Due to the ongoing war, Sunstone and Ragnarok had both tightened their security predictably. The power of their aerial runic barriers had increased to completely shut down inter-kingdom teleportation. Port security and patrol had tripled. The number of security checkpoints had increased, and their identity verification had become so thorough that it was nearly invasive.
Despite these improved security measures, safety still wasn’t fully guaranteed, as is usually the case when dealing with awakened individuals. There was always one skill, bloodline, or ability that pierced through any sort of protection, however tight they might be. There was always a loophole, and this time, it was Seo-yeon.
While others relied on petty tricks and bloodlines to escape or avoid detection, Seo-yeon simply walked through any and every security measure without worry. She had passed right under the nose of the port security and aerial patrol without detection, and now, as the sun glided down the horizon, she stood within a long queue of people heading into Conquestia, the border city of sector 7.
She shuffled along with the crowd, wearing the face of an old widow whose life she’d taken barely an hour ago. With a snort of impatience, she clutched the widow’s ID card tightly to her chest and yelled at the person in front of her. “Why is this line so slow? My feet are killing me.”
The man, an evolved awakened, turned to glare at her. “If you touch me again, woman, I swear, I’ll cut off your head.” He raised a threatening finger wreathed in darkness and spat. “Fucking sleeper!”
Seo-yeon pretended to feel threatened as any sleeper would undoubtedly be and quickly switched places with the person behind her. It set her back a few minutes, but it was a necessary act to maintain and solidify her cover. Seo-yeon, or Faceless, as she was more popularly known, was a changeling, wielding an underestimated aspect of the concept of change. Many of her kind were barely considered dangerous due to their lack of offensive skills, but Seo-yeon had pushed her understanding of the concept over the edge, shaping her skills in a direction so bizarre that the war council had had no choice but to label her as a champion of Sunstone.
The queue moved swiftly, and before long, Seo-yeon found herself standing before the city gate, surrounded by half a dozen advanced-class soldiers. The lead soldier, a stern-faced man with wavy silver hair and eyes, glared at her and extended a hand in request for her ID.
Seo-yeon smiled kindly, playing the role of an old widow perfectly as she handed the card to the soldier, who inspected her gray speckled hair and wrinkled face for a moment before accepting the card.
The soldier placed the card under a runic scanner for verification before requesting a finger print and pupil scan, both of which Seo-yeon performed without fuss. While the lead soldier scanned her pupils, another soldier scanned her body for anything suspicious. Seo-yeon didn’t bother asking if there was a problem; after all, this was all standard procedure. It would have been surprising if security was lax, especially in the 7th sector, which housed Ragnarok’s military.
When they asked to search her spatial ring, Seo-yeon grumbled the way she’d seen others do before handing over the spatial ring she’d swiped from the old woman. There was barely anything within it—only some old clothes, food, a few pictures of her supposedly dead husband, and the military uniform of her second victim. The soldier scanned the ring for a moment and asked. “Whose uniform is this?”
Seo-yeon’s expression crumbled into that of sorrow, and she sighed. “It belonged to my late husband. He died a month ago; this is all I have to remember him.”
The soldier exchanged glances with his comrades before turning back to her with a somber expression. “I’m sorry for your loss, ma’am. I hope your husband finds rest.”
“Thank you.”
The soldier scanned the ring for a moment longer before returning it along with the ID card. “All clear, you’re free to go in, ma’am.” The soldier smiled, and Seo-yeon returned the expression in that bizzare way old people usually did. “Say hi to your wife and children for me.”
Of course that last part hadn't been necessary, but being a changeling wasn’t just about what was needed or not; it was about completely embodying the character of the face she was wearing at any given moment.
She stepped through the gates and began making her way into the city. This wasn’t the first time she’d entered Ragnarok ever since the escalation of the war, but unlike her usual jaunts around the continent, this was no mere vacation; this time, she had a mission. It wasn’t a realm-altering mission. By the sun! It wasn’t even a kingdom-shattering mission; however, it was an essential one, and as much as she would have loved to dispose of the king and take his place, she wasn’t capable of that yet, at least not until she entered the Mythic class and gained her aspects.
Finding her way around the orderly sector was quite easy, and a few minutes later, she reached a merchant stall where she bought a stack of papers and a cooking knife. The knife was useless against any awakened person of sufficient ability, but Seo-yeon didn’t like moving around without a weapon. It made her feel naked.
After that, she dove into a darkened alley and immediately activated {Morph—Animate} and then {Rapid Transformation}. Her features changed to those of her second victim, shedding the visage of the kind old widow to adopt a much younger and fairer visage. Her hair shortened into a buzz cut, her limbs lengthened, and a small scar ran from her left ear down to her chin.
Being a changeling meant being able to transform into anything, regardless of whether it was living or nonliving. Fortunately, many tended to ignore or forget the last part, categorizing them into the same vein as shapeshifters, and at this point, Seo-yeon had lost count of the amount of times she’d been mistaken for a random chair or rock. After the physical transformation was completed, a change that only took a couple seconds, Seo-yeon then activated a series of buff skills to strengthen the change. First, she activated {Gene morph}, an extremely potent skill that granted her the ability to manipulate and control the key defining factors for most Awakeneds: bloodline manifestations and the pupil rings.
With the skill, she eliminated the two rings around her sky blue pupils and instead replaced them with the single black ring her victim had bore. To the world, Seo-yeon was now an evolved male in his mid-thirties, with no bloodline manifestation.
“I’m sorry, Captain Rivvet.” She chuckled quietly as she put on the uniform she’d taken from her second victim. “It’s not personal; I needed a face, and you were it.”
With the transformation now complete, Seo-yeon discarded the widow's clothes and made her way out of the alley. Immediately she stepped out of the alley though; she almost collided with the cart of a newspaper merchant and had to hastily shift aside to avoid the disaster.
“Apologies sir.” The merchant called out as he shifted his cart out of the way. Nearly a dozen people stood around the cart, reading the headlines of the displayed newspapers, and with a curious expression, Seo-yeon moved to join them.
The headlines of nearly half of the newspapers were covered with updates on the war, most of which were just border skirmishes. She scanned the newspapers, smiling faintly as she read the tensed headlines and worried columns. If only they knew that Sunstone really didn’t have anything planned.
Her people were just as worried and tensed as the people of Ragnarok. The plague wraiths had been brutally effective, and her people feared what fate would befall them if the Ragnarians created a weapon that attacked humans rather than plants in their next confrontation. It was the sole reason for her mission in the seventh sector.
As her eyes scanned the newspapers though, her gaze landed on the headlines of one called the Arcane Observer, and she frowned when she saw the picture of a white-haired youth printed on the front page. The boy was unnaturally dark, obviously the effect of a severe bloodline manifestation, but what really caught Seo-yeon’s attention were the words boldly printed under the boy's picture.
Aodhán Brystion: The evolved awakened who ‘accidentally’ bonded with a familiar.
At first, Seo-yeon thought it was a joke, but after reading the first line of the column, her eye widened, and she immediately snatched the newspaper out of the hands of the man reading them.
“Hey! I was reading that.” The man shouted, but Seo-yeon ignored him. Her eyes roamed the paper with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. How was it possible that an evolved Awakened had done what she hasn’t been able to?
The man snatched the paper away from her, but Seo-yeon was done with it anyway. She walked away from the cart with her mind in turmoil. As if it wasn’t enough that the youth had done the impossible, he had a unique bloodline too.
The requirements for such a soul seed were not lost on Seo-yeon, and her expression darkened. “How do these buffoons just keep getting stronger?” she asked herself and made a mental note to relay the information to her general whenever she returned to Sunstone.
With a little effort, Seo-yeon pushed the thought of the white-haired youth out of her mind and turned her focus back to her mission. With determined strides, she moved forward, effortlessly weaving through a crowd of people who made way for her the instant they saw the uniform and badge she was putting on. As Seo-yeon walked deeper into the city, she encountered more soldiers, some of whom recognized her, or more appropriately, the face of the man she was wearing. Some waved in greeting, and Seo-yeon returned the gesture.
Just as the sun disappeared below the horizon, she passed by a group of weary-looking soldiers who looked to be drowning their sorrows in an unhealthy amount of alcohol. They waved her over, but Seo-yeon declined politely. “Sorry fellas, this bloke’s still working.”
“Work, work, work.” One of the soldiers complained, already inebriated. “You have to rest one of these days, Captain Rivvet.”
Realizing that this was someone who knew her victim well, Seo-yeon focused on his name tag and smiled. “What can I say, Edmund? Sunstonian dogs need to die.”
“Yes!” the soldiers cheered, and Edmund waved him off. “Go on, captain, we’ll save you a keg for when you return.”
“Absolutely.” Seo-yeon grinned and left. She walked for another ten minutes before boarding a military shuttle that was headed towards the Sigma 15-25 war camp, where her mission was to take place.
Considering how orderly the sector was, it only took a few minutes for the shuttle to arrive at the camp. After tipping the driver, Seo-yeon walked towards the camp entrance, which was surrounded by a very tall wall and guarded by another half dozen soldiers.
“I’m here to deliver something to the commander.” Seo-yeon said to the lead soldier as she went through another round of identity verification.
“A war update?” The soldier asked, and Seo-yeon nodded. “Yes, fortunately we’ve managed to push the Sunstonians back in Chalis-Argent and Raelys, so things are looking really good. I just wish those Sunstonian dogs will just surrender already so we can be rid of all this constant scrutiny.”
The soldier grinned. “You and me both, sir, I’m very eager to see my family again.”
Seo-yeon frankly didn’t care about the soldier, but captain Rivvet most likely would have, so instead of simply leaving, she glanced at the soldier's name tag and said, “Keep up the good work, lieutenant Thomas; I’m sure you’ll get to see your family very soon.“
“Thank you, captain.” Lieutenant Thomas smiled and waved for the soldiers to let Seo-yeon through. Seo-yeon nodded and walked into the camp. Despite how extensive Sunstonian intelligence was, Seo-yeon hadn’t been given the layout of the camp, so she'd had to find her way around using her instincts.
It would have been easier if she could harvest the memories of those she transformed into, but that was not a skill she could get now. However, it still only took her a few minutes to make her way towards the center of the camp, where the commander’s tent stood. Seo-yeon dallied until darkness fell before stepping into the commander’s tent.
Commander Hadjen looked up to glare at her, along with the ominous eyes of his familiar, a back raven. Had Seo-yeon been a weaker person, she definitely would have shriveled under their combined gazes; instead, she walked forward and bowed in greeting. “Commander Hadjen, I bring good news from Chalis-Argent and Raelys.”
Commander Hadjen let out a sigh of relief and smiled. “Quick, let me see the file.”
“Yes sir.” Seo-yeon grinned and took out the stack of papers she’d bought earlier. The commander leaned forward, and in that moment Seo-yeon acted. Her fingers transformed into long black claws, and with the speed of her actual tier, Seo-yeon slashed his exposed throat.
Her claws sliced into the commander’s neck, cleanly cutting through the tissues, veins, and arteries within it. It wasn’t nearly enough to kill him, but the shock and pain rendered both the commander and his familiar paralyzed. It was only for a moment, but that was all Seo-yeon required. She punched into the commander’s chest, her claws savagely tearing through bone and flesh to grasp the commander’s heart.
The familiar acted then, opening its beak to let out an accursed sound, but a slap from her left hand sent it flying backwards. It slammed against one of the wooden cabinets within the tent, the force of which caused the cabinet to tumble and spill its contents loudly to the floor.
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With the familiar now dealt with, Seo-yeon gripped the commander’s heart and ripped it out without hesitation. The entire fight had barely taken a minute, but before blood could spread unto the tent floor, Seo-yeon removed the commander’s spatial ring and threw his body into her spatial storage.
Seo-yeon’s mission was simple. Kill the commander of the Sigma 15-25 war front, and then make her way down or up the chain of command. It was an attempt to chip away at their military power and create even more tension within the camp. In essence, Seo-yeon had been sent to act as a distraction while Sunstone worked on bigger plans.
In a blink, she dashed forward and grabbed the familiar by its neck before it could fly away. Unlike normal creatures, familiars were very hard to kill as they weren’t exactly living beings, but with the commander now dead, it was only a matter of time before the familiar followed suit. She raised her chip to her lips, configured it to a secure line, and said. “One dead.”
She got no response, but that wasn’t necessary. After arranging the tent, Seo-yeon transformed again, this time taking on the stern features of commander Hadjen. She took out a clean uniform from his spatial ring and put it on. After that, she looked around the tent to make sure everything was in order, and in one quick movement, she snapped the raven’s neck.
***
In a small, forgotten corner of the war camp in Conquestia, sat a woman with her legs popped up on a stand, and her head bent sideways as she snored gently. An array of life chips surrounded her, each glowing with the life signals of all majors, colonels, and lieutenant colonels within the military.
The sleeping woman was named Geene Janak and was pompously titled the Life-Watcher. She was a woman who was already past her prime, as indicated by her salt and pepper hair, which hung in a halo around her head. Geene had encountered a spiritual limit at the advanced class eleven years ago. Rather than continue in active military, she had chosen to resign and had thus taken up the position of the Life-watcher.
One might wonder why she’d been the only one assigned to such an important task, but the reality was that Geene didn’t need anyone aside from herself to complete her task; in fact, while she slept, hundreds of her mind clones filled the entire space, each ghostly specter watching a section of life chips diligently.
They were all eerily silent, floating slightly above ground and leaving a trail of ghostly smoke behind them. Despite their numbers, they were one, or more appropriately, they shared one mind—hers. The specters were physical manifestations of her mind. Awakened with a mind affinity, Geene was popularly known for her innate ability to project segments of her mind into reality. However, the clones had little to no impact on reality itself. They couldn’t touch, feel, or even fight. If they could, her proposal for the position of lifeguard would have been rejected. So, they just watched instead, relaying several streams of information into her mind simultaneously. The information came into her mind in fragmented pieces, but even while asleep, it was no issue parsing through and sorting through the information.
She mostly just deleted everything from her memory since it was the same information every day, every month, and every year. The last time a life chip had dimmed had been three years ago, and that had been a cause for relief rather than alarm.
Old Malaritrex, the previous commander of the Sigma 26-50 war camp in Conquestia, had been pushing three hundred and fifty, which was extremely long lived for someone in the advanced class. Geene, in particular, had been much relieved when that life chip had finally gone out, as it had been sputtering for weeks and cutting into her sleep time.
However, life had returned to its usually boring monotony after that, and Geene had returned to sleeping her time away, just waiting for the time of her own death. This was the reason why, when one of her mind specters gasped inaudibly and began sending alarming thoughts to her mind, Geene jerked awake, her abrupt movement causing her chair to topple backwards. She landed on the tiled floor with a thud, but she barely even registered the impact, her gaze going directly to the manically waving specter.
With her heart thudding in excitement, Geene rushed forward. It didn’t matter that someone had probably just died; Geene was just glad for some fucking excitement. A break from the monotony of glowing life chips. Her gaze landed on the darkened chip an instant later, and she snorted. “Ha, this pompous jerk finally passed on to the embrace of the ascendants. I hope they reject him.”
Ideally, she was supposed to wait for a minute or two to confirm the death before notifying the appropriate authorities, but Geene couldn’t wait. This was an opportunity for excitement, and she would be damned to let it pass her by. Without hesitation, she slammed the red panic button on her console. The button refused to budge, stiff from lack of use, but Geene wouldn’t be bested by a simple button. She slammed the button again and again until it gave, after which it flashed red and an alarm blared all through the camp.
With a grin, she raised her chip and placed a call to Fort Dominion, where the general for the seventh sector stayed. It was highly inappropriate as she had gone over the heads of multiple officers, all of whom would be livid by the time all this was over, but Geene didn’t care.
The general’s secretary picked up the call an instant later. “You’ve reached General Deaton’s office, Life-Watcher; what is the emergency?”
“Commander Hadjen’s life chip just died. My instincts tell me he has been murdered and that camp Conquestia has been breached!”
“Your instincts?” The secretary asked in confusion. "Please, can you tell me why you’ve skipped over the appropriate authorities to report this to the general?”
Geene, however, was no longer listening. She had dropped her chip the moment after she delivered her message and was now rushing out of the watch center to activate another alarm.
***
Multiple alarms blared throughout the camp just as Seo-yeon stepped out of the commander’s tent, and chaos broke out immediately. Panicked, she dove back into the tent and cursed. “Fuck! I should have had at least a minute or two before this happened. They haven’t even verified the body.”
Thinking quickly, she threw out the commander’s body from her spatial space and then transformed her features into those of an unremarkable soldier she’d seen on her way here. Without hesitation, she ripped off the decorations on the uniform as well as the name tag until the uniform could barely be differentiated from that of a lowly private.
The uniform hung off her much slender frame, but a quick activation of {Morph—Animate} soon solved that problem, and the next instant, the uniform fit snugly as if it were made for her.
Seo-yeon had expected to have at least a minute or two to leave the vicinity before the alarm went out, but it seemed the camp was even more on edge than she’d previously thought. Another alarm blared, adding to the cacophony of noise and chaos, and after allowing herself a second to panic, Seo-yeon rushed out of the tent and joined the mass of confused and panicked soldiers.
Captains rushed about, trying to bring about a semblance of order to the chaos, but Seo-yeon wished they wouldn’t. The last thing she needed right now was order. She ducked behind a large tent, and in that split second where no one was watching, she activated {Rapid Transformation} and then {Animate Morph}.
The transformation began with a sharp, cracking noise as her bones snapped. Her spine contorted, the vertebrae compressing as her body began to shrink. Her ribs contorted, each bone bending and repositioning itself to accommodate her new form. Seo-yeon gasped both in pain and pleasure as her arms began to elongate, the bones within them hollowing out to become lightweight yet strong. Her legs bent and twisted, the bones rearranging themselves into slender, avian limbs. Her feet elongated, toes merging and transforming into sharp, curved talons capable of slicing a person in two if aimed right.
Her fingers fused together, stretching and sprouting black feathers that pushed through her skin like new buds in spring. Each feather unfurled, sleek and glossy, covering her growing wings in blue, purple, and black hues. Without hesitation, she flew, flapping her still-growing wings in a bid to get as far away from the vicinity as possible. Her body had shrunk until it was only about a foot, both in height and width. Anyone who saw right now would see a raven almost no different from the familiar she had just killed. She flew until she was nearly a mile away from the commander’s tent before settling on the roof of a large tent to watch what was going on below.
She’d barely had time to adjust to her new senses when reality warbled and a dense wave of spatial essence engulfed the area. The spatial wave heralded the appearance of a champion she knew well, and had it been possible in her new form, Seo-yeon would have sneered as the familiar features of Artemis Valerion came into view.
He appeared directly above the command’s tent, his gaze intent on the semi-orderly mass of soldiers now gathered around the tent. Seo-yeon cocked her head, focusing her hearing on the conversation of the soldiers to understand the situation.
“A breach!” One of the soldiers spat, a shadow sword tightly clenched in his fist. “Fucking Sunstonian dogs. Show yourself if you would dare!”
“How did they even get into the camp?” another asked.
“It doesn’t matter.” The shadow affinity soldier glared at his comrade. “Whomever they are, they couldn’t have gone far. We should spread out and search for them.”
The soldiers cheered, eager to shed her blood, but Artemis raised a hand to quiet them, the smile on his face not reassuring Seo-yeon one bit.
“That will not be necessary.” Artemis spoke, his voice reaching her ears easily despite the space between them. “I have found our culprit.”
Seo-yeon tensed and raised her wings, prepared to fly off at an instant notice. Not that she believed she could escape Artemis’s grasp if he was really out to catch her, but she could damn well try.
In a flash of silver and purple, Artemis teleported from above the commander’s tent and reappeared above the tent she had morphed. With the use of a spatial construct, he raised the commander’s uniform from where she had discarded it—a foolish mistake on her part, dusted off a smattering of feathers, and after giving it a sniff, Artemis grimaced and turned back to the soldiers. “I believe we’re dealing with a changeling, and if I’m right then we’ve got a very big problem on our hands.”
Chaos broke out within the camp once more as soldiers shifted away from one another, watching their comrades and partners suspiciously. Seo-yeon cawed in amusement as she realized that despite what happened, her mission was still a success. With this announcement, she had succeeded in sowing distrust among the soldiers. They couldn’t trust their brothers and comrades anymore. By the sun! They couldn’t even trust their own beds. It was even much better than she’d anticipated, and with another caw of amusement, she settled to watch the Ragnarok military crumble. Perhaps she could pick them off daily, chip away at their defenses, and wear them down until they simply imploded from within.
Ha, so much to gain for so little effort. As Seo-yeon watched the soldiers scramble and glare at each other in mistrust, she wondered what military officer to take out next.
***
Tyrus Hadjen stood before the corpse of his father, his face devoid of any expression as he stared at the body of the man he had feared all his life. His father had loomed so largely in his mind, his image so strong and powerful that Tyrus had never dared to argue or speak up against him, but now he looked so frail and small.
Tyrus wondered just how he'd died. His father had been strong, and Tyrus expected that a fight for his life should have been loud and prolonged, yet from all indications, it had barely lasted a minute. His supposedly strong father had failed to even put up a decent fight for his life, which meant Artemis Valerion was right. They weren’t dealing with just any advanced-class assassin here; they were dealing with a champion who had the ability to change into anything. Anything at all! In fact, it was possible that the assassin was in this very room with him, pretending to be a book or perhaps a quill or even this blood-stained rug he was standing on. It was stressful. Barely an hour after the incident, and already Tyrus was stressed from constantly looking over his shoulders in fear.
Tyrus sighed. His emotions were a complex mesh of fear, anger, pain, and even regret, but mostly relief. Tyrus was so relieved that the emotion nearly felt overwhelming. All his life he had lived in fear and subservience to his father, wary of doing anything that might in any way anger him, but now with his father dead, he finally felt free. With the death of his father, Tyrus felt like half his problems had simply evaporated, and if the assassin hadn’t been Sunstonian, Tyrus might not have been able to resist the urge to thank them.
Another soldier peeked into the tent to offer their 'sincerest condolences,’ which was funny since half the soldiers detested his father anyway. Tyrus nodded though, understanding that they were only being polite. It grated on his nerves; he wished someone would just say, ‘Fuck! I’m so glad the commander is dead, or perhaps that he deserved a fate worse than the quick death he had been offered.’ He stared at the body for a few more minutes before turning to leave the tent, only to come face to face with Colonel Fortuna Willowood.
Tyrus took several steps back, and a ball of flame appeared in his hands. “Don’t come any closer.” He glared at her and raised the fireball threateningly. “Tell me one thing that only Colonel Fortuna would know about me.”
The Colonel frowned but didn’t seem at all surprised or offended by his words or actions. She gazed at him intensely before speaking. “I do not know much about you, Lieutenant Hadjen, but I do know that you’re glad he’s dead.”
Her voice was calm, unaccusing, and frankly unthreatened, making Tyrus feel foolish for his actions. What could he do against her even if she was the changeling? He wasn’t even yet in the advanced class, and if his father had stood no chance against the assassin, then what hope did he have?
Still, Tyrus refused to lower his hand. He took another step back and said, “That’s not a sufficient answer.”
"No, it is not.” Colonel Fortuna conceded with a nod. “I am not the changeling; you’ll just have to take my word for it.”
Tyrus stared at her for a moment, trying to ascertain whether she was lying or not, but it was a futile measure, and he soon gave up. “Fuck!” he cursed. “We’re so fucking screwed. How long are we supposed to go on like this?”
“For as long as is necessary.” Colonel Fortuna responded, her tone taking on a bit of heat, either from anger or frustration. “We’ve already begun measures to flush them out, but I fear that without a telepath or some sort of mind reader, we might as well be running in circles. Unfortunately, telepaths are rare, and the only known one within the advanced class is otherwise occupied.”
“Occupied?” Tyrus questioned in annoyance. “What could be more important than sorting this mess as soon as possible?”
Colonel Fortuna smiled for the first time since she came into the room. “Alas, I’m not at liberty to discuss that with you. What I can tell you though is that we’ll find the assassin soon enough. Till then, we’ll just have to watch and wait.”
Tyrus snorted, but the colonel ignored him and took out a stack of documents from her spatial space. “While we wait, I’ve got good news for you.” She handed the documents over and said. ”I would have sent a messenger to deliver this, but when I heard of your father’s passing, I decided to come here myself and offer my condolences.”
“Thank you.” Tyrus replied instinctively and accepted the document. He opened the first document, and when he saw its content, a jolt of excitement shot through him. The Frostbourne noble had come through after all.
“Those are transfer documents for you and a few of your squad members. If you accept, you’ll be transferred to the war camp in sector 8. It's smaller compared to the one here, and you’ll experience less of the war, but you’ll be much safer and happier, I think. Although, now that your father is dead, I wonder if that’s what you would want anymore.”
Tyrus sighed and clutched the documents tighter. “Thank you, Colonel. If I could take a few days to think about this, I would greatly appreciate it.”
Colonel Fortuna shrugged. “Take as long as you like. After all, you’re mourning.”
Tyrus let out a small smile and saluted. “Thank you, colonel.”
Colonel Fortuna left a few minutes later, and Tyrus walked back to his tent in a daze. Soldiers watched each other warily, yet when they saw him, they came closer to offer their condolences, although Tyrus noticed that they stood just far enough from each other that they could still easily draw their weapons in case someone attacked suddenly.
The entire camp was so tense that Tyrus could almost feel it. It fed off each other, and from the look of things, it was only a matter of time before brawls broke out with the camp when tension rose too high.
When he arrived at his tent, he found Boyd laying shirtless on the bed. His first instinct was to crawl into his lover’s arms, but Tyrus resisted the urge and asked. “Tell me something about myself that only you would know.”
Boyd replied with a nasty smirk. “You have a crescent-shaped birthmark just below your abdomen. You think it was a gift from your mother.”
Tyrus nodded, and when Boyd reached out for a hug, Tyrus fell into his lover’s arms. He squeezed tightly, but Boyd didn’t mind. They stayed like that for several minutes until Tyrus finally pulled away to show him the transfer documents.
“What are you going to do now?” Boyd asked after reading through the documents.
“I don’t know.” Tyrus sighed wearily. “On one hand, this is all I've ever wanted, but with my father no longer in the picture, I... I don’t know if I want to leave anymore.”
Boyd nodded in understanding and placed the document down. “It doesn’t matter which option you end up choosing as long as I’m with you.” He grinned and ruffled Tyrus’s hair. “We still have a lot of Sunstonian blood to spill after all, and with your father now out of the picture, there’s nothing holding you back.”