The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide

I watched Sabin carefully as I gave him a few seconds to let my words sink in. Honestly, I was giving myself as much time to get composed as I was giving him. I’d only told a few people the secret of who I was, and only one of them had not already guessed it because of their powers. But none of those people had known me when I was younger, or had known my whole family.

I should’ve realized that I was going to have to tell Sabin, Alia, and Alec eventually, but I didn’t expect having to reveal the truth to Sabin in the middle a rescue mission to save the twins. Honestly, the situation was less than ideal, but now that I’d finally told Sabin, I couldn’t help but feel a huge pressure being lifted off of my chest. It was as if the secret had been smothering me, but now that it was out I could breath a whole lot easier.

Sabin, however, seemed to be currently struggling on the whole “breathing” concept. He was staring at me with a shocked and confused expression. Even after standing in silence for what felt like hours— but really was only a couple of minutes at most— he still hadn’t said anything.

You could’ve given him the news a little more gently, Tyler said in my head.

That reminded me that Tyler and Emmalie were still there. I glanced between them, then sent them a thought:

Hey guys, uh, would you mind giving us some space? I feel like I need to explain this to Sabin one-on-one.

Sure thing, Meg, Tyler answered.

You need help, just shout, Emmalie added with a smirk. We’ll be right over here.

I watched them walk off before I turned back to Sabin. He’d watched them walk away too, but now was looking back at me.

I took a breath.

“Look, Sabin, I know that isn’t something you hear everyday…”

He held his hand up.

“Honestly Megan, while I never expected anything like that, it’s okay.”

I frowned. “Really?”

“Well, yeah,” Sabin said, nodding. “You can’t help your parentage, and I know you. You always try to do the right thing. So just because you come from bad blood, doesn’t mean you have it yourself.”

“Huh, well thanks, Sabin.” I paused before adding. “You know, my dad wasn’t a bad guy. Sure, he was a konna, but he never acted like one.”

“Yeah, I was kind of confused by that,” Sabin agreed. “I mean, from what I remember of your dad, he was always pretty nice. Not at all like a konna normally would be.”

I nodded slowly. It was true that my dad never acted like a konna. I remembered most of my childhood pretty clearly, and there was not one single time I can remember him ever giving any kind of sign he wasn’t sankrin. If anything, he was the nicer of my two parents.

“So, uh, have you always known about this?” Sabin asked, bringing my thoughts back to the present.

I shook my head. “No, honestly I didn’t find out until I was twelve, about to turn thirteen. Zig had just turned fifteen and he was leaving for the academy in a few weeks and I didn’t want him to go. So he and I were camping down by the river, which wasn’t too far away from our house, but far enough away from Mom’s ever-watchful eyes and sombulate powers. I was just starting to figure out what my powers were, and we were sure that we didn’t want Mom to know just yet.”

“Anyway, while we were down by the river, Brittany visited. We hadn’t seen her since the night Satama was attacked, so it surprised us both.” I sighed before continuing. “She told us the truth about Dad and about ourselves. Tried to get us to join her and the other konna, but Zig wouldn’t have any of that. Brittany left without much of a fight, but she kept coming back to tried and convince me to join her up until the point I left for the academy.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes. Sabin looked like he was struggling to form a question. I stood and waited patiently, though I could feel our timeframe for saving Alia and Alec looming over me like a giant clock. Each second that ticked by seemed to vibrate through my core.

“So what’s it like?” Sabin asked. “Being… uh.”

“Being a kalahati?” I supplied. “That’s the official term for being half-sankrin, half-konna.”

“Yeah, that,” he said. “What is it like?”

I couldn’t help but allow a small snicker to escape from my lips at his question. It was just the fact that he was so awkward about it.

“It’s really not that different,” I answered. “I mean… it wasn’t until I actually found out the truth. As I’ve gotten older since then…” I took a breath as I tried to decide if I really wanted to tell Sabin this. Then again, it was too late now. “Since I figured out who I was, I’ve had to be careful. One wrong move and…”

“And you could turn,” Sabin finished. He looked at me with a solemn sort of expression that I couldn’t quite read, but I could easily see the pity for me that was placed in his eyes. “Megan I… I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “It’s not your fault Sabin, and honestly I’m fine. I’ve learned to control it. As long as I keep my focus and my heart on the ways of the sankrin, I’ll be okay.”

“I guess you didn’t put this little detail on your application for the academy, huh?” Sabin asked with a slight smile.

I snorted. “Yeah, like that would’ve gotten me in. Most wanted applicant right there.” I sighed, letting my shoulders slump. “No, neither me or Zig said anything about that on our applications. Of course, Zig had already been accepted by the time we found out, but still… it wasn’t something we could exactly broadcast openly. We didn’t even tell Mom that we knew.”

“Why not?”

“We didn’t want to hurt her any more than she already was,” I said. “When Dad left, it hurt Mom pretty bad. Zig and I didn’t want to remind her about him any more that we had to.”

“But your mom knew that your dad was a konna?” Sabin asked.

I nodded. “She wrote a letter to Zig explaining everything. I found it while we were at his house. He doesn’t know I found it though, and we left before I could talk to him about it.”

Sabin winced slightly. He knew I had requested to stay longer, but he’d voted against doing that. Well, him and Alia. Of course, I’d never told them that I still had stuff to talk about with Zig. I sighed and shook my head.

“But that doesn’t matter,” I said. The thought of Alia reminded me that we were on a short time frame to rescue her and her brother. I knew Sabin still had questions—I could see them brewing on his face—but the giant clock looming over my head was suffocating. We needed to get moving, before it was too late. “Look, Sabin, I’ll answer any other questions you have later, but we really need to get going. Or else it’ll be too late for Alia and Alec.”

“Right, right!” he exclaimed and shook his head to clear it. “We’ve wasted enough time. Come on.”

“About time!” Tyler called from where he and Emmalie were walking towards us.

“While you two were chatting about unfortunate family ties, I managed to find where to teleport us in,” Emmalie said with a smirk. She gave me a look when she mentioned the unfortunate family ties. She knew I had my suspicions about her—which was something not even Tyler could claim. If my suspicions were right, then Emmalie could potentially end up being even more of a threat to this mission than I was. But I couldn’t say anything yet, because as much as I didn’t want to, I had to trust her right now. We wouldn’t be able to help Alia and Alec without her on our side. I just hoped I was making the right decision.

“Great,” Sabin said. “Get ready to go then. Once we get in, we need to be ready for anything, so Tyler and Megan, any weapons you plan on using get them ready.”

Tyler set to checking his guns. Unlike me, he only carried one handgun, while I preferred two. Tyler instead used a semi-automatic rifle that he currently had slung over his shoulder. He also had a belt full of things like flash and smoke bombs. I offhandedly wondered how he’d gotten those, considering those were almost always reserved for Weapons Combat Specialists.

I checked to make sure both of my handguns were fully loaded and holstered securely on my hips, along with the extra clips I had stashed on my belt. I adjusted the knives strapped to my forearms so that my sleeves better hid them. If needed, I could easily slip them out into my hand. While guns were definitely the most effective things to fight with, I’d learned that there were times where you couldn’t rely on guns.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced up to see Sabin. He had a serious expression on his face.

“Megan, I have to know… are you going be able to do this?” he asked quietly.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We’re going up against your sister,” Sabin answered. “I saw what happened to you when she showed herself to us. I just need to make sure you aren’t going to freeze up on us when we need you.”

I slammed a new bullet clip into one of my guns and gave him a look.

“Don’t worry about me,” I said confidently, even though I had to admit I’d been thinking the same thing. After seeing my worst fears up close and personal thanks to Brittany’s takot attack had just reinstated the risk I was putting upon myself and more importantly, everyone else that was on my team. But I couldn’t let my fears stop me from helping Alia and Alec. Especially not when they were at the mercy of my sister.

I holstered the gun I was holding and looked around at the other three, meeting Sabin’s eyes last.

“Let’s go,” I said.