Page 33 of Veil of Vasara (Fate of the Five #1)

CHAPTER 33– SHADAE

T he food tasted like shit.

But still, it was far better than what I had eaten in the draining centres. I supposed anything would have tasted divine in comparison to that.

One of the other trackers, who’d been sent out on this expedition, sat down beside me. We were in Vasara’s outskirts, some trees the onlookers to our sorry meal.

“You’ll get used to it,” she spoke.

“Mmmmm,” I simply murmured in reply.

“This is the best it’s going to get food wise.” She chewed in-between speaking. “They give us these rations for the jobs. It’s always the same stuff though. You’d think they could add some variety.”

“You’re right, we should go and ask the King for a more enriching menu,” I replied.

“Are you being sarcastic?” She said, confused. She was young, probably around eighteen, and at that moment, she looked even younger.

“What do you think?” I huffed, placing another spoon of the vegetable slosh into my mouth.

“I think I’d like to know what real meat tastes like… and candies.”

“Yeah?” I looked at her. “Which flavour?”

“Fruit.”

“Good choice,” I spoke. I wish I knew what they tasted like myself.

“What about you? If you could eat one thing, what would it be?” she said.

I placed the small portion down. “Back where I'm from, there used to be this dish my mother would make. It was spicy, it had…some rice I think, some beans. I don’t know what it was, but that.”

I thought back on the taste, I couldn’t really recall it now. All I remembered was that it had been wonderful. She had been wonderful, beautiful.

And then she had died, and our father had left us alone.

I had always wondered whether or not he had evaded capture. Despite his negligence, I wouldn’t have wished being a Vessel upon anyone, not even him.

“Sounds good,” the girl said. “I’m Ava, by the way." She held out her hand.

“Shadae.” I shook hers.

“Zeima?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I took in her features, her bright blonde hair, blue eyes. “Jurasa?”

“That obvious?”

“It’s usually obvious for everyone isn’t it.” I pointed at some of the others. “He’s from Kalnasa, you can tell from his eyes, that dark blue. He’s from Vasara, the red hair. She’s from Audra, so is she.” My eyes landed on the Commander. “And he’s Jurasa as well.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Ava clasped her hands over her knees.

Her youth led me to ask the next question.

“How long have you been—" I started asking her.

“A year,” she answered.

“How did you become—"

She pointed at the Commander. “He got me out.”

I looked at him in surprise.

Him?

“How?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Don’t know. Never asked why.”

“Aren’t you curious?”

Ava laughed, it was light and quick. “Of course, but anytime I hinted at it, he’d look at me like.” She made a face to imitate his glare.

“Sounds about right.” I nodded and chuckled.

“What’s your class?”

“Oh, class four.” The lowest class of the Dareans. “I’m a Navigator.” Meaning that my sense of direction was almost impeccable. It was easy for me to scout terrain, follow trails, and find my way through difficult landscapes. There were quite a few Navigators on the team, I had heard, which made sense, it was an ideal ability for the task.

“You?”

“Class four Darean too, only I’m a Shielder.”

“Protective abilities. Must be useful.”

She shrugged again. “It’s alright.”

Footsteps approached us. The Commander’s.

“What are you both sitting here blathering on about? Can’t you see the rest of the group have gathered just two feet ahead of you?” He pointed at the gathering. “Did they take your sight as well as your energy during the drainings?”

Did they take your ability to speak normally?

I couldn’t help but tut.

Cheadd raised his brows. “Something wrong?”

Other than the fact that you permanently act like someone shoved a foot up your ass and never took it out, no.

I stood. Ava did the same. “No Sir, apologies,” she responded for us.

We followed him to the circle.

“Right,” Cheadd spoke up. “Our scouts have found a group of sorcerers West of here. It’s possible that they have their own scouts and are aware of our location too, so we need to move in now. We’ll split into two groups of ten. One group will approach from the North, the other group from the South. It’s likely that they’ll try and escape further West to avoid running into us.”

Cheadd then dictated who those two teams would consist of. He, I and Ava all belonging to the team that would attack from the South.

“Remember. These sorcerers are not your kin. They will kill you instantly without hesitation. Your life means nothing to them. To them you are the enemy. If you want to survive and they attempt to kill you, make sure you complete the kill first.”

Weapons were handed out and distributed between us. The large majority of them were bows and arrows capable of firing at both short and long distances. Some of the arrows were designed to kill, others were only designed to strike the target bluntly, coated with an elixir which acted as a sedative if it touched their skin. All the arrows were infused with curse marks that could nullify a sorcerer's abilities. After I had been initiated, I had received basic training in their use, as well as swords. I was hardly an expert, but I knew how to fire an arrow with relative accuracy.

“The aim is to take these sorcerers alive. Each one will be valuable to the King, but if they attack, and you have no other option, you are sanctioned to end their lives.”

I swallowed. It was one thing to convince myself that I could do this, for my brothers, but another to actually end the life of another person, another sorcerer.

Ava’s hand covered my own. “Don’t worry. I’ll use my shielding abilities on you, that way you won’t have to kill anyone.” She smiled softly.

That’s lovely, but it won’t last for long.

“You should focus on using them on yourself,” I told her.

“That would make me completely useless!” she protested.

“Move out,” Cheadd directed. Ava, I, and the other seven trackers followed him.

After a few minutes, one of them asked, “How many are there?”

“The scouts said around forty, perhaps fifty.”

Fifty? How are a group of twenty meant to take on fifty sorcerers?

“Not as many as the last time then,” another one said.

I looked at them in disbelief. The first man caught my glance.

“Most of them can’t fight anyway. Their abilities are usually on par with ours and we have more weapons.” He tapped the bow he was holding.

“And what happens if they are more powerful?” I spoke.

“I mean, usually we don’t have to worry about that,” the second man said. “They tend to scatter before we even arrive.”

“So, you’ve never fought someone, a sorcerer, more powerful than yourself?”

“We have,” Cheadd replied for them.

“And?” I asked.

“And stop asking questions. Do your job.”

Being a class four Darean meant it was almost guaranteed that the majority of sorcerers would be more powerful than I was. That didn’t place me in a good position. Not that I was in a good position to begin with, or that any of us were.

Around thirty minutes later, we reached the spot where a scout was still remaining.

“Down there.” She pointed.

We followed her down to the area in question.

It was utterly deserted.

“Shit,” Cheadd blurted out. “As I suspected, they caught wind of us.” He turned around to face the scout. “Didn’t I tell you to look out for any scouts of their own?”

“I didn’t see anyone,” she protested.

“They could have used concealing sorcery. Translucency for the whole group.” For some reason, I felt the need to defend this stranger.

The Commander turned to me sharply. “You’re a Navigator aren’t you? Search around for traces now. Of energy or anything else.”

I nodded and began traversing the area. Ava followed me without being instructed to.

The team who had approached from the North eventually met us in the centre of the space. We were spread out, although it was only I, and the two other Navigators who had been sent out on this patrol, that were actively doing anything.

I could hear the other two a short distance away from me. “There’ll be nothing here. There never is when the group is this large.”

“Yeah, this is pointless,” the second one agreed.

I turned away from them and sat on the ground. I closed my eyes and placed my fingers at my temples. Some Navigators found it easier to get their sense of direction through observation, touch. But for me, I always found it easier to sense direction from my surroundings, as if it were a call that I could only hear in my soul, through the air, and the earth.

I took some deep breaths, and reached out, I reached out to latch onto any sign of…

That.

I stood abruptly and looked around, I found Cheadd within an instant. Ava had been hovering behind me silently, not saying a word.

“What is it?” she asked.

I didn’t answer her and strode towards the Commander.

“There’s nothing—" one of the Navigators who had reached the Commander at the same time started.

“I found something,” I cut him off.

The Commander looked between us several times. The other Navigator glanced at me confused and let out a grunt. “That’s not possible.”

I suppose it wouldn’t be for someone who hadn’t even bothered to look.

The Commander looked at the man. “She seems to think that it is.”

“She must be mistaken.”

“I’m not mistaken,” I asserted.

“What did you find?” Cheadd asked.

“There are traces of energy, I can feel them…they’re leading East.”

“East?” the other Navigator laughed. “You think they’d walk right into the direction that we were heading from?”

You think I’d lie about this? Unlike you, I actually want to make sure I do this job properly to avoid being executed.

I stepped towards him. “It’s possible, isn’t it? If their scouts discovered us, they would know we would come to find them, and so, we wouldn’t be East anymore, would we?”

“They can’t have known that for sure,” he argued.

“We’re wasting time.” The Commander silenced us. “We’ll head East.”

“But—" the other Navigator protested.

“I’m not asking for your permission cadet.” The Commander looked at me. “Lead the way.”

The Commander called the others to our location. I turned, closed my eyes once more to make sure my bearings were correct, and moved. I was leading the group. Everyone was following me.

I hoped I was right about this. If I failed the first task assigned to me, then that might mean I would be removed from the squad, and that couldn’t happen. I had to do this for my brothers. Even if they couldn’t understand, couldn’t see that now.

I quickened my pace, the others behind me followed suit.

It was less than a half an hour later when we came across the sorcerers.

We halted. Cheadd placed a finger to his mouth, signalling for us all to be silent.

But it didn’t matter, one of the sorcerers had sensed us immediately.

“THEY’RE HERE!” he shouted.

“GO!” Cheadd shouted too.

All the trackers rushed forwards, and I was rushing with them. I wasn’t even sure how I would force someone into captivity. I would have to fire as many of these blunt arrows as possible, and hope they found their mark.

I could taste sick in my mouth.

Ava’s hands were illuminated with a warm blue glow. She was preparing to cast shields around us if necessary.

The other trackers began firing. The group of sorcerers, which had previously been tightly stacked together, scattered, as they ran to evade the shots, as they screamed in fright.

I aimed and struck the back of the neck of a sorcerer. They fell to the ground instantly. I reached for the next arrow behind me, and aimed for another, but he had seen me and evaded the shot by levitating quickly.

Behind me, one of the trackers fell to the ground, yelling. There was a hole in his side, and a sorcerer stood above him, a ball of flame having just left her palm.

We met each other’s eyes. She ran towards me, preparing to strike. I fumbled around for another arrow, one that would kill, but my hands were shaking. I couldn’t grip the wood. The sorcerer gritted her teeth and flung a swirl of fire directly at my chest.

The flame was deflected, scattering into sparks, careening to the side. Ava was standing beside me. She had shielded us both.

The sorcerer grunted in irritation and levitated. Within an instant she was behind us. Ava didn’t have time to form a new shield before she flung a series of fireballs our way.

I shot an arrow at her, but missed, miserably. I could barely see anything. The smoke from the fires she was casting was clouding my vision. In fact, all my senses were distorted, the shouting, the smell of fumes, the pounding of people running, was completely obscuring them all.

Ava and I lurched to the side, somehow managing to evade the strikes. The sorcerer landed between us smiling.

Then, an arrow landed between her eyes, which rolled to the back of her head. She fell to her knees, and then on top of Ava, who began screaming.

One of the trackers was standing in front of us. “Get up!” he screamed impatiently.

As fast as he had arrived, he was gone.

I made my way towards Ava and shoved the dead body off her. It was heavier than I had thought it would be. “Are you—"

“Look out!” she screamed. I turned around to face a sorcerer, who was standing in front of several pieces of scrap metal, floating behind him. Telekinetic. He smiled and closed his eyes, firing out several of the pieces in all directions, including towards us. Ava formed a shield just on time around us, but the fierce yells of several trackers hit by the shards exploded through the air. Behind the right shoulder of the sorcerer, the first Navigator who had argued with us was wailing, as a piece of glass lodged into his eye.

Within an instant, another sorcerer approached the Navigator as he was distracted and cut his head clean off with a blade.

Ava began screaming again. Her screaming was borderline a cry. It was like the shriek of a new-born child, terrified by the world. I was still shaking, shaking so hard and so much I couldn’t think, I couldn’t move.

The Telekinetic came towards us.

What good is navigating when metal is flying at your throat? What the fuck am I supposed to do?

I tried to steady myself and silence my thoughts. I grabbed an arrow, blunted, and aimed it at him. His eyes widened in recognition.

But my hands were still shaking. The arrow managed to strike him, but not his skin. He paused for a moment as the impact of the shot halted his path.

The sound of thunder appeared, to my left, the Commander was conjuring lightning to cut off the paths of sorcerers towards escape.

Someone grabbed the collar of the Telekinetic and dragged him away. It was a woman, she was tall, her long brown hair was matted with blood.

“We need to go!” she told him.

I could hear a baby crying. She was holding a baby in her arms. It didn’t look like her child.

I lifted an arrow. I raised it and aimed it at the Telekinetic. This time, my hands were steadier. The woman met my eyes. The baby was wailing, wailing so loudly.

Cheadd’s yell reached me from the left, “What are you waiting for?!”

I fired, but the arrow never met the man. Someone else, another sorcerer had intercepted it on time, appearing as if from nowhere, grabbing the arrow in his hand. His lilac tunic was torn, and he was already wounded, a deep gash at his upper arm.

Speed enhancement.

He turned around and looked at me. I raised another arrow again. I hardly had any of the blunt ones left. “Faina, leave now. You too Claus,” the man in lilac said.

Claus screamed. “You’re the one who got us into this mess. You think you can give us orders now, you flagrant fuck!”

Ava’s hands were on my shoulders, she was trembling behind me, examining the scene with confusion.

Should I fire this arrow? Who at? There are three of them in front of me now, I can’t fire three arrows at once.

But none of them were attacking.

That isn’t the point. It’s my job to catch them. It’s my job to sedate them.

But if I fired this arrow at one of them, the other two might strike back, and I didn’t even know what abilities they possessed.

A Telekinetic is bad enough, Gods know what the other two can do.

Before I could make up my mind, another arrow flew past us, and struck Faina bluntly in the throat. She fell unconscious and the baby that had been in her arms slowly dropped from her grip. The man in lilac swept the baby up in his arms and looked behind us in the direction of the arrow.

It was that archer again, the one who had struck the Elementalist between her eyes.

Claus yelled and, in an instant, shot a sharp object in the archer’s direction.

“Eiro!” Ava screamed what must have been his name. She lurched from behind me and thrust out her hand, trying to shield him.

But Claus, Claus had anticipated that.

She didn’t see, and I didn’t see the sharp object he had discharged, just a second later in her direction.

It went clean through her stomach.

“No!” I yelled and fell beside her. Ava’s eyes widened as she fell flat on the ground, blood was spilling from her core so fast, so fast, it was everywhere.

I tried to stop it with my hands, but it was like trying to stop the rain falling from the sky.

It’s so much warmer than I thought it would be. There’s so much. It…it won’t stop.

And it smells. Like metal burning. Like liquid gold.

The archer sank to the ground as well, with no shield, the sharp object had struck him straight in the chest.

He died instantly.

“Claus!” The man in lilac scolded him.

Ava was coughing up blood, looking at me with a plea in her eyes, begging for me to save her. “I…don’t...” She tried to get the words out, but she couldn’t, blood was coming out of her nose.

“What?” Claus said. “You think they’d just let us go, you fucking—"

Claus stopped speaking, his hand clutching at his chest.

Right where I had just sent a sharp arrow straight through it.

The man in lilac turned around to face me. I looked down at him, at the baby in his arms. The baby that was sobbing, shrieking. Ava’s blood was on my hands, it was on my clothes. My lips were quivering. I lifted an arrow and pointed it at his skull.

The man wasn’t doing anything.

Why? Why aren’t you moving? Why aren’t you using your ability on me? You’re just going to let me kill you? Like that? You aren’t even going to fight?

It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter.

He watched me with such exhaustion in eyes. He held up one hand, the hand he wasn’t cradling the baby with.

“Please,” he whispered softly. “You can take me…but let her go.” He pointed at the brown-haired woman on the ground.

“I can’t…I can’t do that.” I still had the arrow pointed at his head.

“Please,” he whispered again.

I should take him out, before he kills someone. I should do it.

Now. Now. Do it. Now.

But I couldn’t.

A searing pain shred my wrist, like a thousand needles of an icy flame, digging into my arm, clawing its way up and around.

I winced out loud and couldn’t help but drop the bow from my hands. The man was looking at me bewildered. I grabbed my wrist, it was glowing slightly, where I had been marked. Branded.

I was disobeying my purpose by hesitating, and the curse knew, it knew.

I looked up to find the man staring at me, at my arm.

Another sorcerer approached, lifting the woman off the floor. He peered at me suspiciously.

“She’s hurt, Fasal,” the man in lilac said.

“She should be dead,” Fasal replied, his golden skin turned red with blood.

“We don’t have the time.”

I stared at them, still grabbing my wrist. The pain was growing worse by the second. My vision started blurring.

Fasal grabbed the woman and hurried away. The man with the baby turned around before he left. His eyes fell on Ava’s body.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” he said, stumbling around his apology, looking at her.

He was blurry now. I couldn’t make out his facial expression. He began to walk away. His silhouette grew fainter by the second. In the distance, I could hear the Commander hounding orders, and wails tolling like bells. I could smell rain, electricity, fire, and smoke. I could see a large white glow. Someone must have been teleporting the sorcerers away. I could taste blood, and feel it stuck to my palms. I was swathed in that liquid gold, being swallowed by darkness.

And before my vision fully blackened, I could see Claus’ cold dead eyes, staring at my own.