Saketa bolted up and the figure shrank back a step.

She was groggy, a dream she couldn’t remember lingering in her soul. Something about being crushed underneath a weight, or paralysed. It took her a moment or two to be sure she had indeed shifted into reality. It was late into the night, the camp was silent, and the person in front of her was quite real.

The figure was twitchy and hunched, looking ready to spring into action of some sort. But Saketa did not sense danger from it, and decided the person was simply skittish.

“Warden?” a youthful female voice said after a moment.

“Yes?” Saketa replied.

The woman, or girl rather, seemed to relax a little and she cleared her throat.

“I saw you at the bottom of those stairs, when you scattered the crowd.”

Saketa nodded, waiting for her to get over another bit of hesitation.

“Look... my name is Vanaka. No one... no one said anything about you being here until last evening. Do you have a ship?”

As Saketa’s eyes woke up she started making out details. Vanaka surely hadn’t hit age twenty yet, had rather fair skin and dark hair and wore a light-coloured coat. And she looked fearful.

“Not here,” Saketa said carefully. “I arrived yesterday as a passenger. The ship and its crew are waiting for me in the capital. Why do you ask?”

“I need you to take me away.”

Saketa felt an urge to be of help, but hesitated. The girl detected it and seemed to go through an awkward adjustment.

“Please?” Vanaka said. “Look... I am not from here. I came on a commercial flight. This was only supposed to be a recharging stop. But then the elevator was bombed. All this happened, and... everything went insane. I was supposed to meet with my father on Xivioth. But I am out of money, I have no connections here, no weapons, I do not speak the native language, and things are getting more dangerous by the day.”

Talking about all of this seemed to be unleashing a store of pent-up anxiety. The girl took a steadying breath, and it shook a bit as she let out a long exhale with her eyes closed.

Saketa thought about it, although her head was a bit clouded. Should she stay in the city and let Usta come to her with whatever he had in mind? Or…

“I will need to travel to the capital eventually,” she told Vanaka. “But it is dangerous out on the plain.”

“It is dangerous here,” the girl insisted. “I’ve already had people try to kill me in the street!”

She knelt by the bed and took Saketa’s hand in her left, then covered it with her right.

“Please. I really believe I will be safest going with you, and getting off this planet as soon as I can. Help me.”

Saketa felt her will give way, and her thoughts rearranged. There was only one realistic way off this world, and Usta knew it as well as she did. And she’d wrecked his operation in this city. Wouldn’t he simply head towards the capital and wait to ambush her in a place he knew she would eventually go to? And speeding away from her immediate vicinity would give him more time to prepare for their next fight.

It made sense. And it would allow her to help this girl.

“Very well,” Saketa said and patted Vanaka’s top hand with her free one. “I will take you with me. But I have enemies here and they may try to strike at me. So I need to be able to trust that you will hide when I say so and run when I say so.”

The girl bowed her head a bit and let out another shaky exhale.

“Thank you, Warden,” she said as she looked back up. “I will not get in your way. And I do some hiking back home. I ought to manage.”

“Good. And my name is Saketa.”

She stood up.

“We will need supplies for the trip. I only have a few energy bars in my bag. And unless you have some solution we will need to carry everything ourselves.”

“I have some travel food of my own,” Vanaka replied, and nudged a bag Saketa hadn’t noticed with her foot. “And I’m stronger than you might think. I’ve been carrying it all along.”

Saketa went over this new development, but she’d already considered the journey to the capital and this wasn’t that big a change.

“Do you have a water bottle?”

“I do.”

“So do I. If you can keep up a decent pace we ought to make it in about five or six days. I understand there has been a lot of destruction, but we should still be able to refill from water pipes. Failing that, we can refill from the rivers. They are fairly clean by industrial standards, and I do have purity pills.”

She patted her bag.

“I have a few myself,” Vanaka said. “I thought I was overpreparing for this whole trip, but it seems not.”

Saketa nodded again and stretched her limbs. She felt a bit light headed and had apparently slept with her neck in an awkward crook. She blamed it on those explosive charges Usta had set off. Ideally her day would start off with meditation, but consistent convenience was for the training fields of home, not the wider galaxy.

“I would like to set off before sunrise,” she said. “Things will be easier for us if I can exit the city without being noticed.”

“That suit is distinctive,” her new charge commented.

“It is meant to be. Do you need to fetch anything, or get anything done?”

“No.”

The girl shouldered her bag.

“No, I just want to leave.”

“Then we leave.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Saketa started putting her boots back on.

# # #

This damaged city was a special experience in the latest part of the night. The destruction was only hinted at in the faint street lighting the authorities could spare, and the twitchy masses were sleeping in shelters or homes, resting up for another stressful day. The only real noise was the occasional distant bit of shouting, or more muted bits of conversation audible through damaged windows as Saketa passed by.

But that was only to her senses. Her spirit sensed the city’s underlying injuries as keenly as when she’d first arrived. And there was still danger. This was when the worst of the predators came out, for the worst deeds.

Vanaka didn’t speak. She simply kept closely behind Saketa, moving with respectable stealth. At a distance of a few more metres she probably wouldn’t have heard the girl at all.

The city didn’t end cleanly, as some more primitive areas did via surrounding walls. The buildings simply gradually got smaller and further apart as they went along, the greater space giving a growing sense of freedom.

Private vehicle ownership was in very short supply on this planet; the vast majority of the public had long made use of extensive train networks. So it was a rail rather than a road that they followed west, away from the outer edge of the city’s suburban sprawl. It kept a mostly even level and they made good time.

Saketa turned at one point to find Vanaka gazing back. It was still gloomy, but she looked quite happy to be away from there. The dawn started by turning the sky from black to a dark blue, then crowning the eastern mountain range with gold. The plain before them began coming into sharper relief, and so did Saketa’s new travelling companion.

She had eyes almost as dark as her hair, and hints of sharp facial features that would come into full display once some of that adolescent softness faded away. If not for the inoffensive demeanour she would have looked like some sleek predator. With the city behind them, Vanaka closed the distance and strode along besides Saketa, observing her in turn.

Saketa decided to turn a reassuring smile her way. Or at least hoped that would be the effect. Either way, she smiled.

“I am not dangerous,” she said. “You can talk, if you wish.”

“You are dangerous,” the girl replied. “That is the whole reason I am travelling with you. But I do not mind talking.”

She ran her eyes up and down Saketa’s suit, looked at the two blades, then took in the ruby-red hair, and not for the first time.

“I never expected to meet one of you,” she said after a short silence. “The Wardens of Kalero... you always feel more like something mythical and distant, even if a story might be recent.”

“I am not the most well-travelled of my people,” Saketa said. “But we all bring stories of our travels back home. There are many seemingly mythical things in this galaxy, and they are not always so distant as all that.”

“One does hear strange things about the Outer Fringe.”

“Some of it is surely exaggerated, of course,” Saketa said.

“But how did you do that, to the crowd?” the girl asked. “That... wave?”

“So you are not the sort to deny the evidence of your own eyes?”

“I am not. You did something. I just do not know what.”

Saketa thought her reply over, turning her face back to the road ahead. Although it was still early in her wandering, she was finding that more core-ward people asked that question a lot. She still hadn’t found an adequate way to explain it in anything other than her native tongue.

“The people of Kalero seek out those with a certain sensitivity and strength of will,” she then said. “Their talents are honed, until... look, there are forces. Fundamental forces, positive and negative, opposed but intertwined. And where they meet there is great energy.”

Near the side of the rail stood a few boulders of various sizes, remnants of rocks broken up to make way for the rail. She focused on one of the larger ones.

“If one is sensitive, and balanced... one can channel it.”

She thrust her palm out at the boulder and blasted it off into the morning gloom.

“This is an imperfect explanation, but it is in the right direction, I think.”

It occurred to her too late that the display might be intimidating rather than informative, but Vanaka simply looked fascinated when Saketa turned to face her.

“That is pretty amazing.”

Saketa smiled politely, though she restrained herself from agreeing out loud. Pride could be dangerous, but a moderate indulgence of it was simply natural.

“Though you are right; I do not think I am much more informed,” the girl added with a slightly shy smile.

“Magic, then,” Saketa said. “Simply call it magic.”

“I think I will.”

The landscape sloped downwards at a gentle degree, and the city vanished from sight. The sunlight descended down the mountains at a steady pace and the sky brightened.

“I would like to stop,” Vanaka said after a period of silence. “We might as well eat breakfast.”

Saketa had meant to continue on a bit further but there was no harm in sitting down here. The nearby boulders looked handy. Vanaka found herself a seat where she could rest her back and stretch out her legs. Saketa retired across from the girl and opened her own bag.

“Just a light nibble,” she advised. “Since we are travelling by foot.”

“I know,” Vanaka replied.

The bars were designed with nutritional efficiency in mind rather than flavour, but Saketa considered herself an adult and could damn well put up with it. Washing them down with a generous amount of water did help.

“So, where can I get a suit like that?” Vanaka asked. “I have to admit it is quite fetching.”

“I have heard that before,” Saketa said. “But I assure you it is functional.”

“Oh? Tell me about it,” the girl asked.

“My abilities... depend on my connection to the universe. Normal materials dampen me by cutting me off. They interfere. That is why you will never see a Warden in armour. I understand our distant ancestors went into battle clad in little more than a loincloth and a simple band across the breasts for women. But the suit cooperates with the skin. It essentially becomes my skin, and helps me a bit. That is why it must sit so tight.”

She stroked her own arm.

“As for getting one... well: First you will need to prove yourself to the elders of Kalero...”

“I see.”

“... then train for years in the mountains...”

“Yes?”

“... then earn a blade, after which the crafters will labour long and hard to tailor a suit to you, out of specially treated plant residue native to Kalero.”

“Mm.” The girl nodded her head slowly. “Or perhaps I will just buy something similar.”

“If you prefer,” Saketa said, earning a bit of a smile from her, though there was a slightly strained quality to it. Saketa got the feeling that she was making a conscious effort to seem relaxed and happy.

“Now I wish to ask you something,” Saketa said.

“Ask away.”

“Let us start with where you are from.”

The strained smile mostly faded away and she just looked awkward.

“I am... not supposed to say,” she replied with some reluctance.

“Supposed to?” Saketa repeated.

“My kin we... are a private people.”

Saketa decided not to make an issue of this. There were certainly odder habits among the uncounted cultures out there, and it wasn’t as if it made any difference to the situation.

“Can you tell me how your family lives, at least?” she asked instead, hoping for a dialogue that would put the adolescent more at ease. “I get the impression you are rather used to getting your way.”

“I-”

Saketa didn’t know if a protest had just been halted, but the girl looked to the side, then into her lap, then forward again.

“Does it show?” Vanaka asked and sighed with a smile that felt a bit more earnest. “Mother is always warning me against being too bossy. My extended family has owned real estate for several generations. We live together in a bit of a private community, with serving staff. Just expecting things from people can be an easy trap to fall into.”

“I am not angered,” Saketa said. “I was just pointing it out.”

She didn’t really know what to think of the long look the girl gave her after that. She supposed Vanaka was looking inwardly.

“Well, thank you,” Vanaka finally said. “I will try to be aware.”

“Do you expect me to succeed where your mother has failed so far?”

Vanaka chuckled without any affectation, giving Saketa a pleasant feeling.