The Academy - Book One (Published)

Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter Twenty Six

The old man gazed at Kaelen with sympathetic eyes but didn't comment as he waved his hand toward the screen again.

Kaelen watched in muted disdain as his mother big with child talked  to him. If he had to guess he'd say he was around two.

"Come here Kaelen!  The baby is kicking!"  She smiled as he stared wide-eyed feeling her stomach jerk and tense under his small fingers.  She nodded to a lady in green, "He's not old enough to understand so just say what you need to say."

The lady nodded, "You are carrying a girl.  As you wished I ran a full panel and she has the same markers as your son."  The woman stared down at her device she shook her head in wonder, "I've never seen anything like this before."

Gasping as Kaelen pushed into her stomach she removed his hand saying, "No Kae.  Don't push the baby it hurts umma."

Kaelen pouted, "Umma!  Am I not your baby anymore?"

Laughing she hugged him tight, "You will always be my baby boy.  I will love you and your sister the same."  She kissed him on the forehead and looked back to the medic, "Do I need to worry about them?"

Shaking her head she smiled crookedly, "I'm not sure if you should worry about either of them.  Unlike Kaelen this child's markers are dormant." When Laurel looked like she'd ask more questions about the markers the medic shook her reddish brown head, "As I said I've never seen anything like them before.  I will have the archives searched to see if anything can be found out."

Laurel smiled and sighed in relief, "I understand the records of the Nah'Bye date back very far."

The woman put equipment back into a small satchel then nodded, "Yes. Some of our writings go back to the ancients before they lost themselves to technology."  Confidently she added, "If an answer is to be found we will definitely find it."

Staring down at Kaelen she saw him frowning at her stomach, “Kae.  What are you thinking about?”

He looked at his mom seriously and asked, “Umma, what’s love?”

In his seat Kaelen grimaced at the look of fear flashed through his mother's eyes. She quickly squashed it beforeshe gave him an overly bright smile and placed his palm on her stomach, “She is love and you will love her.”

Kaelen watched misty eyed as the screen fast forwarded.  He saw his mom giving birth to Mia and his parents were overjoyed.  He watched as she had him brought over and told him that this was his sister and that he had to love her.  To reinforce this she even named her Makayla.  The screen slowed down again and he rolled his eyes as he reached for another brown roll.

Of course I love my sister, thought Kaelen.

The screen cut back to him. He appeared older, possibly about 7 or 8 years old.

"Kaelen, you have to remember mercy and fear is a sign of weakness.  If you show you are weak, you will die” She handed him a bamboo shinai sword and stepped back. "Will you remember that, Kae?"

A young Kaelen nodded enthusiastically as he began swinging his shinai in a swift upward and downward movement.  After 15 minutes of this he moved on to the next part of his daily training. While his father supervised and worked the field he, with his mother, spent the better part of 2 hours practicing in a silence only broken by his breathing.

"You’re a fast learner, Kae." His mother said full of pride as she looked out the window.  "We'll skip hand to hand training today.  Mia should be back soon and your Daddy will definitely want to be here when she gets back. Ok?"