, almost like a lake, instead of the wild and furious sea she knew. Even the bays in the islands were not as calm.
The girls then walked away from the sea. There were a few buildings here and there, surrounding a very wide path.
Nowla whispered in Saytera’s ear, “If you want to learn about your future, there’s a place I can take you.”
Saytera’s heart beat faster. “So you know who can tell me the truth about me?”
“Uh, I don’t mean whoever Vivian wants you to meet. I don’t know who that is. But… while we wait, we can talk to a stargazer.”
The word was mildly familiar. Oh, she recalled it. “They predict the future, don’t they?”
“That’s part of what they do.”
“Yansin told me it’s forbidden.”
Nowla snorted. “What’s not forbidden for Yansin? But you don’t need to talk to her, just come with me because I want to ask some questions.”
Saytera had a small curiosity about that. “You think this person would know about my secret? About whatever Vivian wants to tell me?”
“I don’t think they can tell you very specific stuff. But perhaps they can tell you other things. It’s fun.” She looked down, then smiled. “You shouldn’t take it too seriously.”
Nowla took Saytera to an old wooden house with a door painted golden. “That’s it.”
They entered. There were two women sitting on the only two chairs in a small room. The other door in the room was closed. It had an eye painted on it, in a colourful background, very beautiful.
“I guess we’ll have to wait.” Nowla said.
The two other women were probably waiting as well. The girls stood on a corner. She had a question for her friend, and whispered in her ear. “Do you think Vivian will mind that we’re here?”
“She told us to walk around the village. That’s what we’re doing, isn’t it?”
Nowla laughed her mischievous laughter Saytera liked so much. Perhaps that was what she woul
d miss the most. One of the women who were sitting down stared at the girls, as if noticing something. Perhaps she didn’t like the fact they were laughing? She got up and left.
Nowla rolled her eyes. “Oh, no. Now it’s going to go faster for us. How terrible.”
Saytera felt a little uneasy, as if they were perhaps disrespecting the place.
Her friend seemed to notice and got serious again. “It’s a small village. What are we supposed to do around here? At least there doesn’t seem to be much war going on. Too small even for that. Oh, but you have to stay a few days. I want you to see a big city, perhaps Citarella.”
That was the capital of the planet. Quite far from where they were, based on Saytera’s calculations and her memory of the Mainland map.
Nowla continued, “Maybe you’ll like it, maybe…” The girl stopped and bit her lip.
Saytera didn’t want to give her friend any false hopes. “Nowla, I have to go back. You said it was just a visit.”
“It is. I know. That’s why I want you to see as much as you can.”
Guilt stil gnawed on Saytera when she considered how she’d come without telling anyone. All she wanted to do now was learn whatever she had to learn then go back home. Still, it was good to be with her friend, and it was good to be in a different place.
Saytera smiled. “Maybe one day I’ll come and visit you.”
Nowla tilted her head, as if unsure. “Maybe.”
A woman opened the door. She wore the same kind of clothes everyone wore, seemed to be about Vivian’s age, and had brown hair slightly below her shoulders. Saytera felt a little disappointed. Somehow, she’d expected the stargazer to look more, more, she didn't even know what she expected. The masters on the islands had something about them; their appearance commanded reverence. This woman was just a woman. Maybe it was her clothes. But then, thinking about it, Vivian also had some of that commanding presence the masters had, even in ugly clothes. Maybe Saytera just expected something different.
The woman recognized Nowla and took a second to smile. “Oh, if it isn’t the doctor’s guest. Now with a friend. Well, come in.”