“Well, what did he say?” Boon was nearly bursting with impatience.
Sara gave her a sad smile. “He said that we were the monsters.”
3
Mezner found nothing more of interest with her deep scans of the ravaged planet. There was no sign of the huge dreadnought that should have been there, and the Marines confirmed it was a ghost town when they subdued one of the small worker bots.
The bot didn’t fight them as they had feared, but instead complied with their prodding it onto the dropship, and stood still as they strapped it in. When the dropship reached orbit, the squad reported that the bot powered down, and that they had not been able to get it started again. It was now resting in a crate, awaiting delivery to the white coats back at the UHFC.
The Raven had received the call to return to Earth promptly, to prepare for the retaking of Effrit. Sara inferred that what had happened was the prince and empress had been picked up by the Elif and were no longer in the system.
“So, tell me again how this is supposed to be relaxing?” Boon huffed, balancing on one leg in Warrior Three.
As the ship made its way back to Sol, Sara insisted that Alicia join her for some yoga.
“It trains your body and mind to work together,” she imparted. “It’s saved my butt on two occasions, when my powers were starting to get out of control.” Sara was barely glistening with sweat.
Boon pulled the bottom of her shirt up and mopped her forehead, noting that it was already drenched. “I can barely do the moves, let alone center my mind. I don’t know that this is for me,” she complained, but still went into Standing Triangle.
“It takes years of practice, but trust me, it’s worth it. I mean, come on, how do you think I have such a rockin’ bod?” she said with a smile.
“Genetics. Probably. Remember that I’ve seen Cora, and you two look pretty much the same.”
Sara laughed as she returned to Plank and then pushed into Chaturanga. “Well, that’s part of it. But I’m a lot stronger than Cora.”
“Only physically,” Cora qualified snidely from the speakers.
“When you get out of that tank, I’m going to wrestle you to the ground, then beat you at chess,” Sara taunted, looking up at the ceiling.
“One of those things is true,” Cora allowed lightheartedly. “Speaking of—Teichek says that, when we get back, I need to come out of the tank for maintenance.”
Sara raised her eyebrows. “Really? Awesome. I haven’t been able to kick your butt since you went in.”
“It will be nice to actually touch someone again,” Cora said longingly.
Boon flopped to her butt, and brought her feet together to stretch out her groin. “I can’t take anymore. I’m done. We’ve been at this for forty-five minutes. I need a break.”
Sara laughed, but rolled to her butt and began stretching as well. “Okay. That was pretty good for your first time; next time, I’ll start us off a little easier.”
Boon groaned. “Ugh, ‘next time’? Kill me now.”
“She used to try and get me to do it with her. I never understood her obsession with yoga,” Cora said sympathetically.
“That’s because you never gave it a real try. You would do three poses, then tell me it was too hard.”
Boon grimaced. “She isn’t wrong. It is pretty hard.”
“Too bad you don’t have a choice,” Sara said to the still-sweaty Boon. “This is about control. Control of your mind. There is far too much at stake to let ourselves run amok with our powers, so every little edge that we can get, we need to take.”
Boon held up a hand to stop her. “I know. It just kinda sucks is all. I’m not quitting.”
“Good. I like it when you push yourself. Being a War Mage is about more than power; it’s about control and dedication,” Sara said, taking a sip of water from the sports bottle beside her.
Boon got a distant look in her eye. “What’s it going to be like when there are other War Mages? They’re not all going to do hours of yoga to stay centered.”
Sara had been thinking about this herself, and she was no closer to an answer. “I think it’s something that we will just have to wait and see. Now that we know that being a War Mage is genetic, maybe every candidate will have markers that make them better able to handle the power?” She looked over at Alister and Silva. “Or, maybe their familiars will temper them better. I know that mine and Alister’s connection makes me look at the universe in a new light.”
Boon glanced at the two pixies, piled on top of one another. “That’s true. Silva and I have been talking in the Aether quite a bit, and she has really opened my eyes to a few things.”
Sara was thoughtful for a second. “I think we should all meet tonight. We need to discuss the future, and I want Alister’s and Silva’s opinions.”
Both familiars raised their heads and gave nods of approval, to Boon’s amusement. “I think they agree. Okay, I’ll see you tonight.” She rolled to her feet and began rolling up her yoga mat.
“I really wish I could join you. What’s it like?” Cora asked, her words dreamy.
Sara cocked her head, “That’s actually something we need to talk about. You need to become a War Mage.”
Cora laughed. “And how am I supposed to do that from this tank?”
“Well, you have a maintenance cycle coming up…” Sara reminded her with a shrug. “Think about it.”
4
Sara climbed into bed and snuggled up to Baxter’s side, laying her head on his chest, sighing contentedly.
“You all right?” he asked, reaching an arm around her and lazily combing his fingers through her hair.
“Mmhm,” she hummed, shifting under the covers and enjoying the feel of his soft skin on hers. “I just know its going to be a busy few weeks to come, so I’m trying to enjoy myself.”
“I know what you mean,” he said, moving from her hair to lightly rubbing her back. “I have the Mages working double practices to adapt to me and Gonders improved Aether control. It’s already made a huge difference.”
“I’ll bet. Your tactics would be completely different when two of you are able to take twice the fire on your shields,” Sara said, her mind immediately thinking of how she would utilize such abilities if she were in Baxter’s shoes.
He gave a laugh, “I don’t know about twice the fire, but a solid fifty percent more isn’t unreasonable.”
Alister hopped onto the end of the bed and high-stepped across the covers till he was directly behind Sara, and curled into a ball against her butt. To her slight irritation he liked to sleep against her, and more often than not she was on her side cuddling with Baxter, so her butt was the most accessible part of her. She reached behind her, and gave him a scratch on the head.
“I keep getting the feeling of unease from you,” Baxter said, quietly before leaning down and kissing the top of her head. “What’s that all about?”
Sara hesitated, “I’ve just been tired lately. Searching the galaxy for a group of ‘other humans’ is stressful,” she said with a shrug.
“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine, but you don’t need to make excuses,” he said, smiling. “Remember, I can feel what your emotions if I focus a little.”
She sighed, “Oh, right. I forget sometimes,” she said, looking up at him with a half smile. “I’m worried that my decisions are putting the crew in danger.”
His eyebrows rose, “More than usual?”
She slapped him playfully on the stomach, “Yes, smartass, more than usual.”
He grunted at the sudden impact and laughed, “Is this something more than the bombshells you dropped on us about keeping the UHFC in the dark?”
“Honestly, it’s just some ideas I’ve been kicking around about humanity’s place in the universe.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, stroking her hair lightly.
She hummed in the negative and snuggled down tight against him, “Not right now. Right now, I just want to be here
with you and not worry about it.”
He pulled her in tight, “That works for me.”
Sara opened her eyes to the all-encompassing white of the Aether. She took a deep breath, and relaxed, letting the calming feel of the space fill her.
“Still haven’t mastered the whole clothes thing yet, have you,” an amused, baritone voice teased.
“Shut up, Alister. Let me enjoy this for a bit,” she said, taking another breath. After a few seconds, she willed herself into her familiar, blue sundress, and sat up.
Alister wore his black pants and shoes, with a royal blue vest over a crisp, white shirt. He sat in a leather, high-backed chair, and sipped from a brandy snifter.
“Hello,” he said with a wave.
Sara smiled. “You are the oddest person I’ve ever met, you know that?”
He nodded. “By far.”
“Where are Silva and Boon? Shouldn’t they be here by now? I didn’t get to bed ‘til late,” Sara admitted, looking around the empty, white expanse.
“They must not have fallen asleep yet. Silva said she would be here as soon as Boon was out,” Alister told her, taking a sip of brandy.
Sara willed a beer into her hand and joined him in imbibing. “You know, we never talk.”
Alister shrugged. “Well, we tend to go from one crisis to another. There’s not a lot of time, I guess.”
“Boon mentioned that she talks with Silva all the time. We should really make an effort,” she pressed, raising an eyebrow.
He nodded. “Not as much as Silva and I talk, but they do communicate quite a bit.”
Sara put up a hand. “Wait, you and Silva meet here? Without us? I didn’t know that was possible.”
He gave her a look that said a lot. “Of course we can. It’s how most pixies communicate over distance. Why do you think we’re always napping together?”
Sara shrugged. “I don’t know, I figured it’s just what cats and ferrets do.”
“You know we’re still pixies, even if we are in animal form, right?”
“Duh, but you like rough pets, and you purr, and do cat things all the time,” she pointed out, getting a little defensive.
He gave a short nod. “Well, it is true that we tend to be very animal-like in our forms, but that doesn’t mean we are those animals. We’re more like half and half. There are some instincts that take over, but on the whole, we’re still us.” He gave her a hard look. “Besides, who says I don’t like a good spanking as a pixie?”
Sara blushed, then realized he was joking when he burst out laughing. “Oh, god, your face!”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, asshole, you got me. Seriously though, I don’t know all that much about you.”
He wiped a tear from his eye. “What would you like to know?”
She shrugged. “Everything? What did you do before I summoned you?”
He cleared his throat, and took another sip of brandy, his face still red from laughing. “I was a tailor.”
“You made clothes?” she asked incredulously.
“Yeah. I had a little shop outside the academy where I sold them to the local community. I was talking to a customer, and BAM, I was summoned. It took me a while to figure out what the hell was happening; by the time I got the customer out, I was already transforming into my cat shape.”
Sara stared at him, trying to process everything. “You owned a shop? In a community of pixies?”
He nodded. “Yeah. The shop was actually my father’s, but he decided to move back to the larger city, so I took over. The communities outside the pixie cities are pretty sparse, but they tend to cover a lot of ground. We pixies are everywhere. We are just usually in our animal forms, so no one is the wiser.”
“I didn’t know that,” Boon said, sitting up from where she had just appeared—fully-clothed in pajamas, to Sara’s chagrin. “Silva, you never said there were communities of pixies all over the place.”
“You never asked,” came Silva’s voice, and Sara swiveled her head to see the beautiful pixie stepping around Alister’s chair.
Silva smiled down at the dapper pixie, and put a hand on his shoulder that Sara couldn’t help but notice.
“Are you two…” Sara asked, waggling her eyebrows.
They looked at one another and shrugged. Alister spoke up. “Pixies are pretty familiar with one another.”
Silva smiled, and sat on the arm of his chair. “Well, it’s just the two of us here, so we don’t really have many other friends to talk to.”
Sara frowned. “I suppose you’re right. Sorry, I never considered you would be lonely.”
Alister shrugged. “I’m not lonely. I’m with you all the time, and now that Silva is here, I have a friend that understands. Besides, we’re War Mages, and that’s pretty badass.”
“About that, we should probably get down to business. Isabella gets up pretty early, and I don’t want to scare her if I don’t respond,” Boon said, only turning slightly red.
“Right. Okay. The dreadnought. What do we do about it? And we need Cora to become a War Mage, so how do we make that happen?” Sara said, focusing on the task at hand.
It was Silva who took the lead. “I’m not sure what we should do about the dreadnought, but as far as Cora is concerned, we need to get her a volunteer as soon as possible. The histories say that a War Mage as controller in a starship is unbelievable. She would have capabilities we can only dream of.”
“Capabilities like what?” Sara asked.
Silva hesitated. “Uh, I’m not really sure. I just heard stories growing up.”
“Yeah, the stories are kind of a thing in pixie society, but they’re a little abstract, like Greek mythology. I do agree that she needs to get this done, though, and soon,” Alister concluded.
“Okay, how do we do that if she’s always on a ship in space? She said she was coming out of the tank for a maintenance cycle, but I’m sure she will be going right back in as soon as possible.”
“We could go find a volunteer,” Boon suggested. “We should talk to the pixie council anyway to make sure the dreadnought stays a secret, if you’re still wanting that to be the case.”
Silva perked up. “That’s a great idea. We could go down when we get back. The Keepers of the Record will want to have a chance to get someone who’s been trained as a familiar in the position.”
“They train for it?” Sara asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes, it’s tradition. There is always a class who is prepared for a pairing, even though it’s been thousands of years,” Silva said.
“Huh, I bet Cora would like that her familiar is already trained up. Might make the transition easier for her. Okay, Boon. You and Silva head down to Atlantis and talk with the council. I do want to keep the dreadnought under wraps for now; at this point, I’m already going to be in trouble for not mentioning it, so what’s another few weeks? Me and Alister will convince Cora she needs to do this, and then you will have to get back here quickly so she has time to adapt. I’m not sure how long we will have; if I know anything about the speed of government, it’s going to be longer than the ‘immediate return’ order is hinting at”
5
With a familiar flash, the Raven‘s view screen resolved into the familiar sights of the Sol System. Earth hung to their left, her blue and white surface looking very inviting after the two weeks the Raven and her crew had been out scouring the galaxy for humanity’s distant cousins.
“Captain, I have a communication from the UHFC,” Mezner reported.
“Hopefully a detailed timeline, and attack plan,” Grimms said, from beside Sara, as he flipped through his tablet.
“Put it onscreen.”
The screen changed to a recording of Admiral Franklin, his white hair shining in the afternoon light from his office window. “Captain Sonders, it is good that you are back, and I look forward to hearing what you have found. As you may have noticed, the Elif battlecruiser the Regent is still in orbit. The prince and the empress are aboard, and are
preparing for the retaking of Effrit. The plans are coming together nicely, and we will be prepared to leave when the scattered Elif forces are gathered at the rendezvous point in six days’ time. In the meantime, you and the Raven are to dock at Xanadu and resupply.
“I apologize for the early callback, but the Admiralty was getting anxious with the new War Mage recruits, and wanted you close in case they had any questions that the Alant program couldn’t handle.” He gave a smile. “To be honest, I think they may have realized just how much power a War Mage has, and want to keep you all under watch. You officially have the next five days off for leave, so be sure to rest up. This is going to be quite the battle.”
The admiral reached to shut off the recording, but stopped. “One more thing. Two of the War Mage candidates have received their familiars. We are outfitting one of the battleships, the Catagain, for a tank system. They will be leading the assault on Effrit with the prince. The Raven will be handling the battle for Suttri, the second habitable Elif planet in the system. We don’t want to cause an incident between us and the prince by forcing you two into close proximity. I understand, and even agree with, your actions, but this is a political matter. I hope you understand.”
The screen changed back to the view of Earth, and Sara could make out the huge Elif battlecruiser, the Regent, coming over the horizon.
“Well, I guess Boon and I are not the only War Mages anymore,” Sara said, feeling a little at a loss for words at the notion.
“We knew it was coming. It had to, or we would never survive this fight,” Grimms reassured her.
She nodded. “I know. I’m just not sure what we’re fighting for anymore. Not really. We have positioned ourselves as the Elif’s hammer, on a conquest to take down their enemies, but is that what’s best for humanity?”
Grimms frowned. “Best or not, it’s what we’ve been ordered to do.”
“I know. I’ll follow orders, you don’t have to worry about that. I just feel like there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than we’re being told,” Sara mused. “There is a change coming; something festering just out of sight.”
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