The Relistar: Rejoining Vol. 2

Rejoining | Ch. 24

XXV.

Brothers

Faunia stood in line with twenty others. She stood with her arms firmly by her sides. Her silver armor shone in the cold light of the sun.

All beyond them was frozen waste. There were villages to the near south, but out this way there was nothing but icy death and frozen burns. And dragons – the dragons that had scared the Freiyans south, down to Dreslon and Siln and Vehk.

To places they will surely die.

"Hark!" shouted the commanding officer. She flinched back into her firm stance. He walked the line with a baton in hand. His thick white mustaches bounced with every step of his. Snow crunched beneath his silver boots...

"Some of us think we're special, roused by the tales of our homeland, roused by our rich families and storied lineages..."

Silver Sword. Faunia Vleren.

"You're all shit in a bucket to me. Shit in a bucket, and no matter how much I've dumped this bucket..." he spun and swatted someone across the jaw with his baton. They fell into the snow with a thud and a meek groan. "You're still shit! Highest ranks in all of Freiya. Highest in all of Kylinstrom! We sit inches from the seats of Akvum and Ivalié and still we can nigh manage to win a Grand Duel. Pity, then, that the highest rank of us all will sit upon the Cromerian Contest – you'd best fight your damn asses off, because the punishment if we share the same embarrassment as we did last Contest will be most severe." He punctuated the last two words. A couple of members in line stirred.

"Grand Marshal Lezat–" A man stepped forward with his hand raised.

Faunia flinched before he even swung.

Thwap!

Down went another.

"Fucking piss." He snorted, then spat upon his body.

Grand Marshal Lezat was not someone to be pestered lightly. She knew. They all should have known – but she'd known him since she was a girl. A relative of her father's – or, a business partner?

"None of you will have special treatment, here. I'll train you until your bones are broken and your skin is flayed and your jaws are crackling with every movement. I'll train you until your bodies break beneath you, just to raise you back up to break you again."

Faunia looked to the churning glass pyramids of the frozen waste beyond. The pyramids that reflected the sun in brilliant prisms of light to make incandescent art in their glossy surfaces.

"Dozing off, Vleren?" asked the black-haired man beside her. He leaned over to look at her face with a grim smile.

Grand Marshal Lezat was already marching over.

"No, I–" she protested. But his baton was swung...

- Riviji -

Seventh of Savus [6] 207CA

She shot out of bed. Or rather, shot away from the leafy mat that had become her bed. The smell of hearty wood already filled her nose before she even remembered where she was, but the straw walls around filled in those gaps.