Dynamis | Chapter 13 - Sovereign (Patreon)

Karl lumbered through the halls, pinching the bridge of his nose. His mind was at war with his body, having gone the night prior with only an hour of sleep. Writing his report had taken considerably longer than he’d anticipated. Now that it was over, he dreaded what Admiral Chovek’s response would be. Chovek was a man whose entire existence revolved around rules and protocols. If his report was lacking, he’d soon find out.

Everything looked unreasonably comfortable. The chairs, the tables, even the floor beckoned him to lie down and rest. He almost listened, but he couldn’t afford to miss class. Not today. Not after what happened yesterday.

His eyelids drooped as he turned the corner and bumped head-first into someone. “Sorry about that!” he said, nearly pitching backward. He shook his head and forced his eyes open. His breath caught.

Before him stood Lilibelle, her mouth slightly agape. She wore a blank expression; as if she hadn’t expected to run into him. Today, she was wearing a pink long sleeve shirt and a pair of black denim shorts that hugged her feminine form. Her earrings—which were a pair of multi-tiered spirals—jingled as she crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one leg. He might’ve found the way she dressed to be somewhat attractive if he wasn’t so dead tired. 

“Watch where you’re going, Karl,” she snapped.

Karl worked his jaw as he considered whether or not arguing with her this early in the morning had any merit. There was still the matter of what had happened last night, but he wasn’t sure how to bring it up. In the end, his exhaustion won him over. “I will. Can you stand aside? I need to get to class.” Lilibelle tapped her finger against her elbow, averted her gaze, then finally stepped to her side with a huff. “Thanks.”

“Hey,” Lilibelle said after he’d taken a few steps past her. With a quiet sigh, he stopped his wobbling legs, and turned to his side with a grunt. “A-Are… um.” The muscles around her jaw tightened, and a visible hue of pink tinted her cheeks. “Are you… holding up okay?”

Karl frowned. What fresh hell is this? I must be asleep if Lilibelle Katsun is showing consideration. “I’m fine.” He clicked his tongue. “Besides, what do you care?”

Her lip twitched. “What happened last night was, uh, terrible.” The lump in her throat bounced up. “A-As your partner, I thought I’d… ask how you felt.”

Karl wanted to lash out with a comment of his own after how she’d treated him up until now.  She’d taken a weird turn since yesterday, with seemingly no cause for a change in deviation. It certainly wasn’t because of anything he’d done. She’d even been on the helicopter that had arrived to save them. She wasn’t a soldier, she was a conductor. The only way she was on that helicopter was if she personally requested it. It felt like he was missing something.

“Could be better,” he said. He turned the rest of his body to face her, but maintained his distance. He wasn’t in the mood for niceties, but if she wasn’t going to let him go just yet, then he may as well prod her. “Was that your doing last night?”

“W-What?”

Why is she stammering so much? “The rescue,” he breathed, trying hard to keep his cool.

Slowly, she nodded. “Yes. I voiced my concerns to Captain Veren.” Her shoulders deflated. “With his permission, I was allowed a small team to extract you, Sean, and Carly.”

Carly’s name drove a spike through his heart. “I guess I owe you my thanks, then.” Now that he was getting a better look at her, she looked how he felt. Dark rings framed her eyes, and a lazy lilt had steadily tinted her voice the longer she spoke. Her skin was practically grey, and the bright-eyed go-getter glint in her eyes was missing. “What about you?” Damn it, you’re not supposed to be playing nice right now. You’re going to be late for class. “You look tired.”

“I’m fine,” she spat. “Long night is all.”

Reports were typically required to be filed within twenty-four hours of the mission’s completion. Deadeye argued that a good report was one that was recounted as soon as possible, while the events were still fresh in the person’s mind. If Captain Veren was as firm as he’d heard, then it was likely Lilibelle hadn’t gotten any sleep either.

“I see,” Karl said. “Well, I’m going to class. I don’t want to be late.”

“I’ll see you there.” With that, Lilibelle unfolded her arms and marched away in the opposite direction.

Two more classmates passed Karl in the hall on his way to class, throwing open the door two rooms down. Karl jogged to catch the door from closing, then quietly slipped in, locating his assigned desk—the third desk in the second row—and collapsing into his seat. The room’s lights were dimmed, creating the perfect conditions to nap. Without any sign of Shea Kuuna, he feared he would soon fall prey to sleep.

“Do you think we should leave?” he heard one student, a girl named Shelly, ask. Karl looked up at the clock on the wall to his right. He didn’t think class had started yet. “I don’t know if I feel safe here anymore.”

Is she talking about something else?

“And go where?” Lars argued across from Shelly in a hushed voice. “Out there? With the Fiends? That’s suicide.”

Karl lazily lowered his gaze to the pair. Shelly had turned her chair around. She kept her chin perched in her palm and her elbow on the back of the seat. Lars had his hands clasped on the desk, his gaze nailed to the wood.

“I’m scared, Lars,” Shelly admitted. “I don’t know if I want to be a conductress anymore.”

“Shelly, come on, don’t say things like that,” Lars said, putting one hand on top of hers. Shelly gently pulled her hand away and fingered a tendril of hair over her ear. “Let’s relax and talk this out first, okay? Maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds. Mister Kuuna should know.”

Did something happen?

The door opened moments later, and the reticent Shea Kuuna entered the room, Lilibelle close behind him. Lilibelle walked briskly to her desk and fell into her seat at the opposite side of the room, leaning forward with a furrowed brow.

Mister Kuuna looked weary. His grey vest was stained with dark spots around his arms, and the tie he usually wore was missing. He kept his lips pursed as he dropped a thick sheaf of papers on his desk and walked over to his podium. He clicked the lever at the bottom with his foot, then quietly rolled it to the other side of the room, clicking the lever back in place. The air was thick with anticipation, and when he took his position at the front of the class, his usual smile at the beginning of every morning was missing.

“Good morning, students,” Kuuna said as he leaned against his desk.

“Good morning, Mister Kuuna,” the students replied.

“I’m sure that by now, the rumors have spread and all of you are wondering what happened yesterday.” He knitted his brow, constantly opening his mouth and licking his lips as if he wasn’t quite sure what to say. “I am going to clear the air and give you the full account of what occurred.”

Shelly raised her hand.

“Please withhold your questions for the time being,” Kuuna said. The girl slowly lowered her hand. “Now, some of you may have noticed that there are some empty desks in this classroom.” Now that he’d mentioned it, the room did seem like it was missing some people. Six seats, to be precise. “It is my deepest regret to inform you that during yesterday’s ride-alongs, they perished in their respective operations.”

Karl gasped. Murmurs erupted from the students, and Kuuna raised his hand, silencing them. What happened last night was no coincidence.

“Then it’s true? A new Fiend is on the loose?” Derrin, a male student seated behind Lilibelle, said. Lilibelle regarded him over her shoulder with a cocked brow.

“Please refrain from speaking until I am done.” The student apologized, and Kuuna continued. “As I’m sure all of you are aware, we had several missing reports of DFs yesterday. The ones that did return suffered extensive damage, and are still currently undergoing repairs. The conductors who survived these incidents reported strange anomalies, such as white flashes and unusual Fiend behaviors. It was only this morning that we made the terrifying discovery that yes, a new Fiend has been unveiled.”

“Now? After all these years?” one male student said.

“What do these new Fiends do?” The legs of a chair screeched across the floor as a male student shot to his feet. “How are we expected to fight these things?”

“He’s right! We’ve just barely started!” one of the female students said.

“Settle down, please, settle down,” Kuuna said, gesturing with his hands. Kuuna fought for control over the din, and when the class wouldn’t respond, he grabbed the rod on his desk and struck it against the wood. “That’s enough!” Timid eyes darted around the room for answers, constantly looking back at Kuuna. Shaky voices murmured as the students settled back into their seats, their voices descending back into uncomfortable silence.

“Now,” Kuuna sighed. “I will tell you everything we know so far.” Karl leaned forward, suddenly wide awake. He glanced in Lilibelle’s direction, whose attention was glued to their professor. “We know scant little about this creature, except that it is larger than any we have ever faced before. Considering the bizarre nature of the Fiends around it, we can only assume it has some effect on them. Up until now, we had assumed that the Fiends were a hivemind of sorts, driven to consume anything in their path without reason.

“We are now considering the possibility that they have been commanded from the very beginning, and that this new, much larger beast is their way of assuring victory.” He drew a sharp breath. “I won’t lie to you. Cohabitation may no longer be a possibility. Of the reports we received from surviving conductors, two of them observed innumerable Fiends working together. Not just grunts, either, but soldiers, fighters, and even marshal-class Fiends were sighted together.

“Now… that said, we are still investigating the particulars regarding this creature, so I cannot say with absolute certainty that anything I have said thus far is correct. Until we’ve had more time to research it, we urge all conductors to avoid engaging high concentrations of Fiends.”

“Then we just ignore them?” one student balked.

“I said—”

“What are we supposed to do?” Sark, a male student on Karl’s left, asked. His voice was trembling. “I don’t want to die.”

Kuuna glared at the student. “Then leave,” he growled, pointing to the exit. “There’s the door. No one will stop you. But don’t think it’s going to be any better out there.” The student nodded, and Kuuna scanned over the students for a while. “Things are going to change around here quite rapidly. For starters, sessions will last an additional hour longer than normal.” The students gasped and scoffed, and Kuuna quickly followed up with, “Your pay will be doubled to compensate.” That quieted a few of them. “Additionally, your training has been expedited, and is expected to conclude in two months instead of the initially planned six.

“These next few weeks are going to be some of the roughest in your life.” He pushed away from his desk and slipped his hands into his pants pockets. “I hope that you’ll put your best foot forward. Now, let’s open the floor for questions.” He gazed at something behind Karl. “Yes, Miss Roux?”

“W-What if we don’t have a partner anymore?” The girl practically mumbled the question. Karl looked over her shoulder to see a girl with puffy, red cheeks and a sullen disposition. She stared at her desk the entire time, her hand still raised.

“I’m sorry, Miss Roux, I couldn’t hear you,” Kuuna said.

“She wants to know what happens to those who don’t have partners anymore,” Karl answered.

“Thank you,” Roux whispered.

“For those of you who are without a partner, I am truly sorry for what happened. I will not claim to know what you are going through, only that Doctor Strobar is available at your convenience. To answer your question, however, our regime is going to see some changes. As you all well know, once you are assigned a partner, it is permanent barring exceptional circumstances. However… considering what has happened, periodically switching partners will not only be encouraged, but mandated.”

Karl frowned. “Mandated?”

Kuuna nodded. “Yes. Seeing as there are at least three people in this room without a partner, that shall need to be rectified, and we do not have the time to find them new matches. The particulars of this new system have yet to be finalized, so in the meantime, matters will continue as normal. Don’t count on that lasting long. You’re all going to get very comfortable very soon.”

“This is bull shit,” one student said as he rose from his seat. It was Ader, one of the two guys he’d seen in the locker room shortly before his departure the other day. “People are dead, my best friend is dead, and you expect us to just brush our shoulders and move on like nothing happened?”

“We have no choice,” Kuuna said slowly.

“No, we do have a choice. What you’re doing is fucked.”

“I’m going to ask you to step outside until the end of class.”

“Gladly.” Ader kicked the leg of his desk, causing it to screech against the tile. He marched through the aisle on his right, one hand in his pocket, and threw open the door. Students flinched and gasped as the door slammed against the wall.

“A-Ader, wait!” Daisy, Ader’s partner, shot to her feet and leaned over her desk. Ader didn’t pass her so much as a glance on his exit. Daisy slipped through the aisle on her left, stopping at the door. “Please excuse me.” And then she followed him outside.

Various sounds and gestures of anxiety filled the room. Some scratched the back of their heads, others nodded. Roux released muffled sobs, and Karl bowed his head in reverence for her lost partner. It went on like this for some time, until a curiosity prompted Karl to raise his hand.

“Yes, Mister Donovan?” Kuuna said.

“Do we have a name for these new Fiends?” Karl asked.

Kuuna nodded. “Sovereigns.”