Spirits of Falajen

by Ginger Salazar

  “I can’t tell if that’s natural lightning or if you’re the one doing it,” Etyne softly spoke.

  “It’s natural,” she replied. “However, I am keeping it in the sky or far away so as not to strike our camp.”

  “Your mystics never cease to amaze me.” He peered sideways at her, watching her eyes light up each time lightning struck. He felt her small hand inconspicuously take hold of his. He glanced around to ensure none of the recruits were in sight as he held her hand tighter momentarily.

  She never forgot the look in his eyes each time their gazes met during those two weeks. There was a different aura that surrounded them both each time they were together. It was an inexplicable sense of calm, comfort, security, and an incomprehensible feeling of desire. She felt as though her very soul was craving him. She only hoped he had felt that as well. She wondered, if they hadn’t been in uniform that day, surrounded by nearly two hundred recruits and senior enlisted commanders, if that night would have ended differently between them knowing it would be three years until they met again.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” she whispered. Eight years was a decent amount of time that they had spent with one another since meeting in the expedition. Though they didn’t consider each other as friends for the first two years, they had shared enough memories during that time to reminisce about with one another. Since then, there was only one month of leave just after their expedition that they had been without the other. At the time, their friendship was completely platonic and he had barely crossed her mind when she was with Joss.

  When Etyne was promoted to Captain at the end of their officer training, he was sent away to lead his own training division. For an entire year, Brisethi was left in Res’Baveth to lead the recruiting division which took little to no effort for her to charm the hearts of willing Resarians to join the Dominion Armed Forces. While surpassing her monthly quotas, she passed her time with the command hak’ii games, always picked up for goalie.

  Brisethi reluctantly forced herself to stop reminiscing, to stop wondering. She was a Dominion captain and had a task to carry out. Her first task was to return home, her second task was to finish training her recruits. From there she could work on ranking up and carrying out her ambitions of diplomacy around the world. She had no time for flings or relationships. That much had been proven after Joss. She especially couldn’t make her closest companion a temporary lover – she would lose him forever when things didn’t work out. Things never worked out personally for people like them. The military lifestyle carried so much stress with it that it took a special kind of person to accept it.

  “I can’t believe I’m a prisoner of war,” Sulica whined, interrupting Brisethi’s thoughts.

  “You’re not a prisoner of war, I am,” Brisethi corrected her. “You gave up your Dominion reservist status the moment you turned on your people, betraying the creed. Your family can plead all they want to Dominion command to have you rescued, but the Dominion has already exiled you. When I escape, and I will, I’ll at least do your family the honor of returning your corpse back to them.”

  “Stop with the threats already, they no longer scare me,” she replied, not caring to reveal that she no longer had a family.

  “Is that why you’re still suppressing my mystics?”

  When she didn’t answer, Brisethi reached into the pocket of her pants and pulled out a folded piece of paper. It was the one letter she’d received from Etyne since their integration. She read it for what must have been the tenth time.

  ‘Sethi,

  I finally had some time to sit down and write to both my mother and to you. I figured I’d spent enough time staring at the two paintings you gave me to actually let you know that I’m staring at them. I don’t write much, as you can tell – my mind is always on work, sadly. As of late, however, not so much. I seem to have become distracted since our integration. Did things seem different between us during that time? Or was it just me? I tend to rarely let my mind wander about ‘what could have been’ and ‘what could be’ about anyone or anything. But you keep barging into my mind and having me wonder about such things. I miss you from the depth of my soul, ‘Sethi.

  ~Etyne

  Brisethi sighed and folded the letter to place it back in her pocket.

  Neither she nor Sulica kept count of how many more days they spent at sea with minimal gruel and water fed to them every few hours. Sulica was given slightly more if only to keep up the strength needed to continue suppressing Brisethi’s mystic. The women were not allowed to wash up unless they sacrificed their drinking water to do it. As the days passed, the dirt greased up their hair and sullied their clothes and skin.

  “You could end this, you know,” Brisethi said quietly one evening, wondering why the journey to Pahl’Kiar lasted days longer than it should have. She had become so weary on the little rations given that she was unable to even continue trying to keep up her physical routine.

  “And let you kill me? Not a chance.” Sulica’s voice was even lower, exhausted from the continuous effort of suppression. She had no idea how much longer she could keep it up without some reprieve for regeneration. Her body could barely even move from exhaustion. She just leaned up against the bars so the food and water their captors pushed in was easily reachable with minimum effort. More and more, she found herself falling asleep, awakening with a start the moment she felt Sen Asel push against the suppression.

  The following day, the two women could hear a rush of activity above them as the crew went through the motions of pulling into port and mooring the ship. The whole process took several hours to complete. Brisethi was just beginning to wonder if the Kiaran crew was completely incompetent when two of them came down the stairwell to retrieve the prisoners.

  The two Resarians were escorted to the dock of the busy harbor when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. Brisethi was astonished at the view of tall buildings, carriages that weren’t pulled by horses but powered on a rail system, and, most fascinating of all, the hot air balloon ships floating in the sky. When she glanced at the nearby banners and the language on the signs, it dawned on her that they were not in Pahl’Kiar.

  “Why are we in Lantheus?” Brisethi asked aloud to no one in particular.

  The Kiaran merchant chuckled. “Because they’ll pay me far more for the two of you than our own emperor would. Besides, I can’t risk someone as powerful as you running around in Pahl’Kiar.” He patted the Resarian on the head, like he would to a child. “No, no, my dear it’s best we hand you over to the Lantheun scientists to pull your mystics out of you and sell those back to my people to use against your people.”

  Brisethi was too weary and sickened to lecture the merchant about a potential future of uniting Kiarans and Resarians. She assumed it would fall on deaf ears of the greedy man.

  A gathering of Kiaran and Lantheun shipyard workers started to follow the entourage when one of them noticed the Dominion uniform. “Great maker! What’s that you got there? She another one of those witchcraft recruits?”

  The Kiaran merchant chuckled again. “Oh, my no. She’s a captain, and a damn powerful sorceress at that. Her mystics will bring glory to the Kiaran Empire, you’ll see.”

  “Dominion scum! Not so tough outside your magical walls are you?” One of the workers shouted. Brisethi didn’t even bother trying to see where the voice had come from.

  “And that’s why I no longer wear the uniform,” Sulica muttered as they were led along the street.

  “Because you’re ashamed?” Brisethi sniped.

  “No. But the whole world does hate us, you have to admit. We’ll always be hated,” she replied.

  “Good. Let them fear us,” Brisethi muttered.

  The women were thrown into a rickety carriage, forced to sit across from one another, with two guards still assigned to them. Brisethi examined Sulica’s face. She had dark, nearly purple, circles under her eyes. She was suffering from having to keep her suppression mystic activated on Brisethi. Sh
e decided to push back with her own mystics and watched Sulica physically flinch from the pain of Brisethi’s slowly overpowering mystics. Soon, you’ll fall, too, she thought. But I don’t want to kill you with mystics. No, that’s too unfair. Maybe you’ll kill yourself trying to keep me from killing you. She smiled menacingly at the thought.

  After what seemed like an hour of a blind ride through the large city, the carriage came to a halt. A large building stood before them, one of the largest ones to be seen. It was slate gray in color, with few windows scattered sporadically along its facade. The two women were led through a black double door at the front. With the Kiaran escorts, they walked through massive corridors and climbed stairs to the third floor.

  Lantheun scientists greeted the Kiaran merchant and his guards. They were slightly smaller in stature than the Kiarans but still taller than the Resarian women. The scientists were dressed in gray lab coats with masks covering everything but their eyes, making them look like giant bugs. They were holding an apparatus with a gauge that tested their mystic strength, they had explained to the Kiaran after noticing his wary look.

  The three scientists appeared satisfied with their product and sent for their financial advisor to bring in the payment. He placed a large stack of paper frakshins into the hand of the Kiaran merchant. The Kiaran swiftly counted each printed bill representing various numbers of gold coins. When he reached the fiftieth frakshin marked with the number one-thousand, he smiled widely.

  “Pleasure doing business with you,” the Kiaran spoke in common Lantheun tongue.

  “Likewise, sir,” the Lantheun replied. “We will keep in contact with you should something unfortunate happen to these two and find ourselves in need of a replacement.” His clipped tone was devoid of any emotion.

  “Just remember to keep them apart. And if the short blonde dies, kill the tall fire one as soon as possible or she’ll obliterate you all,” the Kiaran warned with a chuckle, thankful to be rid of his charges.

  “I’m sure that won’t be an issue soon enough.”

  Lantheun armored guards took the two Resarians by their arms and escorted them down the remainder of the corridor. The chamber they entered was dark, lit only by the sunlight peeking through small windows high above. It reeked of death, the stench worsening the deeper they went. Both women peered into every cell they passed, seeing a few dead bodies, but mostly other humans of indeterminate nationality wearing only white gowns stained with blood and filth. The living humans shouted at the Resarians incoherently, tossing out unknown words in languages neither recognized. Some simply stared out of their cells with a catatonic gaze. Many had been picking at scabs or pulling at what was left of their hair. While others still, had no fingers or hands to pick or pull at anything. Only one other female resided among the others, and she stood in the center of her cell, pulling at her teeth and mumbling.

  The women were shoved forcefully into their own cells across from one another. Their clothes were quickly torn from them, even their underclothes, and they were each given one of the white gowns to wear instead, clean for the moment.

  “This is sick. I’m ready to leave already. Just give in, Sulica, let me end this!” Brisethi struggled against the panic that was threatening to envelop her mind.

  “I’m not going to die from your fire,” she replied stubbornly.

  “Then fucking die in here like the rest of these people! Their minds are dead. And soon ours will be, too.” Brisethi fought the hyperventilation but quickly lost control, screaming curse words in every language she knew.

  Chapter X

  Side by side they walked along the cobblestone lane lined with iron street lamps illuminating amber hues in the early morning. The fog was thick, giving them visibility of only a few blocks. The smell of woodfire from nearby homes mixed in with the dampness of the air leaving its evidence of a night rain. They avoided small puddles of water where the wet street and sidewalks were uneven.

  It was a day off for most hard-working Resarians as the streets were quiet of carriages and horses. Large, ancient trees lined the medians of the roads, shedding their golden leaves to the stonework below. Neither of them were in a rush that day since both had been without their usual partner to see that afternoon.

  Their favorite breakfast cafe, The Speckled Egg, awaited the two friends with their regular booth. Etyne had ordered his typical spiced tea while Brisethi sipped at her sweetened coffee. A stack of fluffy, buttery flatcakes were placed in front of each of them. They smiled at one another as they smothered their warm flatcakes with sweet syrup before giving in to their morning hunger.

  “This is probably the first day that neither of us has anyone to see this evening,” Etyne spoke while chewing.

  “I don’t suppose you want to go to the zoo with me?” she asked. “The animals will be more inclined to show face on such a cool, cloudy day.”

  Etyne nodded with a smile. “What animal do you want to see the most?”

  “If the aquarium is finished, I want to see the giant octopus! Otherwise, the great cats have always been my favorite,” she replied, unable to keep the childlike excitement from her voice.

  “You’ve not been to it recently?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “We tend to usually run errands if we’re not at our parents’ or relaxing at his house,” she muttered in reference to Joss.

  “‘Sethi, I will gladly take you to see the great cats and the giant octopus,” he smiled once more to her, his eyes bright and playful.

  Brisethi woke from the memory, strapped down to a table, pieces of leather tethering her wrists, ankles and head so that she could not move. The throbbing sensation in the back of her skull reminded her of the fight that had ensued when two armored guards retrieved her from her cell. She had cried for Sulica to release the hold of her mystic but she still refused. Instead, she’d felt a sharp pain hit the back of her head as her world faded to black. The cruel reality of her situation was coming back to her, threatening to erase any pleasant memories she’d ever had. At feeling crisp air tingle the sides of her head, she realized half of her head had been shaved to allow an apparatus to cleanly attach to the skin above her ears.

  An incision in her arm startled her. “What-“ she tried to say, but the words died in her throat as the pain hit her. Her skin was neatly sliced to her veins to allow her blood to be collected in the containers below her. A piercing scream ripped from her mouth at the pain and shock of seeing the amount of blood pour from her arm.

  The Lantheun scientist placed a rolled up rag into her mouth, stifling the sound. “Can’t have you turning me deaf with your constant shrieking,” he told her. His tone gave the impression that she was no more than a buzzing mosquito to him, mildly distracting, but not a real issue. He then proceeded to activate the machine connected to the apparatus around her head. Seconds later, flashes of blue lights struck the metal band on her head, binding her mystics to her blood. She frantically tried to escape like a rat caught in a vicious trap, sending her into tears as she continued screaming into the rag.

  They’re fucking with my mind, she thought in terror. She screamed again when she felt her blood burn in every artery of her body as her spirit tried to tear away from its vessel. Every drop of blood was a piece of her spirit separating from itself. She prayed to the spirits to let it end, to take her away to the Sea of Renewal.

  Sulica watched the guard and the scientist drag Brisethi’s limp body back to her cell. She heard the other woman’s screams just moments ago that made her tremble in fear. She wondered dimly why they had shaved the sides of her head then noticed the burn marks left in perfect circles where Brisethi’s head had been shaved that sent shivers up her own spine.

  “You may release your suppression spell of her for now, to allow yours to regenerate. She won’t wake from her coma until I say so,” the scientist told Sulica. Reluctantly, she released her hold on Brisethi and immediately felt the relief washing over her as her mystic began regenerating.

 
After seeing the fight Brisethi had put up with the guard earlier that morning, Sulica quickly abided by the guard’s orders when he opened her cell door in hopes they would be more lenient with her. She allowed herself to be led off without a struggle. “What do you want with us?” she asked the scientists strapping her to the table.

  “The same as everyone wants with a Resarian: to capture the anomalies you conjure and use it as our own,” the lead scientist replied with a sigh. He made it obvious that he’d had to answer the question multiple times and wasn’t in the mood to discuss it again.

  “Our mystics? But they’re given to us through our spirits. You can’t just take away our spirits and expect to use them. They are returned to the Sea of Renewal. Spirits are incorporeal souls of ancient beings – not physical entities to be contained,” Sulica explained, bemused by their lack of research.

  The sides of her head were shaved by a second scientist, giving her the same deplorable look as Brisethi. That scientist then said, “Someday you’ll realize that there’s no such thing as spirits and your heathen, fabricated sea of renewal. Our Maker would never bless one race of beings with such power. There’s a scientific method for your ability to manipulate the elements. We just need to find the right equation to clone it so we don’t have to keep paying Kiarans to abduct you.”