The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide

“No!” I shouted as I bolted upright.

I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves before looking around to take inventory of where I was. I relaxed a little when I remembered I was on the couch in Zig’s living room. We were in Inon on a mission, taking a short rest stop before going out to find the konna encampment. We’d been attacked on our way here. Alia had been cut in the arm with a knife, and Alec had been knocked unconscious by… we didn’t know yet what—or who—had knocked him out.

“Megan?” I looked up to see Sabin standing in the doorway. His usually calm and collected expression had fallen just the slightest amount, showing his exhaustion and also worry… worry for me, I guessed.

“What is it?” he asked. “Is something wrong?”

“N-nothing,” I stuttered. “Just a bad dream.”

His jaw tightened. I could tell that the excuse “just a bad dream” was one he was familiar with, and was also one he wasn’t going to accept for an answer.

“What about?” Sabin asked. His tone was cool and serious, leaving no openings for jokes or other half-hearted excuses.

“It’s nothing,” I said, even though I knew he wouldn’t accept that as an answer. “Please don’t worry about me. Besides, you should probably get some rest. You look exhausted.”

Sabin sighed deeply before sinking down into the armchair closest to him.

“You’re right about that,” he muttered. “I am exhausted. I’ve been up since the crack of dawn… what time is it anyway?”

I looked down at my watch. “About two in the morning. Oh-two hundred hours.”

Sabin groaned and leaned his head back with his eyes closed. “I’ve been awake sixteen hours then. Great.”

“And it hasn’t exactly been an easy sixteen hours either, has it?”

He shook his head faintly. “Not in the least bit. The boat ride, then the konna attack. Plus the report I had to give to the senior officers here.”

“How did that go?” I asked.

“I could’ve used some back up,” Sabin answered, opening one eye to give me a pointed look. “Those superiors were brutal. Didn’t seem to believe anything about a konna attack. And since I didn’t really have any physical proof…”

“I would’ve loved to have helped,” I said. “But you know, only a Zeta, so I couldn’t go in front of the superiors. Besides, I had to get the information for our mission.”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “What did you find out?”

I waved my hand dismissively. “I’ll tell you later, when Alia and Alec are here to hear it as well.”

“Are they still downstairs?”

I nodded. “Alec woke up a while ago. Zig and I have been letting those two talk in private. They haven’t seen each other in seven years, you know.”

“None of us have,” Sabin muttered quietly. He frowned and looked at me quizzically. “Don’t you think it’s a little weird that after being apart for so long we’ve all been put on this mission together?”

“I think it’s more than a little weird,” I said.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“I mean…” I took a deep breath. “I mean… Okay, look. If we’re going to do this mission together, you need to know there are no such things a coincidences in my life.”

Sabin raised an eyebrow. “Okay…”

“My point is, I don’t think it was by accident or sheer luck that the four of us were given this mission.”

He seemed to consider this for a few seconds before nodding.

“That’s what I was thinking too,” he said. “I just… didn’t want to jump to conclusions. But if you feel the same way, then…”

“Then for some reason I can’t fathom, someone wants the four of us working together again. If you count being childhood friends as ‘working together’,” I said. “Besides, look at the roles we’ve been given with this mission: you as the leader, myself as the… brains, I guess. Alia and Alec as the fighters—the people who are going to get stuff done.”

I inwardly winced at my last sentence. I was quoting her, but I couldn’t help it. The way she had described everything… it was all too simple.

Sabin started to say something, but just then Alia appeared in the doorway. She nodded stiffly at Sabin—only to acknowledge the fact that he was a ranking officer— before turning to me with her arms crossed. “Megan, Zig sent me here to ask you if you could bring down some food for Alec.”

I nodded and stood up. Alia and Sabin both followed me to the kitchen and stood in complete silence as I heated some soup for Alec.

“Do either of you want anything?” I asked without looking at them. When neither responded, I forced back my irritation.

This wasn’t the first time I had worked with either of them since being at the academy, but it had always been in very short drills. Sabin had been a power-combat specialist like Alia before he had graduated, and every month or so, the PCS’s and my specialization, the intelligence gathers, would run drills together. Why, I don’t know. IGSs were one of the few specializations to have contact with other specializations during training, which is how I had already known Sabin and Alia were at the academy. Alec had come as a bit of a surprise though, since I had never worked with the situational specialists before and therefore had never seen him. He’d also grown up in Einoth, a realm outside of our own Sankruus. Rarely did people from Einoth come to join Sankruus’ army, seeing as Einoth was a primarily peaceful realm and really didn’t like the people of Sankruus to begin with.

But I was familiar with Alia’s attitude and Sabin’s independent mindset. It was actually surprising how similar they were: both were extremely stubborn with doing things the way they thought was best. The only difference was that Sabin knew where to draw the line with his stubbornness, where Alia was severely wanting in that area.

I also knew that the two of them were not on the best of terms. I hadn’t seen them interact much at the academy, but even when they were kids they had clashed at points. Their relationship was really weird, because at times they would act like best friends and other times it had been all Alec and I could do to keep them from trying to kill each other. And that was before Alia’s powers had developed.

Shaking my head, I went ahead and poured the soup into bowls, one for each of them and then one for Alec. Zig and I had eaten earlier while Sabin was gone and we were waiting for Alec to wake up. (At that point, Alia had been asleep as well, after nodding off in the chair she was sitting in in Zig’s basement).

I grabbed two of the bowls and turned around to hand them to Alia and Sabin when it happened. I felt my vision slide out of focus and suddenly I wasn’t seeing Alia and Sabin standing in front of me in Zig’s kitchen anymore… instead I saw them each a couple of years younger, standing on the central quad at Edil, glaring at each other in a cocky sort of “I’m-going-to-kick-your-ass-at-this-because-I’m-freaking-awesome-and-a-hell-of-a-lot-better-than-you” kind of way. I gasped and blinked, my vision coming back to the present. Unfortunately, as was usual when this happens, I was thrown off balance when I came back. The soup bowls fell out of my hands as I tried to catch myself before I face planted into the counter.

It would’ve been a mess if Alia hadn’t been there. She simply stuck out a hand and the bowls stopped falling. They never hit the ground, and the soup stayed where it was suppose to.

I cursed silently as Sabin rushed over to help me up. I shrugged him off as gently as I could. There was no way I was going to appear any weaker in front of these two than I already did.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“What was that about?” Alia asked at the same time.

I shook my head. I couldn’t explain it to them. Not now.

“I just… I got really dizzy all of a sudden,” I said, wincing inwardly at how lame the excuse sounded. “Guess I’m not fully awake yet.”

Alia spun the bowls in the air by wiggling her fingers. She stood there completely unimpressed by my excuse. Sabin placed a hand on my shoulder.

“But are you okay?” he asked again.

I nodded, still getting the feeling that he was used to these kinds of things happening, and he knew I was completely lying through my teeth about it being nothing. But I wasn’t about to explain that to either of them, especially since neither of them knew about my powers. Also, what I had seen really confused me, because for the life of me I couldn’t think of any time I had seen Alia and Sabin giving each other that kind of look before.

I decided it was best not to dwell on that.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s just get this soup downstairs.”

We got downstairs to find Alec sitting on the couch I had left him on with Zig sitting across from him on the coffee table. Alec was wearing the fresh clothes Zig had provided, but he still looked pretty rough. I was leading the way down the stairs, but Sabin had refused to let me carry any of the soup bowls, just in case I “got dizzy” again. I couldn’t help but be thankful that neither of them were telepaths, otherwise they would’ve been treated to the full range of my choice vocabulary.

“We made it back,” Alia reported as we reached the bottom of the stairs. I heard the door at the top close and assumed she had closed it with her telekinesis. “There were a few difficulties but…”

“Alia,” Sabin warned.

Zig gave me a curious glance, but didn’t say anything. I knew I’d hear about it later though.

“How are you doing Alec?” Sabin asked, handing him a bowl of soup and then sitting down on the coffee table next to Zig. Alia took her bowl and retreated to the armchair she had been sitting in earlier. I decided to go ahead and sit on the couch next to Alec.

“I’ve been better,” Alec muttered. “I still don’t understand what happened.”

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Zig said. “Can you describe what happened Alec?”

“All I remember is turning around and there was this really big, burly guy with dark skin and hair. He said his name was… Tyrone? He had this weird ability… when he touched me, it was like I could feel my powers being pulled from my body,” Alec looked down despondently at his soup bowl.

Everyone passed around worried looks, if this was true and the konna did have a guy on their side with this power, then everything just got that much more difficult. No one seemed eager to speak.

“What happened after that?” Zig prodded.

Alec shook his head, still not looking up. “I could feel him pulling my powers out of me then everything went black. Next thing I know, I woke up here.”

We were quiet for a few minutes, all trying to digest what he was saying.

My mind wandered back to the dream I had just had. I took a breath and decided to go out on a limb, “Alec, by chance, when you were unconscious did you happen to have a strange dream? Maybe see a strange woman?”

Alia raised her eyebrows incredulously and fired back, “And what exactly gives you the idea that he would’ve seen a strange woman?”

I groped around for a reason, “Be-because…” I stammered, “because I’ve seen in several reports that this woman has been spotted by other operatives. Apparently she’s a sombulate. A lot of the reports said she worked with a guy with powers like Alec described.”

“Really,” Alia drawled out the word, “well maybe you could show us these reports sometime?”

I huffed, aggravated that Alia was playing with me. I could guess only one reason why Alia would be acting so short tempered towards me. It was something that always seemed to come up every time we worked together, and honestly it was getting a bit old. “Yes Alia, maybe some time when you’re not too busy holding grudges against everyone I’ll let you look at them.”

“At least I don’t try and hide my emotions with a bunch of stupid lies,” she said with bite in her tone.

“Enough you two,” Zig said with a tight tone, daring for us to reproach. “This isn’t about you.” He looked back to Alec, who by that point had raised his head to watch the exchange between Alia and I. Zig continued, his voice relaxing. “No pressure, but we really need to know what you saw, anything at all could be a key that could help bring down the konna.”

“I-I know,” Alec stammered and dropped his head into his hands, “It’s just, every time I try to remember what happened, it’s like my memories go all fuzzy.”

“Anything could help, man.” Zig said in a gentle tone.

“Actually,” he said, lifting his head to look at me. “There was a woman.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, panic starting to grow inside me.

If anyone noticed my reaction, they didn’t say anything. Zig was the only one who made eye contact with me, and I could read the silent message from him easy enough.

Play it cool.

“I don’t remember much about what she looked like,” Alec continued. He shook his head in frustration. “It’s all fuzzy. But if I saw her again, or if I heard her talk, I’m pretty sure I’d be able to identify her though.”

I nodded my head slowly. If he couldn’t remember what she looked like then that was good, if he could then he’d probably see the uncanny resemblance between us. The less Alec knew the better.

We were ready to leave before the sun had even risen.

“Are you sure you guys don’t want to stay?” Zig asked. “The commander gave you a day before you have to go.”

“No,” said Sabin curtly. “We’ve wasted enough time as it is, we need to complete the mission.”

“Sabin, are you sure?” I questioned. “It wouldn’t hurt to have the extra rest.”

“I am the commanding officer on this mission,” he said sternly. “And I say that we need to leave. Now.”

“But…” I started.

“No, he’s right,” Alia interrupted. I stared at her in surprise. She was actually agreeing with Sabin? “The longer we stay here the worse our chance becomes to complete this mission and everyone come out unscathed.”

“And by that you mean?” I inquired.

Alia huffed, impatience flashing across her face, “It means that the konna already know that we’ve been sent on a mission, and have already tried to stop us once.”

I looked at her incredulously, still not knowing what she was getting at.

“Which also means that either A) they know what mission we were sent on and what we’re going to do, or B) they have a specific vendetta against our team and want to take us out.”

Alia pinned me with a pointed glare as she said, “I don’t know about you, but both of those options are ones that I’d like to avoid.”

“Meaning, that we leave now,” Sabin said, breaking the silence that followed Alia’s explanation.

As we all got up and walked upstairs I chewed on the words that Alia had said.

They know what mission we were sent on and what we’re going to do, or they have a specific vendetta against our team and want to take us out.

These words gave me an eerie feeling, almost like Alia knew who she was. That was impossible though, only Zig and I knew, and we’d sworn the secret to ourselves long ago.

As we walked outside to mount up everyone was quiet. I finally felt the gravity of our situation. By me being here – by involving Zig and I – everyone on this team was in even more danger than usual.

That’s right, Megan,a sickly sweet voice whispered in my mind.It was her voice. You selfish, selfish girl…putting all these nice people in danger. Putting your friends in harm’s way.

“They know what they signed up for,” I ground out harshly under my breath, trying not to hyperventilate at the thought that she was in my head. How was she even doing that?

“Signed up for what?” Alec asked, walking beside me.

I shook my head, trying to clear out her voice, “It’s nothing. Just thinking out loud,” I said. “A bad habit picked up from IGS training.” I grinned sheepishly, trying to look convincing.

“I totally understand,” he said, laughing lightly. “Everyone picks up some bad habits going through training. It’s inevitable.”

I grinned and laughed back at him, thankful that he wasn’t going to pry anymore.

“Come on you two,” Sabin shouted from his horse. “We’ve still got a ways to go before we reach the konna camp.”

Alec and I both got to our horses and mounted up. Zig walked over to my horse and stood beside me.

“Stay safe,” he said quietly. “You know what’s out there.” His face got stern. “You know how to fight and how to protect yourself, so just…” He sighed, sounding resigned. “Just be careful, alright?”

I grinned down at him, thankful that I had Zig, even if he could be over protective at times.

“Don’t worry, big brother.” I leaned down and dropped a kiss on the top of his head. “I know how to take care of myself.”

He smiled at me and nodded his head. “Better get going, can’t have you getting left behind.”

With that I took off, trotting over to join the others who were already on the road.

I couldn’t help but wish I’d had a chance to talk about my dream with Zig. He was the only one who would understand. Maybe he could have helped me figure out what was going on.

I turned back in my saddle one last time, raising my hand and waving by to Zig. He waved back, a sad smile on his face.

Oh how terribly sweet. You’d better remember this, Megan, she said, laughing, Because from this point on, everything is going to change.