by David Oliver
“...And who is that?” I finally asked when it was clear she wasn’t going to say anything else.
“That is well above your pay grade,” she clarified with a smirk. “But rest assured that the small encounters and wars that the Andurran Empire conducts barely register on the Emperor’s mind. His focus is always on the Enemy, planning stratagems, strikes and counter strikes unknown and unseen by practically everyone, but their effects reverberate around the world. This does segue nicely into my answer to your next question however. The reason that you are not to inform anyone at the Academy about my presence is that we suspect that someone inside is working with the Enemy.”
Chapter 26
Suspicions
“What do you mean, someone is working with the Enemy?” I said, shocked. “Are you saying that you don’t trust people at the Academy? It’s the Imperator Academy for crying out loud, it’s meant to train those most loyal to the Empire. How can it house a threat?”
“The Enemy is insidious,” Anatha said softly, and I could see grief warring on her face. “It seduces, beguiles and entraps. You have seen it in action before I believe.”
It took me a moment to figure out what she meant and then it clicked into place. “Rya,” I breathed. I hadn’t thought about her in some time now that the nightmares of a cavern of darkness and bone and the death of Brother Gelman had receded to be replaced by more recent horrors. “She came from the Academy...I remember her last words, ‘they have my family.’ You think someone here is responsible for that, don’t you?”
“We do.”
“Do you know who?”
“We have suspects.”
“But you’re not going to tell me?”
She gave a soft smile. “I can tell you haven’t been in this game long boy. Do you honestly think Imperators and their ilk survive by just blurting out secrets to people they have just met? Whilst the file on you suggests you can likely be trusted I will make up my own mind before revealing any more. So you will know what I want you to know and no more. Understood?”
I scowled; arms crossed. Why bring me in so far only to hold me at arm’s length? It was so frustrating!
She didn’t respond to my angry gaze, just watched me, her eyes betraying nothing. Finally I relented. “Fine,” I muttered. “Have it your way.”
She gave me a smile that exposed her many missing teeth. “Excellent. I’m glad you see sense.” She gave me an appraising look. “So... with a panther like yours I am guessing an increase to your speed, agility and strength and some more refined features like hearing and scent?”
I nodded, impressed.
She scoffed. “Idiot. That’s the basic sum of everyone who has a Great Heart. They make you stronger, faster and a slew of other enhancements. Practically every animal has better senses than we do, so whilst the strength of the benefits might change - a bull Great Heart might bestow higher strength on its partner for instance - many of the basic aspects are very similar.” She gave a lazy wave that encompassed herself and Borza, “You haven’t met us before, what would you imagine Borza’s particular talents to be?”
To be a damned dirty ape, Seya muttered.
I fought down a snigger. “Considering how mountainous he is, I imagine his strength is considerable, and whilst I haven’t met any apes or monkeys before, I have read about them. I believe they are meant to be very intelligent. So perhaps that somehow improves your own as well?”
She gave me an appraising look. “Not half bad for an idiot. Yes, Borza is strong, incredibly so in fact. All Great Hearts are intelligent, as you know, and with the benefits of their long lives and large brains they are often more intelligent than any one human.
Often? Seya snorted. Always.
“Yet Borza is exceptional, even for Great Hearts. And yes, much like the associated strength and healing we all share, bonding with Borza has given me a boost to my own intellect. Whether it was a significant boost would depend on how intelligent I was as a child but as we bonded very young I can’t remember a time without Borza, so you will have to find out for yourself. But enough of that.” She shook herself. “The Emperor ordered me here to better your partnership with Seylantha and so that is what we will focus on.”
“When you say better our partnership,” I began curiously, “What exactly do you mean?”
“To make you a more effective duo and to make sure you are fully taking advantage of the bond,” Anatha said simply.
“But-” I began.
“But Seylantha and I are one and the same,” she cut in with a mockery of my voice. “We’re perfect just as we are.” She looked me in the eyes and spoke seriously, “No, you aren’t. The Emperor has commanded you to learn. So learn.”
I shrank back under the weight of her gaze. “Yes Ma'am.”
“Good,” she said, satisfied. “This training will get you to work more effectively as a pair until you’re anticipating each other's needs. Your ability to draw on the bond will also be increased.” She sighed at my hand that I had raised into the air. “Yes, idiot?”
“Can you explain what you mean by drawing on the bond?”
Another sigh, this one long and pained. “Drawing on the bond is the primary reason Great Hearts exist - or more accurately were created - as you know from your encounter with Ash. You do it every day at a level that you don’t even recognise. This is what gives you your enhanced abilities. You’ve been severely hurt before, yes?”
I nodded.
“Did Seylantha mention anything to you about providing more energy to heal you?”
I cast my mind back. “She did,” I said softly. “She also refused to let me provide her with more energy to heal her if the situation was reversed.”
Anatha’s gaze softened. “A commendable desire but your Great Heart is in the right of it.” She tapped Borza’s side. “Aside from being my partner in crime and best friend, Borza is essentially a giant well of resources. And I don’t just mean seraph, though their seraph pools are massive and are the most intended option to draw from. Seya’s ability to push healing into you is essentially her pushing her own energy into you, this abundance of life force pushes your body to heal itself at a supercharged rate. She does this at the cost of using her own energy, so if she used too much she could be left weak and defenceless...or even die. The reason why Seya told you not to do what you asked is because she is so much bigger and, for lack of another word, denser than you.”
Anatha held up a hand and waved off Seya’s growl. “Easy, I don’t mean that in terms of intellect. I mean in terms of sheer mass and energy usage. Simply put,” she said, fixing me with a steely gaze, “Seylantha can heal you because you are small and she has vast amounts of energy to spare. You are small and have limited amounts of energy - all of which you need to keep your own body running. Pushing your energy into hers is barely a drop in the ocean to her. She could consume your energy entirely and probably not recognise a significant change in energy levels. Does that make sense?”
Sadly it did and was my single worst fear. Seya getting hurt and myself not being able to do anything to save her had weighed on my mind ever since she had first forbidden that approach to me.
But there had to be a way, right?
“People have tried Calidan,” Anatha said in a soft voice and I could tell she knew what I had been thinking. “Obviously people have. Great Hearts are more than any friend or lover. We know each other through and through. The pain at seeing your bonded hurt is unbearable, believe me. I know of not one person who has survived trying to bring their Great Heart back from serious injury. It is just too easy for one’s life force to be snuffed out like a candle. But even so, with all that being said, if Borza were dying I couldn’t honestly tell you if I would follow the rules.”
I smiled at her for that. Perhaps she wasn’t quite as curmudgeonly as I had thought.
She smiled back with eyes warm and full of compassion, and with a swift movement that vastly belied her age threw a stick at my head.
&
nbsp; “But I am very old as you have already pointed out! I’m going to die relatively soon right? So who cares?! You’re young so stop being an idiot and don’t go attempting to save Seya when and if she gets hurt.”
“Point made,” I said stiffly as I rubbed my forehead. She had surprisingly good accuracy.
“I hope so,” she replied as Borza let out a barking chuckle. “But let's not dwell on that because it is a sad and dark path. Healing is not the only thing that can be forcibly enhanced through the bond. Everything that you are currently feeling from your Great Heart is because of energy travelling through your bond. Your strength, speed and attuned senses. Each one is something that your body is taking from hers as we speak. And just like with health, Seya could push more energy down that particular path, making you stronger or faster than before at the cost of her own energy levels.” She considered me for a moment, her gaze piercing. “I imagine that at this point you can hit hard enough to break men without much effort. My guess is Seya could uproot one of these trees quite easily.” She turned her head to watch Seya’s reaction. “Well?”
Seya looked at the mighty oaks that formed the forest that we were in, considering. Their roots are strong and deep but I could topple one without too much strain, she clarified. They would be easier to swipe through. She slowly extended her gleaming claws, pretending not to be watching Borza intently as she carefully cleaned each one. One hit.
I smirked. Seya was a cat above all else. She hated the thought that Borza might be stronger, but if it was true she would just bask in the fact that she would do everything better.
“You would be right,” I answered Anatha. “Am I to assume that if I borrowed power from Seya that I could do the same?”
“Exactly,” Anatha confirmed. “And at risk of leaving your Great Heart with less power. As you have probably found out the bond is more effective in close proximity. If you are on the other side of the world you can barely hear each other let alone transfer great quantities of energy. So if both of you are in a hostile environment then you have to make a tactical choice as to whether to draw on that extra energy. If Seya is involved in her own battle at the time it could weaken her and result in defeat. Even if she isn’t she will be tired from the drain and will need to recuperate over the next few days.”
Did you know all this? I asked Seya.
Of course, she answered, sedately licking a paw.
Then why didn’t you tell me?
She stopped licking and swivelled her head to pierce me with those mesmerising orbs. I hadn’t realised she could pull off sardonic so well. You have got into enough trouble with just the benefits of the bond as they are. I can only imagine how much danger you will throw yourself into when you grow overconfident after punching through a tree that can’t punch you back.
I wouldn’t-
You would.
I-
You would.
Sigh. Yeah, you’re probably right.
A smug look. Me being right is never in doubt.
“Are you two done?” Anatha asked, jerking me out of my thoughts.
I smiled sheepishly. “Sorry,” I replied.
“For communicating with your Great Heart? Don’t be. You just have to learn how to do it whilst holding another conversation at the same time so that no-one suspects what you’re doing.”
“That sounds...impossible,” I replied, brow furrowed. “Holding two conversations and being active in both at once, how would you focus on either?”
“Honestly, it might well be impossible for you, for, as you know, I’ve established that you are a simpleton,” she replied with a shrug. “I’ve never taught someone how to better themselves at being bonded to a Great Heart before so I can only go by what I can do. And as I can do everything so much better than you it will be interesting to see where you fall down.”
She seemed completely serious, even with the broad grin on her face. Perhaps she could manage to handle two conversations at once, it was doubtful but in the end the only real question was whether I could.
“So when does training start?” I asked.
A wicked grin crossed her face. “Right now.”
Chapter 27
Anatha
Training with Anatha and Borza was mentally and physically exhausting to the extent that I was grateful for the breaks her absences afforded me. All of us pushed ourselves so hard at the Academy that the extra hour of training at times nearly broke me.
I say at times because training would alternate between trying to hold a clear conversation with Anatha whilst simultaneously trying to relay information to Seya as we separately moved through the forest. This was mentally taxing to the extreme but the only physical hardship was the stick or stone that would inevitably get thrown at me when my concentration slipped. Other days would consist of hunting and fighting, Borza and Anatha forcing Seya and myself to work together to try and bring them down. The latter reminded me of our time with Tracker, split second attacks from Anatha mid-conversation forcing Seya and I to react independently but maintaining knowledge of each other’s actions so that we could counter attack effectively. Against any normal humans we wouldn’t be remotely challenged, but Anatha by herself was anything but normal - her frail looking frame able to be filled with terrifying power - and when paired with Borza and the uncanny ability to predict each other's moves they were a terrifying force to be reckoned with.
It wasn’t their combined power that was most difficult to deal with. Seya’s speed more than made a match for Borza’s overwhelming strength and if we were utilising the normal power of our bonds I was a fraction faster than Anatha, allowing me to dodge the majority of blows she sent my way. What Seya and I couldn’t seem to beat was the speed of their thoughts and reactions. They moved almost as one being, casually defending and attacking with each other in perfect synchronicity. It was a level of understanding and unseen communication that a team of kaschan practitioners could only dream of achieving and they did it with no apparent effort.
Seya and I had fought against each other often but we did not have much practice with working together to defeat an opponent and it showed. When Borza and Anatha attacked it was an overwhelming deluge of attacks that left nothing to chance and no openings to take advantage of. Borza would seek to force us to defend against his might, using just his fists or whatever nearby log took his fancy to lay unrelenting blows in our direction. If we stayed still to defend then Anatha would take advantage of her small stature to slip around Borza’s attacks and punish us from oblique angles. She would do it in such a way that she would know without looking where his next attack was coming from and already be moving to be a hairsbreadth out of the way, ready to attack. Compared to the two of them, Seya and I were babes in the wood. We could fight and we could fight well, yet we lacked the cohesion that made the duo so devastating. It was likely that we could fight and win in an ambush scenario - Seya’s nature made such an approach her speciality - but Anatha and Borza weren’t interested in what we could already do, they were there to punish and break until we were forced to become better versions of ourselves.
Little by little our abilities improved. Seya and I began to flow more seamlessly in combat, working to each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It didn’t happen overnight but much like with our combat training with Tyrgan we slowly progressed to the point where the fighting almost seemed manageable. In a month of training we didn’t win - didn’t even come close - but we began to be able to fend them off for longer periods of time which I definitely counted as success. Anatha seemed to come alive during these bouts, disparaging comments about my ineptitude notwithstanding. She gave the impression that teaching us was a chore yet revelled in being outside. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her that she was spending so much time within the citadel but she blankly refused to speak of her time there and her normal day to day activities.
As promised, I didn’t tell anyone about their presence within the forest. It helped that the rest of the team were all
focusing on improving their own skill sets in their own time whether it be martial, knowledge or seraph, and so my excuse of fighting Seya for practice was easily swallowed and quickly forgotten. During my other classes at the Academy I kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, trying to locate any Instructor that might have had reason to hate the Empire, and then cursed myself for being a fool. I had no way of knowing everyone’s personal details, their backstories or their motivations. Even if I did, Rya’s personal details had looked flawless until she suddenly disappeared. As Anatha had said, the Enemy was insidious and recognising that someone was under its sway was practically impossible.
Considering her words on the ‘Enemy’ and its abilities I began to suspect black seraph at play. Recalling Ash’s words on the history of seraph I knew that black seraph had the ability to cloud minds and control actions. Unfortunately that knowledge earned me precisely zero benefits. I had no way of determining who was a user of black seraph or if someone was under its influence. As far as I knew the Academy had no such thing as a seraph detector. Whilst the technology there was cutting edge with the latest weaponry and methods of teaching it paled in comparison to the alien looking technology that had been within the desert. The only place I could compare Ash’s complex to was the Emperor’s citadel…
I frowned. Maybe the Emperor would have such a thing as a seraph detector at the citadel? If so then we just needed an excuse to get all the Imperators into the heart of the Empire. I made a note to ask Anatha when I next saw her if such a thing would be possible. Could all the Imperators actually be collected together for one event? Even the ones on a mission? The more I thought about it the more I realised that Anatha and I needed access to the Academy’s records. If we could identify every individual who had had access to Rya during her time at the Academy and designed an event to bring them all back together then we could be on to something.