LOCATION: THE CRUCIBLE, 50TH FLOOR
PLANET: LAPIS DIVINUS, ORION LUMINARY INSTITUTE
YEAR: 1 | DAY: ?? | TIME: ??
The Phantom Blade returned to the aether for recharging, and Kaela spun around. Her eyes met the Guard Captain’s, and while he looked terrified, to his credit, he held her gaze without looking away.
Her armor was covered in matted fur and blood, and her hands were balled up into fists. She stomped forward to confront the five men who stood by and watched while she fought three of the wolves alone.
She was ready to yell.
She was ready to accuse them.
But with each step, she calmed down.
Had her life really been in danger?
Her hands relaxed.
She was twenty paces away now.
Then her face returned to normal.
Ten paces.
Finally when she was five paces away, her mind was calm enough to read the men’s faces clearly. Their faces weren’t filled with arrogance as she had expected.
No, she knew that look.
It was fear.
Fear and exhaustion.
This was a peaceful village in the middle of nowhere. None of them likely signed up for the Guard expecting never-ending nightly attacks by ferocious beasts.
Attacks that never faltered, never skipped a day, and never let up.
That kind of thing had a way of weighing on you, and these were the men who were supposed to be on the front lines. But Kaela could see it clearly now. They were exhausted. And they were in over their heads.
So in the final five paces, she made a decision. She stopped in front of the Captain and stared for a long moment.
He swallowed hard.
Nobody spoke.
“We start training tomorrow,” Kaela said. “We’ll begin with the guards, but after that, you need to train everyone in the village to defend themselves. These attacks should not be your burden alone to deal with.”
She turned on her heel and began walking toward the inn.
The Guard Captain never spoke a word. She didn’t even hear him whispering to his men as she turned the final corner and fell out of earshot.
Kaela pulled the doors open to The Cracked Tankard, and saw Mayor Halford and innkeeper Edric hunched over talking in low tones about something.
Apparently the all-clear had been sounded ahead of her return, because several other patrons were already at tables drinking beer.
But when Kaela stepped through those double doors, looking like a bloody angel of death, they all grew silent and turned toward her.
Aveline rushed over with a towel, but Kaela held her hand up.
“I’m going to take a bath.”
Without another word, she climbed the stairs, hung her armor, set up the self-cleaning mechanism, and lowered herself into the tub.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Someone must have told Aveline she’d be on her way back, because the water was still hot. Exactly what she needed in that moment.
Although with the way she was still seething, she felt like she could boil the water herself. Metaphorically, of course.
After a half hour, Kaela dried off and got dressed. She decided a few mugs of ale sounded good.
She went down to the tavern, which was now back to its normal hustle and bustle, as if nothing had happened.
It bothered her, but she couldn’t quite place why.
It took her until her third beer to put her finger on it.
It was a parable her father used to tell her and Elena when they were growing up. He said it came from a Japanese Buddhist legend.
There was a fabled bird that lived in the Snow Mountains. Each night as it suffered through the sharp cold, shivering through the night, it vowed to build a nest the very next day.
But when the warm sun rose, it became complacent, forgetting its suffering, and playing all day long.
Only to repeat the cycle day after day, night after night.
Kaela looked around the tavern.
There was a couple leaning in close, kissing and flirting.
There was a group of men toasting to another night survived. Where were they when the alarm sounded?
This pattern was repeated around the room. She recalled the streets of the village during the daytime. Everyone rushing about to get their business done before nightfall.
Not to do anything about it, but to hunker down again and let the wolf attacks pass.
The mayor telling her they have no funds to build better defenses. The pattern continued everywhere she looked.
But it was the arrogance of the Guard Captain that got to her the most.
His flippant attitude when she went to see him was bad enough. But being the man in charge of the security and defense of the village, standing by with four men while a single newcomer dealt with three wolves on her own…
Yeah. He was probably the worst.
But in the end, it seemed that they had no plan to better defend themselves. Nobody had said a word about trying to track down the source of these attacks. And no plan to end this cycle of suffering.
That is the part Kaela felt was the strangest.
She felt the beer beginning to calm her frayed nerves. The mayor hadn’t even looked her way. He was still engaged in hushed conversation with Edric.
Kaela thought about waiting until the following day, but remembered how the mayor tended to sleep in. Taking a cue from the Snow Mountains parable, she didn’t want to waste the day like that, and decided to talk to him now.
She ordered another beer, then stood and approached Mayor Halford and Edric.
Edric saw her coming, and said something sharp, ending the conversation they were having.
“Ah, Kaela,” Edric said. “Welcome. Please join us.”
His smile appeared genuine enough. Kaela took a seat.
She spent several minutes telling the two men about what had happened earlier. The mayor apologized and assured her he would chastise the Guard Captain, but Kaela waved him off.
“As you can see, I can handle myself. I’m going to begin training with the guard corps tomorrow. Once they are better able to defend themselves, we will set up a training regimen first for every able-bodied man in the village. Then we can begin working on training everyone else.”
The mayor was silent for a minute, but then Edric burst out laughing.
“You’re going to teach women how to fight?”
He looked at the mayor and started laughing harder, spilling a third of his beer onto his jacket. He didn’t bother wiping it up, but took another deep swig from the mug.
Kaela stared him down, waiting for him to finish with his antics. When he finally noticed that she was serious, he coughed into his hand and settled down.
“Maybe you missed the part where I, a woman, took down three of the wolves tonight by myself while your brave Guard Captain and four of his men stood by watching.”
Kaela’s voice was a little louder and more forceful than she had intended, and everyone in the tavern went silent.
She shook her head and waited for them to return to their merriment. She turned to the mayor.
“Anyway, first we will work on bolstering your defenses, then I am going to find out who is sending these wolves.”
“You think someone is doing this to us?” the mayor asked. He and Edric exchanged a quick look that Kaela did not miss.
“Yes, I do,” Kaela said. “So if you have anything to tell me, I suggest you do so now. Because I will get to the bottom of this. Whoever is causing all of these innocent villagers to suffer and live in fear day after day, will pay.”
The mayor and Edric changed the subject, but Kaela did not miss the faint sheen of sweat on both men’s foreheads as their fingers tightened ever so slightly on their pewter tankards.