Shadows at the Dawn - Part 25
"I need to rest a moment."
Zornah stood in the center of the practice hall panting. Since they had returned, she had been working with Zeeda and Master Zilbrach on improving her skills as a warrior with one less arm. It was not that she was rusty, just that she had to readjust her thinking now. That seemed to be the hardest part, getting her brain to make the switch. Her body seemed to be fine with things, but she had to gain better control. Darkness be damned if she was going to lose any other members of her family. First Marshant before his time, and now Kullah - she did not know if she could honestly make it through another such loss.
"You are doing better today lady." Master Zilbrach said as he handed her a jug of water.
"It's just getting the brain to switch gears."
"Sometimes harder to do than we think."
"How is our little Hura coming along?" she asked him.
"Very well actually. She is quite a surprise for one so young that hasn't been trained from the time she was able to walk. The king told me it has proven much easier to train her other skills with the discipline from weapons training."
"I don't think he quite understood it at first, but they do things a bit differently in the Silver Millennium."
"Aye, she's as good a pupil as Zeeda was, though I never met the Legati at that age. I did hear of her from the other masters though."
"Do you think we did the right thing with her Master Zilbrach? I find myself questioning what all we put our daughter through," Zornah said with a slow shake of her head.
"You did what you thought was right at the time, and she has turned out a fine woman. Commander Harper told me just a few days ago how the men had been waiting rather impatiently to hear news of her condition after the battle." Zilbrach smiled. "I've met a few commanders where their men couldn't care less about them - and that tells me a great deal about the one at the top. If your troops care so much for their commander, means it's a good thing. They feel that way about all of you Lady Zornah."
"We have always tried to be just and fair. And we would never ask them to do anything we wouldn't be willing to do ourselves - it's just not right otherwise."
"And it shows. Even the townsfolk feel the same. People here are safer than anywhere else."
"I hope it stays that way. Well, one more round you think?"
"As you wish, my lady."
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Nearly a year went by with minimal loss - everyone's efforts had doubled after what we had suffered at Waystation Nine. The fragments had even abandoned their dark energy bombs or whatever the damn things were for a while. They didn't stop attacking, and we found ourselves each day pushed back just a little more. But we were more consolidated now, and that should have counted for something. All it meant in the end was that when the final battle took place, there were more of us in one spot to kill easier.
Husel and Laraunt were married, and we gained ourselves a new family member. Though it was easier on her family at least with Clan Capartha now living next door. In a way, it was good. The people were happy, and shared in our celebration - they felt secure having two clans looking over them. Of everyone I failed, the memory of those people haunts me the most. And so life went on after a fashion.
Our visits to the Moon Palace dropped in frequency, we simply couldn't afford to be gone much anymore. And I found I was missing them just a little, they had been a brief escape from the darkness that was around us every day. King Pluto informed us that the shadow voices in the realms between times had gone quiet - and we thought that meant good things to come. Now, we can look back at our ignorance in pain - but at the time, we didn't know. We thought they were connected to the fragments in the void, but sadly, they were connected to the shining jewel that was the Silver Millennium. Those voices were their own, crying out for what they would lose soon. But then, they had also never given us the full message. We couldn't blame ourselves entirely.
I'm not sure we could have actually done anything even if we had known. We like to think we can control what goes on around us - but the tapestry of life is woven on a loom none of us have access to. Much as we wish it, we just don't have that sort of control over things.