The Power of The Merge (Book 1 of the Daearies series)

(Chapter 1) KIT

I've loved her since the day our souls were merged. Of course, every second soldier who experienced the merge as a child would say the same thing about their daearies. The bond between a second soldier and their daearies is stronger than any other bond on earth, stronger than the bond between a mother and child. We can feel each other's emotions and share each other's pain, sense each other's thoughts and predict each other's actions enabling us to work together as one. A deadly combination proved useful on any battlefield.

I still don't remember much of the day my soul was merged with Emmie's. I can only recall being led into an empty square room with pristine white walls and bright lights and then waking up in the infirmary with Emmie in the bed next to me. From the moment I first saw her I thought she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, with her almost white waist-length hair, her sapphire blue eyes, and her radiant fair complexion. I had an overwhelming feeling of needing to keep her safe as if her very existence was keeping me alive and from that day on I made a vow to do whatever it takes to keep her safe.

Emmie doesn't remember much either. In fact, Emmie couldn't remember who she was or what her name was. None of the daearies could. They were told the same as us, that they are orphans and were to be soldiers of the golden army, that the merge would either make them a second soldier or a daearies. A weapon.

The soldiers were given the responsibility of naming their daearies although I found that a difficult task and Emmie went almost two weeks without a name. She would introduce herself as miss no name and joke that I was a useless soldier incapable of the simplest of tasks. She was the only one who was allowed to tease me of course, if any of the other kids so much as looked at me the wrong way she would start fighting with their daearies which got the both of us in trouble and we were often thrown in the pit or separated for hours as punishment. Being separated from her is more painful than any physical punishment; it's like a dull ache in my chest that worsens the longer we are apart. When we were reunited she would hold onto me tightly with tears streaming down her pink cheeks and swear she'd never fight again. That was until the next kid purposely tripped me up or called me names and she'd use her abilities to fling him across the room and then start fighting with their daearies. Even at age ten, she was a force to be reckoned with. When I finally settled on the name Jane she crossed her arms and frowned at me and told me that her name was going to be Emmie.

I spent the next seven years determined to become one of the best soldiers in the golden army. I trained most days from early morning until late at night and eventually, I was promoted to leader of unit four and trainer for the second soldiers. There are ten units in our sector with around ten to fifteen pairs of soldiers and their daearies. The soldiers in each unit are all of the same age and grew up training together. Once the soldiers and their daearies turn eighteen they are assessed and those who are deemed strong enough are deployed into the field to join the fight against the rebellion. Those who are not considered strong enough stay behind to help train the young or new recruits and are reassessed each year. Although, it's been almost two years and there have been no new recruits, no soul merging, and with the ongoing war between the golden army and the rebellion I doubt there is a lack of orphans to use for the merge. There have only been new first soldier recruits who are soldiers without a daearies. First soldiers often train with the second soldiers but it is clear the merge somehow made the second soldiers stronger, faster and with a daearies by our sides more....lethal.

Our job as soldiers is to train our daearies as our weapons. We train them to be fearless, to fight by our side, and use their power to protect us. Not that they needed much training, every daearies would lay down their life for their soldier in a heartbeat but daearies tend to be irrational so their power must be controlled. Most daearies obey orders from their soldiers without hesitation but not Emmie. There have been many occasions where I reluctantly used our bond to control her, to stop her from using her power and lashing out at those who probably deserved it. I knew she hated that I had that power over her. I hated it too but I had to be tough on her, she's different, and drawing too much attention will only put her in danger. Every daearies here is different, some are more powerful than others but none of them are more powerful than mine.