by S King
“I’ll figure it out,” I reassured her, looking at my timepiece, “Orrie.”
He turned, nodding to my sister respectively before going to the door; he wasn’t the type to stay idle on the pleasantries of bidding goodbye.
Following suit, I stood up and smiled at Theodora, “I’ll talk to you soon.”
In an instant, she flung her arms around me and hugged me close to her, “oh Ana, it’s so good to have you in my life.” She pulled away wiping her eyes, “sorry, I know you’re not used to emotion and all,” she waved a dismissive hand, “Parlan thing.”
I smirked, flicking a tear away from her cheek, “I’m getting used to it.” I turned to leave when I realized what Orrie and I had done earlier. “By the way,” I turned back to her, “Orrie and I kind of—”
“Charged some things to my accountant?”
I raised a questioning brow to her, “yes?”
She held up her phone, “I get a notification. Don’t worry about it, you guys seem to need to come out of the dark ages when it comes to fashion and skincare.” She smiled at me, “don’t worry about it. I have more money than I can spend in a lifetime and anytime that you make an appearance for me is a lifesaver.”
“Thank you,” it was my turn to hug her and bid a final farewell.
It didn’t take Orrie and I that long to get back to the Citlail and lift off; while I focused on the sky, he went through his bags again and looked at my things.
“I like your sister,” he said, going through my load of goodies.
I snorted, making sure that nothing was coming towards us, “why? Because she allowed you to splurge on her account?”
“Not just that, but she seems sincere. It’s kind of hard to see why someone would want her dead.”
True. Apparently, when the authorities found the blood in her condo it was from her slicing her hand when she was fending off the attackers, whoever they may be. She had resorted to sleeping on her ceiling beams in order to avoid any more attacks and stay off the radar until the authorities did what they were supposed to do.
Worry marred my mind as I steered the aircraft through the Padrieg territory line and headed for the military district. For home. Who would want Theodora dead? It wasn’t enough for her to just disappear. They wanted her gone for good. The question was why? As if I didn’t have enough on my mind, now this.
I landed the aircraft in the acceptance bay and waited for the clearance officer to allow us to get off the Citlail.
“Come on, Orrie,” I grabbed my things and shoved them in a duffle bag, “remember to wait until you get home to pull the tags off. We don’t need to get questioned about where this stuff came from.”
He nodded, following suit with me and shoved his clothes and things in his own duffle bag. “I’ll start working on everything that Theo said and get everything to you when it’s all gathered.”
We stepped off the Citlail, flashing our warrior tags to the oncoming officers and parted ways at the domicile unit. For the second nakti in a row I missed the dinner meal and would have to wait to until jutro to eat. Excellent.
Swiping my arm over the holographic panel, I sighed as the Parlan woman appeared, “welcome home Captain Shaye.”
“Yeah,” I closed the door, kicking off my shoes only to pick them up and carry them to my office.
“Aren’t we back a little later than normal?” Eikko appeared behind me as I looked through my document locator files and frowned at some of the reports.
“Here,” without looking, I tossed the duffle bag to him and leaned over my desk.
Eikko closed the door to the office and ripped open the duffle bag, “you goddess.” He took out his bundle of skincare products out of the bag.
I smirked, still staring at the reports. Hell had frozen and erupted ten times over since I left the ceremony; the Eynos were becoming bolder and trying to cross into the warzone, into the Padrieg society.
If we didn’t get the Citlail and Magdolonian’s fixed, then we’d have a bigger problem than trying to get Eikko and Somsang back to Parlan. I fell into the chair, trying to think of different ways that my squadrons and units could go back to the battlefield and push the Eynos into exile again.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you,” Eikko hugged several boxes to his chest and closed his eyes as if all of his prayers had been answered.
Making my decision, I grabbed my pen, “I take it those are the right bundles?”
“Yes, they are. Thank you, Ostana.” I looked at him with a raised brow, surprised that he was capable of showing any sign of gratitude. “I mean it.”
Regaining my composure, I nodded, “you’re welcome.”
We fell silent again. As long as he was content for the time being, I could focus on the attack plans for the Eynos. I still had to finalize Claud’s transfer and now I had to put a fire under the mechanics asses, whether it was metaphorical, or literal was to be determined, but something had to be done now.
Ordering warriors to the front line on foot was something that I didn’t like to do but during war, like to do and had to do were two totally separate things. When the final order was handed down and the documents were sent through the locator, I grabbed a hold of the expense report for Eikko and started assessing the damage.
Eikko had disappeared for a while, leaving me to crunch the numbers and curse under my breath at how much was spent in just three danas. It couldn’t be right but the more I stared at the reports, charge slips, receipts, and allotted budget, I knew that they were, and I was screwed.
He came back into my office, going to the solitaire window and stared at the stars as I finished looking over the completed expense report; he had managed to blow the budget completely out of the society and then some.
Unfortunately, I would have to figure out a way to explain the lack of funds to Kendrick and the other top officials that allowed us to have a budget in the first place.
This couldn’t be right; grabbing the reports, I started the calculations again for the ninth time.
“You ever watch the stars, Ostana?” Eikko interrupted my calculations.
Cutting my eyes at him, I sighed, “I don't have time to watch giant balls of gas when I have to keep my eyes on an arrogant ass all the time.”
As usual he ignored my snide comment and kept looking at the dark iris colored sky. The funny thing about Padrieg was when it was dana time, the sky glowed of a bright lavender but when it was nakti time, the sky was a dark purple that matched the flecks in Eikko’s eyes.
Even I had to admit that he looked amazing under the purple moonlight, but that wasn’t an excuse for how he completely demolished the budget.
“I think it’s time for us to go to sleep,” he suggested, turning to me with a crooked smile on his face as if I were supposed to catch the hint, he was throwing out there.
Returning my attention to the completed reports and budget, “I have work to do. Pleasant skies,” I sent the documents to Kendrick through the locator and turned my back on Eikko to review the holographic map of the battlefield.
“Ostana, what is it going to take for you to have some fun around here?”
“Fun doesn’t exist in Padrieg, Eikko. Therefore, nothing is going to make me do anything that isn’t required by the society.” I tapped my pen on my forehead, twisting my mouth at the current bomb sights that the Eynos were aiming for.
“You—” he started, grabbing the back of my chair, and spinning me toward him, “you need to use a selfcare mask.”
I bolted from the chair, getting in his face, “listen here, you pompous, arrogant, jerk—”
“You need to cool off and —” he pointed a finger at me before a spray of water shot into my face.
When it stopped, I opened my eyes and stared at him, “did you just spray me with water?”
Eikko’s eyes went wide as he looked between his finger and my dripping face, “I did that?”
Grounding my teeth together I nodded, “yes.”
Slowly, a smile broke across
his disgustingly handsome face before he started laughing. He laughed as if he had lost his mind, bending at the waist as the fit overtook him.
“The look on your face,” he pointed at me again as another wave of laughter hit.
There was nothing funny about him using his water abilities, intentional or otherwise, to get me to stop talking. I pushed past the still laughing man and grabbed a towel from the linen dispensary, cursing him from the purple sun to the red sun as I dried my face of the rose scented water.
“Your face though,” he said through his laughter.
“It wasn't that funny.” I snapped, tossing the towel into the compact incinerator.
When he wouldn’t stop laughing, I pushed past him, “pleasant skies, Eikko.”
I needed a change of clothes and I wasn’t going to continue to be tormented by him, even if what he was doing was sweet. Should I really be mad at the fact that he was just trying to alleviate some of my stress? Probably not, but I was born, bred and made the way I was because of the society that I was brought into. Nothing and no one could change that overnight, maybe ever.
“Goodnight, Ostana,” his voice followed me into my room only to be cut off when I closed the door.
My communicator beeping my ear made me turn my attention away from the alluring affect that Eikko’s voice had on me and allow my anger from a rose scented bath to ease a little.
“Yes?”
“Captain Shaye,” Orrie sounded muddled like he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.
“What’s wrong?”
“Kendrick has me on protection detail for the Parlan guys, you know, watching everyone’s back and all. But the problem is, Somsang is missing.”
“What?” I rubbed my forehead wanting nothing more than to just go to sleep and deal with all of this tomorrow.
“Somsang, Eikko’s right hand, he’s missing. Emric left to get something to eat because the guy has been refusing to eat the meal that all of the warriors are getting and now Emric can’t find him.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I fell onto my bed, burying my face in my hands, “so now what’s the plan?”
“I just wanted to give you a heads up. Kendrick plans on implementing your plans tomorrow to go to the battlefield by foot. He denied the transfer order for Claud, so it seems that the happy couple will get to work together after all.”
Panic and anxiety lodged their way into my stomach as I stared blankly at the wall.
The whole purpose of separating Xerminara and Claud was to keep everyone safe, but if Kendrick overruled my direct order for Claud to be transferred then there was only going to be one outcome on the battlefield. Someone wasn’t going to return home.
“Where is Kendrick now?” I was already pulling on my combat boots and heading for my door when I heard Orrie tapping away on his handheld. For a mechanic he had everyone’s location down to an exact pinpoint and no one, not even himself could escape his holographic map.
“Looks like he’s at the base, second floor, third office.”
I frowned, creeping from my room, and going to the front of the domicile. Eikko and my grandmother had gone to bed and that gave me the chance to get out of the house without being badgered with questions.
“Why isn’t he in his own office?” I silenced the Parlan holograph from bidding me a pleasant skies and hurried to the military official base.
This was going to be a long nakti and I was internally cursing myself for not eating something while I was in Parlan.
“Because the constructors are redoing all of the top officials’ offices, so they have a better layout for mapping coordinates and watching what is going on, on the battlefield.”
I could see the reasoning in why the offices were being redone but I didn’t know why Kendrick wasn’t in his own domicile at such a late sati. The only thing that I could come up with was the fact that, like me, he was trying to focus on a way to keep the Eynos from penetrating our society and causing a bigger casualty count than we already were going to have with ordering the warriors to go to the battlefield on foot.
“How long has he been there?” I was already halfway to the military base and kept my eyes on the patrolling officers for anyone acting strangely. Whenever there was rumor of going to the front line on foot some officers tended to have accidents while on patrol. Whether it be from falling down the iron stairs or jamming their arms into automatic doors, someone always had a reason not to go to the battlefield while the aircrafts were being worked on.
It was true that we had always suffered more casualties while on foot than in the sky and I couldn’t blame the officers that were worried about not coming back. But on the other hand, this is what Padrieg did; we didn’t create wars, we ended them.
“Roughly, four sati,” Orrie would’ve been an amazing warrior but given the fact that his blood wasn’t of a strong Padrieg bloodline, he was stationed as a mechanic.
Quickly, I thanked him for his help and pulled the entrance to the military base open. Kendrick had always preferred to work during the nakti, less drama, less officers interrupting him.
Taking the steps two at a time, I reached his temporary office in record timing.
“Come in, Shaye,” he didn’t look up from his holographic map and reports.
I saluted him, “sir.” I wasn’t going to insult him by sitting down, but I was going to challenge his authority. “May I have a word?”
He raised a brow at me, looking away from his mapping, “sounds serious.”
“So it is,” I tried to keep the agitation from my voice and remain calm, but looking at the defiant look on his face, I knew that I was in for a fight that would end up getting me killed if I didn’t watch my step.
He sat down in his chair and steepled his fingers, “what is it?”
“Why did you deny my order to transfer warrior Sif?”
“Because you also ordered the warriors to the frontline of the battlefield. We can’t take the chance of shifts at a time like this.”
“It will cause more casualties if we don’t have shifts, sir.”
“No, it won’t. At least not on our side.”
“Sir, I mean no disrespect but,” he held up his hand to stop me.
“Captain Shaye, I understand where you are coming from,” he got up from his chair and went back to looking at his holographic map. “You want to save your friends and win a war. Unfortunately, you cannot have your cake and eat it too.”
I ground my teeth together, reigning in my temper, “then how do you suggest that we stop the impending exhaustion when all of the warriors have used their abilities with the first ninety-eight sati?”
“We’ll worry about that when the time comes. I have faith that our warriors can push back the enemy within that time frame.”
“Sir, you have no idea what goes on, on the battlefield. Do not tell me that we will worry about that when the time comes.”
He slammed his fist through the map and spun on me, “you are out of line, Shaye!”
“No sir!” If he wanted to play the screaming game, then let’s play. Stabbing my finger toward his chest, “you are sending us to slaughter because you want to keep your reputation with the top officials! I will not let you pull rank on me and that sir, is promise you can take to your final burial!” I spun on my heel reaching for the door.
“Don’t get confused on who you are talking to Shaye. I will demote you faster than your parents took their final breath.”
Feeling the inferno within me reaching a breaking point, I slowly turned around and crossed the room. Even though he was a foot taller than me, I wasn’t afraid of my superior and I’d be damned if he were going to hold my parents’ deaths over my head for a flighty position in the military.
“Try it and watch me turn you to ash before you can even approve the next report.” My flames were already licking up my arms, begging for me to unleash the white flames.
“Did you just threaten me?” Kendrick’s bright carrot orange ey
es narrowed as he searched my face for any kind of weakness.
“A threat for a threat will only lead to death,” I pushed off the desk, letting the flames diminish slowly just to get my point across. “Approve the transfer or watch me turn my threat into a promise.” I didn’t give him a backwards glance as I let the door to his temporary office close behind me.
There may have been a war on the battlefield, but a war was just beginning within the society and it was one that I wasn’t entirely sure that I could win.
I walked out of the military base, fuming. Pressing my communicator, I stormed to the training arena.
“Yeah, Captain?” Orrie answered right away.