by S King
“Because you’re like a daughter to me, Shaye. But with all sentiments aside, we need to talk about what your plan is to get Mr. Kangho back to Parlan. As well as getting Somsang back for his execution.”
I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus on what he was saying, “I’m going to…” I cradled my head again, not feeling any better from the fall earlier and now I was having to rake through what little functioning brain that I had to figure out what I was going to do with Eikko and how in hell’s name I was going to get Somsang back when I had had the slippery jerk right there in my hand earlier in the dana.
“Shaye,” Fauve’s tone was soft as he grunted coming to sit down beside me, “I know that you have feelings for this boy, but he cannot stay here.”
I didn’t know if it was the sedation dart or the fact that I had slept so well, but as I looked at the carpet between my knees, I watched the tears silently fall. I knew that Eikko couldn’t stay with me and I knew that I couldn’t go with him, but why did it hurt so bad to let go of something that I had never even thought about in the past?
“The officials have determined that you are to send him off in the Magdolonian within three danas.”
I clenched my teeth as the order was handed down. Eikko would be gone within the next three days and if I valued my life as much as I, and anyone else, did then I would make sure that he got on that aircraft and never come back.
“What about my suicide mission?” I said through wiping my nose.
He took a deep breath and chuckled, “no one was all too happy about the situation but given the circumstances, you’ve kept your rank and status. But pull something like that again and you will be exiled from the district.”
Finally, I could breathe a sigh of relief. My trip to Parlan wasn’t all that wasted and thanks to getting in good with the five-star general I was able to skate by with nothing more than a slap on the wrist and a stern talking to.
“And Somsang?” I asked as I tried to stop the tears from falling.
“Now that one is still to be determined. We’re having our best trackers try to find him while also keeping an eye on your sister.”
My head came up as I looked at Fauve.
With a shrug of his shoulders he turned his attention to my bedroom door, “Padrieg may not be the ideal place to raise a family but still, when there is family to look after, you have to do it. You can thank your grandmother for that little lifeline she threw out for you. Nonetheless,” he raised a brow at me, “if you ever disobey a direct order again then I will personally see to it that you never walk through the military district again. Understand?”
“Yes sir,” I tried to smile but at the thought of saying goodbye to Eikko I simply dropped my pounding head again and focused on the heartbeat in my ears.
“I’ll let you say your goodbyes,” he grunted again as he pushed himself from the floor and started to leave, “Ostana?”
I raised my head to look at him and stopped myself from frowning at his sympathetic look, “yes sir?”
“Don’t live with regrets, ok? Nothing good ever comes from it and if you have something to say or do,” he took a look around my room as if he were remembering a different place and time.
He settled those amber eyes of his on me again and tried to turn his normally neutral expression into a slight smile, “you should do it now.”
I saluted him in respect before he left my room and me to my thoughts. There was no time better than the present but at the same time, I didn’t want to face what the future had in store for me. Three days and Eikko would be gone and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
Pushing myself from the floor, I staggered into the kitchen. All was quiet in my domicile and no light was turned on, thankfully; having to feel my way to the table, I fell into the chair and took out my chicken, rice and kale meal with the health drink to finish it off.
“You really need to get some coffee,” Eikko murmured as he stumbled his way into the kitchen before collapsing into the seat across from me.
“I don’t know what that is,” it felt like that every time I opened my mouth to say something a bullhorn was pressed to my ear.
I scooted his meal over to him and shook my drink in front of his face, “drink this.”
“Why?”
“Just do it,” I wasn’t in the mood to be questioned about trying to make him feel better.
We wouldn’t have that long to continue our banter and if it were up to me, I was going to make the most of the time that we had together. Even if that meant that he went back to his room and I went back to mine to sleep off the sedation effects. At least we would be together.
He took the cup with a mumbled thanks and threw the thing back like it was a shot of snake venom. As I watched him, the purple sun broke through the horizon and casted a bright lavender glow through the windows allowing me to marvel in just how perfect Eikko was.
The way that his jet black-blue hair shined in the sunlight and the way that his skin seemed to be made of a precious kind of marble; the muscles in his arms flexed with every movement and if I said, or did, the right thing then that singular dimple would make an appearance on his left cheek. Looking at him, I couldn’t help but remember Emric’s words from the infirmary.
“Funny isn’t it? How someone once so insignificant can become your entire world. The only thing you see, think, dream about, in a matter of seconds and you don’t even realize it.” It was funny in a sad way. Eikko went from being the Parlan jackass to my happy place and I didn’t even know, or care, when it had happened. Now I would have to do the hardest thing in my life and let him go.
I dropped my head as he finished off the drink and started eating. I’d figure out how to get through this mess and come out with as minimal heartache as I could manage.
“You should’ve taken me with you,” he grumbled as he shoved his food into his mouth.
“What?”
He motioned over his shoulder, “to Pya. You should’ve taken me with you,” he said again, still not looking at me.
“We weren’t talking then, remember?”
He snorted, glancing at me through his eyelashes, “yes, but still if you had said that you needed a way to get back to Parlan then I would’ve gone with you.”
My mind finished the last part of the statement that was left unspoken. Had I taken him with me he would’ve been back to his normal Parlan routine and I would’ve gone back to mine. It was a hard blow, but no matter how hard it was, it was the truth and that was something that I couldn’t deny even if I wanted to.
“Sorry,” I whispered as I finished off my meal and tossed the thing into the recycling compartment. “I need to catch up on some paperwork if you need me.”
“Noted,” he said through a mouth full of chicken but didn’t bother looking up at me.
I slowly walked into my office, locked the door, and slid to the carpet and cried for what I was about to lose.
Chapter 20 Final Goodbyes
Two dana had already passed and here I was sitting in the training arena, dripping of sweat and my internal fire diminished next to nothing. Eikko and I had spent the little time that we had left subtly saying our goodbyes and now I was looking like something from the red sun.
I sighed, dropping my head in my hands as I remembered the conversation that I had with him about being able to go home.
“Eikko, can I talk to you for a second?” I leaned against the doorframe of his bedroom and picked the dead skin from my nails.
He looked up from his notepad and frowned, “what’s wrong?”
I jerked my head to the living room, “let’s have a drink.”
“OK,” he said slowly, closing the notepad and following me to the living room. “Why don’t you have the fire going?”
I glanced at the empty fire pit as I opened the bottle of snake venom. Letting a fire angel fly from my hand, a soft whoosh went through the living room as the fire came to life in the hearth and illuminated the darkened room.<
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“Every time you use your ability it brings chills to my body,” he smirked, letting his hand trail from my stomach around my back before it dropped, and he sat down in front of the couch.
I cleared my throat, pouring two glasses of the alcohol, “why’s that?” I handed him a glass and sat down beside him.
“Fire and water,” he shrugged, “you know?” He smirked, sipping on his drink, and looked into the white flames of the fire.
Yeah, I know. I took a deep breath debating whether or not I really wanted to tell him about being able to go back to Parlan. Back to his home. Back to my sister. Back to his normal.
“What’s on your mind, fire angel?”
I stared at the flames licking up the top of the hearth and decided that I needed to tell him. Even if it were the worst thing that I could do for myself.
“You’re going home tomorrow. The Magdolonian will be done with its field test and will be cleared to take you back to Parlan.” I raised my glass in a halfhearted salute of congratulations and downed the thing like it was one of my health drinks.
Eikko sat up and stared at me, “what?”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, not right now. “You’re going home.”
I wasn’t going to sugar coat his good news. It may have been a knife in my heart, but it was his saving grace and that was all that mattered.
“Back to Parlan?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you go with me?” Hope sprang into his dark purple eyes as he sat up and looked at me.
I poured another glass of snake venom and remembered what Fauve warned me about should I decide that I was going with Eikko to Parlan.
Shaking my head, I avoided his gaze, “I can’t. I have obligations and responsibilities here that can’t be passed off to someone else.”
“Oh,” he sat back against the couch and rested his arm on his knee, “do you really have to stay here?”
“Yes,” I took a long pull from my glass and narrowed my eyes to make the flames burn hotter.
We fell silent for a moment longer before he finished off his drink and stood up, “I guess, I’ll go get ready then.”
I wanted to make him stop where he was, throw myself in his arms, beg for him to just stay with me. But I couldn’t do that, and I wasn’t going to.
“Don’t forget your suits,” I reminded him before tossing back the second glass of snake venom.
“You don’t want to return them?”
This time I did glance at him with a smirk covering my face to hide the tears that were threatening to cover my eyes. “There’s no such thing as returning clothes in Padrieg. You get one shot to get things right when it comes to clothing. If you don’t then you either have to buy a different size or whatever the case may be,” I waved my hand in the air, “or you live with it.”
He nodded, “I didn’t know that…well, ok then…thanks Ostana. For everything,” he came over to me and kissed the top of my head before disappearing back to his bedroom.
Shaking my head, I forced the memory away and climbed to my feet. I couldn’t keep relieving the fact that I wasn’t woman enough to tell him how I truly felt nor could I deal with the fact that he was leaving either. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Slamming my hand into the ATP I took a deep breath and allowed the holographic Eynos to come at me from every which angle and exhausted the rest of my fire ability. I didn’t want to continue to fight the holographs, I wanted the real thing. When the timer alerted me that I went over my time for training, I slumped into the observation bench as I unwrapped my hands and replayed Fauve’s warning to me.
“If you decide to go back to Parlan, I can’t stop you, but remember something. If you leave Padrieg, do not come back.”
I took a deep breath, rubbing my forehead as I recited the rules of Padrieg; I wasn’t going to desert my duties as a military official and I couldn’t abandon my grandmother or Emric.
“Hey Major,” Orrie leaned against the barrier of the observation wall and looked down at me.
“What’s going on?” I shoved my training gear into the duffle bag.
He scratched the back of his neck, offering to take my bag for me, “I’m getting transferred.”
“What?” I frowned up at him, thankful for his offer but shouldered the bag myself, “what do you mean transferred? I didn’t sign off on a transfer for you.”
A sad half smile lifted the corner of his mouth as we walked out of the training arena after I turned off the drone lighting and the ATP.
“It wasn’t your decision. The officials determined that after everything I’d done that, I’d be better suited somewhere else.”
“Which is where?” I couldn’t lose Eikko and Orrie within the same tjedan.
Shrugging, he fell into step beside me back to the domicile district, “your guess is as good as mine. I mean, the good news is that the Eynos are pushed back from the battlefield enough for us to take a breather and the aircrafts will be ready for flight after today.”
“They didn’t tell you where they were transferring you?” I asked again, frowning on the simple shrug of his shoulder.
Something wasn’t adding up and even though I had no voting power when it came to the official military business that went on in the conference room, I knew that the officials would’ve definitely told Orrie where he was being transferred. There was no such thing as the element of surprise in Padrieg and I was beginning to think that he didn’t want me to know where he was going because it had something to do with Eikko.
“No,” he shook his head but kept his eyes trained forward.
I stopped walking, staring up at him, “tell me the truth, Orrie.”
He let his head fall back on his shoulders and sighed, “I’m going to…Parlan.”
My mouth fell open as I tried to process what he was saying. Orrie was going to the blue sun? Why was he going to blue sun? He was a part of the purple sun military and within that title, that did not include going to Parlan.
“What…the…actual…fuck?” I said slowly.
He backed away from me, “I wanted to tell you sooner, but since it was just sprung on me, I needed time to process it myself.”
I couldn't do anything but stare at him. Orrie was being transferred to the blue sun which meant that even if I wanted to, I wasn't going to be able to check on Eikko. Not that that was the only reason that I was upset that he was going.
“I’ll be going out on the patrol aircraft that leaves before the Magdolonian that's taking Eikko back.”
“Who authorized the transfer?”
“Fauve and Kendrick.”
Shoving my training bag into his hands, I hooked a thumb over my shoulder, “take that back to my domicile.” I didn't wait for him to say anything as I changed directions from the domicile district to the military official offices.
I needed to know why Orrie was getting transferred without the same threatening promise that I got. I wasn't jealous of him, but I was upset that I was losing another friend.
“Is General Fauve in his office?” I flashed my warrior tags to the holograph monitor and looked at the young officer behind the desk.
She pecked away at her holographic locator and nodded, “it looks like he's in there alone too. Should I announce you?”
I waved her off and headed for Fauve's office. There was no reason to announce that I was here to see him; hell, he knew that I was going to find him one way or the other. As I reached the top of the stairs and glanced into the windows that made up the front wall of his office.
General Fauve's snow-white hair was trimmed close to his skull with just enough on top to be combed back. With his back to me I was able to see just how much tension was carried between his shoulders. Some part of me wanted to feel bad about what I was about to do, but at the same time, I needed answers.
Taking in a deep breath, I knocked on the glass door of his office and waited.
“Come in,” Fauve didn't bother turning
around to see just who was coming in and kept his back to me as he continued to look at the holographic layout of the battlefield and the red sun.
“Sir, may I speak with you for a moment?” Not knowing whether or not I could sit down, I opted for the safer optioned and continued to stand by the door.
He glanced at me over his shoulder, “what is it, Major?”
“Why wasn't I informed that Orrie was going to be transferred to the blue sun?” Ok, so I wasn't going for the accusatory tone but given everything that was going on, I had my reasons.
“You weren’t informed because as of right now you are on a probationary period and that means,” he turned toward me long enough to get something off his desk and turned back to his holographic map. “You are not to be a part of any transfer requests or approvals. The officials will handle what you are normally responsible for, until further notice.”