Jack didn’t like the glitzers.

Not at all.

It wasn’t anything against them on a moral level. He had been Jasku Warking after all, and being Warking meant he had participated in plenty of situations in which lives were taken. Weapons were weapons, he knew that, and he also knew that anything you had access to that would further the effectiveness of your soldiers was something to use to its fullest potential. He had personally aided in the development and invention of many types of weapons in Nymia, but those were honest weapons.

He had to admit it could just be a personal distaste, but a sword—that was honest. Swords took an incredible amount of skill and materials to construct and learn how to properly use. There was a barrier to entry, and they could only be used against an opponent you could look in the eye. Bows and arrows could be used from a greater distance, but the skill they took to make and use meant a life’s devotion of practice to master—plus they only killed one at a time.

Each weapon had its own strengths and weaknesses as if nature itself balanced out how much death you could deal. There was something honest about that, or at least he felt so. Guns were different. Killing your enemy from the shadows further out than they could even see. Combining absurd amounts of power with absurd amounts of effectiveness. When it boiled down to it, there really wasn’t a legitimate argument that could go for swords and bows and against firearms. He didn’t really have an excuse for disliking them and he knew it—but knowing that fact didn’t change how he felt.

It also didn’t help that he was feeling irritable. They had been worked hard during the morning physical training and though his injuries from Haynes had healed spectacularly, they still flared up during any kind of exercise. Jack tried to breathe through the irritation.

The glitzers were all shapes and sizes, lined up in rows on a long, rough-hewn table stretching almost the length of the field in front of the tents. The devices sat on a long piece of thick leather and ranged from small pistol-sized ones to more rifle-sized, and even a few so big he couldn’t imagine anyone feeling comfortable lugging them around. He hadn’t seen a single one used and the firepower on those ones already scared him.

Stacked around the guns were boxes and boxes of small spheres about an inch in diameter. They were fairly metallic in appearance and some of them gave off a faint, almost purplish glow. Jack picked one up and noticed it seemed to be vibrating weakly and emitted a low sort of rumbling hum.

“I think this is our ammo,” he said.

“I assume you’re probably right,” Orvalys said from below the table. He needed about another half-foot or so of height before he’d be able to see what was going on above.

“Oh, sorry.” Jack bent down and handed the little orb over so the homunculus could see it. Orv took it from him and began rotating it in his fingers.

“Magic?” Jack asked.

“Seems to be an exotic element of some type,” Orvalys said. “Different worlds have different ones. This is unfamiliar to me. But I get the feeling it’s very volatile.”

“I said DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING YET!” commander Genys said from across the table. Jack and Orvalys both jumped and Orv quickly tossed the orb back toward its box. The commander caught it out of the air. She looked at the two and narrowed her eyes before holding up the orb for everyone to see.

“Glitz!” she said loudly. “The best glitz in Tinaria actually. Each individual shik will give you anywhere between five and ten shots depending on range. Those of you who’ve used glitzers before step forward, and those of you who haven’t, pay attention!”

A decent-sized group of recruits stepped up to the table.

“Select a glitzer!” Genys shouted. They all did so. “Load the glitz!” One by one the recruits slid open panels or clicked apart the weapons and placed one of the small orbs inside.

“Prep!” the commander shouted. As the glitzers all snapped shut they suddenly began to vibrate intensely. Colored, violet light began to emanate from the chambers inside, pulsating in time with the vibrations. “Set distance to fifty stades!” Various knobs and dials were adjusted on each weapon. The vibrations changed in frequency and a general low hum filled the air, like the individual shik Jack had been handling earlier but much louder.

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Commander Genys pointed to a line of targets on the other end of the field. “Fire!”

Intense purple light exploded from the end of the guns over and over. Jack instinctively shielded his eyes and plugged his ears. Orvalys turned a dial on his head, and a darkened lens clicked into place over his eye.

When the dust and smoke settled, about half of the targets were still standing. Some of them were badly blown apart and a couple were on fire. Jack’s ears wouldn’t stop ringing. That was another reason he hated guns. Loud noises occasionally made him unreasonably angry.

“I’ve seen some of you took your preliminary training seriously,” Commander Genys said. “But I also see a lot of you couldn’t hit a kinzlir if it walked ten feet in front of you! Next line of recruits, I hope you were paying attention. Select a glitzer!”

Jack hesitated and looked around, hoping to somehow avoid having to participate, but when he looked up commander Genys had her eye on him specifically, so he stepped forward and picked up the last weapon left on the table. It bore a passing resemblance to a hunting rifle but had all sorts of dark metal levers and latches with lightly stained wooden inserts.

“Load!”

Jack picked up one of the small orbs. He didn’t know how to open whatever compartment on the glitzer he was supposed to.

“Prep!”

He tried a few different latches, but they seemed to be other kinds of mechanisms. All around him, the other glitzers began to hum and glow.

“Set distance to fifty stades!”

Jack’s fingers fumbled over the metal, turning dials and grasping at edges. Nothing was working. Commander Genys pointed towards the targets and prepared to give the call to fire. Jack began to feel his face heat up. He didn’t need the attention that came with failing.

Suddenly a hand reached out of nowhere and pulled a section of the gun, the top opened and Jack quickly jammed the shik into place.

“Fire!”

Jack pulled the small trigger and the glitzer drilled into his shoulder. He swore the light exploding from the end of the barrel was going to blind him, and he was going to be deaf from the sound as well. He didn’t even know if he was aimed in any particular direction, but when he opened his eyes, he could see the dust clear and the target beyond it was partially blown away. Commander Genys was looking downrange as well. She slowly turned and make eye contact with him. She didn’t say anything but did give a very small, almost approving nod. Jack let out the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding in.

“Das!”

Jack turned to see the same recruit from the night before. The one who had come in and spoken with him and Orvalys. “Das!” she said again, smiling. Jack realized she had been the one that had helped him.

“Oh, thank you!” he said. The woman looked at him sideways, shook her head, and then smiled. Jack nodded. “And I’m speaking English to you for some reason.”

“Das,” she said again, pointing toward the target. “Isha wokan das!”

“Das,” Jack said in reply and pointed back at the woman.

She laughed and pointed back. “Isha das.”

“Isha das?” Jack repeated.

She reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “Ish do Ki,” she said pointing to herself. “Ki.”

Jack tentatively pointed to himself. “Ish do Jaak.” It was the Tinarian name closest to Jack that they could find and he and Orv had decided upon first hearing Genys pronounce it that way it would be safest to use.

“Va,” the woman nodded, pointing to herself. “Ish do Ki,” and then pointing to Jack. “Isha don Jaak.”

“Orv I think I’m learning Yarvan,” Jack said. He looked down, trying to locate his small companion but he was nowhere to be found. “Orvalys?”

“Uh, here,” said a voice from under the table. “I was uh—”

Jack lifted the leather covering. “Were you hiding?”

“Yes. I was hiding.” Orv climbed out from under the table. “I simply wanted to watch you fire the glitzer to um… accurately calculate the force of recoil before submitting myself to it.”

“I see,” Jack said. “Well, I’d like to introduce you to our mutual friend Ki.” He moved so that Orv could see behind him. “She pretty much saved my life just now, or at least my credibility with Genys.”

“Jaak wokam das,” Ki said.

“Va?” asked Orv. “Das. Isha wokan das tirn?”

Ki laughed to herself. “Ish ha wer lo yemp wokker.” Then she looked at them both very seriously and said, “Jaak han wokyor.”

“What’s she saying?” Jack asked.

“She says you shoot well,” Orvlays said. “Well, literally it means you ‘war’ well but it means the same as shooting. I asked if she shoots well, and she told me she’s been doing it for a long time. So, knowing that particular detail it appears she’s paid you a pretty high compliment. She called you a natural-born leader or something.”

“Ah, weird,” Jack said. “How do I say thank you?”

“Isha ante,” Orvalys said.

Jack turned to Ki. “Isha ante Ki.”

Ki smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. She reached down and touched Orvalys’ as well. “Va, va ishm rintanam.”

“What is rintanam?” Jack asked.

“It means ‘my friends,’” Orvalys confirmed.