Part 29
Jake's POV
I was sat on a stone platform, raised from the ground with a spell, staring at my newly reformed hand and comparing it to the other. My right hand hand was scarred, had dirt under the nails, calluses were formed on the palms and knuckles from training with my weapons. But my left hand? It was as smooth and clean as a baby's. Like it had never even seen the sun or picked up even a speck of dirt, because… well, it hadn't. The pink palm all but glistened. I held it up to the stony ceiling, halfway expecting a beam of sunlight to cut through it, revealing to be some trick of the light or a hallucination. But no, there it was. As real as the other one.
"One month?" Suma said, repeating herself. She'd been saying that over and over again for about a minute, after I told her that Deyja was coming back. Nine, Fourteen, and Lauric were all on watch, while I told Suma, Captain Gigoales, and Lieutenant Datahu about the vision. Datahu was perched on my shoulder, casting a Soul-Magic spell to look through my memories, and confirm what I was saying. The Captain was on the ground a meter away, looking off into the middle distance. Wasn't even sure he was listening to us anymore.
"I find this difficult to believe." Datahu said, fluttering down.
"You just saw my memories."
"Memories can be changed. Perhaps this Neame had a spell that causes hallucinations cast on him, and the trigger is memory magic. It would take an incredible amount of mana, but it is not… infeasible."
"One month…" Suma said again, her sparkle nearly gone, and her gaze fixed squarely at the roof.
"No, we would have detected such powerful magic on him. Maybe there is a rune on his body?" She looked at the corpse of the Neame I'd delved with, who'd died before I even woke up, then turned to me. "Pick him up and help me search his body."
"It wasn't a spell. It was real. I mean, not real, but true."
"Pick him up." She ordered.
Captain Gigoales spoke, finally looking back to the rest of us. "Enough Datahu. You know we would have sensed the rune activate. And we both looked through Sentinel's mind. All traces of the second soul are gone, and we both confirmed the validity of his memories. It's true."
"Captain, with all due respect. He is saying that the world is going to end in one month. It must be a trick." Datahu said, more uneasy than I'd ever heard her before. It was unnerving.
"We must inform Queen Ompera." Suma finally said.
"We will, once we have completed the mission."
"The mission? Captain, the world is–"
"Not going to end today. But our mission is on a time limit. And we have already wasted much just getting what little information we have. According to Sentinel's recount, and what Lauric was able to glean, we know where and who the person we are searching for is. Völundra is dead, but the ambassador is still alive, which means the mission has changed. We are going to evacuate the ambassador. Once we have returned to the capital, we will make our official report to Queen Ompera, and then we will make our unofficial report. Allow me to make this clear. Under no circumstances are any of you to mention Sentinel's dream to anyone other than the Queen herself. I will inform the others of this as well."
"Yes, Captain." I said. Datahu and Suma both agreed as well. With that, Captain Gigoales spread his wings, and went to inform the others of our new mission, and his orders.
"Von-Pac…" Suma said, "where do you think Vindicta is?"
"I don't know, but she wasn't in any of the Neame's memories. Maybe she is still back in Ambos?" I said, and felt a strange sensation. I knew what it was immediately, but tried to push it from my mind.
"Jake?" Suma asked, bringing me out of my thoughts, and back to the present.
"Hmm? Yes?" I asked, noticing that not only was Suma staring at me, but so was Lieutenant Datahu.
"Are you alright?"
"Your mana is different than normal." Datahu pointed out.
"I'm fine, just… I'll be fine." I caught Datahu glancing at me from time to time for a few minutes, before getting rid of the dead Neame's body outside. Suma and I spoke privately through our connection while she was gone.
"Jake, what is wrong?"
"I don't know how to explain it." I said.
"Your mana is more… turbulent than normal."
"Zachariah's and my memories… merged." I confessed.
"Merged how?"
"I can remember his whole life, everything he did, thought, said. All of it is mixed in with my own memories. From the night my móðir… no, from the night Zachariah's mum died, to first meeting the feyling… Neame, Ambos."
"What?" She asked, shocked.
"And Deyja's memories too, what little of them were left anyway. Apparently he took most of them out when he took his soul back in the void."
"Jake, why did you not mention this to the Captain and Lieutenant?" She asked. My mind went back to what Zachariah said, about Suma damaging my soul, changing my personality. "Please do not close yourself off again. I only just got you back."
Letting out a deep, drawn out sigh, I explained what I realized, just a few seconds after waking up. "It feels like I lived someone else's life, or two lives. This isn't anything like how it used to be with his memories. Before, I could just close my eyes, and start a search, like using the internet. But now? Now they're… real. They're mine. Part of me."
"How do you feel about that?" She asked. Her tone was uncertain. Like she was waiting for a breakdown, or something.
"It's weird. Having all this new knowledge just suddenly given to me. That's never happened before." I said with a shrug. Everything felt subdued right now. Even I knew my reaction should probably be bigger, more boisterous, or even more angry. But no, I was just too tired.
"What kind of knowledge?" She asked.
"I think I know everything he did, or at least most of it. There are huge gaps missing. Most of the memories are about his time in this world, but there are others too. Stuff from his childhood, and of his family." I held up my new hand, rubbing the fingers and knuckles again. Feeling the sensations on my new skin. "I think I know what happened to him, and Deyja, and… how he used his magic to fight." Just then, a flash of memories hit me. Zachariah training, him fighting at Dragon's Fall Bay, creating runes to kill Deyja with. And most prominently, how he used his Death-Magic.
Just then, Gigoales, Nine, Fourteen, Lauric, and Datahu all came back. "You two, get ready. Now that we know where to find the ambassador, we are moving out; now." Datahu said.
"He is being held in a prison, less than an hour's flight away. We are going to scout the area, then cause a distraction, and raid it if possible." The Captain said.
I pointed to the SU Sargent, who was still sedated nearby. "What about him?"
Captain Gigoales looked to Lauric, nodded, and said, "He's useless now."
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Suma's POV
"There it is." Jake said, bent down behind a boulder, which was the only thing big enough to hide him. The rest of us simply stayed low, and tried to blend in with the tall grass. We were all watching over a prison, the one holding Von-Pac. It was not one built by the SU, but by the natives of the island. However, it had been captured early in the invasion, according to the memories taken from the prisoners. Finding the prison was not difficult, since Lauric had been able to discern its location from the higher ranked slave's memories. Jake had been able to confirm Von-Pac was alive, but that was all he was able to glean before the delve was interrupted. Jake said he spoke to the remnant of Zechariah, but what few details he did share were… well, it was clear whatever they spoke about had disheartened Jake somehow. He had been acting strangely since he awoke. And his mana was uneven, going through periods of turbulence and eerie calm. It was clear, something was on his mind. One good thing had come out of the event though; Jake's limb regrew. The moment was shocking to say the least. Sudden, uproarious mana swelled like a hurricane, and transformed from a Death-Magic spell, into a Body-Magic spell, faster than any of us could react. I saw the color nearly drain from the feathers of every Neame in the room when it did.
"This should be far enough." Captain Gigoales said, and gave the order for us to summon our familiars. One by one, with myself and Nine as exceptions, everyone summoned their familiars.
"Captain, may Loyalty take point on this? It is the most suited for infiltration and investigation." Lauric Isbala suggested.
"Agreed. Have it go first down the center, and the others will approach from the sides." The Captain said. Off the familiars went, with orders to survey the area around the prison, and eliminate any threats between us and the prison. This mission may be starting quietly, but we all knew there was no scenario in which we could sneak in and out of this prison like we did in that village. Diving in and out with extreme aggression would be our only hope of success.
"Remember squad, the moment any of the enemy's familiars are killed, is the moment they will know something is wrong. We need to know how many to expect, and where Von-Pac is being held." Second Lieutenant Datahu reminded us. "Take a moment to center yourselves, and prepare."
The wait, realistically, was not long. But seconds turned into minutes, and minutes into hours, at least in the tension. My heart thumped in my chest so hard my wingtips vibrated. I distracted myself by focusing on keeping my besmears dim, so that we would not be spotted. When that proved to not be enough, I found myself studying the prison. It was mostly underground, with vents too small to fly through providing what was likely not nearly enough clean, fresh air. The outside was made of stone, wood, and vines. From our hiding spot, nearly a full minute of flying time away, I could make out three Neame and familiars patrolling the skies. They will see us soon enough, but not until they get closer. Patrolling from the air has many advantages, but one disadvantage is that while being higher up allows one to see more, it makes seeing small details harder. Focusing our vision fixes that issue, but then we lose sight of the area around us. Most teams make up for this by patrolling with several members, but no solution is perfect. And in the Drakes, we are taught from day one how to take advantage of those imperfections.
"I found him." Fourteen announced, breaking the silence. "He is underground, on the second level. To the North-East side. In a cage guarded by only one low ranking familiar." It was subtle, but I saw that Lauric was displeased. Maybe he wanted to be the one to find Von-Pac?
"Alright then, Sentinel–" Captain Gigoales said, turning to Jake, "-eliminate the guards on patrol above the facility with Death-Magic."
"Sir, is that–" I tried to protest, but was cut off.
"That's an order, Sentinel." He said. Jake looked like he wanted to say something. His mana fluctuated, but he stood up from the ground, and held out his newly reformed hand toward the Neame above.
I was the closest to him, and so, I was the only one who heard what he said next. Weakly, like the first sounds a hatchling makes, he whispered, "I'm sorry… Rot." From our hiding spot so far away, there was no sound. It simply appeared that the three Neame lost control of themselves, and fell from the sky; hitting the ground hard enough to make a small dust cloud on impact. Jake winced, and turned away. My heart ached for him, but now was not the time to say anything.
"Good work, soldier. Now, use your 'Railgun' spell and break open the walls for us to get into." Without a word, he pulled several of the metal balls from his bag, and I felt his mana extend all the way to the edge of the prison. One, two, three, four cracks of thunder and the entire West side of the prison caved into itself, leaving a large opening for us. "Move in!" The Captain ordered. All of us, except for Jake, took flight toward the prison. I looked over my shoulder just as we dived into the prison, and saw Jake kneeling on the grass.
Where we entered the prison, everything was destroyed. Several Neame, maybe guards, maybe other prisoners, had been crushed in the falling rubble. Wings stuck out from under rocks, loose beaks covered in blood were strewn about nearby; it was a bloodbath. I made the decision to never let Jake know about what I saw here, and to speak with the others about keeping it from him too.
Guided by Fourteen, our squadron flew quickly around corners, through corridors, and past several panicking Neame, too preoccupied with fighting the rampaging familiars of their dead comrades to even notice us. That was, until we came across a group of four Neame, flying up from a tunnel leading to a lower level. All four banked hard into the corridor, appearing to our right. The Captain and Lieutenant were the first to react, each respectively casting one fire spell and one spell to control the vines along the floors. The fire spell clipped the wing of one Neame, and sent him careening into a wall. I could not tell if he died, but he did not move again. The vines rose from the floor, and lashed out with enough speed to crack the air. The vines missed, but only barely, forcing the Neame to gain altitude and break off from the other two remaining members of her team. It was Lauric and Nine who launched the next attacks, just as the first two made contact. Or, more accurately, Nine attacked, and Lauric blocked a bolt of lightning from hitting Fourteen and myself by raising a stone column. Nine and one of the enemy Neame began to spiral around one another, trying to out turn the other for a clean attack. Nine flared his wings, cutting his speed and sharply banked behind the Neame. I expected him to cast a close-range spell, but instead, Nine closed the distance and plunged his right-back talon into the neck of the Neame. Blood gushed from her neck and back as Nine pulled out, letting the Neame fall, uncontrolled, beak-first into the stone below. A sickening wet crack echoed out.
During all of this, I knew my role. Heal… heal and do not become their next target. Attack only if needed. That was how I'd been trained. One of the remaining Neame fired off a fire spell, hitting Fourteen's wingtip, but not seriously injuring him. He'd managed to rotate, avoiding the worst of the spell. It was the Captain who counter-attacked this, by closing the distance, and casting Mind-Magic. He was nearly beak-to-beak with the remaining Neame before finally saying, "Fear." The Neame's eyes went wide, and he fell to the ground, landing flat on his back, breaking one wing on impact. There was only one Neame left, the one who'd gained altitude to avoid the Lieutenant's attack. Lauric took care of her by molding the stone ceiling above her, and grabbing her head with a slab of stone, then tightening until we heard a crunch. She hung there, limp, as we all flew away.
"Fourteen, how much further?" Datahu Asked.
"One more left." He said, flew another ten seconds straight, and banked left. We followed suit, and there he was, Von-Pac; retrained by anti-magic runes, and molded vines. Fourteen's familiar, who'd found Von-Pac, killed his guard, and had been watching over him all this time, reared back, tore the vines apart, and pulled Von-Pac away from the runes. I cast several healing spells on him, and noticed the serious extent of his injuries. He'd lost one leg to the first knee, and half a wing. His wounds were already healed over, scarred and hastily healed again, leaving massive lumps of misshapen and deformed flesh. Stopping myself from gagging, I summoned Jake.
"I summon you, Sentinel!"
"Suma?" Von-Pac said, starting to wake up. "Is that you? Is this another trick?"
"Von-Pac!" Jake said, upon appearing and looking around. He scooped Von-Pac up, and cradled him in his arms.
"Sentinel, you know your role?" Lieutenant Datahu asked.
"Tank." He said, cryptically. But he'd explained the term earlier, so we knew what he meant.
"Protect the ambassador until we summon you again. Good luck." Captain Gigoales said, and we left. Exiting the building was easier than entering it, mostly because everyone else was distracted with trying to also exit the building, trying to find what was attacking them from so far away. It made the perfect cover to disappear into the crowd.
We flew a safe distance away from the prison before summoning Jake again, but did not wait long. Once he and Von-Pac reappeared, Von-Pac had passed out again, and was laying in Jake's helmet being treated slowly by the healing runes, and Jake had splatters of blood on his armor, but no visible injuries.
"Are you okay, Sentinel?" Datahu asked. Jake nodded, and I began tending to Von-Pac's many injuries.
Night fell, and the cold dry air washed over all of us, not that we noticed, but Jake shook lightly, and hid himself behind a rock. He tried to start a fire, but was told it could give our position away. There would not be any underground shelter tonight, because any spell to dig out one could give us away. The SU soldiers were still patrolling the entire area, so much that we needed to relocate three times after healing Von-Pac's wounds. They were closed now, but until I could apply proper healing spells, not just emergency aid, they could reopen with even the slightest strain. Von-Pac was unconscious, being carried by Jake in the way an ape may cradle their young, held carefully in his arms, wings tucked in, and on his stomach.
While we waited for morning, no one really slept. We were all on watch tonight, and would fly straight for the rendezvous point once our mana and strength returned. Jake had several fruits in his bag, grown beforehand in preparation for hiding, and shared them with us. Von-Pac fell in and out of consciousness for several hours, only muttering random nonsense before falling asleep again.
I fluttered over to Jake, and landed on his shoulder. "Any changes?" I asked, looking Von-Pac over.
"He keeps mumbling about a child and Vindicta."
"Did they have an egg together?" I asked, pleased for them, but quite surprised.
"I don't know. He isn't making much sense. Just random words, mostly." He said, rather more curt than I was expecting.
"And you? Are you okay?" I asked, fluttering down beside him, as he sat with his legs in a frankly unnerving position, under him but also twisted sideways and crossed. Like they were broken. But Jake sat like this often, so I knew he was fine, even if I did feel the need to actively avoid looking directly at his legs.
"Fine." He said, clearly not fine.
"Then why did you answer sooo…" I looked down to make sure he was still unconscious, "Von-Pac-ish?"
"It's nothing."
"Is this about those guards? I know your feelings abo–"
"I said it's nothing!" He snapped, clearly upset. There was a moment of quiet, and I could feel several sets of eyes from nearby looking this way. In the quiet of the night, the rest of the squad had definitely heard that.
"Jake?"
"I'm sorry, but please… just not right now. I need some time to think." He said, still clearly frustrated, but also something else.
"Okay, I'll check up again on him later." I turned, and flew back to my post on a dead fallen tree, by Nine. We watched the land for familiars, the sky for Neame, and the dull pink glow of the moon out of boredom.
Eventually, he broke the silence. "So… what was that about with Jake?"
"I do not know. He did not wish to talk about it."
"He seemed mad."
"Indeed."
"Did you do something?"
"I do not know."
"Did he do something?"
"Again, I do not know."
"What do you know?"
"That he does not wish to talk about it."
"Okay…" He returned his eyes back to the horizon, but only for a moment. "So what do you think is wrong?"
"If I knew, it would likely be a matter between the two of us." I said, growing impatient.
"Right, of course. Yes." He became quiet… which lasted mere seconds. "Do you think it has something to do with the memory delve? He's been acting weird ever since then."
"Nine."
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Come on, I have been staring at the sky and dirt for hours, and finally something interesting happens. I am bored out of my feathers here; give me something."
"How about a good peck on the head?" I offered.
"Dragons… fine." He said, exasperated.
A moment later, Second-Lieutenant Datahu flew up, and landed between us. "Nine, go take position with Lauirc watching the West."
"Yes, Lieutenant." Nine said, and flew away.
(Thank the dragons,) I thought, (a moment of quiet.)
"What is wrong with Sentinel?"
"Ahshem's roost, you too?"
"What?" She asked, surprised by my reaction.
"Sorry, ma'am. Nine, he just kept asking me the same thing over and over again."
"Well… what was the answer."
I sighed, "I do not know."
"His mana feels different." She pointed out.
"I noticed that too."
"…. One month." She said quietly. "I still do not believe it."
"We need to get home as quickly as possible, but even then, each day it takes is one less day to prepare. One month is not even necessarily accurate."
"Can Sentinel beat a dragon?" Lieutenant Datahu asked, but it did not feel like she was speaking to me, but simply wondering aloud.
"A dragon? Can… can anyone?" I asked, dread washing over me.
"When I was young, just barely older than a hatchling, my mother told me the story of Ambos's final battle."
"It is a good story." I said, remembering how my own father had told it to me. Just once, under a fresh Mangoui plant, as we waited for the fruit to ripen. I still remember the way the moisture glistened on the new leaves, and the sounds of popping as the stem grew. Feeling the dirt get pushed aside underneath us nearly toppled me.
"I have always assumed there were embellishments to the story. Not even as a child could I imagine a Neame defeating a dragon, I still cannot."
"Many years have passed. Our magic must be better than it was then. Surely if we… I do not know, but there must be a way." I said.
"Ambos's familiar was a Viking, like Sentinel is." I thought about correcting her about Jake not being a Viking, but it did not seem the correct time to do so. "What if it was not Ambos that defeated the dragon, but his familiar?"
"Do not let the temple's priests and nuns hear you say that; you may curl their tailfeathers." I said, half joking, but what she was saying did go directly against what Ashimda teaches; that Ambos was granted power by Ashem, the Dragon King, to defeat the Chaos Dragon.
"Would that not put Vikings and dragons on the same level?" Now she was in an area of blatant blasphemy.
"Lieutenant, Zachariah did not escape that battle alive."
"But neither did the dragon." There was a long moment of silence. Her implications were clear. "Private Suma, I need you to figure out what is going on with Sentinel, and help him get over it. Because when we get back to the kingdom, he is likely going to go into full time training with her Majesty's private guard for the next month."