Jake‘s POV

I was sitting on the wall surrounding the Wyvern’s Base, looking out into the surrounding area. My eyes were on the sky, and I saw several Neame flying high up in a grid pattern, each doing their patrols. While we, the familiars on the wall, watched the sky, they watched the grounds for miles around. You’re probably wondering why they don’t watch the sky, since they’re already up there, but it’s harder to do than you think. Besides, they can see more of the ground from up there than we can from down here. From where I was sitting, yes sitting, not standing, the Neame looked like little dots. To be honest, I don’t think our real job is to watch the skies. I’m pretty sure it’s to act as a last line of defense against ground attacks, but I don’t know why they would bother lying about that.

One of the other familiars, a big hairy thing called a skeker, but not named, came over and sat beside me. He looked like a mountain goat crossed with a bulldog, and he was just as friendly. I put a hand on his back and started petting him, and he started to purr; which surprised me the first time it happened. I asked his owner if I could name it, but she felt uncomfortable with that, and refused.

That’s been a trend lately; Neame feeling uncomfortable around me. For the past four months, ever since the attack by the court mages near the capital and the team Suma traveled with died, I have noticed a lot of the Neame have been treating me differently. They’ve been treating Suma differently too, but she lies and says it doesn’t bother her.

“See anything, Jake?” Suma asked over our private connection. The connection was something only she and I could hear, and allowed us to talk without speaking aloud.

“Everything still looks clear. What about you?” I asked back, still petting the skeker.

“I see something to the east. About fifteen seconds.” She said. That’s one of the ways the Neame denote distance, by how long it would take them to fly from one point to another. If the distance is short enough, they’ll use wingspans instead. Every second is about twenty or thirty meters. “It is small and trying to hide. Can you see it?”

I looked up at the sun, and quickly found east, then looked about where I thought she was talking about. “No, I don’t see anything. Should I go take a look?”

“No, I will alert the others.” She said, and ended the connection. I watched as two of the four dots dived down in the distance, before hovering above a patch of trees, but I couldn’t tell who they were. They stayed there for a few minutes, before flying back up. “False alarm, it was just a wild animal.” Suma said, and I sighed. Leaning against the skeker, my eyes started to get heavy.

Before I knew it, I was hearing Suma’s voice again, but it wasn’t in my head this time. “Jake?” She said. I opened my eyes, and saw her, as well as three others, perched on the wall’s railings nearby.

“Uh… yes?” I asked.

“Were you asleep?” Nine, one of the Neame with Suma, and a member of our squad, asked.

“No, I was…. resting my eyes.”

“For how long?” Odens, another member of our squad, wondered.

I looked up at the sun, which had moved about three inches in the sky, then back at them. “Not long.”

“If I do not get to sleep during a patrol, neither do you.” Rou, another member of our squad, joked.

“When you did not answer, I decided to come check on you.” Suma said.

“Sorry.” I stood up, accidentally waking the skeker too. “Well, at least I’m not the only sleepy-head.” Giving the skeker a pat on the head, I sent it back to its post. It was surprisingly smart, despite its goofy look.

“We need to get back to patrol.” Odens said, and glanced over to Suma. “We’ll give you a moment.” With that, the three of them flew off, leaving Suma and I alone on the wall.

“Are you still not sleeping well?” She asked. I shook my head. “Is it more nightmares?”

I took a deep breath, “it’s always the same one.”

“Jake, you know if you ever want to talk about them, I will listen.”

“Thanks, I know. Would you mind summoning me real quick, so I can wake up?” I asked, and she agreed. She quickly performed a summoning spell, causing me to fade away for a moment, then reappear beside her. With that, the magic of the summoning restored my energy, waking me up.

“Jake… I have summoned you at least twice a day, for several days now. When was the last time you slept?”

“I don’t need to sleep if you keep summoning me.” I pointed out.

Suma sighed, “please try to sleep tonight. Going this long without it cannot be healthy.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“…Jake.”

“Fine. I’ll sleep tonight.”

“Thank you. I need to get back to patrol. Will you be okay?” The glittering sparkle that normally surrounds her, and every other Neame, was dulled.

“I’m awake now; go ahead.” I said. She flew away, towards the squad’s direction. Just in time too, because as soon as she was gone, I sat back down, already tired again, and with horrible cramps in my legs.

I fought through the pain, and the exhaustion, until our squad’s patrol was over. Suma flew to my room on base, then summoned me. I thanked her, and she left. Summoning my backpack, I pulled out some food my mum had put in for me, and had dinner while reading over her latest letter.

It started the way all of our letters do, with some details about our day, then any requests we may have for the other, but I’m usually the only one who has any, then that’s followed up with anything we feel the other needs to know. Apparently, in the four months I’ve been gone, the local police have put out an official arrest warrant for me, because I missed a court date for former Detective Lin’s stalking charge. That led to the charges against her being dropped, and the HMRC case against me getting reopened.

After writing a quick response to my mum’s letter, and pulling my phone out of my backpack, I sent my bag away with my letter in tow. This is how we have been communicating for the last several months. It’s slow, but it works. I told her to be careful with the bag, because she can’t touch it when I’m summoning it, or she might get pulled here too. She knows about what happened with Zachariah, and that it’s too dangerous for either of us to travel to the other right now.

Clicking my phone on, I turned on some music, and laid on my bed. I fought it, but eventually I did fall asleep. Just like every time before, I had that same nightmare.

It always starts off the same, I’m floating in an endless void, and forced to watch from a distance as my mum cries alone in her bed, slowly getting older and older, until she turns to dust. Then it usually moves on to Suma, who’s getting burned by purple flames; my flames. But it isn’t me who’s doing it, it’s the figure in flames, Deyja, the Chaos Dragon. And then, just like every time before, I jolt awake, sweating cold bullets, with my heart pounding so hard in my chest it hurts.

My phone’s still playing music, its charge says sixty percent battery remaining. Only two hours have passed since I fell asleep. (That’s enough, right? Yeah, for tonight…) I thought.

The night went slowly, and my phone died before the sun rose, so I cast a small fire spell to light up the room. In the blue glow of the small fireball, I resumed working on a project I started a few weeks after I began experimenting with making my own runes. Summoning all the materials I needed for rune-crafting, I started mixing ink with my mana to write the runes with. I dipped the homemade quill into the finished ink, and picked up where I had left off last night. Unsurprisingly, it was extremely easy to find loose feathers to make a quill in a world ruled by magic bird-nymphs.

My hand shook as the quill ran across the paper, and I had to use my other hand to steady myself. Runes work differently than I had originally believed. They aren’t just writing, but more like written spells. You need to be specific, and to have a clear image in mind while making them, or it won’t turn out as you expected. I’ve tried a few different methods for writing them out, but thinking of them like computer code worked best for most of my needs. Unfortunately, I never learned how to code on a computer, so I had to invent my own version for the runes. In the end, I usually use a combination of what I call “Runic Coding” and just very specific writing.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

At the moment, I was working on a wind rune, trying to get something that could fire a controlled stream of fast-moving air that was strong enough to lift a few hundred pounds for a prolonged period of time, but it was more difficult than it sounds. Firstly, prolonged rune usage drains the mana really quickly, and overstuffing the rune with mana breaks it. Secondly, I have to write everything as the opposite of what I want if I plan on directly inserting the mana. I could use a filter, but I don’t want to rely on it in an emergency. Once, I tried mixing my mana into the ink directly, without going through the daljar first, but it didn’t work, and the rune was overstuffed immediately and crumpled to dust before it even turned on. For now, I just don’t understand how the daljars work enough to replace them.

“How did a Viking invent this the first time?” I thought aloud, getting irritated. Of course, I already knew the answer because I’d spent the last few months looking though the memories Zachariah’s put in my head. He did it by accident, and the Neame started perfecting it; probably after he died.

I started fiddling with the rune-code, which ended up looking like this.

[1. Intake air at two-hundred kph.] [2. Expel stored air at two-hundred kph.] [3. Repeat.]

After writing that out, and connecting all the letters and symbols so the mana could flow, I used a daljar to turn it on. There was a loud whirring sound, like a fan turning on, followed by a small but insanely fast spinning tornado that formed just above the rune. I felt the wind run along my skin as it was pulled towards the tornado, and the room grew cold… too cold… and it was getting hard to breath! I reached out to try and pick up the paper I wrote the rune on so that I could break the rune, but the tornado above it was so strong it felt like it would rip my fingers off. As I gasped for air panicking, I did the only thing I could think to do an summoned my hammer, letting it fall down directly onto the rune as it appeared. Twilight, my hammer, was thrown backwards and clean out of my hands as the rune shattered, releasing all of the stored air. It was flung into the wall with a massive crash, breaking the handle off and embedding the metal end into the stone.

“Huhg!” I gasped as the air filled the room, and my lungs, again. Kneeling on the ground, trying to catch my breath, confused shouting voices came from outside.

“What was that?”

“It came from this way!”

“Check the rooms, find out what that was!” The voices started overlapping as everyone frantically tried to figure out what happened.

“I’m going to get in so much trouble...” I sighed, and I was right. As soon as they figured out it was me doing a late night, or really early morning, experiment with runes, I got chewed out by the incredibly grumpy major, who they had to wake up and explain what happened. Then they woke up Suma, so that we could all have a friendly conversation together.

“And if I ever have to get woken up three hours before sunrise again just to deal with this stupid situation again, I will make the two of you do mana exercises and physical training until MY wings get tired! Do I make myself clear?!” The Major shouted at us.

“Yes sir.” Suma and I said.

“Private Suma, since Sentinel is your familiar, I consider this your issue as well, and I expect this situation will never happen again!” The Major shouted.

“Never again, sir.” Suma said, sheepishly. The Major turned to me.

“Familiar Sentinel, do I need to remind you of the rules regarding making runes on base?” The Major asked.

“No sir.”

“Then why were you performing unauthorized rune crafting in your room?”

“Because I couldn’t sleep sir.”

“You couldn’t sleep?” He angrily repeated my words. “You nearly blew up my base because you could not sleep?! Well… I guess it is a good thing you were not hungry too! Who knows what you might have done!”

“Sir, I guarantee nothing like this will ever happen again.” I said.

“As do I, sir.” Suma said.

“It better not. Now, until further notice, when you are off duty Sentinel, you will confine yourself to quarters. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir.”

“Dismissed.” He said, and Suma and I left his office.

Suma didn’t say anything on the walk back to our squad’s quarters. She silently sat on my shoulder, but I could feel her emotions through our connection. She was angry, sad, and very worried. “Suma… I’m sorry.” I said as we arrived at the building.

She didn’t answer right away, but let the silence hang in the air for a few moments. When she did finally speak, her voice broke. “Goodnight, Jake.” With that, she flew inside. I went back to my room, and laid on my bed in the quiet, dark room.

Later that day, our entire squad was attending a briefing about an upcoming field training exercise between different Drake squads. Our team, third squadron, was going to face off against fifth squadron in a mock battle, to prepare us for our last rounds of training before we are evaluated for ‘mission readiness’. We had been told it was going to happen a few days before, but we were going to learn the details that day.

The room was packed full. Not only was the entire team there, even Lieutenant Datahu, but so were all their familiars. Suma was perched on my shoulder, still quiet from earlier. Before the meeting, some of the squad, namely Rou and Nine, were talking about the explosion last night. Apparently, they knew something happened, but Suma, who had been called by the Major after the event, hadn’t told them anything and went straight back to her roost. They asked if I knew what happened, and I explained everything. Nine shook his head disappointedly, and Rou laughed until she fell off her familiar’s saddle; her familiar was actually the nameless goat-dog thing that likes to sit with me on watch.

“I know you have been learning more about runes, but what made you think experimenting on your own was a good idea?” Nine asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I just didn’t see the problem with it, and I didn’t have anything else to do.” Just as Rou picked herself up, Captain Gigoales flew into the room carrying a rolled up sheet of paper behind him with magic.

“Alright squad, listen up,” he said, and the room went silent. “The details for the mock battle have been worked out. Here is what everyone needs to know. First, our entire team will be participating; as will theirs. Second, only the winning team will be deemed ‘mission ready’. The losing team will need to complete an additional six weeks of training, and then repeat the test. Third, the objective of this mock battle will be the same as our missions: personal elimination. Our goal is to defeat the other team by any means necessary. We are not expecting casualties, but we do expect injuries. We will have healers on standby, however, once injured, you are considered ‘dead’ and will be removed from the exam. That being said, no matter how many of the other team are defeated, so long as one remains, that team can still achieve either victory or defeat. Whichever team runs out of personnel first, loses. Finally, we will have one hour to prepare before the start of the battle, and we will use that time to come up with a plan as a team. Does anyone have any questions?” The Captain finished.

Odens spoke up, “does that mean that even if we defeat all but one member, and then that member somehow defeats us, that we will still lose?”

“Correct. As I said, the only goal is personnel elimination. This is meant to simulate battlefield conditions.”

(The team that comes back is the one that wins.) I thought.

“Are there any spell types that are off limits?” Suma asked. Hearing her speak made me a little happy, since she hadn’t spoken a word to me since last night.

“Only Death Magic,” the Captain said looking at me. “Other than that, we need to ensure that no spells with the ability to outright kill an opponent are used. This is only training after all.”

“You and the Lieutenant will also be participating, correct?” Nine asked.

“Correct,” Lieutenant Datahu answered. “But so will the other team’s officers.”

“This change will be a part of our team’s training going forward. From now on, all training exercises will include the team’s officers. Assuming we are the winner, that is.” Captain Gigoales said.

“When will the training take place?” I asked.

“In one day.” He answered. “But before that, I’d like to take a moment and congratulate all of you. For the last several months, you have all put in the effort, and improved your skills considerably. Some of you have faced real combat-” he paused for a moment and glanced at Suma and I “-but you took those hardships with unfurled wings, and flew higher. I am confident in your skills. Whether we win this exercise or not, I am proud to be your Captain.”

“Well said, sir.” Lieutenant Datahu said. One by one, each member of our team thanked him. With that, our meeting was dismissed, and we left.

The rest of the squad flew back to our quarters, but Suma stayed perched on my shoulder as I walked. She looked like she had something to say, and so did I. “Suma… I’m sorry. You got in trouble with the Major because of me. You have every right to be angry about it.”

“I am, Jake, but not because of what the Major said.” An icy breeze blew through, stinging my skin and ruffling Suma’s feathers. “You said you would sleep.”

“I did… I tried to, anyway. I’m sorry.”

“You do not need to apologize. I simply… I am concerned for you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” I said, trying to reassure her. But I barely believed it myself, so how could she?

“After all we have been through, all you have been through… it is okay to not be fine. I want you to be okay, but if you are not… I will listen.”

“I know.” I sighed.

“Please, Jake. Tell me what you are feeling.” At this point, I’d stopped walking, and Suma used magic to make a perch for herself. We stood in the empty blue field as the cold wind chilled us both.

“I don’t think… I’m not feeling anything.” I finally said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m just numb. At first when I got stuck here, I was so sad, and then I was just angry all the time. But now… I don’t feel anything.” Suma stayed quiet. She probably didn’t know what to say. “Suma, I miss my mum, and I… I just feel trapped.”

“And that is why you cannot sleep?”

“Maybe… I don’t know.”

“You want to go home?”

“Yeah.”

“When you do, will you come back?” She asked. I stayed quiet, but shrugged, because I really didn’t have an answer for her. “I see.” There were a few more moments of quiet between us, with the only sounds being the wind blowing past us and the occasional rustling of the tall grass. “You-” Suma’s voice broke in a way that told me she was trying not to start singing; something her people do instead of crying. “Your dream, will you tell me about it?”

“Why do you want to know?” I asked.

“I told you, I want to listen, and help. Maybe talking about it will help?” I sighed, and started to explain the dream again. I told her about the part with my mum, and with her getting burned. “Purple flames; like the Vikings?”

“Like mine.” At some point my cheeks started to burn. Assuming it was the wind, I’d put my hands on my face to warm it up, and instead felt something wet. Without realizing it, tears had been running down my cheeks, making the wind worse. “I couldn’t help you Suma, when he took my body. I was helpless then, and…” I gasped suddenly, catching my breath, “and he made me-”

“That was not you, Jake. You know that.” Suma interrupted.

“But it could have been. You said yourself that I nearly hurt you.”

“The dragon nearly hurt me, but he was stopped. By that strange magic, remember?” She said, and I placed a hand on my shoulder. She’d told me about what happened. How the circle on my shoulder stopped me from killing her. “That circle protected me. And if something happens, and you lose your body again, then the mark will protect me again.”

“You don’t know that.” I said.

“I do. But the point is moot, because it will not happen again and because I know you would never hurt me.” Suma flew over to my shoulder, and rested the front of her head against my temple. “Jake, you are hurting so much, and I do not know how to help you. But please, let me try.”