There was one thing that Drenar hated above all else: lessons. He took notes and committed things to memory, but he hated lessons. Practical application of knowledge worked far more effectively, and with less stress than this.
“Now, pay attention.” Levine has broken out the arcanist slide deck, and is droning on about magical combat for the hundredth time. James is busily doing that eidetic memory thing where he just absorbs knowledge without a care in the world, Julia is making that squinty face like she just didn’t get the topic. This sat in contrast to Angela, who sat composed while jotting something on her tablet, and he looked down at his notes.
His hard-fought notes are joined by scribbles of a kitsune riding on a dragon, and launching alchemical bombs, and both of them laughing maniacally. He needs a good head check, if his thoughts keep wandering to being a half-ton flying weapons platform. A weapons platform with a firebug alchemist lobbing deadly explosives with precise aim.
Speaking of which, a certain cinnamon scent is coming from behind him. He peers over his shoulder to see Joey peering at his drawing and smiling.
“Something on your mind?” she teases.
“Lessons,” he deflects. Joey might have a bit more practice in actual magical combat, but she’s taking these lessons to heart, and writing furiously. He glances up at the tactical position that Levine has given, and it’s not a multiple-choice question, either. This is a full tactical appraisal with limited knowledge. This means, that any answer he gives is going to be torn apart unless it’s ironclad.
“So, We have hostile Talons soldiers entrenched, their numbers are unknown. They may have hostages, which means firing blindly into the building is out of the question. Drenar, I’ll lead with your input,” Levine says from the briefing room upstairs in Nick's house. Soft snowflakes are drifting down outside and a low wind howls outside, where the seasons are rapidly changing. Nick has this house well fastened down, because he can’t feel even a slight draft in this house–the upgrades must have been pretty substantial.
Drenar clears his throat and gets one last mental nudge from Joey. {Be bold. Don’t be afraid to surprise the enemy in any way we can.} She’s picked up on this mental link fast, and this strategic layer is important for him, too. Their running battle in Asqualia had been improvised and a tad desperate, but still effective. But, going on the offense…this is different.
He rose from his seat and pointed to the arcanist hologram projecting the layout of the office building. He assesses the locations, and then strips back the layers of office layout, schematics of utilities, sewers, and basements–and then he sees it. A way that might prove useful.
“A tactical team of three goes into this small utility space here, by the burner. No security, but it would require bolt cutters to get through, or an arcanist torch.” He points to the entry point and points to several positions by the front of the building. “Tactical teams of Nick, Levine, and Kyle would wait for our response. I lead the secondary team with Julia and Joey to assess enemy positions, locate hostages, and take them by surprise. We go in with optic camo suits, which only last about five minutes with continuous use with a single mana battery. Enough to get in, assess the risk, and then lead with the assault. Our first move, we lay out the first soldiers–likely in these rooms and these elevated positions,” he adds while pointing to a two-floor foyer with a sweeping staircase.
“The next step, the pincer movement–we play the distraction, Nick’s team breaches, we throw smoke and use thermals and gas masks to sweep through. We go from south to north, moving fast and clearing hostages from the danger zones. Julia will ID targets at close range by any mana circulating. Joey uses alchemical boosters to accelerate us to move fast, and hit hard, before they can utilize any remaining hostages. Kelly and Jackie lead the last fire team in after this all goes down by this back door, which should be abandoned from the massive amount of noise we’ll be making.”
He taps the map, and points to a few rooms. “These are large enough rooms to get a mobile teleportal, so reinforcements are a risk, and located deep in the interior of the building. Those rooms are away from any direct munition: total movement time, five minutes. Sweep and clear, another three. Due to the close quarters, dragon forms would be inadvisable, and would hinder tactical movement. Fast and fluid.”
“Not bad.” Levine nods and looks at his notes. “What about hostage-taking?”
“Kelly and Julia can both disable without permanently harming. I can shield them, as can Angela, with our enhanced barriers. I also have the instant blink to close distance without exposing myself to fire. Negotiating with those fiends isn’t going to be an option, given their prior history and training. They will expect a large force, and react slowly. They won’t plan for a smaller mobile team.”
Levine nods slowly. “Good assessment. Now let’s let this play out.” He moves markers and beacons showing the line of sight, showing the intended motions of each of the teams. The team simulating Kelly and Jackie halts at the door. “Now, do we anticipate traps?”
“At the front door, yes. At the back door, maybe. Then again, the Talons are kinda sloppy on the back end of fortifying their position. Asqualia proved that, because we flanked them numerous times.” He likes how Levine has made this a chess game. “That’s why James is with them, for conditional assessment.”
“Not bad. I’ll give it a B+ effort. Your breach is delayed when you find explosives on the door. In addition, you’ll find that Nick’s team is delayed by the front door during the breach.” Levine lets it play out further. “Talons teams can pull from the rear. Hostages are used as living shields now. How do we proceed?”
Drenar mulls on this for a second. “Aether strike to grab one, neutralize two hostiles. Angela and Julia each grab one and shield them from reciprocal strikes. Emphasis is to rescue hostages first and foremost. And not to chase the Talons. Our objective is to save the noncombatants. That’s it.”
“There’s the ‘A’ grade I was looking for. Joey, assessment?” He peers at her to see her assessing the same schematics, but the building layout is different. She frowns.
“Not the same building?”
“Similar scenario. Different layout. I can’t make it too easy,” Levine said slyly. He has the most wolfish grin on his face. “How would you breach?”
“Same way we did it on the obstacle course. Rooftop entry by ladders or by dragon back. We’d need to come in directly from above to avoid being spotted. We come in from behind and…let’s see…” she murmurs for a moment and points to a building on the far side. “Nick sets up shop with his rifle. Our goal is to drive the Talons to vulnerable positions. Smoke and stunners will be the lead-up. That vantage point has a good vision of the main lobby. You’ve also deliberately baited one hostage position. That’s the most dangerous one, isn’t it?”
“Correct.” Levine lets her continue the assessment and nods satisfactorily. “You’re less aggressive with the push. Why?”
“If we’re spotted…Talons' contingency may be to just execute the hostages. And no one wants to see that. These guys do deplorable things and stack bodies like cordwood." She also points out the disappearing foes as the simulation plays out. “Plus, they’ll be exiting through that back hallway. Where Nick has a clear shot.”
“You’d neutralize them?”
“Or keep them from doubling back,” she points out. “Once we have the hostages, we teleportal out using one-time pads. No point in sticking it out once we have the targets, we bounce, and let SAF deal with the rest with the primary sweep. The teleportals are risky and cumbersome, but they’re the fastest way out.”
“A-minus effort. Solid, but it lets foes go to fight another day.”
“No, if they go through that hallway with weapons in hand, they won’t be leaving.” Nick calmly reacts to the simulation and shows the small figures falling over, one by one. “Enemy combatants with weapons in hand in a fire zone are fair game. If they surrender, it’s discretionary. But do not take chances. You fire and you neutralize. You don’t hesitate. I know some of you might not like that notion…but we will not always have the luxury of time or bloodless victories.”
“Agreed.” Levine continues to quiz everyone, with everyone getting relatively high marks. Julia gets a B+ effort, but her attempt to bulldoze is somewhat riskier than previous prospects, and James pulls her over quietly to talk to her for a moment, before nodding in concurrence.
“Think these ‘simulations’ will be useful when we’re up against the real thing?” Joey asks a short time later after the lesson is done. It’s already getting dark outside, and Nick has lit the fireplace recessed in the living room to great effect. She’s got that etched curiosity on her face and she smooths her hair down, now wearing a winter sweater and jeans instead of her typical lab coat.
“We can’t plan for crazy. But we can at least always plan to save lives, wherever and however we can, and not take unnecessary risks.” He grabs a coffee cup–her favorite one that somehow had survived the attack of Asqualia, where their lab had been locked down and preserved. “How do you like yours?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Just milk,” she adds.
“I thought you like sugar.”
“I want to not like sugar,” she comments wryly while twirling her finger in her hair. She’s got that curious gaze on her face. Most everyone had gone either to the basement to hang out, or upstairs and resting. A Valkyrie is sitting and reading a book in Nick’s library–in their armor, no less! He’s never going to get used to that. “You know, I was curious. You grew up here, but your mom’s been here…a lot longer?”
“Well…” he trailed off as he handed her a cup of coffee, which brought a smile to her face, “If Kiera hasn’t been bullshitting me, My mom is a hundred and forty-six. Which is young for a dragon, but that’s…a long time, from my perspective.”
“Hey, Kitsune can live up to four hundred years. Even Kyle, with his relative normalcy, can live to a hundred and fifty, which is still longer than any normal human has ever lived. But yeah, when you can live that long, it changes perspectives on a lot of things. Time is less valuable to you. Or, maybe to the point, that time isn’t as constrained if you can just outlast everyone else.”
“If you’re on a path to conquest, sure.” He’s still grappling with that notion, even to this day. It sunk in on the day before the ill-fated journey to Mount Syren that his life got a whole lot longer, and he had no idea how he was going to fill it–assuming that a certain murder lizard didn’t decide to carpet bomb his whole town. “So, Mom and Kiera, they knew each other well before Julia and I were born. They were tight like me and Julia. Like sisters, almost. Maybe that’s why…Julia gets attached?”
“You guys never…well…”
“Got intimate?” he concludes the leading thought. “No. We never did. We, uh, did kiss. Once.”
“Oh, spill it! I haven’t heard this from her!” Her eyes blaze with excitement. “She must’ve buried this one for a good reason!”
“Um…yeah.” He really shouldn't have brought this one up.
You shouldn’t bring this one up! Alex says with an edge to his tone bordering on screaming.
“Nah-ah, don’t spoil it Alex, I want to hear it from him!” she declares while leaning in, elbows on the table and propping up her chin, her coffee carefully tucked away on the rough-cut wooden table–a rustic addition to the kitchen area. “So, when did this happen?”
“When we were six.” No point in going back now, he figures. “We were busy playing with Angela, and she got this devilish idea and said she bet her allowance that I’d never kiss Julia. Julia dares me, thinking I won’t do it. So I uh…I did.” She grins madly at this.
“Ooh, this is a side of you I haven’t seen! So bold,” she adds coyly. He laughs softly at her expression.
“Well, it might have been too bold. She tossed me out of the treehouse we all happened to be in when this dare went down, and I sprained my ankle. It kinda hurt. A lot. I didn’t break anything, but Julia was freaking out, thinking I had cooties.” Joey is busy laughing so hard she has to hold herself steady, a full-body laugh that she’s clutching her chest and trying to make it less of a spectacle.
“She is such a tsundere! I totally get the nickname!”
“Yep. She’s our Julia, alright,” he said with a wry smile. He grabs the cup of coffee that just finished and stirs in milk before taking a measured sip. Not too hot, and velvety smooth. Nick even fresh-ground the beans earlier. He thinks of everything. “Anyway, getting back to it, my mom, she…she had this radiant charm about her. She was always there when I needed her to be. I lost a game of soccer in second grade and missed a penalty shot that could have won it. I was there crying, feeling like I let down my whole team.” Joey has composed herself with a hint of moisture in her eyes and listening intently. Studying him, like always. “She told me that failure was simply an opportunity to learn, and failure is forever only if you let it be. I didn’t let down my team, because I was trying my hardest to win.”
“That’s a ‘glass is all the way full’ kind of view of life,” she comments, and runs a finger errantly across the table. Testing the smooth finish that Nick had put into this work of crafts Drenar quite frankly didn’t know how he found time for it. “She was always like that, huh?”
“Full of hope. Always looking at the future as something brighter that we should aim for. I don’t know if there’s anything that put Mom down, except for when Dad left for a while.” He bites his lip gently, wondering why he changed his mind. It was a topic that Kiera had gently deflected on the occasion he had asked about it, a week ago. “I guess, when you’re the head hero of the most heroic team on the planet, you kind of have to be, don’t you?”
“Being heroic doesn’t make you a hero, Drenar,” she said, lavender eyes gazing at him before pointing to his temple. “What makes you heroic is knowing you’re trying your hardest to live by a code. To make other people’s lives better, or safer. Or inspiring someone. I wish I’d known someone like you when I was younger, filled with resolve. I didn’t have that, growing up.”
“You didn’t?”
“No. I was an only child, which is a rarity among Kitsune--most of the time, the average is 1.9 kits--er, children, per pregnancy. My parents were the definition of helicopter parents. And we were kitsune, which further complicated things.” She bowed her head before taking another sip calmly from her cup–as if the motion were an appropriate mental pause, as well. “I grew up in a community in Bixby, Missouri. The kitsune tend to keep to themselves…and maybe with some of the wargen and the fey, at times. We’re the most non-human species, so blending in can be a bit of a pain.”
“Is it the…body scent?” She raises an eyebrow. “Look, I don’t think it’s ever registered as anything bad. It just makes you, you.”
“You’re saying I stink?” she teased.
“No. I was saying we just have traits that we can’t unwill about ourselves. For instance, the fact that I can’t grow a beard. I mean it’s a little bit weird, but…I guess I don’t mind it. I guess I’ll always have that uncanny boyish charm, as Julia keeps teasing me about,” he adds with a shrug. “Tell me more about growing up. That must have been a whole other experience.”
“You wanna hear about that? Oh, it’s not that exciting,” she says with a dismissive wave, but she’s still smiling lightly. She does want to talk about it.
“So, now that you’ve volunteered, what was school like?”
“With Kitsune? Well, we had an option to go as a human, or our kitsune selves,” she says while gesturing to herself. She still prefers her human form, though…she typically takes her fox-like form in the evenings. It’s still a surreal sight. “We had to keep our nails below a certain length. Kitsune's claws are sharp. Fur also had to be brushed, no gnarls–they were such a stickler for appearance!”
“I’ve noticed.” He swears he can still feel claws digging into his back in a moment of–nope, can’t think that one aloud, and he feels his face go flush. She leans in, grinning.
“Got something on your mind, you young drake?”
{Of course, I do. The same thing that's been going through my head all day. You know what I mean.} Now it’s her turn to blush, and he lets out a faint smirk. “But before I lose focus here, did you spend most of your time as a Kitsune?”
“I used to. It was just a common thing. We lived in a rural community. We had wards set up so anyone who wasn’t a mage wouldn’t be able to sneak up on us. Plus, I was the fastest sprinter in town,” she beamed proudly. “Gymnastics is easy as a kitsune. I can jump almost double my height from a standing position. So, we were able to go to school, and learn mage history, and some of us do make competent generalist mages. A lot of us…choose a quiet life.”
“Because of stigmas?” he dares to ask. He hates how unjust the conclave is starting to appear, in his mind.
“It’s so bad, that very few of the elders will even talk about psionics. It’s a generational fear. Which is stupid, because, how can you learn to be in control of it, if no one is even going to talk about it in a calm, logical way?” she poses casually. “So mom and dad would constantly pry into my thoughts. You know, to make sure I wasn’t becoming some kind of serial killer, or suffering manic episodes. The worst I had were mild migraines. And even those have gone away lately.”
“That’s just sad that the community as a whole doesn’t see it as a gift.” She twists her lip and lets out a soft, deflating sound before responding.
“It can be. I don’t claim to understand it. I’m still figuring it out. People kind of freak out when you say ‘Oh, hey, I’m ‘bonded’ to someone."
“I don't either of us knows what it means yet," he offered after resting his chin on the chair. for a moment, and trying to note every inference he could. "Joey, I know when you’re hurting, when you’re anxious, when you’re thinking about the rest of us, even when you’re not in the room. Or alternately, when you're feeling that vast sense of bliss when we're all together, doing what we have to, to keep others safe. I know it’s scary, but living without secrets has been liberating.” she lets out a slight sound of surprise. “Plus…it means you’re a lot more willing to open up than you used to.”
“Trust is…precious and rare, Drenar. And I think there’s more to these powers than just that.” She pulled out a small notebook from her pocket, and read a few lines. “I can’t talk to my mom about it too much, because she was our community’s historian. But, this bond–this psionic bond I have with you, and Angela and Julia, didn’t happen by accident. And I think the strength goes both ways.”
“I might have noticed it, actually. You can get us crystal-focused even when we’re a chaotic mess. But, what about the other direction?” he pondered.
“Maybe your…endurance?” she said with an evil grin. He leaned into the idea.
“Tempting. I am kinda unkillable, as long as someone doesn’t get the jump on me–or throw a whole army at once at me."
Or, did you mean another endurance?” Joey suggested, and a glint of amusement lit up her eyes. He coughed loudly and tried to keep his focus. She leaned in and whispered something into his ear. “I bet we can put this to a test.”
“Oh, you crazy kitsune, you.”
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