A LEGACY OF LIGHT

TILLA

TILLA

Six soldiers surrounded the square, standing on pedestals and shouting names from scrolls.

"Yar Potter!" one soldier shouted, a portly man with a dark beard.

"Sana Tanner!" shouted another soldier, a muscular woman with a thin nose and cold, black eyes. "Sana Tanner!"

Tilla stood in the square with the other youths of Cadport. As every name was called, that recruit moved to join the summoning soldier. As Tilla stood, waiting to be summoned, she squinted at the six soldiers crying out the names. Each wore a black breastplate and pauldrons. Upon each shoulder, they sported a red spiral.

"Lanses," Tilla whispered. "That is their rank."

When speaking from the walls, Nairi--the soldier with the short yellow hair--had called herself a lanse. The young woman now stood upon one of the pedestals, also shouting names from a scroll.

The lanses seemed young--Tilla guessed them little older than herself--but lofty and well groomed. Each displayed a different sigil upon his or her breastplate. Nairi sported a black rose; other lanses displayed red skulls, dragon heads, towers rising from thorns, and other emblems. These were no brutes like Beras; Tilla guessed them the sons and daughters of noble houses, their blood too pure to serve among the unwashed commoners.

She thought back to Cadport. Soldiers there displayed their rank--one or more red stars--upon black armbands; their shoulders bore no red spirals, and their breastplates sported no emblems. Only the lord of Cadport, a gaunt and dower man, wore red spiral insignia and displayed a sigil--his was a boar--upon his armor.

The lanses are young officers, Tilla understood. Noble born. They wear their house's sigils upon their breasts. The others are the common soldiers, like I will become once I'm sorted.

Standing on a pedestal, scroll in hand, Nairi shouted. "Mae Baker!" The young lanse looked over the crowd with narrowed eyes. "Mae Baker!"

Tilla looked to her left. Mae stood there, eyes wide and damp, face chalk-white.

"I..." Mae's lips trembled. "I... I don't..."

Nairi shouted louder and reached for her punisher. "Mae Baker, damn it, report to me!"

Mae sniffed, feet frozen on the ground. Her body shook.

"Go to her, Mae," Tilla said. She gave the girl a gentle push. "Go to Lanse Nairi and stand before her. It's okay."

Sniffing and looking around, Mae took hesitant steps forward. She looked over her shoulder at Tilla, as if unsure whether to proceed. Tilla gestured her on.

But Nairi was less patient. The officer snarled and leaped off her pedestal. As she marched forward, she drew her punisher from her belt. The tip crackled with red lightning.

"Are you Mae Baker?" the lanse demanded, marching toward Mae. Her every footstep clanked across the square.

Mae stood frozen and nodded, tears in her eyes.

With a snarl, Nairi drove her punisher forward, bringing its tip hard into Mae's stomach.

Smoke rose.

Lightning crackled across Mae.

The girl screamed, doubled over, and begged. Nairi stood above her, growling and shoving her punisher against Mae's flesh.

No! Tilla wanted to shout. She took two steps forward. She froze. She winced. Please stop! She wanted to rush forward, to shove Nairi back, to save her friend... yet she only stood staring, eyes stinging and feet frozen.