1 - Towards The Enemy

Kari prayed that he would get there in time and urged his horse faster.

They galloped at full speed, careless of the debris scattered over the track they followed. If he got there in time without laming the horse, it would be a miracle. He only hoped that his squad, well soon to be ex-squad, would reach the town of Ilwe shortly to start the evacuation. They had received the command from higher up in the army that morning that they would retreat and leave Ilwe to the enemy. That alone was shocking enough without the order to leave without evacuating or warning the people.

It wasn’t some tiny village either, there were hundreds if not thousands of people living there, but it was so far from the capital that apparently, no one from further inland cared what happened to the people there. Kari would be damned if he leaves the people there with no warning of the impending doom. The horse skidded suddenly and he gritted his teeth, holding on desperately. Aster managed to stay on her feet, not losing too much speed, and they continued on their way.

“Nearly there, Aster, please just as fast as you can,” Kari muttered to the dappled grey horse.

He felt bad for pushing Aster so hard. She had been a good horse during the time he had been on the campaign and didn’t deserve this treatment. But if they didn’t get to the battlefield soon, many people would face the violence of an invading army with no warning.

Kari had joined the army illegally, his squad hiding him from the higher-ups in exchange for his daiyan powers. Daiyans wielded an element of nature almost like magic, each with various abilities, and were only born to the Aithyean people. Even then, they were rare and there remained a lot of fear and superstitions surrounding people wielding the Daiya. They were marked at birth with colorful tattoos somewhere on their bodies that would grow and change with them. Being so rare and powerful meant that the kingdom jealously guarded their Daiyans, requiring them to be registered and their movements restricted.

It was even worse for him- being an omega and a Daiyan meant that if the kingdom got hold of him, he might as well be chained to the capital. Kari was lucky, living in such a distant village meant that the will of the kingdom held little sway and he could hide the sparkling silver tattoo on his left wrist.

Once the war broke out, he illegally joined the army to help out where he could against the invading Niamreans. He had become a great boon to the Aithyean side. But once those orders were handed down to retreat and leave the villagers to death or worse, he was done. Not being part of the army meant he wasn’t defecting. He could view orders as a suggestion instead. A suggestion that he ignored. To hell with the army. He would stand alone against the world to buy those innocent people as much time as he could.

Through the trees to his left, he saw snippets of the field he was trying to reach before the invaders passed through. This would be where he will make his stand. His squad had hopefully reached Ilwe by now and would be starting the evacuation. All that was left was for him to buy as much time as possible with his life. He had told them to return to their posts after they were done and to not come looking for him behind enemy lines.

The Aithyeans had no idea how many people were in this enemy battalion and Kari was going to commit suicide to buy the most amount of time he could. He planned to use his very life force to fuel his ice and it would unleash a power far greater than what he could normally manage.

That was his trade-off.

Throughout his mad dash to the battlefield, he had been determined to put that out of his head but now, it was time to say his goodbyes. He offered up a small apology to his parents, who had given him life and freedom and didn’t stop him from going to war even when they disapproved. Now they wouldn’t get to see their son again.

“Yhieris, please watch over them as you have watched over me.” He wasn’t sure if the goddess of Daiyans would watch over normal people but they had birthed him and he didn’t have enough faith to pray to anyone else. It felt like a shallow attempt to smooth over the pain they would feel once he never returned home- pain caused by him and his foolish actions.

His chest clenched tightly and he could see an image of his mother crying silently in the rain at the emptiness in her heart. Kari closed his eyes and tried to will away the picture before his own tears welled up. He loved his mother so dearly. She didn’t deserve that kind of pain. But then neither did the people he would hopefully protect.

Please understand, please.

Opening his eyes again, Kari discovered that he had reached the end of the forest and the start of the lush fields that would be his final resting place. He slowed Aster to a walk.

The sun shone through the overhead canopy of leaves, dappling the path in front of him with sparkling light and filling the space with a sense of sleepy peace. What he could see of the fields also gave a sense of tranquility. The long, lush grass was a deep emerald that swayed in the slight breeze, just beckoning for bare feet and speaking of lazy days.

It all seemed at odds with the impending bloodshed. But he couldn’t ask for a nicer place to die. Hopefully, the stark red of his death would quickly be soaked up by the earth to turn the field back to its beautiful emerald and leave memories of this day to be forgotten once his bones were swallowed up by nature.

Aster was heaving and out of breath and when Kari looked down, he felt a pang of guilt because she was foaming at the mouth. He had pushed her too hard for too long.

“It’s okay.” He gently patted the horse’s neck. “We’ll be resting soon.”

He reined Aster in at the tree line and surveyed the area ahead of him. He could see the Niamrean troops at the other side of the field near a large crystalline lake. There were so many. They must number in thousand, surely. It seemed as though they were getting ready to move.

He had made it in time.