19 - A Day of Remembrance

These are the conclusions of the fact-finding commission:

- The Three Traitors willingly and knowingly used a precursor artifact, known as the Endless Stairway, to reach the Moon. They had been warned, and even acknowledged, the dangers of such an action.

- The Three Traitors give grossly inconsistent testimony of the events that followed their arrival on the Moon, and the discovery of the precursor city now known as Selenopolis.

- The same event that caused the Fissure, and the catastrophic demonic incursion that followed, bestowed immense magical power on the Three Traitors, far in excess of the previous achievement of any human mage.

- All the Three Traitors claim they did not anticipate, or actively pursue, the Breaking of the Moon and their own Ascension. This is hard to believe, in face of their contradictory explanations. But it is in any case immaterial: the Three caused a planet-wide disaster, threatening the survival of humanity itself, and gained immense power in return. For justice and for the safety of the whole Refuge, they must be killed.

- Executive summary from the emergency fact-finding commission, year MOONBREAKING+1

“After centuries of travel through the void,” Sorivel says, in his serious, I’m-so-religious monotone, “The Navigator said that they were, finally, far enough from the Forgotten Enemy. She said it was time for the Ship to land, and the whole crew rejoiced.

“The Captain asked where would they find their new home, and the Navigator answered: I don’t know, yet. She went into the Vault of Stars, and closed her eyes, leaving her body to wander the place between places. She didn’t eat, didn’t drink, and didn’t breathe. But after three days she woke, and…”

“Soooori,” Kaelich says, turning in his bunk, “I’m trying to sleep. Can’t you pray later? I’ll bake you cakes shaped like the Officer’s insig… their shit.”

Oh, thank the Lord of Sands. I was getting sick of Sorivel reading the Book, but if I told him to stop, he’d be angry. He never gets really angry with Kaelich, though.

“It’s Remembrance day, you slothful sinner,” Sorivel answers, making the Sign of the Officers. He doesn’t sound angry. “It’s proper to start the day reflecting on the Scriptures. Also, it's half past ten, when did you mean to get up?”

I’d been awake since seven, of course, composing my report for Quicksilver. But to my astonishment, I’ve begun to find the presence of my teammates reassuring, even when they’re sleeping or muttering prayers. It's a new experience for me, finding myself more at ease with other people than alone.

“It’s Scienday,” Althea says, her voice groggy, “I plan to sleep until I get hungry.”

Sorivel rolls his eyes. “Doctor, preserve me. I have to work with a bunch of lazy heathens. Anyway, you forgot we must be ready for the parade at noon. So, you should all get up and do whatever sins you had in mind for the morning, and let me pray.”

“Fuck, the parade,” Althea says. “We’d better hurry up and go eat something. I want a lazy, sinful breakfast.”

The way she says sinful, it doesn’t make me think about breakfast at all.

She rolls out of her bed, doing some morning stretches. Since she’s a filthy Karesian with no sense of property, she’s still in her underwear, and the morning sun plays on her smooth, brown skin.

Improper or not, I thank the Lady of Light for this glorious vision. Althea looks entirely unaware of just how hot she is, but then she smiles at me as our eyes meet, so either she was doing it on purpose, or I was ogling too obviously.

“You’ve been praying a lot,” Kaelich says, getting up. “Is everything fine?”

Xe sits next to him, in front of the small altar Sorivel put up in a corner.

“I pray because it’s good for the mind and soul, it doesn’t mean anything is wrong,” Sorivel says, sounding defensive.

“And I play sim-games because that’s good for my mind and I have no soul,” Kaelich says, upbeat, “but if I played for twenty hours straight, you’d think something is wrong.”

“You did play fifteen consecutive hours last Capday,” I point out.

“Well, Demon Stabber VII had just been released,” xe says, shrugging, “and anyway, fifteen hours is fine, you should worry at twenty.”

“I’ve been praying for thirty minutes,” Sorivel says, exasperated, “and now I’ll have to ask the Navigator for some extra patience, to put up with you all.”

“Yeah, I’m sinful, you’re good at changing topic, now tell me what’s wrong,” Kaelich says, firmly.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I thought xe was being pointlessly aggravating, but Sorivel takes a deep breath, then reluctantly nods.

“I… keep thinking about the mage at the station,” Sorivel says, his voice flat. The candle in his hands trembles slightly.

“Oh,” Kaelich says. “I’m sorry. I mean… she was a pretty terrible woman. But it still sucks that we had to kill her. I mean, I…”

Xir voice trails off, but Sorivel stops, frowning.

“What? No, not like that,” Sorivel says. “She was with the Syndicates, and she was trying to kill us. The Captain teaches us violence is a last resort, but the Gunner points out it’s still a pretty good resort. Stabbing her was right, I hope some septuagenarian stabs all of her syndicate friends, too. I’d have attacked her myself if I had a melee drone, I should probably look into that.”

Thank the Abyss. I was afraid I’d have to hear how sad he is about killing the poor, murderous mage who was trying to tear me to shreds.

Kaelich winces, though. Xe is upset over having to kill the murderous criminal mage, of course.

“So, what’s the issue? The villain is dead, we’re alive. We should throw a party, if anything” Althea asks. She sounds… blunt, but in a different way from usual. I’m learning the subtleties of her lack of subtlety. She’s trying to end the conversation quickly.

“That mage,” Sorivel says, slowly, “was level 3.4. She was already hurt, and neither a Wind-path nor a Making-path user. We deployed three teams, one of them veteran, and she came out to attack us. On paper, that should be an easy victory. Did it feel like a smooth, safe operation?”

That hits surprisingly hard.

I know we didn’t do great. Fuck. I didn’t do great – I almost froze with fear in front of the mage, and then I miscalculated her shield’s strength, exposing myself to a potentially lethal counterattack.

“She was powerful,” Althea says. “Most mages never reach level three. She’s dead and we aren’t, so it went ok. Nothing to get a mystical crisis about.”

“I’m not having a mystical crisis,” Sorivel answers, a hard edge to his voice. “I’m asking for guidance. Because if you think everything went smoothly, you’re deluding yourself. Team Green basically didn’t engage. I positioned my drones poorly, and barely managed to shoot at her. You, Kaelich and Cerical hindered each other. Without Team Gold, she’d have ripped us to shreds.

“And while she was a powerful mage… she was an Adept. That’s the lower end for an agent from the Factions, and you’ve seen the bulletins – the new Syndicate Cartel and the Faceless are becoming more active. If a new mage war comes, we’ll face much worse than level threes. Are we ready?”

After the initial unease, I feel some relief, in hearing him voice these concerns – for once, I’m not the only one worried about our combat readiness. But when I worried about the Agency being unprepared, I never thought I’d be part of the problem.

“I… didn’t do great,” Kaelich says, looking down. “I… I think I could have finished her, after Cericals broke off the armor on her chest. But I thought… fuck, I thought she’d surrender, or maybe I could land a non-lethal hit. So, I waited a split second, and I lost my chance. I’m sorry.”

I look at xem, surprised. I had no idea that had happened. I feel a flash of anger – xir bleeding heart could have gotten me killed. But I say nothing – xe didn’t have to tell us, after all. And I guess recognizing one’s mistakes is important and should be encouraged. I hate being a responsible adult, though.

“I didn’t do well, either. I didn’t expect her to be stronger than me,” Althea admits, balling her fists in anger. “Which was really stupid on my side. Aeniki gave us the theta reading. I knew the mage had a full level on me. But in training, even tournaments… I mostly fought mages my age. And I wiped the floor with their asses. So, I wasn’t really prepared.”

She looks really upset, and for some reason, that concerns me more than our tactical shortcomings.

“You were amazing,” I say. After all, displayed power and skill. “You stopped her first attack cold, and cut her retreat!”

She gives me a little smile. “You’re sweet,” she answers, “but I shouldn’t have blocked, I should have deflected. That’s what you do, when fighting a stronger mage. And when I counter-attacked, I almost hit you.”

“It’s not your fault,” I say, “the problem is, we never really trained to fight together.”

Althea nods. “It is my fault. Partly. But yes, we absolutely must practice combat maneuvers. I need to learn how to make shields that protect Kaelich but let xem fire – there are a few ways to do that, but we must field-test them. So, Corporal, grab Sareas. Either get him to sign us an authorization for full use of combat magic, or drag him to the training grounds and we’ll use him as a practice dummy.”

“Ouch,” Kaelich says. “That won’t be a fun talk. But yes, we clearly need that. Let’s be honest. We kind of sucked, and we must do better.”

Silence follows xir words.

It would be my time to admit my own mistakes. But I can’t bring myself to say, in front of people that I care about, that the first time I faced a true enemy, I froze with fear. That’s just not who I am supposed to be.

“Beside our mistakes,” Sorivel says, “Team Green basically hid behind a stair. And while team Gold was amazing… what was their mage doing? Isn’t he supposed to be a full Master? I didn’t even see him until the fight was over.”

“He gave us a warning,” Althea points out, “but you’re right. Mage Za Ruik is so far gone into the Else, I’ve no idea how he’s still qualified for field operations. Jaeleri is worse than useless. Which means we were the only functional, full team, at the station.”

I didn’t tell them the details of my encounter with Za Ruik. It just sounds like a fanciful story. But maybe I should. After all, he had warned me about both Vakris and the battle at the train station. I open my mouth, but I can’t bring myself to speak of the endless, branching shadows of myself. And it’s hard to tell the story without raising questions about why I was talking to him at all, or about Quicksilver.

Lady of Pains, two months after flunking out of Intelligence, and already I’m getting my secrets tangled up.

Kaelich sighs. “Well,” xe says, matter-of-fact. “Else-touched mage or not, Team Gold looked amazing, I hope I’ll be half that cool when I’ll be one thousand years old. But the point is, we can’t make the other teams better. The best we can do is work with each other. And get as good as we can.”

There’s a pause, then xe adds, “next time, I’ll shoot to kill. I wish there were better ways, I… it doesn’t matter. I won’t risk your lives again.”

“And I’ll keep in mind that enemies can be stronger than me,” Althea says. “For now.”