Training had been grueling - four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening every day. Even so, after twelve days I still had not been able to form the blood barrier I had been trying to perfect without being nearly killed. I was sure I had lost a limb at least once, although that didn’t seem to concern Baila as much as it did me.
“You don’t need to worry about things like that anymore,” she had told me after the first day, when I was still trying to piece together what had happened to the deep wound from her blade slicing into my leg. “Even if you don’t actively use blood magic, your body will heal itself much more quickly.”
She seemed to want to test the limits of my ability to heal, because she came at me with more force each time we entered the empty training room. I had been able to hold the thin barrier for almost five minutes once or twice, but if I pushed past two minutes it became increasingly painful, and around the four-minute mark I could no longer move or block Baila’s attacks.
After the fourth day, she gave me a sharp, thin sword and we spent the first hour of each session going through stances and motions. I started feeling more confident with the blade on the ninth day, until Baila showed me just how unskilled I was by putting me on my back with a quick step and a well-timed kick.
“I just don’t understand why I need to train like this, anyway. What will I be able to do that Stravus could not?” I stayed on my back, breathing heavily and rubbing my sore muscles. Baila reached a hand out to me, which I took begrudgingly, and pulled me back to my feet.
“You think that Stravus couldn’t stop that thin Terran and his goons?” She smiled at me and shook her head. I shrugged at her, then picked my fallen sword from the floor. “No, we cannot be bested one on one. Even so, the Empire is vast. We can’t hope to stop them, only to keep them off Altura. We have to train so that we can take back our planet, and so that we can defend it against the Terrans when they try to come back.”
I held the sword in my hand, staring at it and thinking of the words that she had said. “So.. what is the plan, then? How do we get the Terrans to leave?” It seemed like such an impossible thing, riding the entire planet of these invaders. I looked to Baila for the answers, but she just shrugged.
“Right now, the plan is to teach you how to fight. Until you can do that, it doesn’t matter what the plan is. You won’t be part of it.
When I arrived back at my home during the heat of midday, Vuvu was waiting at the door, scratching and yelping. I reached down to pat her nose, but she took off toward my bedroom as soon as I had opened the door wide enough to get inside.
“Wait up, Vuvu! Don’t you want some treats?” Even that didn’t get her attention. She turned toward me, whimpering and pawing at the door to my room. I walked over to her and leaned down to pick her up, but she growled and scratched at the door some more. “Okay, fine fine!” I reached for the handle and turned it, and she began pushing at the opening, forcing her nose in even before I was able to open it wide enough to see in.
Inside the room, pinned to the clay walls with a Terran knife, was a picture of a drop of blood just like the ones on the dice I made for my Gr’apa, with a dark slash through it. My heart dropped to my stomach. In that instant, I realized that, whoever had killed my Gr’apa and destroyed my family’s store, they had done it because of me. Because of a children’s toy.
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Vuvu sniffed around the room, finally stopping at the window that was still open to the midday heat. As I walked over to see what she had found, I realized something else - I was no longer safe here. I needed to go back to Baila and to Stravus. Looking at the window, I couldn’t see any damage, no signs that anyone had forced their way in. The latches were undone and the window was opened as if from the inside, but I never unlatched my windows. The fear of catching sand lung kept me from ever exposing my apartment to the elements.
I began filling a bag with clothing and food for Vuvu, not bothering to pack anything away neatly. The small mask that I had made for her gave her a ferocious look, but she tried to pull at the straps that kept it and the goggles covering her eyes in place. I picked her up and we walked out into the blistering heat.
I walked aimlessly through the empty streets of the city. The entire planet shut down during the middle of the day, except of course for the farms and factories. Those poor souls out in the farm lands worked every day, all day, until their production quotas were met. The factories were the same, but they were at least protected from Alnilam’s rays. I thanked Boh that I was born a toymaker and not a farmer.
I did not know where to go. I couldn’t get back to Baila and the others. I did not have a key to the long stairway that led to the rebels’ base of operations. I couldn’t go home, and my family’s shop was all but rubble. Finally, out of other options, I started walking toward NewTown and to Fabian’s shop.
About halfway there, a group of four Terrans in heavy tech shells walked around a corner. Three had heat cannons strapped to their backs. The fourth had small cylinders mounted on each shoulder, with hoses connecting them to a canister on his back. The four of them stopped in the middle of the street, staring me down.
“Stand fast, Alturan. State your name and your business.” The voice was clearer than what Baila’s mask produced. It would have passed as natural, if there wasn’t a constant hum whenever he spoke. He lifted his arm and a holoscreen glowed to life above his wrist. I just stared at them all, my rage building at the thought of what these people had done to my family.
“Alturan, state your name.” The man was more aggressive this time. One of the others pulled the heat cannon from their back, holding it loosely at the ready. Vuvu began growling through her little mask at my feet. The tension mixed with the heat and the men spread out across the lane. I pulled tight on Vuvu’s leash, but she yipped and pulled back against me.
The leader of the group pushed a button on his wrist and spoke into it. “This is Captain Johnstone. Having resistance in sector six of the Boh’gren region. Preparing to use force.” At that, the man that had already raised his gun trained it at me. “I request once more, state your name and your business.”
My hand made a fist, but I took a deep breath and choked down my anger. “My name is Divan Sadie.”
“Again, into the holoscreen.” The man held his arm out to me, his metal shell armor shining through the translucent white projection.
“Divan Sadie.” I said, practically shouting into the screen. It registered my voice, and I could see thousands of words flashing across the screen. Finally, it slowed and then the screen turned a crimson that gave the silver shell behind it the same tone as the blood barrier that I had worked so hard at with Baila.
The men all moved at once. The three had their sun guns trained on me before I could process what was happening. The captain pulled a small piece of metal from his belt and twisted it with both hands. It extended out from one end, producing a thin stiletto that matched the one that was still sticking in my bedroom wall. “Divan Sadie, I am placing you under arrest, by the authority of the Terran Empire. Please surrender peacefully, and you will not be hurt.