Happy Wednesday, comrades! A little housekeeping before jumping in to the penultimate chapter (wooooooot!). 1] You may experience a little confusion at the start, and given it’s been a week since the last installment, I want to give you a minor spoiler: we jump off with a flashback. Keep reading, you’re right where you need to be ✊🏾. 2] I posted a short story set in the same dystopian FROM OUR ASHES universe this week: TO RISE. Please check it out — I’d love to hear what you think of it as a standalone story. Thank you for reading!
RECAP: Iver is reluctantly rescued from Teris District by Empyc, the lethal right-hand man of her benefactor, Dalwin Halmut.
“The child is depraved!”
Porvic stepped off the training mat, blood pouring from his nose. He stormed toward the gym exit, almost knocking Kosa over as she rushed in to see what the commotion was about.
“Is there a problem?” she asked. Her hands gripped the dustcloth she used to polish the artifacts in the conservatory down the hall.
The stocky trainer whirled, showing Kosa his red, swollen nose. “She doesn’t know how to control herself. Or she doesn’t care to learn. Regardless, I’m done!”
Kosa watched Porvic storm out of the gym before turning to Iver. The nine-year old girl stood in the middle of the training mat, hair tussled, her skinny legs still spread in a fighting stance. Kosa crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Iver before allowing a subtle smile to play across her lips.
Iver tossed her combat gloves onto the mat and executed an effortless backflip.
“Porvic gets so mad when I beat him,” she sighed.
“Well now he’s gone and quit. That’s the third trainer in as many months,” said Kosa. “Your mother will be grieved.”
“She won’t care. Not until after Aniere leaves.”
Kosa checked the time on her commpiece and sucked her teeth. “He’s leaving soon! We need to see him off.”
“But I’m still in my gear –”
“It doesn’t matter, girl. Come, you don’t want to miss him.” Kosa grabbed Iver’s hand and hustled her out of the gym.
“But he doesn’t like it when we say goodbye,” said Iver. “He hardly ever says anything to me anyways.”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Kosa. “We still need to be there when he leaves, so he knows we care.”
They rushed to Aniere’s section of the homeunit but found his suite unoccupied. Kosa gripped Iver’s hand as they charged down the stairs and took a short cut through the kitchen facilities to the service lift. Whenever Aniere left, he tried to draw as little attention as possible. They knew he would be taking the lift meant for the cleaners instead of using his mother’s private gyrocraft.
Iver and Kosa hurried down a corridor connected to the hallway leading to the lift. Iver felt a moment of panic when she saw the empty hallway. Then she heard heavy boots approaching and saw Aniere walking toward them in his CCDF dress uniform. Iver thought her brother looked taller when he wore the crisp white coat and trousers with red trim and yellow badges.
Before he could glimpse Iver and Kosa, Marsander’s voice echoed down the hall from behind him.
“I can’t believe you would try and leave me without so much as a goodbye,” said Marsander.
Aniere silently groaned and turned to face his mother.
“Because you never make it pleasant,” he said.
“I spoke with Lieutenant Colonel Bangerd and he assured me you don’t need to report back for another two days,” said Marsander.
“Mother, stop talking to leadership about me,” growled Aniere. “I am not directly under his command. Captain Vores is holding a briefing tonight regarding our next deployment and I need to be there.”
“The position at TXSkelding is still available should you choose to accept. My team can submit the necessary forms and begin the discharge process –”
“I need to go.”
Aniere turned but Marsander stepped in his path. “Aniere. Bangerd told me that the operation in Ozek is perilous. Please – you don’t have to do this. There are so many other ways to serve –”
“I’ll see you in three months, mother.” He stepped around Marsander and walked toward the entrance to the service lift without looking back. Marsander stormed down the hallway, loudly muttering to herself before kicking the wall.
Aniere kept his gaze focused straight ahead as he passed Iver and Kosa. “Safe journey,” said Kosa.
Aniere didn’t respond.
“Maybe he didn’t hear you, Kosa,” said Iver.
Kosa wrapped her arm around Iver’s bony shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. Iver basked in the feel of Kosa’s skin, the smell of her hair oil. So different from Marsander’s scent, which Iver only noticed occasionally, usually from arm’s length as her mother passed by.
She didn’t understand why her older brother never acknowledged Kosa’s presence. He’d been raised by her as a child, just as she was now raising Iver and Phaen.
Kosa looked down to see the troubled look on Iver’s face. “One day you won’t see me, either. It’s just the way things are.”
“I’ll always see you, Kosa.”
Aniere turned when he got to the doors leading to the lift. His eyes met Iver’s for a moment. She wanted to call out to him, to tell him to come back soon, but she knew he would not like that very much. So she waved.
He nodded and stepped inside the lift without a glance toward Kosa. Iver could feel something inside her sink.
Iver woke with a start as the gyrocraft touched down. She sat up in the jumpseat, immediately on alert. Empyc stood by the cargo ramp, staring at her like an automaton. She wondered if he’d been watching her the entire time she was asleep. She cringed in pain as she stretched, and examined her arm. The wound had been sutured and dressed with a drug-eluting patch. While still sore, she could feel the ache diminishing.
The lift door lowered and Empyc motioned for her to follow him.
She stepped down the ramp and was overwhelmed by the sharp rush of filtered air from outside. The gyrocraft had landed on a private gyrodrome on the top floor of one of the spires located on the periphery of the Protectorate. Iver looked toward the outer districts, at the distant tiny lights glimmering against the dark night and wondered what would become of Poms, Yarlo, Oby and the other people she’d encountered.
She touched her wrist as she walked next to Empyc, feeling the texture of the bangle Poms had given her. They crossed the walkway and approached the spire entry. She stopped when the fortified doors slid open to reveal Dalwin Halmut in the entranceway.
He stared at Iver in silence as he held out his hand. Empyc placed the mag drive into Dalwin’s palm.
“Well, Ms. Jagwald,” he said. “You’ve experienced quite an occurrence, it seems.”
You may remember, intrepid readers, that Iver revealed the fates of Kosa and Aniere back in Chapter 5.
Check out this map to find locations referenced in the story.
If you want to read another story in the From Our Ashes series, The Lancer is available on Amazon for less than a buck.