Not All is Fair in Love and War

Chapter 25

They barely had another moment to themselves before someone tapped on the tent door.
"Who is it?" Ishmael asked.
"It's Ayden."
"Please come in." Hailey answered. Ayden shook his head and came in anyway
"I wanted to let you know the enemy is starting to encroach and may lay siege for a while." Ayden said.
"Thanks for the update, I will make sure my soldiers are prepared then." Ishmael replied.

"Well, with that bit of news, I have some drills I need to do, skills to sharpen, calories to burn..." Hailey said as she left the tent to get Alexandria and Ari to do some more training.
"Is that Alexandria?" Ishmael asks as he sees Alexandria from a distance.
"Yep, you can tell from her eyes. She was born blind you know...she is Sephira's niece, she is the first one to get any kind of 'healing' from Sephira." Hailey explained.

"Oh, ok, after I consult with my generals, can I join in with your training?"

"Of course, just be prepared, we train hard." Hailey warned him.
Hailey, Ari and many others headed back to the training grounds and were joined by Lomi and Alexandria and after introductions- the training began.
Most got tuckered out after only a few hours and were content to watch Alexandria and Hailey continue on their seemingly rehearsed and synchronized training/ fighting duel. Ishmael noticed Lomi couldn't take his eyes off of Alexandria.
"She's gorgeous..." Ishmael said to Lomi as they watched from the sidelines.
"Yeah- tell me about it." Lomi replied with a smirk.
"She's almost as pretty as my Hailey." Ishmael added, Lomi just started laughing.
"You would say that...you do realize that there are literally hundreds of men out here waiting for you to mess up so they can steal her away from you right? Hailey is amazing and everyone seems to know it. Never let her go." Lomi replied, giving Ishmael a sideways glance.

"I don't intend to." Ishmael said.
They shook hands as friends and continued to watch the girls before Lomi leaned over to Ishmael and whispered.
"If they have this kind of stamina doing hard training, I wonder how they would be...never mind." Both of them started to laugh at the intended innuendo.
"Are you really wondering that? Cause, I mean...it should be obvious." Ishmael admitted with a blush. The girls then came to the end of their training sequence and went to sit down with their guys. Hailey was looking over the small crowd that had gathered and noticed Valen staring at her and Alexandria as if figuring out a puzzle. She watched his eyes go from Alexandria to Lomi then over to her left hand and she was delighted to see him in a state of shock when he saw her ring, his eyes then went to Ishmael in the same state of shock and he shook his head and walked away.

'Finally I find something to shut him up.' Hailey thought to herself with a grin.
"Everything ok?" Ishmael asks.
"Yes... everything is fine." Hailey says without looking at him, her eyes still trained on her target. Ishmael tries to follow her line of sight but can not see what she sees.
"What are you looking at?" Ishmael asks.
"Nothing now." Hailey answers rather cryptically before looking back at him with a smug grin.
"Ok... so what were you looking at?"
"A reaction."
"From who?"
"Valen- it seems he finally saw my ring and was so shocked that he had to walk away with out a word." Hailey answered triumphantly.
Ishmael nodded and put his arm around her. Hailey leaned into him and Ishmael noticed her heart still beating a bit fast and a small, faint slightly purple light seemed to come from her chest as well. Then a scout approached and Hailey's heart sank as she heard the news, the small faint light faded to nothing and her eyes turned half gray, half orange. Ayden looked at his sister and felt just like she did. The message was a taunt and a warning from the enemy. Hailey firmly set her jaw and looked at Alexandria who nodded in a 'oh yeah- let's whoop em.' kind of look.
Later that night Hailey found herself with Alexandria sneaking behind enemy lines. Alexandria was cloaked while Hailey turned invisible.

After almost the whole camp had gone to sleep Hailey and Alexandria made quick work of sabotaging the enemies weaponry as well as poisoning their entire food supply as well as swapping the medicine that would counteract it with something that would make it worse. They sneaked out of there without a trace and safely made it back to their side of the camp. When Hailey returned she saw Lomi waiting for them.
"So I take it you did some dirty work?" He whispered to them.
"Yep, it's war, it's all dirty." Alexandria answered.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" Hailey asked Lomi.
"Oh I couldn't sleep until I knew you two got back safe." He answered, still looking at Alexandria.

Alexandria smiled and shook her head while she let out a soft chuckle.

"You were always the worrier..." She replied with a knowing smile. Both Hailey and Lomi looked at her slightly confused before she shooed them off to bed.
Alexandria got Hailey up early and brought her to surface for the sunrise.
"Thanks for coming with me, the sunrise is always helpful with my nerves." Hailey stated.
"Actually there is another reason we would and should be here for the dawning of the sun." Alexandria says in rather formal language.
"Really?"
"Yes, when we get to the surface I will hold you up out of the water and I need you to spread your wings as far as they can go- they will act as solar panels and help you take in power and help you fight today." Alexandria explained.
"So that's why I feel better when I get sunshine." Hailey realized.
"Yes, especially when you can get as much surface area exposed as possible. In fact the last time you over did it- if someone would have brought you to the surface and you could have gotten some sunshine you would have come back in at least half the time. You would have eaten the same amount but woken up sooner."
"Nice."
"Ok we're here, now sit on one of my shoulders and open your wings, don't flap them just have them face the sun, close your eyes, meditate and clear your mind and let your body drink in the sunshine."
"Uh...um...ok" Hailey sat on Alexandria's shoulder and did as instructed. She started to focus and meditate and really just try to clear her mind. Then an odd sensation started to occur she felt as if she was being invigorated.
Back at camp Ishmael woke earlier than usual, he came out of his tent to see Lomi pacing in front of the Alexandria and Ari's tent.
"You waiting for them to get up?" Ishmael asked.
"Well I get the feeling they are already up but I don't hear them." Lomi answers, listening carefully.
"Well here's how we find out." Ishmael taps on the tent door and says hello. Ari stumbles to the door wearing a night robe still.
"What?" She grumbles still half asleep.
"Is Alexandria awake yet?" Lomi asked.
"Not only is she already awake but she isn't even here." Ari says, rubbing her eyes.
"Where is she?" Ishmael asks.
"Alexandria said something about Hailey's wings and the sun, so my guess they both went to the surface. So if that's all you want, I am going back to bed." Ari replied, shutting the tent door and collapsing on her bed.

After the tent door closed Ishmael looked at Lomi and they shot up like a rocket toward the surface as if in a race with each other. They both made a leap out of the water and saw Hailey at a distance- or at least someone who looked an awful lot like Hailey but glowing sunshine yellow, the two of them made a break for it, leaping out of the water occasionally to make sure they were on track and trying to get a better look at her. They stop just shy of 20 feet and then pop their heads out of the water and look at the spectacle before them.
It was Hailey alright, but she glowed bright sunshine yellow- she was almost painful to look at. They duck underneath the waves and see Alexandria holding her up with some difficulty.
"Do you want some help with that, or with holding her up at least?" Lomi asked.
"No, you can't help with this, you will die of you touch her right now, that's why I wanted to leave in secret, who told?"
"Ari." Ishmael answered.
"Figures." Alexandria grumbles with an exaggerated eye roll.
"Why would we die if we touch her?" Lomi asks.
"Well let me rephrase that, do you see how the glow is starting to go down the length of her body?"
"Yeah..." The guys answered in unison.
"The part of her that isn't glowing, you can touch, but once it starts to glow DO. NOT. TOUCH. HER. because you will die. What the glowing indicates is she has fully absorbed the sun's power, similar to what people experience when around Sephira but this is a cruder/ more dangerous way of getting a similar result. But because I have Sephira's power coursing through my own veins, I actually have no ill effects from holding her."

Just then Hailey's fin started to glow.
"Just a little more honey." Alexandria cooed to Hailey under her breath. She looked over at her shoulder to see even it was glowing. She slowly let Hailey drop back into the water and swam around to her face and held her hands to keep her stationary until the glow faded into Hailey's skin. The guys just floated right there with them in awed silence. After a few minutes the glow faded completely from her skin while her wings drew back into her and Hailey slowly opened her eyes, only her pupils were no longer black but instead bright yellow, still glowing. She only looks at Alexandria as if not noticing the guys floating just behind her.
"How do you feel?" Alexandria asks.
"Strange, very strange." Hailey answers then she notices the guys looking at her like she had grown a second head.
"What are you guys doing here?" Hailey asks.
"We were worried." Ishmael answers.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Hailey asks, tilting her head inquisitively. Lomi points to his eyes. Hailey extends one wing folds it in front of her and uses one of the edge feathers as a mirror and shrieks when she sees her own eyes.
"Whoa, calm down Hailey." Alexandria instructs.
"What is going on with my eyes!?" Hailey asks.
"Your eyes are just showing you are full of power. Now if you don't want to scare everyone fighting with us today, wear a veil. Because no matter how hard you try, it won't go away until the energy is spent. Otherwise just keep repeating that it's something 'new'."
"What do you suggest?"
"I think it does more for our enemy today to see two glowing pieces of sun staring back at them." Alexandria says with the firmest resolve. Hailey grins at this. She tucks her wing back in with a shrug.
"Well what are we waiting for then?" She says as she dives into the depths. Ishmael did his best to keep up with her while Alexandria hesitated while Lomi waited for her.
"You ok there?" Lomi asks.
"Yes." Alexandria replies, looking at him thoughtfully.
"Can I do something real quick?" Alexandria asks before biting her lip nervously.
"Of course." Lomi said with a shrug and before he could do anything else Alexandria was kissing him.
"Thanks." Alexandria said with a bright smile before she started to dive.
"Now that's more like it." Lomi said as he followed her down. As they came to the sea floor Ayden was rather impatiently waiting for them all.
"Hailey? What's up with your eyes?" He asked.
"I..it... it's new." Hailey says with a small smile.
"But you're ok right? Where's Alexandria?" Ayden asks.
"She should have been on my tail..." Hailey said looking behind her and then can see Alexandria swimming full speed with Lomi hot on her tail.
"Oh- there she is, apparently I just swim faster than her." Hailey said shrugging slightly while grinning like and idiot.
"Well off to your stations then." Ayden said.

"Wait, can I say something to everyone?" Hailey asks, suddenly feeling the need to address her comrades.

Hailey took her place on top of a boulder in front of the forces. She takes a big breath before opening her wings and turning around to face the troops and gives them a speech that will last indefinitely in their memories...