Three Suns

by S King

  I gritted my teeth together as I passed several patrol officers before answering, “it was something that I needed to deal with myself.”

  I shouldn’t have been surprised that Emric found out about Theodora. Hell, if Fauve and the others had pulled Orrie into a meeting he would’ve told them everything because the reality of the situation was simple. Orrie was faced with the decision of either telling his commanding officers what he had dug up on the Parlan citizens and what my affiliation was to the blue sun or face demotion, if not total disgrace from the military. I would’ve made the same decision had I been in his position.

  Emric took a deep breath as if he were calming himself from exploding, “why didn’t you tell me, Ostana? We’re supposed to be partners and you’re supposed to trust me, so why is it that Orrie knew everything about you while I was left in the dark?”

  I ducked into a darkened closet to have some privacy before dealing with Orrie. “Emric, look. We all were in a bad place when I found out about Theodora and…” I shrugged as if we were standing face to face, “and I didn’t know how to handle it myself. I mean, at that point, you were still pissed off about Eikko and I spending so much time together. Xerminara was getting into the marriage agreement with Claud and to be honest,” I sighed. “I just wanted to keep one thing to myself with as little people knowing about it as possible. Is that a crime to want some privacy?”

  “No, Ostana, it’s not a crime but I’m supposed to be your best friend and I thought at the very least, that you could trust me with the fact that you had a twin sister and what you were going through.” Hurt laced his words like lover’s touch and I knew that if I were standing in front of him right now then I’d have to face his heartbroken sandstone eyes.

  “You are my best friend, Emric but even best friends have things that they want to keep to themselves. You can’t honestly tell me that there aren’t things that I don’t know about you.”

  Even though we weren’t in the same room, the silence that formed between us was suffocating.

  “There is something that you don’t know, Ana.” He whispered before he disconnected the communication and let the silence consume me.

  “Isus,” I breathed, looking up to the ceiling. As if I didn’t have enough problems as it were, now Emric was being hormonal. But I couldn’t worry about it right now, I needed to get to Orrie and find out what he was working on for the military officials and hope that he had something new about the location of the elusive Somsang.

  I counted to ten, pulling my emotions together and took a deep breath. I could get through this and I would; with my determination reignited, I left the closet and continued on my search to find Orrie. For the time being Emric and whatever he was hiding from me would have to wait.

  “Major?” I jumped ten feet in the air, spinning around with a weak fire angel dancing in my hand, ready to be thrown only to let the flames vanish.

  “Do you have a tendency to jump out from behind walls?” I asked Orrie, holding onto my chest.

  He gave me a sheepish smile and nodded to the closet, “having a moment to yourself?”

  “Something like that,” I fell into step beside him and scanned the airbase, “what’s going on around here?”

  He handed a report to one of the mechanics and stared at the Citlail that just wrecked, “still working on these things. Speaking of,” he touched my arm, “how’s Eikko?”

  I raked my fingers through my hair, “no better. No worse. Right now, it’s just like he’s asleep and just won’t wake up.”

  “I’m sorry, Major, I…” he trailed off at the warning look I gave him and cleared his throat, “I apologize for telling the commanding officers about Theo. I had to or...”

  “It’s fine,” I waved a dismissive hand in the air, watching the mechanics go back and forth to the Magdolonian.

  Orrie cleared his throat again and led me into his office, “the good news is, I was able to get ahold of Theodora.”

  My heart spiked as I sat down in the chair across from him, “and?”

  “She’s fine,” he brought up the holographic map of the three suns, “Parlan authorities were coming to do a wellness check because her parents hadn’t heard from her. Apparently, when she was on the phone with you and someone came into her condo the authorities were on their way up as she was being dragged down.”

  A breath of relief left me as I fell back into the chair and closed my eyes. Theodora was ok. That was all I needed to hear to make some of the stress disappear. With one problem settled, I was able to get to the root of my visit.

  “Orrie,” I opened my eyes and leaned forward, “please tell me that you have something on Somsang.”

  He stopped working on the reports for the battlefield warriors and shook his head, “the son of a bitch disappeared after you guys went up in flames. Somehow,” he held his hands up and shrugged, “he was able to get the tracker out of him that Emric had implanted when they first arrived and just went dark.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I dug my nails in my scalp trying to wrap my mind around what Somsang was up to. He couldn’t get rid of Theodora and couldn’t kill Eikko so, what was the game plan?

  “Hey,” my question from earlier to my grandmother popped into my head. “How did Somsang find out about me?”

  If anyone knew the inner workings of Somsang’s mind, then it was Orrie. He was able to find out what the assistant was really up, so hopefully he knew how Somsang found out about me and Theodora's relationship.

  “I have no clue,” Orrie shook his head, “I’m still working that out myself. Everything else makes sense, but that? I’ve got nothing to even point me in the right direction.”

  My communicator beeped once before Othala’s voice followed, “he’s awake, Ostana, and he’s asking for you.”

  I pointed to my ear as I left Orrie and jogged back to the infirmary, “is he doing ok?”

  “As well as to be expected after being shot ten times,” she whispered.

  “Why are you whispering?” I nodded in respect to the passing officers but kept my pace faster than normal.

  “I didn’t want him to know how many times he was injured by his supposedly good friend. I’m going to the dining arena; do you need anything?”

  “No, thank you though,” we disconnected the communication and met each other in the corridor.

  “Something’s missing in him,” she said as I closed the distance between the two of us.

  Frowning, I glanced into the infirmary room, “what does that mean?”

  “He doesn’t seem like the same person that he was before. I’m hoping that it’s just because you aren’t in the room,” she twisted her mouth to the side and tilted her head, “would you like some advice?”

  I glanced at her with a raised brow, “go for it.”

  “Don’t bring up Somsang to him. Make this visit about you and him, at the very least but definitely not Somsang. Ok?”

  Well that just ruined any notion that I may have had to get some answers from Eikko. I knew that what my grandmother was saying was the gospel truth, but for some selfish reason I wanted, no, I needed to know why Somsang knew about my existence and only Eikko would know the answer to that question. Still, Othala was right.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I thanked her again and slipped into the room.

  “So much for trying to make you look like you get an adequate amount of sleep on a regular basis.” Eikko murmured, looking away from me toward the window.

  His once flawless skin was marred with light bruises while his blue-black hair had lost some of its shine and luster. Othala was right, something was missing from him.

  His rose-pink eyes seemed void of their usual mischief and there was no indication that the dark iris color that I especially adored would be coming out any time soon. Maybe it was because of the knowledge that his most trusted friend had turned on him. Maybe it was thanks to someone that didn't know how to keep his or her mouth shut. Whatever the case may be,
I knew that the best thing to do at the moment was to keep any conversation that we had off of Somsang and what we had just gone through.

  I touched my face as I sat down in the chair next to his bed, “does it look that bad?”

  “Not as bad as it did, but you could use a little TLC.”

  “That makes two of us then.”

  He grunted, but kept his eyes trained on the window, “why'd you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  He waved his arms around for a minute, “the flames. You protected us with your frames. Why?”

  “What kind of question is that? Why wouldn't I protect us?”

  “I didn't know I was that important for you to get stabbed by that thing and you still came to my rescue.” He shrugged half-heartedly, “just would like to know why.”

  Because I like you more than I should and losing you would be like losing my arm. I wanted to say, but what use was that?

  We both knew that one way or another, he needed to go back to Parlan, and I had to stay here and protect both his society and my own. Being together beyond this drama was next to impossible and there was no sense in pretending otherwise.

  Shrugging, I leaned back into the chair, “it was the right thing to do. Besides, you would've done the same had the tables been reversed.”

  “Yeah,” was all he said before going silent again.

  There was no point in asking him what was wrong. I knew. If I found out that Emric was trying to off me because of greed, I couldn't say that I wouldn't be in the same state that Eikko was in right now.

  “Have they found him?” The question was void of any emotion and judging from his distant stare out the window, I could tell that he really hadn't thought about the question before asking it.

  “No,” I shook my head, hating myself for having to be the bearer of such bad news.

  “That doesn't surprise me,” he scrubbed his hands over his face and sighed, “he's always been one to vanish whenever things didn't go his way.” A harsh laugh left him as he looked at me, “I guess he figured that since he couldn't kill me, he might as well leave until he found a different angle to shoot from.”

  I wanted to tell him that his assessment of the situation was incorrect but, how could I? I had watched Somsang pull the trigger on Eikko more times than I cared to count.

  “We're going to get him, Eikko, I don't know how yet, but we will.”

  He smirked, “you don't know Somsang too well. He has a tendency to slither his way out of any trouble he may find himself in.”

  I was out of lies to tell him and I didn’t know what else I could say that wouldn’t lead toward the conversation that I had been avoiding.

  “Did you know about Theodora being my sister?”

  “No, I already told you I didn't. Why are you bringing it up again?”

  “Forget it,” this wasn't the time and if his tone wasn't something to go off of, then the suspicious look on his face told me that I'd better drop the subject.

  Eikko kept looking at me like I'd grown two heads, “what aren't you telling me?”

  Screw it. The tension in the room was already enough to strangle a band of Eynos.

  “Somehow Somsang found out about the blood and look relationship between Theodora and me. I was just wondering if you knew how he found out about it.” I shrugged, “that was all.”

  “How is that possible?"

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” I twisted my mouth, “now all of Padrieg knows too.”

  “What does that mean for you?” He looked at me, his rose-pink eyes had regained some of their twinkle, but I could still see that he was battling some inner demons that just wouldn't let him be.

  “I don't know,” I shrugged, “we'll see. I can't do anything about it for the time being.”

  We fell silent as the weight of the situation landed into the room. By the time that the purple sun had set and took away the natural light, I was feeling even more exhausted than before.

  Resting my head on my knuckles, I closed my eyes and relaxed against the hard chair.

  “Go home, Ostana.”

  I opened my eyes to find Eikko looking at me from the corner of his eyes. “I'm fine,” it was the same false truth that I had told my grandmother and it was just as partially true now as it was then.

  “No, you're not. I can see the circles forming under your eyes and the stiffness in your shoulders. I’ll be fine if you go home for a while.”

  I smirked and tilted my head, “given the fact that your ex assistant is hell bent on seeing you dead. I think not.”

  A nerve ticked in his jaw as the reminder hit him, “I'll deal with him should he show up.” Finally, he looked at me, “go home.”

  Internally, I debated if I should just shoot him with a sedation dart and go to sleep in the chair or just follow his order and go home.

  “Ostana,”

  I put my hands up, “ok, ok, I’m going.” I stood up, making my way to the door before turning around and looking at him. “As quiet as its kept, I'm glad that you're ok, Eikko.”

  The corner of his mouth lifted in a soft smile, “thanks Ana.”

  I nodded, not wanting to ruin the sweet moment that was happening between us. If I were being honest, I was excited about going to my domicile and going to my own bed to get some sleep.

  As I dragged my body up the stairs to the domicile unit my communicator beeped in my ear.

  Groaning I let the thing connect to Orrie’s request. “What’s going on?”

  “You want the bad news or the worse news?”

  Leaning against the wall, I closed my eyes and waited, “just tell me what you found out.”

  He took a resolving breath and launched into his explanation of what was going on. “Theodora is missing again and this time Somsang handled it himself.”

  I slid down the wall and buried my face in my hands, “are you serious right now?”

  “Unfortunately, I am. The tracking program was able to pick up on a smear of blood that he left behind; remember when Eikko and Somsang first crashed into your Citlail?”

  “Yes.”

  “Caleum took blood samples from both of them in case something like Somsang ripping out his tracker happened. Needless to say, after the fight broke out in the southern border he was somehow hurt and had retreated back to Parlan. At least, that’s where the blood trail is pointing.”

  “Then how do you know that Theodora is missing again?” I pushed myself from the wall and changed directions from my domicile to the airbase.

  “She had sent me one of those things,” he stalled, obviously searching for the word, “a text. She sent me a text.”

  “And what’d it say?”

  Orrie cleared his throat as he read the text, “Somsang is here. If anything should happen tell Ana that I love her and that I’m glad, we got to meet before my demise.”

  My heart skipped a beat as I picked up the pace on my walking and nearly ran for the airbase. “Please tell me that you were able to put some form of a locator on her before we left her place.”

  I was nearly halfway to the airbase when I realized that my wound on my waist had torn through the stitching and blood was beginning to leak from the bandages. Clutching my side, I veered right to the onsite medic and flashed my warrior tags before grabbing a case of the standard health drink from the chilled safe.

  “I couldn’t get close enough to her,” Orrie admitted defeatedly.

  I let my head fall back on my shoulders as I tried to think of a way that I could save my sister from Somsang. Eikko was right, since Somsang couldn’t get the primary target he was going to go after the next best thing and unfortunately for Theodora, she was the next best thing for Somsang.

  “Ok, so what’re we going to do? Have any of the aircrafts been repaired enough to take flight?” I asked, cracking open a can of the health drink and guzzled the thing in record time.

  “I took the information to Fauve—”

  At the mention of our superior off
icer’s name, I spit the drink out and came face to face with the physician that my vaporized drink had hit.

  “I’m so sorry,” I mumbled, handing him a towel, and grabbing the case of the health drink, leaving the medic building before snapping at Orrie, “you what?”

  “I had to, Major. He’s been watching me with hawk like eyes; there’s no such thing as going around him or the other officials at this point. If there is a silver lining then this is it,” he shuffled something around and continued, “he knows that your sister is the victim of this situation and he’s set an order that whatever you need in order to protect her, you’re to be given it without question.”