Note: For some reason I think this document is glitching. there aren't any paragraph breaks in the story, although in DoC Manager, it shows that there are. I'm working on fixing it. On the other hand, it might also be my computer. if you are looking at the rest of this story and you have no idea what i'm talking about then there's nothing wrong with yours lol.
"It's been how long?"
"Three years."
"Well, it felt like ten years, but I thought my mind was exaggerating, and it was only a couple months. Three years. That's insane. I'll be happy if I never see another Fallen ever again."
"Good luck with that. This war is still just beginning."
"Yeah, well, I've been in this since Queen Mara first unleashed the harbingers at Ceres. You only joined up after Amethyst."
"So then you've been in this a few months longer than me. Which is not much considering that I now have three years of experience."
"You're still a child. Maybe that's why you have so much energy."
Petra just shrugged. "Maybe." She had already tried correcting Niff several times. After all, if it had been three years, then she was nineteen. Not a child. But to the hardened Corsair, who was at least a hundred, nineteen was very young. Actually, to everyone, it was very young. But not too young to be a Corsair, and not too young to have experienced three whole years of straight war.
Petra and Niff were privates under Paladin Abra Zire. Petra had been very proud of this, and refused to let Niff's "Almost everyone gets the Private rank!" spoil it. She hadn't been a very good techeun, and after three years away, all she could do was a simple levitation. For a corsair, though, levitating was not a common skill. But she'd expected to be one of those few who didn't do well enough even to be a private. The day she'd first been assigned to work with Niff, she'd been very taken aback by her somewhat surly attitude. After the siege of Pallas, though… Petra understood. The blood and the violence of war changed a person, and Niff was always brutally honest. After her sisters, though, she could appreciate the truth in whatever form it came.
After what she'd seen in the year-long siege, she understood how little it meant to be a private. Any life could be taken at any moment; Corsair, Crow, or Paladin, it didn't matter. No one was less likely to survive, only some were more likely to be remembered. It scared her sometimes, how forgettable she was. She was just another Corsair that could be the next casualty. She was the youngest of eight forgettable sisters. Her only noteworthy accomplishment to date was being the only survivor of the destruction of Amethyst, and that had been… she preferred to think about it as an accident, although she knew the truth was that she had survived solely through her essential uselessness. Her inability to be helpful had placed her in a position of greater safety. There was nothing special about her. It was her weakness that had singled her out for survival, and there was no way around it. But it didn't have to be that way forever. Maybe someday she'd be someone worth remembering.
The least she could do for her sisters to make up for it was fight. The one responsible for their deaths, the one who had led the attack, the Wolf baroness Drevis, had been brought to justice by Paladin Rife and Paladin Fen, who had been made Paladin after Paladin Rife's death on Pallas. That was not long before the siege ended, with the illusion of the harbingers. Petra had never seen the real harbingers, but seeing the illusion had reminded her of how powerful the techeuns were. She could never have been one of them.
"Hello? Petra? Did you hear what I said, or were you too busy brooding again?"
"I'm not brooding!" Petra hadn't realized, but lost in her thoughts, she was scowling at nothing in particular.
"So, no."
"I'm sorry. What did you say?"
Niff sighed. "As long as you don't do that in the middle of a fight. I asked you when we're leaving tomorrow."
"We're leaving tomorrow?"
"We're supposed to scout the Wolf fleet from Lister-11. Reporting to one of the Crows. It'll be a great opportunity to prove our skills. Because they are in question." She glared at Petra
"Uh… better ask our Commander." Petra ignored the insulting implication. "But seriously, Niff, have I ever zoned out in-combat?"
"Well, once, when we were-"
"Okay, okay. Scouting for the crows, that is a big deal. I won't blow it. I get the point." she sighed.
Some days it seemed like everything wrong was her fault.