Elia Kain stood back from the mirror to look at herself. Perfect! She thought.  The training uniform she wore clung to her small frame.  It had been specially made for her.  Not only was she smaller than the new trainees but she was three years their younger.  Her father had pulled some strings to allow her to apply for the warriorling program early but she had needed to pass the exams like all the others.
    “Elia! Quit starring at that uniform and come get your breakfast.”
    Walking into the kitchen, Elia said, “I wasn’t starring Mama.  I was... making sure it fit right.”
    “Yes well, it won’t fit right for long if you don’t eat something.”
    “Where’s Papa?” The girl asked, her smile falling only slightly.
    “He had something to take care of this morning.  Don’t worry.  He’ll be there for the induction.”  Elia’s smile came back full force as she turned her focus to her breakfast, tucking a loose strand of shoulder length brown hair behind her ear.


   
    “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this year’s Warriorling Academy Trainee Induction Ceremony.  As you know, the program here in Neldran holds great expectations of excellence…”  The commandant went on, saying more about the prestige of the academy but Elia barely heard him.  She was standing in the fourth row from the center, hidden by her fellow trainees with an ear to ear smile on her face. Aside from her younger age, Elia was two inches shorter than what was considered short for Neldranian standards but in that arena, in that uniform, with her parents looking on from the stands, she felt larger than life.  When the ceremony was over, she said her good-byes to her mother and father who she would only see on Visitation Days, picked up her bag, and headed off to find the barracks she was assigned to.

    “Um… hi. I’m Amri Arseal.” The auburn haired girl held her hand out.
    “I’m Elia Kain.” She said with a smile, taking Amri’s hand.
    “Um… Do you mind if I take the top bunk? I don’t much care for enclosed spaces.”
    “Not at all.”
    “Thanks.  I was afraid you’d be like the others and claim it for yourself or be ‘saving it’.” She said with relief, indicating the other trainees at the front end of the room and beginning to unpack her things.
    “Why wouldn’t they let you?” Elia asked, also unpacking her bag.  Amri looked bashful again.
    “I’m from… Lucanshi, but the only academies on Bascillia are geared more toward politics than a warriorling program should be so I asked to apply here.”  She finished in a rush, looking half afraid that Elia would suddenly decide not to be friends with her.
    “Oh.”  Elia glanced toward the group of trainees glaring at them. “Well, forget them.  I don’t think they like me either.”  Amri looked at her questioningly and it was Elia’s turn to blush. “Or haven’t you noticed I’m a little short for a trainee?”
    “What does that have to do with anything?”
    Well, I’m short, I’m fourteen, and I still did better on the entrance exams than most of them did.”
    “You’re only fourteen?!  Hoe did you even apply for the exams?”
    “My papa called in a favor.  They only sent me an application after they made sure I would get creamed in the qualifiers.” She said, laughing.
    “Uh, is this where the misfits of the academy meet?” Amri and Elia turned to face a very scared looking young man with blonde hair.
    “Looks like.  What makes you misfit enough to fit in with the misfits? Amri asked, smiling.  The young man’s face fell dramatically. “No, I was just kidding.”  She said quickly, trying to resurrect the situation.
    “Yeah, the best part about being a misfit in this place is that for once you don’t have to pass a test” Elia joked.
    “Really?” He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks. I’m Calev Terrana.”  The three finished their introductions and unpacking and then headed to the mess hall.



    Sweat beaded on Elia’s face despite the cool morning air.  She smiled to herself.  When her opponent lunged at her, she dropped to the ground, grabbed one of the passing ankles and pulled as she stood, causing him to trip and spiral in the air before landing on his back at her feet.  The others on the field laughed and some paid up as Elia helped the man up.
    “Damn, you’re fast!” he said with a smile. “But I’m still stronger.”  He pulled her into a hug.  She laughed as they parted.
    “Can’t crush what you can’t catch.” Elia gibed. 
    “Elia’s got you head over heals for her Drell.” Calev winked as he and the others came closer.  Egan Drell blushed slightly.
    “Where’d Amri run off to?” Elia asked, looking over the small crowd.
    “One of the instructors sent for her right before you helped Drell learn to fly.”  Calev told her. “She said she’s catch up at dinner.”
    “Okay. Well, anyone want to go a round before we go get cleaned up for food.” Elia asked.  Calev and the others looked at the dirt covered form of Drell rubbing his backside. “Oh fine.” Elia laughed. “You going to join us tonight at dinner?”
    “Wish I could but you and Calev will have to keep each other company.  We’re all scheduled for the hell week, starting tonight.” Drell grimaced.
    “That’s what you get for picking on someone your own age.”  Calev laughed before turning very serious. “What you need is an older man who knows his way around a mess hall.”  He said leaning toward Elia with mischief in his eyes.
    “And who is on a first name basis with the head cook?”  The group then headed for the shower rooms, laughing once again.

The din in the mess hall was enough to warrant anyone leaning forward to attempt conversation.  Elia sat at the table waiting for Calev to finish eating, having already wolfed down her own meal.  As it had continually done since they entered the hall, her attention drifted toward to double doors, hoping each time that it opened the person coming through them was Amri.
    “What the hell is taking her so long?  What could that instructor have needed?”
    “You know, curiosity can get you into trouble.”  Elia looked back at her friend who was smiling at her.
    “Oh come on.  You can’t tell me you’re not as curious too.”
    “Who says I’m not but she’ll let us in on whatever’s going on when she shows up.”  Calev said with a don’t-be-so-impatient look on his face.
    “I know. It’s just being MIA all day isn’t like her and I heard she’s not the only one to have been called away and then not been seen again for the day… and it’s a freeday on top of it all.”
    “Sounds like you missed me.”  Amri said coming up to the table, beaming at her friends.
    “And just there the hell have you been?”  Elia asked, squashing Calev’s “Hey Am.”
    “I was in a lesson.”  She said sitting down.  She knew Elia’s tone was out of reaction to her opening comment.  Elia didn’t like being caught missing Amri or any of her friends.  It meant she cared and that just wasn’t being tough. “It’s a special program a group of us were chosen for based on our performance levels in a specific field.  We’re going to meet every week on the first freeday for the rest of the training program.”
    “You seem happy about it so it must be a good thing.” Calev said.  Elia looked confused and disappointed.
    “Well, you know the instructors are still nominating trainees for the extra programs.  The way you fight, your name is probably already on a list and you won’t have any free time to miss me.”  Amri said encouragingly.  “You too, Calev.”
    “Nah, not me. I’d rather snooze.” He answered.
    Elia thought for a moment and sighed. “You’re probably right Am” She conceded. “So what was this lesson on?”  Now it was Amri who was uncomfortable.
    “It can’t be that bad.  What’s it on?” pressed Calev.
    “I can’t, at least not now and not here.”  She pleaded.  A looked of worry was shared between Elia and Calev.



    Amri had been right as usual.  Elia had been nominated for an advanced course not long after their conversation six months ago.  This course was geared toward more combat training and especially, command.  It was an intense learning environment but she liked it and her instructor too.  Trinasi Rahsity was the type of instructor all the male trainees had crushes on.  She was beautiful and friendly, yet strict.  Usually she gave the lesson in the Arena, with mock battles and tactical simulations.  Elia slouched further in her chair.  She was barely listening to the lecture on siege defense when Rahsity suddenly stopped talking.  The woman had a confused look upon her face before she began coughing and gasping for air.  Elia and two other students were the first to react and reach her.  One of the students stopped short.
    “What the hell is that?!”  The young woman asked.  Elia didn’t respond.  The male student that was at their instructors side with her got up and ran for help.  All Elia could do was to hold her dying teacher as she knelt upon the floor of the lecture hall, her classmates looking on in horror as a black ooze slowly poured from Rahsity’s mouth and nose.

    Elia and her classmates had been quarantined for three weeks.  The authorities released them because they could not find the way the disease was spreading.  None of the trainees from Rahsity’s lessons had fallen to her fate and all across the large island, more people perished.  There were no warning symptoms, no seeable way of contraction.  Some victims died within minutes, as in Rahsity’s case.  Others suffered for hours.  Always, it was fatal.  The only thing anyone did know was that it wasn’t only happening on Neldrania.  The plague was on Bascillia, the region’s capital continent, striking at random.  No one knew who was next.  People were scared.
    Still training continued.  The authorities needed this year's graduates to take the place of those that died.  Fear of the plague soon brought about paranoia that led to rumor.
    It was said that the Intelligence division of the City’s security forces knew more about what was going on than they were telling.  It was suspected by some that the division was behind it.  Within the academy, those suspicions and rumors found a target in the students in the advanced Intelligence program.

    Elia was making her way back to the barracks.  She had been excused from all her lessons for the week after receiving devastating news.  She couldn’t take staying inside all week so she had taken to walking the campus and thinking.  She made her way slowly through the dirt alleys lined with the steel and mud made buildings that were classrooms and barracks and labs when shouts coming from one of the academy’s courtyards drew her attention.  Though her pace had increased with her interest, it was when she heard a frightened yell in a familiar voice that she broke into a run.
    As she rounded a corner into the courtyard, fear and confusion formed a sinkhole in Elia’s stomach.  A quarter of the ways across the open area were four trainees, two men and two women, one of which was on the ground, trying to get up.  It was Amri.  The young man, who was obviously the ring leader of the other two, grabbed her by the hair and threw her down again.  He kicked her in the stomach before the three of them surrounded her.
    As his foot connected, Elia charged.  She came up from being the two men, grabbing one the wrist, flipping him, before she set her sights on the next one.  Blows to the gut and head followed by a sweep-kick to the legs dropped him too.  When she looked up, her would be third target turned and fled.
    “You got a lot of nerve attacking a higher ranking cadet.”  The first man said, not looking up as he got to his feet, thinking his small attacker was a younger student.
    “So do you!” Elia bit out, glaring at him.
    His friend stood up quickly and they both stood at attention, their faces drained of color.  They hadn’t just been caught assaulting another cadet, which was against the code of conduct, but one of an upper class who happened to be the best friend of the person they had been assaulting. “Uh, Kain…”
    “Dismissed!” She cut him off.  When they were gone, Elia turned her attention to Amri, who had come to stand just behind her and to the right. “Are you alright?”
    “Yeah,” Amri nodded, holding her side where she had been kicked. “Good timing. Uh, want grab some lunch?”  She had a nervous smile on her face.  Elia gently stopped her form trying to walk away.
    “Wait.  What was that all about?”
    “Nothing.  It was nothing.”
    “Because you’re in the Intel-program, isn’t it?”  Amri looked sad and afraid at her friend.
    “I heard about your parents.  I’m really sorry El. You have to believe me that we don’t know much more than anyone else.”  She pleaded.
    “But you do know some.   Tell me what’s going on Am, please?  If anyone has a right to know, I do.”
    Amri looked away. “Okay, but you can’t tell anyone.  I’ll be expelled from the program if you do.” She said, again pleading with her friend.
    “I won’t. I promise, and I don’t blame you or anyone else in the division.”
    “You should.  Everyone else does with less reason.”  Amri looked at the ground.
    Elia made Amri look at her by cupping her head in her hands. “Why would I blame the only family I have left? Now let’s go get you checked out, then we’ll find Calev and Drell, and get some food, okay?”
    Amri smiled and nodded in agreement.  “Okay. I’ll fill you in afterwards.”  With that they headed for the infirmary.
   
    Later that evening, Amri and Elia were lounging around in their barrack with several other students.  As it had been since Induction, the others left the ‘misfits’ to their corner in the back.
    "So what's with you and Drell?"  Amri asked smiling.  Elia blushed and Amri laughed.
    "I don't know.  I mean I like him but..."
    "He's only in his second year."
    "Right, which is ridiculous since I'd be in the same year if I hadn't started early."  Elia's expression grew more serious as she remembered the reason she had been able to start early, her father.  Amri noticed the change and decided it was time to take the conversation in a more serious direction.
    "This is the first time we've actually talked since they told you isn't it?"
    "Yeah.  I guess I've been avoiding people.  Not just you, everyone.  I," Elia paused.  "I guess I just miss them you know?"  Her friend laid a comforting hand one her arm.  Elia wiped a tear from her cheek and said, "So fill me in already, will you?"  She forced the smile.
    Amri withdrew her hand. "Okay, here goes.  First of all, I'm in a side branch of the Intel-program, lovingly called Intel-Tactical.  It's what happens when you put an Intel-program and a Combat-program together."
    "That's why you're so good in a fight.  Tough with earlier who could tell."  Elia laughed a little.
    "Right, but you know I don't like to fight, not for real anyway.  I only spar with you and Calev because I know if I screw up I won’t hurt either of you.  That and I still need to pass the graduating qualifiers to get a position in the Defense Bureau."
    "So you're planning on going back to Bascillia after." Elia took a deep breath.
    "Yeah, but I'll be able to come and visit though."  Amri said quickly and when Elia nodded she continued.  "Anyway, that first day I was called away, we were looking at boxes of dirt with ancient prints in them.  Most of the dirt came from just beyond the other side of the mountains.  We were learning how to 'garner information from the smallest detail' when a student yelled for the instructor.  We all saw the same thing happen in out own boxes a second later.  The black specs of dirt were moving, coming together.  The moving dirt eventually became the ooze and, last I heard, its still getting bigger.  The Intel-division has it locked up and are studying it.  They think that it kills because, well whatever it is, people breathe in the black specs and when it comes together, it clogs up the lungs.  They hush it up because they didn't want people to panic.  Whatever this is it comes from Dekaru herself."  Amri finished.
    "Rahsity had just come back from visiting a northern village on the other side of the mountains.  Last time we went to the shore, Mama brought back a jar of sand to remember our last family vacation before I started training."  Elia commented.  Then she vehemently said, "They could have warned us."
    "They're bureaucrats El, they care more about politics and the money made off of tourism to the coast than practicality."
    "And you want to be one of them."  She retorted.  Realizing what she had said, Elia added, "I'm sorry.  I know you're different."  The two sat talking until Calev returned from a kitchen duty that he had earned with a practical joke on an instructor.  They talked some more, not telling their friend about the plague's origins.  When it was Bed Call, the three settled into their bunks for the night.



    Elia slept lightly.  She had gone to bed worried.  When Amri had returned from Intel-tactical, she was pale and she didn't eat at dinner.  She hadn't talked much and every time Elia or Calev had asked her what was wrong, she retreated into herself again.  Elia was awake at the first muffled frightened cry from the bunk above hers.
    "Am, wake up.  You're dreaming Amri.  Wake up!"  Elia whispered to her ear, shaking her lightly.  When Amri awoke, she reacted to the hand on her shoulder by grabbing it by the wrist, locking it in place and taking a swing with her other hand at whoever was there.  Elia was faster and caught the fist aimed at her face.  "Hey, it’s me."  Amri began to cry.  Not wanting to wake the others, Elia pulled Amri from her bed and, holding her close to comfort her as well as to muffle the sobs, lead her outside.
    "Shh.  Shh.  Its okay Am.  It was just a nightmare."  Elia said once they were outside, trying to calm her.  "The plagues almost stopped."  Amri shook her head.
    "That's just it."  She said.  "It’s turned into something worse."  Elia stepped back, holding Amri's shoulders so they stood face to face but so there was still a comforting contact.
    "What's it turned into?"  Elia asked, deep concern lining her brow for what her friend might tell her but also for her friend.  Amri looked at her friend.  "Amri, tell me.  Whatever it is, it’s got you scared and you're the bravest person I know.  What's it turned into?"  Amri nodded and wiped at her puffy, tear streaked face.  She took a deep breath and sat down against the wall of the barrack, wincing slightly.  When Elia joined her she began to answer the question.
    "Okay.  You know I had class today, right?"  Elia nodded.  "Well when we got to the lab the ooze was gone."  Amri paused, looking at Elia.
    "Well, ere did it go?"
    "It didn't go anywhere.  It was still in the room only now it’s a monster.  It was like it came out of no where.  It just appeared behind Brogen and cut him down."
    "Brogen's dead?" Amri nodded. 
    "A couple of students tried to hold it off while everyone else got out."  Amri stared off into space.  "Only one of them made it out alive."  Elia moved to lift up Amri's shirt but Amri stopped her.  Amri pleaded with her friend with her eyes but moved her shirt anyway.  Elia felt sick.  Along Amri's ribs on her right side was a black gash that had been stitched up.  There was no bandage because, for some unknown reason, the wound was not bleeding.
    "Did they kill it?"  She asked.  Her voice was low and angry.  Amri shrugged.
    "They sent me to the mess hall after they were done patching me up.  As far as I know, it’s still locked up in the lab."
    "Show me."  Amri almost panicked.  "I won't do anything, I promise.  I just want to know for sure."  Elia quickly added.
   
    It was still there, charging the door again and again with its kukri like blades that never seemed to dent, bend, or dull from the repeated blows against the metal of the door.  Its huge form was completely black.  It’s appeared to have fur over most of its body.  Its face was a mixture of human and animal; muzzle for a nose, spiked teeth within its mouth, and with human eyes and brow.  Above the brow were large ears and short black horns on its head in two rows going down the back.  It turned a little as it assaulted the door and Elia saw the rows continued down the back, melting into a hard plating over the lower spine.  It stood towering over them on clawed, canine feet.  The hands that held the curved blades were also clawed.  It howled in frustration and its hand claws extended for another inch before returning to the smaller size.
    “Ten-hut!” Elia and Amri jumped and, turning, snapped to attention. “What are you cadets doing out of bed this late?  This is restricted area.”  The Intelligence instructor demanded.  Then he recognized who the cadets were.  “Arseal?  I’d have thought you’d have had enough of this demon.  Don’t tell me you thought you and Cadet Colonel Kain would take revenge on the thing.”
    “Revenge is a dish best served cold, Sir.”  Elia answered instead.  The instructor found this amusing.
    “Then why are you here?  And I’m not going to ask how or why you know classified information that only the intelligence trainees have clearance to know. “ He said pointedly at Amri.  They already know Amri had confided in Elia but with Elia’s high rank and that the information had not spread further, they had thought best to leave it be.
    “Recon, Sir.  Information about a threat to the Academy was incomplete.”  Amri stated.
    “Always know the location and status of your adversary.”  Elia added.
    The instructor nodded.  They were perfect answers.  “This entire facility will be locked down and quarantined until further notice as of thirty minutes from now.  I suggest you two file away this enemy and focus on the one called The Final Qualifiers at the end of the year.”
    “Yes Sir!” The two women said in unison.  When the instructor dismissed them they headed back to the barrack, giving one last look at the Intelligence building.

    As the months passed more and more reports came in of hordes of demons raising villages and cities on the far east side of Bascillia, moving west, stopping only to incinerate everything that was man made.  When the central government declared war on the beasts, thousands went out to meet them in battle.  The Demons of Death, the Anecris, kept coming.  A few were destroyed but still no one could figure out how.  The strategy became ‘hold them off until the evacuations were complete’.  For the senior class of the Neldran Warriorling Academy, this meant that training became more brutal.  They were going to face terrible odds of survival on the other side of the qualifiers.
    Things looked bleak for Elia, Amri, Calev, and the rest of their classmates.  Still, Calev never gave up a good practical joke and spent much of his free time trying to make his two best friends laugh or spending time with his friend from all those kitchen duties.  Elia and Amri spent a good portion of their free time honing Amri’s armed combat skills.  She was a fierce and courageous warrior but had always been too kind hearted to really push herself against an opponent.  Elia wouldn’t spar with her unless she really applied herself and Amri needed the practice for the exams.  Amri, in turn, helped Elia bone up on her tactical skills.  They were often seen in the library or the combat arena, cheered on by Calev and Egan Drell.
    It was on one such afternoon that the war reached out across Bascillia, the Crater Straights, and half the island of Neldrania to bloody the sands of the Academy grounds.
    Not far from where an audience had once again formed to witness the ‘epic battles of Arseal and Kain’.  The two ‘titans’ were immersed in an endless fight.  The two were matching each others’ best efforts, again and again.  Elia parrying Amri’s sais, Amri blocking Elia’s battleaxes.  The tide would turn in Elia’s favor only to spin around to Amri’s favor.
    Suddenly, scream of terror erupted from the direction of the third year barracks, Drell’s barracks.  Elia, Amri, and the others began to run in that direction when scores of young cadets came running into the arena.  Some were even flying through the archway, landing in broken and bleeding piles.  Behind them, came one lone Anecris.  It killed any that came within its reach.  A knowing glance assed between Amri and Elia.  They nodded to each other and charged, their weapons still in hand.
    “Try to get the cadets clear!” Elia called to Calev and Drell over her shoulder.  She didn’t wait to hear their affirmative.  She knew they’d follow her orders.
    “Just remember its fast.”  Amri warned as they closed in.  The strategy was to hold it odd, trying not to get killed in the process, while the cadets were evacuated; just like the standard for the Dekaru Forces.
    “The field of slaughter cleared as Calev and Drell went to work getting the attention of the panicking students and leading them towards the opposite side of the arena.  Elia picked their spot and they stood their ground.  The Anecris just came.  Its didn’t speed up and it didn’t slow down.  Once it was close enough to attack, the speed of the creature expounded.
    Most of the warriors’ attacks became dodging rolls.  Every blow they managed to land didn’t faze the Anecris and the fiend was landing blows that fazed them.  Both were bleeding from half a dozen cuts.  Amri stood behind it while Elia still stood in its path.  It lunged at her.  Elia just reacted.  Letting one axe fall, she dropped to the ground and grabbed at its foot.  Lifting as she stood, its weight preventing her from sending the creature spinning in the air.  As the Anecris tripped, Elia spun around and brought her remaining axe down with all her strength onto the armor plating at the base of the spine.  The Anecris exploded into a cloud of black dust.
    Amri, watching from where she had been when the Anecris had charged fell to her knees.  “That’s it…”  She said into the silence.



    The Grand Hall was lined with the rigid rows of the Academy’s cadets, the senior class was standing front and center.  The Commandant looked down from his podium at the small group of graduates before him.  It was quiet in the assembly room.  There were no parents, other family members, or friends talking, moving, or calling out encouragement to the new members of the Dekaru Forces.  Only those that had passed the graduating qualifiers stood in new uniforms with new pips designating the ranks they earned during the program and from how well they did on the exams.  Those that did not pass stood with the next year’s class.  Within the central group stood Amri, Elia, and Calev.  Though it was a time for celebration, it was a somber moment.  They would be the first new warriors to reinforce the front.
    “…You have made me proud to be the commandant of this Academy.  When I call your name, please come forward to be acknowledged by your peers and receive your orders.”  The man began reading off the names.  Each warrior was handed his or her orders and was saluted by the school at large.  “Sergeant Elia Kain.”  Elia heard and stepped forward.  She wasn’t the highest ranking graduate but she was close.  Amri’s and her victory over the Anecris gave them a certain level of notoriety.  It had earned her another promotion.  Walking back to her position within her class, Elia looked down at her orders.  Bascillia…East Bascillia.  She was going to the front lines as the commanding officer of a small tactical unit.  Lost in the thoughts of her future, Elia missed the commandant’s dismissal.  She was brought back to reality by a slightly taller figure colliding into her with a hug.
    “I made it in!”  Amri was excitedly saying as she bounced in the hug.  “I got into the Defense Bureau, Anecris Research and Intelligence!  I’m a secondary sub regional coordinator!”  She finished, almost yelling.
    “That’s brilliant Am.”  Elia said, standing back from her.  “I never doubted you’d get in.  Didn’t expect as SSC though.  Must have something to do with this ‘Anecris problem’ solving brain of yours.”  She smiled, knocking on Amri’s head as if making sure it wasn’t hollow.  The two friends were laughing though each others’ eyes  glistened with moisture when the instructor from the Intel-lab came to lead Amri to the departing convoy to Bascillia.
    “You take care of Calev now.”  Amri said, giving one last good-bye hug to her friend. “And don’t get yourself in trouble out there on the front.”
    “I’ll be seeing you Amri Arseal.”  Elia said, squeezing the woman’s hands.
    “Bye.”
    Amri moved away and Drell took her place.  He stood at attention and saluted her.  Elia shook her head.  Egan Drell, always a stickler for regs.  He was still a cadet and she was an officer.
    “Oh stop it.” She said smiling.  He dropped his hand and his shoulders slumped.  “Hey, it’s not like we’re never going to see each other again.”
    “Uh, it’s not that.  I know your going to give the Anecris a beating.  I just…”  He gave her a nervous smile and glanced over his shoulder.  Peering around him, Elia understood why he was nervous.
    “Moving on to someone younger?”  She said smiling, letting him know it was okay by teasing him.  She hadn’t wanted to tell him that she needed to move on herself.  She thanked Dekaru it was his idea.
    “Look, I’ve done a lot of thinking this year and, well,” Drell picked up her hands and held them in his. “We had a good time but I’m not for you.  I never was and I understand that now.”  Elia nodded.  She was beginning to understand what he was getting at.  They hugged and he went and joined the young woman standing among his classmates.
    “Well boss, I guess it’s just you and me now.”
    “Huh?”  She asked Calev who had come up beside her.  He handed her his orders.
    “You okay?”
    “Yeah, just thinking about something Egan said. “  She answered, unfolding the paper.  “Calev?”  He snapped to attention in from of her.
    “Corporal Terrana, reporting for duty.”  Elia’s eyes widened as Amri’s words came back to her. ‘Take care of Calev now.’ How’d she…?  She laughed to herself and looked in the direction Amri had gone. Intelligence is perfect for her. She sighed and turned back to Calev.
    “Come on Corporal.  Let’s go find out convoy.”  She said clapping him on the shoulder.

    While Amri when to the Defense Bureau facility in Olatheam in mid-eastern Bascillia to research the Anecris tactics and behaviors,  Elia, Calev, and the rest of the strike team were sent to the many different hot spots along the front.  What constituted a hot spot was an amassing of Anecris forces for a strike at the Dekaru lines.
    In the two years after their graduation, the three friends kept each other up to date with letters though Amri’s were sparse in regards to what she was working on.  Every now and then, Elia would write Amri telling her that her strike team would be passing through Olatheam to get supplies and to pick up some new members to replace those lost in their frequent battles with the demons.  Of course, Amri would write back saying ‘I know.  See you soon.’.  The Three friends would get together and reminisce about the academy.  If one of them had been promoted, they’d celebrate.  Amri would worry over each new black scar.
    That was something Amri had been the first to learn.  After her first encounter with the Anecris in the Intel-lab at the Academy, she watched as her wounds from the battle healed slowly and scarred black.  It was the nature of the Anecris blades.
    For the three friends, Olatheam’s taverns became places of happy memories in the darkened world of war.  Olatheam itself had become important for them.  It was where Amri lived and worked, had become her home.  For Calev, it was where a close friend from the Academy had come to live.  For Elia, Olatheam wasn’t Neldran but it was where Amri was.  She was her best friend and after the deaths of her parents, she had become her only family.  Olatheam was important to Amri, therefore, it was important to her.
    When Elia received the letter from Amri along with a new set of orders, her stomach was suddenly no longer there.
    “El? Hey, El! You alright?”  Calev asked, having watched the color drain from his friend and commanding officer’s face.  Elia swallowed and handed him the papers.  Calev took them and looked down to read them.  On the first piece of paper, in Amri’s flowing hand, read:

                                                                                                Elia,
           
                                                                     They’re marching on Olatheam.



    When Elia and Calev arrived in Olatheam with the strike team, the outskirts were in ruins.  The people had withdrawn behind the city’s walls.  The strike team moved cautiously through the rubble.  A cry came up from the watch and the steel gates rose to let them in.  Amri waited on the other side.  When Elia began to raise her hand in salute Amri stopped her.
    “There’s no time for regs.  You need to prep your unit.  Reports say a large force will be here by night fall.”  Elia nodded in response and followed Amri to the war room of the research base.  Elia had been worried before but the ashen and drawn appearance of Amri turned the knot in her stomach cold.
    Once inside the command center, Elia could see the maps of the area and the black marks that were used to represent the demon plaguing the people of Dekaru.  The pass through the mountains to the east was a thick dark line cutting through the map like a lance; pointed directly at Olatheam.  This was why Amri looked as worried as she did.  Olatheam would be massacred.
    “My god, Am…”Elia’s voice trailed away as he pulled a few of the map toward her.
    “I know.”  The other woman said.
    “Please tell me you’re evacuating.”
    “We are.  We started after an advance party attacked.”  Elia nodded remembering the ruins of the outskirts. “The problem is their moving too fast for us to get everyone out before they get here.  I’ve got the city’s defense troops and a few hundred militia volunteers.”  Amri moved around the circular table. “Now I have our strike team.  I just…”  She placed her hand on Elia’s. “I need someone to lead them.  Someone who I can trust to buy us enough time and get as many people back as possible.”
    “I can’t make any promises Amri.  Whit that many Anecris…” Elia sighed, forming a plan in her mind that might be the best solution to what Amri was asking. “I’ll see what I can do.”

    Later that afternoon, the warriors who had left to buy time for Amri to evacuate Olatheam stood facing the on coming black horde at the base of the foothills.  They were far enough away from Olatheam that Elia hoped they’d be able to thin their ranks, fall back and do it again.  She hoped it would slow the beasts down enough for Amri to get everyone out and that falling back before they lost too many would help spare some of the warriors’ lives.
    Again and again, the defenders of Olatheam would engage the enemy.  Scores of them would fall and Elia would sound the retreat.  By the time the troops under Elia’s command were retreating into the ruins of the city’s outskirts, long after nightfall, their number had dropped by more than a third.  This was the last time they’d stand and retreat. Amri and the citizens of Olatheam were gone but Elia’s strike team under Calev was assigned to make a final sweep of the city.  When the Anecris reached the ruins, they’d fight once more before running for the rendezvous three days from Olatheam.  The Anecris would move on until they had destroyed every man made object, before they burned Olatheam to ashes.
    The death demons were nearing.  As Elia was about to sound the attack, Calev came up behind her.  “Look who I found.”  He said.  Elia turned around to see her friend holding a little boy on his hip.  “I’m thinking he lost his parents in the evac, got scared and hid.  He’s not talking though.”
    Looking around she spotted who she was looking for and said, “Ordan, take this boy and hide behind the ranks.  You’re fall back with the strike team as guard when I call the retreat.”  The newest recruit to her team saluted and took the toddler from Calev.  When Elia turned her attention back to the advancing Anecris, they were almost on top of the first wave.  She called the attack and the rubble erupted in charging bodies and weapons.  The fight as fast and fierce.  Elia turned around after having killed an Anecris, looking for the next threat when she saw Ordan dispatch one of the demons.  If the had gotten that far past her troops it was time to leave.  As the retreat spread through the warriors, Elia looked back at Ordan once more.  Something flew at him and his head jerked back as it buried itself in his skull.  An Anecris hand grabbed the kukri and yanked it back.  The young man’s body collapsed.
    As the beast began to move towards the pile of rubble Ordan had been guarding,  Elia charged forward.  She caught the Anecris blade as it came down toward the blonde head poking out of the rocks.  Using her momentum and the Anecris’ strength to force the creature to turn, she unlocked her axes from its blade and struck at the base of its spine.
    “I’ve got him. Go!”  Came Calev’s voice as he ran past her.  She looked back toward the main battlefield and found nothing but Anecris.  She ran to catch up with Calev.
    A couple of hours later, the remnants of the Olatheam Defense stopped in the midst of a wooded area to regroup and rest.  Calev was lagging behind.  When he caught up, he handed the boy to Elia.
    “Take him?” He asked.  Even in the sparse light coming from the moon through the bare branches of the trees, Elia could see that he was pale.  His forehead was glistening with sweat.  She followed him with her eyes as he went to a tress and slide down its trunk.  Elia put the boy down and asked the nearby soldiers to watch him before going to join Calev.
    Calev was propped up against the tree with his eyes half closed.  Elia knelt beside him, concerned, she felt his forehead.  He was clammy to the touch.
    “Hey El.” He said quietly.
    “Calev…where?” She asked him sorrowfully.  He lifted the hand on his lower abdomen to reveal the torn and blood darkened leather the strike team used for armor.
    “You always told me my stomach would get me into trouble.”  He half smiled.  Elia dropped her head as she laughed so Calev wouldn’t see her tears.  She knew that the blade would have cut deep into his intestines and that it was rare to recover from such a wound.  It had been too long since it was inflicted.  Calev would die.  No one could stop it.
    “Amri’s going to miss you.”  She said trying to hide her own feelings of loss.
    “You’ll take care of her though.  She’ll forgive me.”  Elia nodded. “El, I need you… to do a favor for me.  You know my friend, Jevin?  Will… you find him?  Will you tell… him… I love him?  Elia closed her eyes trying to trap the burst of tears.  She failed and a sob slipped out of her control.  She nodded to him, afraid to speak.  Calev’s mouth twitched in an attempt at a smile. “El… you’re good together.” He swallowed hard.  “Don’t let anything stop you.”  Calev took a ragged breath.  “I didn’t.”
    “Calev? Calev!!”

    That night, a pit was dug and in the cold, cloudy dawn the surviving warriors gathered around the hole in the ground Calev’s body had been lain in.  So many had to have been left on the battlefields to await the fires of the Anecris.  Calev’s funeral was for all those left behind.  Elia said a few words in good-bye before picking   up a shovel and burying him, his ID chips digging into her palm.

    Elia stood near one of the tents that had been set up for the refugees.  They’d organize and regroup here then make for Lucanshi.  It was the nearest settlement in the opposite direction of the Anecris advance.  Elia watched Amri at the center of the chaos.,  Elia admired how collected Amri was under the pressure of the constant questions and problems that came with trying to move hundreds of people in an orderly fashion.  Grace under pressure, she thought.   And I’m about to end it.  Elia took a deep breathe and stepped away from the canvas wall.
    “Am… We need to talk.”  Amri took in her friend’s drawn, pale face and her stomach tightened in apprehension.  She nodded and led Elia to her tent.
    Inside the tent, Amri sat on her cot and waited for Elia to deliver her bad news.  Elia stood in front of her.  She made several attempts at telling Amri but never got past the first word. Finally, she just pulled a pair of ID chips out of a pouch at her waist and handed them to her.  Tears fell silently down Amri’s face.
    “He, uh… the wound was mortal.  He carried a little boy for four klicks and didn’t say a word.  I promised him I’d find Jevin.  They were… family.”  Elia couldn’t stand Amri’s sudden sob and pulled her into a hug.
    After a few moments, Amri pulled away.  Wiping away the wetness from her cheeks, she said, “Jevin is in the supply tent, separating our supplies into rations.”  Elia nodded, took the ID chips from Amri, and turned to go.  “El?”  Amri turned her back to face her.  “What else did he say?”  Elia didn’t meet  her eyes when she spoke.
    “He said, ‘Don’t let anything stop you.’”  Elia finally looked at her.  “He didn’t.”  She left to find Jevin, leaving a silent Amri in her tent.

    Late the next afternoon, Amri had finally found some time to herself and decided she didn’t want to be alone.  Walking the dirt paths between the rows of tents, Amri searched for Elia.  She hadn’t seen her since the day before in her tent.  She thinks I blame her.  She blames her.  After another ten minutes of looking, Amri rounded a corner to find Elia sitting on a crate, alternately studying the horizon and the ground at her feet.  Neither said anything as Amri pulled herself up to sit on the crate beside the sullen commander.  They sat quietly for a while.  Eventually, Elia broke.
    “The dirt is weird on Bascillia.  It’s so dark.  Neldran’s is light.”  She said, staring again at the earth.  Amri smiled.
    “You’ve never left that island, no matter how far away you’ve come.  You’re too tied to your home.”
    “Home can be other places, other things.  No matter where or what we were doing, Calev was always at home.”  Amri nodded in agreement.  “I shouldn’t have let him lead the strike team.  I should have taken him with me.  I’m sorry.  You told me to take care of him and I failed.”
    “Elia Kain, where do you get off thinking of our friend, who passed the qualifiers just fine without our help, as some scared little kid that got himself in over his head and needed you to come pull him out of the fire?”
    “No, that’s not what I-”
    “Calev was a full grown man, a warrior in his own right.  What happened was not your fault.  He knew what he was getting into.”
    “I know, I just-”
    “Let me finish.  You did not fail me, Elia.  I asked you to bring back as many as you possibly could and you did.  Calev just wasn’t one of them.”  Elia only nodded.  “Now, a cavalry unit should be here the day after tomorrow to escort us to Lucanshi.  I’m told they’re bringing new orders for both of us.  So, if you still intend to beat yourself up for something completely out of your control,” Amri said pointedly. “Please do it somewhere where the troops can’t see you?”  Amri smiled and nudged Elia with her shoulder.  She was pretty sure she saw a smile tug at her friend’s lips.

    The cavalry unit arrived as scheduled.  The band of refugees from Olatheam would begin the trek to Lucanshi in the dawn hours of the next morning.  Amri was waiting for Elia with their new orders in her tent.
    “Lets here it.”  Elia said, sighing, as she came in.
    “Well, we’ve both been promoted, and we’re both going home.  Amri indicated the papers in her hand as she took a seat on the edge of the bed.
    “Promoted? To what?”  Elia asked, pulling a folding chair away from Amri’s small desk to sit across from her.  Once Elia had sat, Amri handed her the orders and leaned back on her elbows.
    “Congratulations.  ‘Battlehead Kain‘.  Isn’t that what you dreamed of that first year at the Academy?  Just like your father.  Elia nodded but didn’t say anything more.  Amri sat up and looked at Elia, the dim flickering light from the desk lamp casting ripples of shadow across her face.  Her normally teal eyes took on a dark moss green color in the firelight.  She looked as if she were trying to make the hardest decision of her life.  “Elia, you’re going home to elad and defend Neldran.  You’re happiest there, more yourself.  You wouldn’t be content anywhere else.”
    “I could be.”  Amri looked at the brunette.  She truly understood her reluctance to accept her orders and the look in her eyes.  they came from the same place that Amri’s stubbornness did.  Elia cleared her throat and looked back down at the papers still in her hand.
    “They’re sending you home too, I see.  ‘Regional Commander’.  That’s impressive.  Congratulations to you too.”
    “Thank you.  I’ll be staying in Lucanshi, Dekaru help me.”  They had a small laugh at Amri’s joke.  Neither brought up that they’d have to go back to writing letters.  When it got too quiet in the tent for Elia, she got up to leave. Besides, Amri thought after she had gone.  This war can’t possibly last forever.  Neldran is far from the fighting and there’ll be plenty of time to take Calev’s advice.