| |
Occupied Territory: MoonSide
19th Day of Month 6, Year 1628 DG
Stop reaching for it, you’re drawing attention to us.
Naina growls her words into Salessa’s mind as they walk steadily with the crowd. The chaitender removes her hands from the sack strapped to her back and puts them in her pockets, resisting the agonizing urge to periodically check on the many pouches of stones stuffed into it.
Sorry. I’m just—she sighs—nervous.
Naina’s eyes soften. Change champions, Lessi.
Her sister’s words provide a modicum of ease. It was their father’s saying: Change champions when fists fail. Anytime the twins found themselves nervous or fearful, he would remind them that physical strength is not the root of success—the ability to change and adapt is. The quote never impacted Salessa the way it did Naina, who now lives by it.
The crowd walks slowly, but with certainty, toward their communal destination: the gates to PeakHaven Pass. Towering ahead of them, the vast mountain range rises into the clouds, creating a formidable natural barrier between SunSide and its occupied state. Somewhere atop the tallest mountain is the city of PeakHaven, home to the angi humans.
The Pass was built through the narrowest part of the mountain range. It connects Arlun and Larso, the respective capital cities of MoonSide and SunSide. The twins hadn’t returned to Arlun since the day they escaped the Facilitator.
Bravers in white uniforms, glittering from tiny pieces of ore embedded in the fabric, hover around the gates to PeakHaven Pass. The design creates a tight-fitting armor, with white hoods and a strip of colorful cloth wrapped around the mouth and nose. The color of the cloth denotes the Bravers’ rank and leaves only gray, pupil-less eyes visible.
Crowds funnel into lines that lead to the Pass’s many gates. There’s a blatant correlation between the length of each line and the species of those standing in it. Bravers herd the Doruh into long, slow-moving rows to be interrogated and, often, rejected from migration. The Mega and the humans, however, wait in shorter lines, waved through the gates with far less inspection.
Salessa’s eyes dart from one Mega line to the next, searching for Symin.
“He’s not here,” Naina says. “I told you we can’t trust—”
“Me?” Symin appears from behind. Salessa turns and smiles, while Naina, startled, growls at him and bares her elongated canines.
“Don’t sneak up on me unless you’re willing to lose your pointy ears,” she barks at him.
Symin smiles. “You truly are the nastiest and most voracious wolf I’ve ever met.”
She rolls her eyes. “Flattery does nothing for me.”
The line whittles down considerably over the next few hours. Salessa listens as the Doruh man at the front begs the Bravers to allow him and his three small children entry. His pleas continue, even as they refuse and thrash him, until he agrees to leave and return to a world where his sobbing children’s safety and security is not assured.
Salessa turns away from the scene helplessly. Behind her, Naina and Symin exchange tales of how they received their various scars.
“I’m not calling you a liar,” Symin says, looking down at jagged lines adorning Naina’s calf, “but it’s hard to believe there are sharks in the Pit.”
Naina releases the pant leg, and it falls back down to her ankle. “Not in the Pit. It was in a tank.”
Symin raises an eyebrow. “You fought a shark in water? That I definitely don’t believe.”
Naina nods. “I understand. His widow didn’t either, until I brought her the bones.” Symin takes an involuntary step backward, and Naina’s smile widens. “Your turn.”
Symin examines his body. “I think I’ve told you about all of them.”
“Not this one.” Naina points to a scar that begins on Symin’s wrist and travels up his forearm to his elbow.
Symin looks around nervously. “Another time.” He tilts his head toward the Bravers and Naina nods.
They continue to converse as Salessa watches the line diminish ahead of them. Her heart thrums against her chest. With every step forward, they move further from the familiar life they’ve known for twelve years.
The soft sniffles of a crying child tear her from her thoughts. A young girl, perhaps eleven or twelve years old, stands behind Naina and Symin. Her clothes are covered in grimy patches, as is the sack she clutches to her chest.
Salessa walks around her companions and kneels in front of the child.
“Where are your parents?” She speaks softly, hoping not to draw any undue attention.
The girl clutches her belongings tighter and nervously eyes the swarms of uniformed warriors. “They’re dead.”
Salessa’s heart shatters and memories of her own childhood come alive. She, at least, had Naina. This child has no one.
“You’re going to SunSide alone?”
The girl nods. “My aunt lives there. I sent her a letter asking her to wait at the other side of the Pass for me today, but I don’t know if she got it.”
Salessa smiles gently, hoping to soothe the girl. “You can come through the Pass with us. We’ll make sure you find your aunt.”
“What if she’s not there?” the girl asks.
“We’ll find someone to look after you. My sister and I will protect you.” She points to Naina. “My twin sister.”
Lessi, wait, Naina’s voice springs into Salessa’s mind until the chaitender glares at her.
The girl smiles and exhales with relief. She joins Salessa ahead of Naina and Symin.
Symin leans over and whispers to Naina, “Why did mentioning that you’re twins put this child at ease?”
“How much do you know about Doruh mythology?” Naina whispers back to him.
“Not a thing,” Symin admits, pink cheeks glowing hotter.
Naina explains. “The Doruh deities are two siblings: a brother and a sister called ‘The Twins.’ They’re prophesied to be resurrected one day, so all twins are revered.”
“Is that why you’ve been getting stares all day from the Doruh passing by?”
“That’s not why I get stares,” she says with a wink.
“It’s our turn,” Salessa alerts them. She moves forward, holding the young girl’s hand tightly. Naina and Symin follow her.
“Fare,” the Braver at the gate says listlessly, holding out his hand for the funds to pass through the gate. Naina and Salessa produce the stones, emptying three of the pouches they have with them. It’s a significant portion of what they’ve saved.
The Braver questions the girl next and she places her own pouch in his hands. He tosses it loosely in his palm.
“This isn’t enough.” He attempts to hand it back to her.
“But I-I...” Her voice cracks as her eyes swell and her fingers shake.
The Braver sighs and his eyes move to an officer of a higher rank standing nearby, who’s watching the scene. “There’s nothing I can do.” He shoves the pouch more forcefully toward her, but she doesn’t take it, frozen in panic.
Salessa steps forward and places her arm gently around the girl’s shoulders. With her other hand, she reaches into her sack and empties another pouch of stones into the Braver’s palms. “This should cover her.”
The Braver turns to the higher-ranked officer, who nods, then waves the girl through with Naina and Salessa. The child wraps her arms around Salessa’s waist and thanks her through tears. Salessa avoids meeting Naina’s eyes; the wolf’s mind overflows with fury.
Finally, the Braver turns to Symin.
“Were you waiting in this line?” he asks, an inflection of surprise in his voice.
“I was,” Symin responds.
The Braver points to the nearest line of Mega at another gate. “We have lines for us over there.” He leans closer to Symin and lowers his voice. “You don’t have to wait with the animals.”
Salessa hears the slur, but the child doesn’t. She turns her face to hide her humiliation.
“Do not call them that,” Symin responds loudly and forcefully.
Salessa and Naina exchange surprised glances. Never has a Mega defended them.
The Braver places a hand on the hilt of his blade. “Relax.”
The twins are grateful, but they shake their heads to instruct Symin to remain calm.
He breathes deeply. “I’m relaxed.”
The Braver eases his hand, brow still scrunched. Regardless, he waves the pink Mega through without payment.
As they walk through PeakHaven Pass, the twins hold hands. Fog settles between the two mountains that stand tall on either side of them, but they can see clearly enough to recognize the path ahead.
Change champions, Naina repeats in Salessa’s mind.
With Symin at their back and the child by their side, they march on and leave MoonSide for the first time, into an uncertain future.