Three Suns

by S King

  “Good morning,” speak of the devil. I turned around, trying to look as indifferent as possible.

  “Morning, get your suit and shoes, we need to go,” I handed him the garment bag and didn’t wait for him to argue with me.

  I had to admit that he looked like something from one of the Parlan commercials that I had seen during my research of Theodora.

  His blue-black hair was tousled with a natural part going down the side of his head while his rose-pink eyes were darker than normal, and his olive skin looked refreshed. Thanks to our little shopping adventure last night, he was wearing loose, thick fabric pants that hung on his hips. While his tight shirt was the complete opposite to what I was used to seeing him in, the thin fabric hugged his muscles in just the right way and made me chew on my lower lip for a second.

  “What about breakfast?”

  Finally, I met his gaze, “what?”

  He closed his eyes, “the first meal?” He opened his eyes again and stared at me.

  Checking my time piece, I shook my head, “we’ll have to go to the common areas to get something to eat. Come on,” I grabbed his wrist, pulling him out the door of the domicile and toward Xerminara’s ceremonial zgrada.

  Eikko took one look around the unification buildings and shook his head, “everyone gets married here?”

  “Yeah,” flashing my warrior badge, we didn’t have to wait for the security to wave us through.

  Xerminara needed me immediately and I didn’t have time to waste with some low-ranking officer and his duty to ensure the celebration of the day. Besides that, after the ceremony, Orrie and I had plans that couldn’t be broken.

  Eikko followed me silently, taking in the minimalistic decorations and officers that were busy getting things together. I had to give it to him, even though this was completely different than what he was used to, he was respectful.

  When we got to the suite that Xerminara was holed up in, I pointed to the door across the hall, “go in there and tell them that I sent you. Claud should be ready,” I grabbed ahold of the doorknob and was about to go in when his voice stopped me.

  “Are you going to wear that?”

  Looking down at my casual clothes, I frowned, “why would I wear this to a ceremony?”

  He shrugged, “I don’t know, I just don’t take you for the type to dress up.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him but didn’t say anything as I disappeared behind the door to see what exactly was wrong with Xerminara.

  “Why won’t this thing—” Xerminara’s voice carried through the small room and out into the waiting lobby.

  “Nara?” I took a survey of the room, taking in the disheveled clothes and bags.

  Her head popped out from behind a wall as her face became relief filled, “Ana, thank God!” She came out of the room with her dress opened from the back and her hand holding up the heavy fabric while her other arm reached for me.

  “What’s wrong?” I hugged her.

  She pulled away from me, wiping her eyes as she tried to stop her emotions from becoming overwhelming. “It’s just too much, should I be doing this? Like, am I ready to be officially braku? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions!”

  I raised a brow at her overdramatized reaction to the situation at hand, “you agreed to the proposal. If you weren’t ready, why’d you agree?”

  “I don’t need your logic right now, Ostana!” She waved herself with one hand as she clutched the dress to her chest, “I don’t know why I said yes at this moment. I just know that I can’t do it.”

  I needed to keep my mouth shut, but the problem was I didn’t agree with her reaction to the stress that she was facing. Her and Claud were together at all times of the dana with the exception of mealtimes and shower times. They were meant to be together and anyone with a working pair of eyes, could see that.

  Grabbing hold of her shoulders, I looked into her panic filled tangerine orange eyes, “listen to me.”

  She shook her head and started saying something when I slapped her, pointing my finger in her face, “listen to me, you love Claud, he loves you. You agreed to a proposal agreement from someone that has been by your side from dana one. You’re going to finish getting dressed, fix your face and walk down that runway like no one has ever done before because at the end of the dana you are going to be with the person that you love for the rest of your life and you can’t do that if you sit in this room and act like you’ve lost your mind. Do you understand me?”

  Xerminara took a long, deep breath and nodded, “you’re right.” She let out her breath and tried to smile at me, “thanks Ana.”

  I smirked, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear, “let’s get you ready.”

  By the time that I helped her finish getting dressed and made sure that her gown was in place, it was time to go.

  The purple, sweetheart dress was beyond perfect and thanks to her hourglass shape, the gown looked like something straight from Parlan. White diamonds at the bottom of the dress formed swirls around the lower half of the gown. The design was to tell everyone that she was of the wind family and ranked high in the military; in turn her thread of diamond necklace marked her station with her warrior tags hidden away from view under the sparkling jewels. In truth, Xerminara was a living dream. She looked like a doll that belonged in a case.

  “Well?” She asked before the intercom drone beeped with a time warning.

  I smiled at her, picking up my gown, “you look perfect.”

  A nervous laugh left her as she took the offered drinks from the drone by the front door and handed me the glass, “no final words of advice?”

  I stared at the snake venom, “not right now.” I was not going to ruin her day by telling her that she would be better off thinking about what she was doing for a final time before walking down the runway.

  We nodded to each other, throwing back the shots of alcohol before lacing our arms together and walking out of the room so she and Claud could start a new life together.

  It was customary for the commanding officer of the warrior being given away to do the honors. Placing Xerminara's hand in Claud's I nodded to both of them and took my seat beside Eikko, focusing on the official presiding over the ceremony.

  “We are gathered here today to celebrate the union between Claud Sif and Xerminara Isleen,” the martial official didn’t smile, frown, or show any other emotion as he looked around the room.

  “This is very romantic,” Eikko whispered in my ear as he rested an arm across the back of my chair.

  “Shut up,” I hissed through clenched teeth and remained still as the official continued.

  He turned to Claud, “repeat after me; when your sorrows are too much to bear, I will be there. I will stand by you when the sun dies, I will hold you when the moon comes to life. Be it in sickness or in health, I will be there with you. For all my years under the purple sun, I will stand by your side and love you unconditionally through our new life together.”

  Claud repeated the vow verbatim, his fire orange eyes shining from unshed tears. Thankfully, Xerminara was his equal in every way; she didn’t let her own emotions take over when it was her turn even though, her tangerine eyes were shining as brightly as the stars from her own tears.

  As Xerminara started reciting her vows, Eikko wrapped his hand around my shoulder as he tilted his head and watched the ceremony. I didn’t know if it was because of the atmosphere in the room or if was because of the beauty in the moment, but I didn’t want to burn his arm off or push him away.

  Xerminara and Claud were setting an example for the other couples in the room. Whether or not that included Eikko and me, I didn’t know, but I’d be a liar if I said that I didn’t like the sound of Eikko and I together. Even if it wasn’t possible.

  “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the marital official finally smiled at the gallery of the guests, “may I present for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Claud Sif.” In customary Padrieg fashion, all the guest stood and gave th
e newly wedded couple a blessings salute.

  Eikko simply smiled, not knowing the proper way to send off the new couple. Unfortunately, not everyone in the room was as happy for Xerminara and Claud as the rest of us were. I caught sight of an unsmiling Emric from across the room.

  He looked as if someone had destroyed his weapons collection and threw them in an incinerator. To his right Somsang was looking suspicious as well; Eikko’s right hand was staring at us as if he wanted to separate us and do some bodily harm to…me.

  The look in the Parlan man’s coral pink eyes were haunted, something dark was dancing around in his eyes that I couldn’t decipher but figuring out what was going on with Somsang would have to wait because my timepiece beeped with a notification from Orrie.

  When the gallery proceeded into the reception hall, I showed Eikko where to sit before crossing the room to Emric. I needed to make sure that he was still ok with watching Eikko while I went to handle my business with Orrie.

  “Hey,” I leaned against the wall, watching the guests mingle, dance, and eat while we waited for the new couple to come in.

  Emric glanced at me, keeping his eyes trained on Somsang and Eikko across the room, “are you about to leave?”

  “Yeah, are you still ok with watching Eikko for me while I’m gone?”

  “How long are you going to be gone?”

  “I’m not sure yet, I’m hoping before the nakti is out. It shouldn’t be that long.”

  He looked at me, “you’re really not going to tell me what this is about?”

  I considered my options for a moment, I could tell Emric what Orrie and I were really doing, or I could go with the safer option and just give him a vague response.

  “It’s something that I have to do alone,” I looked at him, “I’ll be fine, just watch after him, yeah?”

  Finally, he nodded and went back to staring at Eikko and Somsang whisper about something. “I got it, don’t worry.”

  I squeezed his arm before ducking out of the room and going back to my domicile unit to change. I had to admit that the dark garnet dress was stunning, but it wasn’t the type of thing that you would wear on a mission. Quickly, I changed from the dress to my usual combat attire. I didn’t know what kind of trouble we were going to be facing in Parlan and I wanted to be prepared.

  Sheathing my wind slicing blades and making sure that I had everything, I calmly walked to the military base where Orrie was waiting for me in his own combat attire.

  “Ready?” Orrie was a simple kind of handsome.

  Standing at the same height as Emric his marmalade eyes were trained on the control panel of the Citlail that we were going to be taking to the blue sun. Unlike my Citlail or the Magdolonian, this aircraft was gunmetal grey and had a metallic gleam across the windows.

  “Are we going to get stopped with this thing?” I frowned, getting settled into the pilot seat and adjusted the communicator headset.

  Orrie fell into the co-pilot seat and looked around the cabin, “no, this one has the blending feature. If anything, we’re running the risk of getting into a wreck because it will blend with the sky.”

  “Why aren’t our aircrafts capable of that?” I started the engines and checked the diagnostics of the control panel before taking off.

  Orrie shrugged, “because we want the Eynos to know that we’re coming?”

  “True,” it had been so long since I flew an aircraft that I had to stop myself from slamming open the engine and taking off through the sky like a cannon.

  I wanted to go through the war zone and see if the Eynos had progressed any but…Theodora was missing and right now, to my knowledge, I was the only one trying to find her. Maybe I would look at the front line on the way back, but for the time being I needed to focus on the real reason why we were taking the Citlail and going into uncharted territory.

  “What do you expect to find?” Orrie was looking at the holographic display of our current location.

  I shrugged, looking out the window, “hopefully answers. Not only that, but,” I shook my head, “she’s my sister, Orrie. Why didn’t Othala tell me about it? Why didn’t my parents leave us together?”

  Orrie fell silent, looking at the holographic layout of the terrain below. We were coming closer to the blue sun district and the light from the dana was fading to a soft lavender before the lighter blue began to bleed through the glass.

  “Where have we been all this time?” Orrie leaned up and watched Parlan fill our field of vision.

  Buildings of glass, taller than anything I’d ever seen reached up to the baby blue sky; below people were in things that moved in synchronized rows in all directions while some preferred to walk on the sidewalks. Signs on poles and some of the buildings in all colors depicted different things. From gels to hair products to things that were on the roads.

  “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?” I whispered more to myself than to Orrie. I found a desolate place to park the Citlail, keeping my eyes on the society several miles away.

  “It’s something that I’ve never seen before,” Orrie looked between our outfits and frowned, “do you think we’re going to blend in?”

  Now if that wasn’t a loaded question; looking down at my own outfit I was beginning to question our attire choices. Maybe the combat gear wasn’t the best of ideas right now.

  Twisting my mouth, I tried to think of what would be acceptable according to the Parlan society.

  “Maybe we should lose our weapons?” Orrie held up his wind slicing blades and handheld fire thrower.

  That was a good idea, after all, I had my fire and he had his going through our veins. If anything should happen then we could always burn and suffocate our way out of the blue sun society and be done with it.

  Ditching our weapons in the back of the aircraft we shed our combat jackets and hid our warrior tags before we looked at each other.

  “I think this is as good as it’s going to get, Captain.” Orrie looked at himself again.

  “So, it would seem,” with a sobering breath, I opened the door latch and hoped for the best, “let’s just find Theodora and get back to Padrieg.”

  “Agreed,” Orrie locked the Citlail and fell in step beside me.

  “Where—” I started when my communicator beeped in my ear. Frowning I glanced at Orrie before answering. “Yeah?”

  “Ana?” Eikko’s voice sounded like music to my ears in such a foreign place.

  “What do you need, Eikko?”

  Orrie gave me a screwed look as we crossed the field of grass; I was surprised too that my communicator worked, being so far away from Padrieg and the military base I didn’t think I was within range.

  “You wouldn’t happen to be in my home society, would you?” His tone was relaxed and void of any accusation or distrust.

  I stopped midstride, looking around the field for any kind of indication that he was here with us. “What makes you think that I am?”

  “I have made some friends here in Padrieg and one of those friends was able to tell me that you and someone went in the aircraft that Xerminara and Claud used for their ceremony. Knowing that Kendrick told you and the rest of the military officials that no one, including you, is allowed to go to the front line of the battlefield and that you would never cross over into enemy territory without your dear friend Emric. That only leaves one place that you could’ve gone outside of the purple sun society.”

  The arrogant ass knew too much for his own good, but the better question was, how? And who? Something told me that it was Emrys. Little did she know, once I got back from Parlan, I was going to teach her a lesson worse than prison.

  Gritting my teeth, I started walking again at a faster pace, “what do you want, Eikko?”

  “Why didn’t you take me and Somsang with you?”

  “Because this isn’t a pleasure trip.”

  “We could’ve been home!” He snapped.

  “Yeah and the Padrieg society would’ve still had your aircraft. The point is t
o send you home on your aircraft not one of ours.”

  “Don’t even with that bullshit excuse. You all could’ve easily sent back the aircraft to Parlan and dropped it off. What’s the real reason?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I disconnected the communicator and stopped as Orrie came to a halt and stared wide eyed at the scene in front of us.

  The view that we had in the sky was nothing in comparison to what we were seeing in that moment.

  The glass buildings were sparkling from the light of the blue sun and the things that were moving on the road were exactly as Eikko described them. Cars. Vehicles. All shapes and sizes coming and going at a steady pace. The sidewalks were filled with stores, people and stands that held multiple items.