“Envy those who would get to travel to every corner of the Nova Rim. Yes, envy those who travel through the Hichron Spiral—who witness the majesty of the Auda Lights just beyond Alvius, or behold the legendary beauty of a Fargrim sunset. Envy them, or come along and see it all for yourself. The galaxy is out there. It is waiting for you—and if you don’t go see it, someone else will.”
—Allegiant General Midus Delverico, in a recruitment speech at the Highforth College
When Zaina came to, she was lying in a bed. The room around her was entirely white and thoroughly cleaned. She groaned, her head still spinning—the fingertips on her left hand scraped against the silky sheets. No sensation was coming in from her right.
Gasping, she sat up—suddenly she was thrust back into that room. The whispers in her ears, the attack by someone she thought was a friend—all under the watchful eye of the Eldritch’s orb—
As quickly as it came, it was all gone. Trembles coursed through her body for another minute like aftershocks. She glanced at her right shoulder, where a short stump was wrapped in bandages.
That’s right. It’s gone. Zaina sighed. Nothing on Kaado is what I thought it was going to be.
The door opened, and a familiar voice entered through the threshold. “Zaina Quin, it’s so good to see that you’re awake.”
High Scholar Geli Fawndar hovered into the room, flanked by Arbala and High Lancer Veli Terco.
Zaina choked out in a raspy voice, “Where am I?”
Geli replied, “You’re in the Kaado Healing Complex. The Intensive Unit, to be specific; you were placed in a month-long coma to allow all of your wounds to heal fully.”
Zaina leaned her head back in disbelief. A whole month had gone by.
With a nod, Geli replied, “Yes—lancer regenerative abilities are strong, but they’re at their strongest while you’re in stasis—and at their weakest when a lancer first has to use them. You should be ready to be discharged by the end of the day. You can rest and relax—I’m only here with a question or two.”
Zaina’s eyebrow raised. They didn’t think she was responsible for all this, did they? If they tried to blame her after everything she’d been through—
Her thought was interrupted by the High Scholar. “Fear not, Zaina. We know now who committed these heinous crimes. Your innocence is not in question here—nor is your devotion to the Order, which was proven by what you endured. We only wish to confirm what we discovered over the course of our investigation into these events.”
Zaina sighed. These vultures wouldn’t even let her recover properly without pecking after whatever knowledge she had—it was part of being a lancer, she supposed. “All right. Do your worst.”
Geli waited a moment, bobbing her head to measure her words, then said, “First, I think we should fill you in on recent events. Xyrthe Belgrand was released from her holding cell the day we found you and everyone else.”
Zaina held up a hand. “Who is that, exactly?”
“Your teacher. Xyrthe Belgrand.”
Zaina almost smiled, but recent events still weighed too heavily on her heart. She’d finally learned that woman’s name—all it took was nearly dying.
I’ll bet Xyrthe is gonna be thrilled now that I know her name.
The High Scholar was going on. “…Based on an analysis of materials in the room, we determined that you had likely engaged and killed the third heretic in combat—is this true?”
Zaina stared at her lap, shoulders sinking under an oppressive, sullen weight as the memories again flooded into her skull. “Yes—yes, it’s true. She told me she was taking me to see High Scholar Vae, but it was a trap. She tried to help the Eldritch take me as a host.”
“I see,” Geli replied. “And we’ve surmised that heretic’s identity to be Ovela Midor, former lancer—is that correct as well?”
Zaina turned away, then nodded.
Geli frowned. “It seemed she was corrupted early on; how she got the idea, Riiva only knows. We are currently of the belief that she is responsible for all of the murders and, to prevent her interference, framed your mentor before her attempt to hand you over to the Eldritch. Of course, this raises the question of the disruption of Xyrthe’s video feed—it may indicate yet another heretic amongst our ranks, working from the shadows the entire time.”
“That makes some amount of sense,” Zaina said. “I don’t think Ovela knew enough about the Eldritch or anything like that to do this all on her own. She did say someone told her—something. But I don’t think my mentor—Xyrthe—had anything to do with it.”
Geli nodded. “Yes. Now, all that being said, there is some good that may have come from all of this. For one, you, Zaina Quin, are safe and sound, and your allegiance can hardly be questioned now; for two, the Eldritch’s orb seems to have gone into some sort of deep sleep. I’m of the belief that infesting others with its spirit and taking corporeal form expends a large amount of its stored energy; that, to me, explains why it’s powered down. There are, of course, others who disagree. All we know is that it’s silent for now—waiting.”
“What are you going to do with it?” Zaina asked.
“It will be taken to the Sky Vault as planned, where no organic beings will interact with it. Hopefully, this can curb its influence; from there, we will use glyphs to study it remotely.”
“I think that’s the right move,” Zaina replied as she sat up. “I have a question, though. How did you know about Ovela?”
Geli’s head tilted. “Hm?”
“Well—her body burned up. She was consumed by the green fire. There wasn’t anything left.”
Geli’s mouth curled into a frown. “There’s always something left. As I said, we analyzed the materials in the room; there was a high concentration of what we call heretic ash—the soot that’s left behind when the Eldritch’s flame consumes their flesh.”
Zaina shuddered. “Is that—is that going to happen to me, one day?”
Geli frowned. “Do not worry about that, child. As for how we surmised the identity of the attacker, we only had to take attendance of all those working in the Order’s employ. Young Ovela Midor was the only one not accounted for.”
A defeated sigh rushed upward from Zaina’s lungs as she leaned back again. “I thought she was my friend—I thought this whole place would be different.”
“I understand. These are quite unusual times—dark times, I fear. There are a great many things happening, inside the Nova Rim and outside, that are alarming to the Order. But we must persist, as we always have, and always will; I am happy to know you carry that same spirit within yourself.”
Zaina wanted to smile, to feel warmth and pride from the compliment, but there was nothing. Guilt still weighed heavily on her.
I’m sorry, Ovela. Everywhere I go, everything seems to get fucked up.
Zaina sighed. “You said I’ll be ready to leave at the end of the day?”
Geli nodded. “Yes. Though, I must insist we keep what we talked about in this room a secret. Arbala and High Lancer Terco already knew, since they were the ones who found you; but not a soul otherwise is to know that we suspect another, more powerful heretic is within our ranks. I believe, with the Eldritch’s stone going silent and the loss of their servant, they will lay low and wait for another opportunity to achieve their foul ends. We will continue to investigate and look for opportunities to flush them out—but, life must also go on. To that end, your journey as a lancer must begin.”
Zaina’s eyebrow rose, her forehead scrunching up. “What are you saying?”
“Once you’ve recovered enough, you and your mentor will be going on your first missions,” Geli said, her lips forming a half-smile at the future’s prospects. “You’ll only be rated for low-risk assignments at first, and you’ll work your way up until you’re a full-fledged lancer rated for missions of all kinds. But, for now, should you still choose to tread this path, you have proven yourself more than worthy to bear the title of lancer.”
“Wh-what about my arm?” Zaina asked.
Geli rubbed her chin. “Yes, we’ve tasked our forgemasters to make you a prosthetic. They were in quite a fuss over it. They’ll stop by tomorrow to brief you on everything. It may take some getting used to, but I’m sure you’re up to the task.”
Zaina nodded. As far as she’d come, there was still a mountain ahead of her to climb. She was looking forward to it—hopefully, she could put all of this strangeness behind her. All her perseverance had brought her to this moment, when she could finally be a lancer—wounds and all. “Thank you, High Scholar.”
“Thank you, Zaina, for not giving up. I can’t imagine the catastrophic consequences if the Eldritch was reborn on Kaado—that is one of three events which could bring about the end of the Order itself.”
Zaina wondered what the other two were, but didn’t dwell on it for more than a few seconds. With their goodbyes said, Geli left—Arbala and Veli both said a brief goodbye and wished Zaina well before taking their leave as well. Despite coming to less than an hour ago, Zaina was still exhausted—though a month had passed, to her it was all still like it happened yesterday.
I don’t know why all this bad stuff seems to follow me.
Zaina turned onto her side and fell into a deep sleep for the next few hours. Finally, she was woken up by a medic and led home by a glyph. The floating gray drone fussed over Zaina, emitting high-pitched, concerned beeps while guiding her to a transport parked outside the massive complex atop one of Kaado’s upper-inner islands.
The glyph floated into their transport, and Zaina followed. She stared at the controls to the craft, waiting in the cockpit—Ovela had been one hell of a pilot. Zaina hoped to learn to be half as good in her honor. She wanted to remember Ovela’s best side, not what she became.
For today, though, Zaina curled up in her seat, still exhausted—her body was still waking up. Once they landed, the glyph chirped a cheery goodbye and departed on the transport, leaving Zaina to shuffle back to her hut. As her hand grasped the handle to her door, a familiar voice rang out.
“Hey there, kid.”
Zaina froze. Her mentor—Xyrthe Belgrand—had she come here to antagonize her? Zaina wasn’t in the mood.
The woman walked over and glanced at Zaina’s missing arm with a grimace. Then, she said, “I’m sorry about—well—you know.”
Zaina was taken aback—the woman was apologizing? Did she actually feel compassion for Zaina? She was shocked into silence.
Her mentor continued, “Anyway, I’m off. I’ll be back tomorrow to watch you practice, or whatever. Looks like we’ll be going on missions soon. I guess going out there and doing nothing beats doing nothing here.”
With that, her mentor turned and walked away. Zaina sighed. That was the nicest the woman had been to her since she came here. She hobbled into her hut and laid down, falling into the first restful sleep she’d had since coming to Kaado.
