The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide

There wasn’t anything around me. There was light, but it wasn’t blinding. I couldn’t really describe what it was like. Confusion crept along the edges of my mind. Hadn’t I just been on the way to Inon a few minutes ago? Why was I here? I remembered that guy—Tyrone—and the weird anti-energy whatever stuff snaked across my body then… nothing. I was just… here. I didn’t remember how I got here, but I did know that I had to get back.

“Well, would you look who it is,” a female voice broke through the eerie silence that pierced my ears. “The long lost Parker boy. Hello, Alec.”

I turned around and was met with a pair of striking violently dark blue eyes. I started when she held my gaze, her cold and calculating look boring into me. A prick of familiarity ran through the back of my mind, but was gone as soon as it came.

Her thin lips stretched into a forced smile as she studied me.

“Who are you?” I asked, finally finding my voice. “How are you doing this?”

“You’ve changed so much since I last saw you,” she continued, as if I hadn’t said anything. “I remember when you first discovered your powers… you were so young then. Didn’t realize your full potential.”

“I’m going to ask again,” I growled. “Who. Are. You?”

Her mouth turned down and her voice was resigned as she said, “I’m disappointed you don’t remember me, but don’t worry, it should come back to you soon enough.” Her mouth fell back into it’s harsh line.

“What do you mean?”

“Really, Alec, I thought you were supposed to be the clever twin. That’s why you’re here instead of Alia.” I bristled at the way she said Alia’s name, like a threat.

“You stay away from her,” I spat.

“Oh don’t worry, she’ll be here soon. There are certain things we need from her as well.” She stepped closer towards me.

“A test is coming for you Alec. For you, your sister, and the rest of your team. All of you are going to be tested.”

“Why?” I ground out.

“Because you are all,” she paused as she searched for the word, “special. Each and every one of you. And you personally Alec… you have information. Information that is very important to me.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“That’s okay,” she said. “You don’t need to. Just know that one day, Alec… One day very soon, in fact, we will come for you. And when we do,” She turned her back to me and walked towards the door, stopping with her hand rested on the handle, “When we do, you won’t be able to stop it.”

My heart was pounding swiftly in my chest as I said in a low tone, “I’d like to see you try.”

“You will.” She gave turned to me and the corner of her mouth lifted and a shiver shot down my spine, “But for now you need to return to your team.”

Just like that, she disappeared, and I fell into darkness once again.

I woke up to the sight of blonde hair and bright blue eyes right in front of my face. It was her. My body jolted into action, moving on instinct as my arms lashed out to shove her away from me. I quickly realized that it wasn’t the woman from my, whatever had just happened when I heard Megan sputtering from the ground.

“Thanks for that, Alec!” I saw the spilled cup of water on the ground beside her and instantly guilt shot through me. But her tone was betrayed by the small grin on her lips, “It’s about time you woke up!”

“Megan?” I groaned, holding my head. The sudden movement had sent a spiking pain through my temples. “What happened?”

“There was a fight,” she said. “You and Alia caught the runner. But he got away and this other guy… he… I don’t really know what happened but he knocked you unconscious.”

I lifted my head and looked at her for a few seconds. Now that my head was starting to clear, I scolded myself for thinking she was the woman from my dream. Of course, though, there was a slight resemblance. They had similar facial shapes and the same kind of nose and they both had wide, calculating eyes, but Megan’s eyes and hair were lighter colored. I blinked and then turned to look around at the rest of the room.

I saw I was in an underground bunker of some sort. There was barely any furniture besides the couch I was on. There was a coffee table placed in front of the couch that Megan was sitting on, as well as a few other chairs. Alia was sitting in one of the chairs across the room. Her arm was wrapped up in a bandage from where she had been cut in the fight earlier and she wore a scowl on her face as she flipped one of her knives through the middle of the air towards a target hung on the wall across the room. It hit the bull’s eye dead center. She briefly made eye contact with me, but her eyes quickly resumed their place of attention on her knife.

I turned back to Megan.

“Where are we?”

“Inon,” a male voice from the doorway said. I looked up and saw a tall, blonde man that was practically a mirror image of Megan. “The border guards found you guys shortly after the konna attacked you. They brought you straight to me.”

“Alec, I don’t know if you remember him from seven years ago, but this is my brother, First Gamma Zachary O’Carroll,” Megan said.

I started to stand up, as was proper procedure when being introduced to a ranking officer, but a wave of nausea hit me and I doubled over and collapsed back down onto the couch.

“Don’t try to stand yet,” Megan scolded. “We don’t know exactly what happened to you, so we aren’t sure how to treat you but we do know that you need to rest.”

“I brought some clothes for you to change into, once you head’s cleared enough,” Zachary said.

He walked over and sat down next to his sister on the coffee table, setting a set of clean clothes down beside him. I was surprised to see that he wasn’t wearing a uniform, but instead had on a pair of blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt. After a quick glance at Alia, and then at Megan, I noticed that they were also out of uniform. It was hard to see what Alia had changed to, but Megan was wearing a t-shirt that was too big for her (I assumed it was probably her brother’s) and a pair of pajama pants. I glanced down to take note that I was still in the clothes I’d been wearing earlier. They were still slightly damp from the river.

“What about the mission?” I asked, looking back up at the O’Carroll siblings.

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Zachary said. “I’ve contacted the academy and explained what happened. I said that it was a surprise ambush and that all four of you handled it excellently, but there were some unfortunate injuries that occurred, and that you would need extra time to gain back your strength.”

“What did they say back?” Megan asked, obviously as new to this news as I was. Across the room, I even noticed Alia perk up a slight bit and turn to listen to what Zachary was saying.

“They granted you an extra day here in Inon. Apparently, the attack has alerted them that you might be slightly ill equipped for this mission, so they have asked us to add extra weapons to your supplies. Other than that though, I believe Commander Mecah was pleased to hear that you four successfully drove the konna away from Inon’s borders, which is actually true. You four did a surprisingly good job, despite the fact that something like this is well above your pay grade, so to speak.”

“Gamma O’Carroll, or Zachary…” I started.

“Since when do you call me by such a formal name, Alec?” he interrupted. “You always called me Zig back when we lived in Satama. Besides, Gamma O’Carroll sounds too stiff, and no one calls me Zachary except our mom. I’ve been known as Zig since Megan could talk. She’s the one who gave me the name.”

He playfully ruffled Megan’s hair, despite her best efforts to push him away. I watched their exchange briefly before I glanced over in Alia’s direction and noticed she was watching the O’Carrolls as well. I wondered if she was thinking the same thing I was: that this is how siblings were supposed to interact. As if she sensed me looking at her, Alia’s gaze moved over to me. Instead of the glare I would have expected, her eyes were soft and for the first time I could actually see the different emotions that she was hiding there.

Megan apparently noticed the two of us looking at each other and nudged Zig in the arm. He caught on, and bent over to pick up the cup Megan had dropped earlier.

“I’ll go get you some more water, Alec,” he said. “And Megan, I would also like to talk to you and get a better account of what happened as well, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure Zig,” Megan said, jumping to her feet and starting to follow Zig out of the door. “I’ll be back in a little while guys. Oh, and Alia? Please try to remember that Alec is currently on the mend right now. Try not to hurt him too much.”

Then she and her brother were gone, leaving Alia and me alone.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I don’t think either of us really knew what to say to the other. Alia was sitting defiantly in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes glaring at the floor. I fiddled with a string on the arm of the couch for a while. Alia eventually moved from staring at the floor and instead threw more knives at the target. I winced every time one hit.

I fought for the words to say to her, but I couldn’t think of anything. What are you suppose to say to someone you’ve just been reunited with after almost seven years of not seeing them? Trying to say ‘hi’ hadn’t worked earlier, and I’m positive it wouldn’t be appropriate now. I took a breath.

“How’s your arm?” I finally asked.

Another knife threw at the target. Bull’s eye. Alia flicked her hand back towards herself and all the knives that were stuck in the target flew back towards her. She levitated them in the air above her head for a while before finally lowering them down onto the table beside her.

“It’s fine,” she muttered. “Just a little scratch.”

I knew that she was just saying that, trying to sound like she wasn’t bothered by any of this. Of course, if she was anything like me—which I suspected was pretty likely—her arm was the least of her worries at the moment.

“Alia…” I tried again to start a conversation, only to have Alia snap up her head and glare at me. For a second, I was scared that her knives would suddenly start flying at me.

“Shut up,” Alia said in a low tone. “Just shut up Alec, okay? I want to be mad at you, and I can’t do that when you’re talking and acting like everything’s okay between us when it isn’t.”

“Why are you mad at me?” I asked.

“Seven years,” was all she said.

“That wasn’t my fault.”

“We were at the academy together.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“You should’ve.”

I gave an exasperated sigh and lean back further into the couch.

“You don’t think that it wasn’t hard for me?” I asked after a short pause. “I was taken to live with a bunch of strangers I had never even met before, Alia. At least you had Aunt Imeria and Waren.”

Alia snorted at the mention of our great aunt and cousin, who she had been sent to live with seven years ago.

“Oh, yeah like that’s any better,” she said. “Growing up in a poor seaside village in Valta with your decrepit old aunt and your jackass of a cousin who loves nothing better than to ruin your day. Being telekinetic when you’re surrounded by a bunch of water and air elementests? Trust me, going to Einoth was the best thing that could’ve happened to you.”

“It wasn’t as good as you would think,” I said quietly. “I was living with Dad’s family—all fire elementests. They also hated Mom. When I discovered I had the ability to control water as well as fire… well, let’s just say that wasn’t really taken with a grain of salt. Sure, I lived in their house. But I was never part of their family.”

“But still Alec, you were in Einoth! We grew up dreaming about being able to go there. Dad told us all the stories—about how Einoth was the most beautiful place in the world—unaffected by the war, living with four colonies in peace. How can you have not appreciated that?”

I smiled slightly. Alia was sitting on the edge of her chair now, looking at me expectantly. She didn’t seem angry anymore. Just eager.

I considered what had just happened. Had I really managed to get Alia to crack her shell, even just a slight amount? When we were kids, I had been able to do that pretty easily, but I was out of practice now. I didn’t want to lose her now though, so I smiled slightly.

“I guess, when you put it that way… There were parts of my life that were pretty good. I traveled through the colonies quite a bit, since Dad’s family basically ignored my existence, and I had to find somebody to teach me to manipulate the other three elements. That was the best—being able to see all of the different places in Einoth. Dad’s stories were true. It really is a beautiful place. Of course… I’ve never been to the coast though.”

Alia bit her lip for a second before standing up and walking over to the couch I was sitting on. Without even asking permission—not that I really cared—she sat down at the opposite end from me.

“Living on the coast did have its perks,” she admitted. “And Mom’s family did fortunately accept me, despite my different powers. It was still awkward at times though. I couldn’t play all the games the other kids could, because I didn’t have the same powers. And living with Aunt Imeria and Waren really wasn’t too horrible. Waren and I actually could get along most of the time. And Aunt Imeria makes the best food…”

“And I’m sure they supported your decision to join the academy, right?”

Alia nodded. “Aunt Imeria wasn’t exactly thrilled about me going off to fight. I think Waren was jealous a bit, but since he was leaving the same year to go to the Elementest Academy in Einoth, he go over it pretty quickly. But all in all, no one told me I couldn’t.”

“I wish it had been like that for me,” I said. “I was basically told that if I left, I’d never be welcomed back.”

“But you went anyway,” she said.

“I had to,” I answered. “It was… It was what Mom and Dad would’ve wanted me to do.”

That hung heavily in the air between the two of us. It had taken a long time for me to come to terms with what had happened to our parents, and I figured the same went for Alia.

After minutes of silence, Alia finally spoke.

“I miss them Alec,” she said softly. She looked down at the floor in front of her, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging her legs tightly.

“Everyday since they’ve been gone,” she continued, “I’ve tried and tried to do what I think they would want me to. I went to Edil because I thought they would want me to. I agreed to be a PCS, even though I could’ve been a Situation or even a Stealth Fighter Specialist… all because I figured that’s what they would want of me. But Alec… We were ten when… when it happened. I don’t know what Mom and Dad would want.”

As Alia spoke, I could see her protective shell falling away. She was letting herself be vulnerable in front of me. I knew immediately this wasn’t the same girl who had thrown me into a bookshelf earlier today.

Without thinking, I reached out and placed my hand on Alia’s shoulder. At first, she seemed like she wanted to pull away from me. She looked up at me with shock and confusion. But instead of recoiling like I expected her to, Alia did just the opposite. She closed the distance between us on the couch and wrapped her arms around me, buried her head in my shoulder and started to cry. Surprised as I was, I carefully wrapped my arms around her back and held her as she cried.

“I thought I had lost you too, Alec,” she muttered. “Not in the same way as Mom and Dad, but it was close enough. They took you away. I didn’t know if I was ever going to see you again.”

“It’s okay Als,” I murmured. “It’s okay.”

I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but somewhere during that time I felt tears start sliding down my cheeks as well. I couldn’t remember the last time I had cried. But sitting there on that couch, holding my crying sister in my arms—my sister who I hadn’t seen in seven years… I just couldn’t help it.

So we sat there together in Zig’s bunker, letting years of pent up emotions go. Eventually, Alia stopped crying and sat up.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I just…”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I understand. My guess is you’ve been holding onto that for the last seven years, right?”

She nodded. We sat quietly for another minute or so while Alia used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe the few remaining tears from her eyes. Then, very unexpectedly, she pulled back and punched me in the arm.

“Ow!” I exclaimed. “What was that for?!”

“For being at the academy and never bothering to look me up, bozo,” Alia retorted. “And, also, it was a warning. If you ever tell anyone about my breakdown that I just had, I swear I will make you regret it until the day you die.”

“Consider me warned,” I said.

“Oh, and Alec? Thanks.”

I grinned. “No problem, Sis.”