by Simon Archer
I ended up spending more time with Olivia in the Vreg tent or Rachel and Mia in the Ouras one. When I told them about the weirdness at Enka, they chalked it up to us being the new soldiers.
“It’ll go away when a new set comes in,” Rachel assured me with a hard clap on the back.
But no new soldiers came in. The eleven of us were the last group for a while. We rotated in and out with the other soldiers, doing our perimeter checks and scouting missions. I was grateful for those because it got me off base and we were always paired with members from other branches.
There were four in a scouting party, one from each branch. We would go together, sometimes for days at a time, exploring the nearby forest for any magical monster activity. But during the couple of weeks that I had been on base, no one had found anything.
I knew I wasn’t the only soldier disappointed by the lack of fighting. All of us had been trained for combat, not these surveillance missions. While I knew they were important, it seemed like we had missed the mark. There wasn’t any reason for upwards of forty soldiers to be sitting on their cold asses with nothing to fight. At least not if the rumors were to be believed.
We were able to get updates from other bases for the first week that I was there. I even sent a letter or two to Bella, and she replied, telling me all about fighting the rock monsters in South Dakota. If I were honest with myself, I was jealous of all the supposed action she was getting.
However, due to the weather, we soon lost the ability to send letters of any kind. I did ask Irema about that original offer she had made me on our first day here. But when I asked her about talking with Cameron, she seemed to have no recollection of it. I chalked it up to maybe having misheard her or something equally as odd, but when she pranced off to be with the other Enka members, I thought maybe it was something I had done to break her trust.
So I had no contact with the outside world other than our little base. All of the soldiers found themselves isolated. To say that they were getting cabin fever would be an understatement.
I heard snippets here and there about the lack of leadership from Officer Quinn. It was a level of insubordination that I had never experienced before. I understood their frustration, trust me, I did. However, I never doubted the commander’s orders. Her orders came from the Elemental Officials, and I had to trust that they knew what they were doing. Otherwise, well, I would lose sight of who I was as a soldier.
The unrest hit a head one day when I came into the Enka barracks after a three-day scouting mission. Olivia had been the one keeping me sane as we trekked around the white snow, seemingly in circles. Her positive spirit was infectious and we were grateful to have her in our squad for that mission, even though we turned up empty-handed. Again.
Predictably, the Enka soldiers were crowded around their mysterious crate and papers again. I walked in this time with my hand over my eyes.
“I’m not looking, I swear,” I muttered. “I just got back and I’m ridiculously tired. So if you guys aren’t going to let me through I’m just going to crash on Irema’s bed.”
Suddenly, I felt a hand on my own, pulling it away from my face. It was Irema herself. Though she looked different than she had the day when we first arrived. I didn’t know how I didn’t notice it before but she had dark circles under her brown eyes. Her braids were frayed, not as slick and tight as they were before. Even her skin stretched across her facial bones in ways that were unattractive and frankly, unhealthy.
“Irema?” I asked, hesitating.
However, she answered me with a smile. “You can open your eyes, Hailey. I think it’s time you finally see what we’ve been working on.”
My stomach flipped like a trapeze artist. I couldn’t tell if I was excited or nervous. The idea of finally being let into this little club was exciting to say the least, however, my body was beat, and I only had six hours before I had to get up and be on an evening watch shift.
“That’s really great and all but--” I didn’t get a chance to protest because she walked me over to the crate and the Troll Twins, as I had taken to calling them, let me through the barrier.
What I saw on the papers astounded me. They were schematics of the camp as well as a background file on Officer Quinn. The flame in the lantern flickered over the papers, creating inconsistent shadows. The dancing light made it hard to read but I managed to get a jist of what they had been looking at this whole time.
“Why do you have these files?” I said with a point as if they didn’t know what I was referencing.
“We know you’re frustrated, Hailey,” Irema said, looking me directly in the eye. The sight was so intense, it unnerved me. “So are we. That’s why we have these files.”
“We’re going to take down the commanding officer,” said a squat soldier with bushy eyebrows and a pointed nose, which looked more like a beak.
“Take down?” I repeated, unsure I heard them right. “What do you mean, take down?”
“Irema told us you were smart,” one of the Troll Twins grunted. “Don’t play stupid now.”
“She’s been running us around the mill, Hailey,” Irema jumped in, cutting off the twin before she could insult me more. She gripped my sleeve as though she were clinging on for dear life. “We’ve been here for weeks, some of them longer with nothing to do. She’s a terrible leader and we need to get rid of her.”
“It’s our right to do so when a leader isn’t doing their job,” the second twin chimed in.
It took me a second before I noticed that my own head was shaking. “We can’t do that. We shouldn’t do that. It’s wrong.”
“Wrong?” the squat girl snapped. “What she’s doing to us is wrong. It’s abuse!”
“We’re soldiers,” I argued. “We’re supposed to follow her orders. I’m sure she has a good reason for doing this.”
“I told you she wasn’t ready,” the first twin growled into Irema’s ear. She swatted her away like a fly.
“Hailey,” she said gently, as if she were about to explain a complicated math problem. “Don’t you see? This is the only way to restore order to the base. We are useless here when we could be doing so much more.”
“Okay,” I said, trying to play along with her idea. “So say whatever plan you guys have works and you manage to take down the commanding officer. Then what? The Elemental Officials are just doing to put a new one in her place and all of you are going to get discharged.”
“We won’t let that happen,” Irema assured me, her eyes glowing from the firelight. “Because without an officer, it means we’ll be able to do what we want. Follow our own orders.”
There was a general murmur of agreement from the group at large, with various nods and even a shared high five between the twins.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The whole thing seemed ludicrous. Were my fellow Enka members actually planning a coup? And then they just seemed to think they could do whatever they wanted? What kind of soldiers were they? Not the ones that I had ever worked with or trained with.
That thought caused me to give another once over of the group. All of them looked to be in bad shape. They had matching dark circles and gaunt features. While it was plausible to think that they were this way from the lack of combat and the harsh conditions, something told me there was more to this. None of the other branches looked this terrible. And as far as I knew, while everyone was frustrated with the lack of action, no one else was planning something this drastic and stupid.
“I don’t think I can be a part of this,” I said plainly. “Being a soldier means there is a structure, an order, a set of laws that we have to adhere to, and this… this goes against all of that. I don’t care how hard it is, it isn’t worth throwing all of this out the window.”
I shook my head and turned to walk out of the circle. “I’m sorry but I can’t.”
A large hand slammed down onto my shoulder, preventing me from moving any farther.
“You think we’re just going to let you walk out o
f here now that you’ve seen what you’re planning?” the first Troll Twin growled at me. Her grip on my shoulder tightened and I buckled under the weight of it. She shoved me down to my knees, pushing me so that I skidded along the floor.
I hauled myself back up, jumping to a combat-ready position. I knew I couldn’t take all seven of them. I was a good fighter but in this small space, I had little advantages and was clearly outnumbered.
As I watched the soldiers turn on me, they walked as slow as zombies. There was something foreign and distance in their eyes as though they weren’t really looking at me. As though they couldn’t see me.
Pieces clicked in my brain, turning like gears in a machine. My meeting with my father rang in my ears as I saw the lost look in Kari’s eyes when she finally came out of her trance brought on by Eris.
On a whim, I reached my hand into my pocket and pulled out the laurel leaf. It vibrated between my fingers, still whole and fresh as the day Apollo gave it to me. I took a couple of steps back so I could get the view of the rest of the Enka soldiers in one gaze.
I raised the leaves up to my eyes.
When I did, I saw my comrades in a whole new light. Literally. There was a sickly purple haze hovering around each of their heads like a poisonous halo. The orange glow from the lanterns turned into the same violet as the halos. The glows fell over the soldiers’ eyes like helmets, blocking their line of sight.
My eyes roamed over all of them, seeing that it affected each of them the same, including Irema.
I scrambled farther away from the group, still holding the leaves up between my eyes so I could peer through them and see the truth. The farther away I got, the widen my view became.
There, just behind the soldiers was an eighth figure. It hovered like a ghost, its marching feet never touching the floor. It was a humanoid shape, but flitted about made of that purple glow. It moved like gel through water, congealing in the form of a female.
She had sharp teeth that hung out of her mouth like a vampire and hollow holes where her eyes should have been. Her arms were raised over the seven mortals, like a puppet master controlling all of them.
I had been hoping for some kind of action. I guess I needed to be more careful for what I wished for.
I threw out my hand and sent a fireball directly at the purple creature. Her hollow eyes grew twice their size as she saw the fire approach her, fast as a bullet. A banshee-like scream permeated the air and the purple monster retreated.
My fellow soldiers crouched low and covered their ears to block out the scream. But I let it penetrate my ears because I couldn’t stop the assault nor lower the laurel leaf. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to see where I was aiming.
The purple beast turned heel and floated out of the other side of the tent. I hurtled forward and chased after her. I jumped over the other soldiers, using the side of the bunk to fling myself above them. I dashed out into the frigid air with the laurel leaf still held to my eye like a magnifying glass.
The purple spirit floated away from the base, but I tore after it, adrenaline propelling my legs forward. Part of me knew it was completely foolish to run after something like this on my own without any kind of backup. But I wasn’t going to let this creature get away, whatever it may be.
Instinctively, I knew that this foreign being was the cause of the unrest in the Enka cabin. It was the same color as the halos around their heads and the minute it was seen, it fled. If that wasn’t a sign of guilt, I didn’t know what was.
From somewhere far away, I heard the sound of my name being called. However, I paid the person no mind. I was in pursuit of this creature and while it was entirely possible that I would be reprimanded for such a reckless act, I knew that this mission was way more important than any punishment I might accrue.
The chase pushed me to my limits. My leg muscles burned against the effort and my heart pounded against my chest in order to keep up with the beast.
We darted between the trees, deeper and deeper into the forest. I lumbered along, my legs galloping beneath me like a horse. The momentum from the hill propelled me down, picking up speed. Unlike when I met with my dad, I managed to keep my feet this time.
While I still had some high ground over the beast, I shot more fireballs the size of baseballs at the creature. I never hit her directly, but she wasn’t my target. The fire slammed into the tree trunks around her. One after the other, they exploded in a column of flame.
Each time one of the trees caught fire, the creature screamed and darted in the other direction. Quickly, I figured out that I could control her path by using my fire. If she was afraid of it, then I could chart out her course and utilize that fear to my advantage.
I took a risk and lowered the laurel leaf for a moment so I could use both of my hands, firing the flames along a wall of trees. The further we ventured into the woods, the closer and thicker the trees became. I managed to create a blockade of fire.
When I put the leaf back up to my eye, I saw exactly what I hoped to. The purple creature was stuck in a ring of fire. There was only one opening and it was back the way she had come. Back towards me.
The being spun around and faced me. I flicked my fingers and a globe of flame appeared around my hand. The creature flinched back away from me as I stepped closer. But she was trapped between the fire in front of her and the fire behind her.
“Hailey!” a voice shouted from behind me.
I lost my concentration for the briefest of moments, due to the fact that I recognized that voice. While it had been weeks since I last heard it, I spent nearly a lifetime listening to it.
“Kari?” I asked, my eyes turning away from my target for a moment.
That moment was enough. The creature lunged forward and tackled me. I expected the beast to be more cordial and transparent but it slammed into my body with the force of a freight train.
I tumbled to the ground, my head bouncing against the ice. My hand flew out and the laurel leaf flew into the snow, sinking ever so slightly. Suddenly, I couldn’t see the creature above me, but I could feel the weight of it.
I wrestled beneath the creature, trying to get a grip on it with my fire hand. But she pinned me down, the fire doing nothing except melting the snow and eventually burning a hole into the earth.
It was unnerving trying to fight something that I couldn’t see. I tried to figure out the placement of her limbs which drilled into mine, pinning me to the ground. But I couldn’t get a hit on her.
“Hailey! What the hell? Get up!” Kari called from somewhere behind me.
“The leaf!” I shouted back. The creature tried to drown out my words with a howl.
From this close proximity to the beast, I thought my eardrums were going to explode. Ringing clouded my head. Now I was without a target to see and a way to hear my comrade.
Frustration boiled through me and I could feel the increasing temperature within my core. While I knew that going supernova wasn’t always the best option, it might have been my only option.
I let down my guards and allowed the heat to flow through me. Like lava traveling down the side of a volcano, the light of the sun crawled along my body. My skin began to glow and exude a danger level of heat. I felt the snow melt beneath me, until I was evaporating the remaining water.
While I still couldn’t see the creature, I could hear her scream. The weight pressing on my body finally lifted and I could move of my own accord once again. I scrambled up to my feet, now a human ball of light. I focused on containing the power of the sun, not letting it reach beyond my fingertips.
Suddenly, there was a grunt behind me and a nasty smack, like spaghetti being thrown at the wall. A splotch of mud hung in midair, making the vague shape of a human face with one eye socket, part of the nose, and half a cheek.
I whirled around to see where the source of the mud ball came from and saw Kari standing there, with another ball of clay forming above her palm while her other hand held the laurel leaf up to her eye.
“
Eat shit!” she cried as she flung another ball at the creature.
Another section of the purple creature became visible, a part of her torso. While I thought that Kari would throw another ball, she surprised me by holding out her hand towards the creature and its two mud splotches. Kari’s fingers curled and bent in midair, as though she were unlocking an invisible locker. The clay moved in response with her motions, growing around the creature.
“Harden her, Hailey!” Kari commanded as the clay twirled around the creature like some ancient mummification process.
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I held out my hands and gave the sun’s fire permission to expel from me. It shot forward in two parallel lines until it connected with the clay, hardening it with the heat.
This wasn’t the first time I had acted as Kari’s kiln. It was one of our specialties for her to attack an opponent with her father’s clay before I hardened it with my intense heat. It created a statue, containing the being inside.
Sure enough, the purple being solidified with the combination of Kari’s clay and my fire. Together, we trapped the creature, silencing her forever.
21
I wanted to claw out my eyeballs.
I always felt this way during Elemental Official meetings if sleep wasn’t threatening to take over. But I would have preferred that to this annoying thrumming at the back of my eyelids that wouldn’t stop.
I was pretty sure that the cause for such a frustrating sensation was the constant bickering between the Elemental Officials.
Once my friends and I figured out the solution to the Moirai’s riddle, I immediately called an Elemental Official meeting. I’m sure that none of them were happy, considering it was the end of the day, and I had to drag some of them out of their houses after they had already settled down for the night. But this was important and critical for the war, even though Officer Ashley wouldn’t shut up about how she needed her beauty sleep.