The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Twenty-Three: Sabin

A week went bywith no word of Asher or Marina. Alec and Alia both wanted to go look for them,and I admit to wanting to go myself, but we were still grounded. Layne’s teamwas chosen to head the search instead.

My gunshot woundhad healed up pretty well. Since my powers gave me an increased healing factor,I was recovered before Alia or even Megan, though why I was confined to theinfirmary while they ran around was beyond me. I was sitting in my room,waiting for Tyler to come help take me back to my dorm room when the twins andMegan walked in.

“Hey Gutshot!”Alia said cheerfully. Alec and Megan snorted as I groaned.

“Please don’tcall me that,” I muttered. Alia simply snorted.

“That isn’t goingto happen,” she snarked, dropping into a chair beside my bed. “You can thankTyler for the name.”

“Thank Tyler forwhat?” Tyler asked, striding into the room. He tossed me a pair of jeans and agreen shirt. “There, go put on some normal clothes.”

I smirked as Iducked into the bathroom to change. I could hear Tyler started up a casualconversation with the others about our recently renewed memories. Most of whathe said involved Alia drunk flirting with me while I pretended to be drunk atmine and Tyler’s graduation party last night or asking about Alec and Megan’snot-relationship.

I walked out ofthe bathroom just in time to witness Tyler doing an impersonation of Aliadrunk. Alec and Megan were both doubled over with laughter… Megan holding hershoulder in pain. Alia herself tried to look indignant, but we could all seethe laugh she was failing to hide.

“Tyler,” she saidas seriously as she could. “Unless you want two prosthetic arms, I suggest youshut up now.”

Tyler held hishands up in surrender. “Right, right. Sorry. But in all seriousness, Megan,have you explained any of this to them?

Megan’s faceflushed. “No, I haven’t yet. I was waiting until we were all healed up some butI guess… well, now’s as good a time as any.”

“Before you jumpinto explanations,” Tyler said, “I’m going to duck out. I already know thestory and… well, I figure it’s best the four of you talk about it without me.I’ll just go grab lunch with Emmalie and Nicki, and then come back. You guyswant me to bring you anything?”

We all shook ourheads, the light mood quickly dissipating. To be honest, I wasn’t all thathungry anyway.

Tyler nodded andleft the room, closing the door behind him. I sat back down on my bed andgestured for Megan to sit beside me. Alia waved her hand from where she wasstill seated at the head of the bed and a chair slid over by Alec, who promptlyfell into it. Megan hopped onto the foot of the bed so that she was facing usand crossed her legs. Finally, taking a deep breath, she began to explain.

“The truth isthat we really have been together since Alia, Alec, and I started at theacademy. We were all three in the same first-year training course and put on ateam together. Sabin you were brought in as our team strategist that year.”

“That’s what weremember now,” Alia said. “But what about the memories we had before you fixed them or whateverhappened.”

“Those were fakememories. Everything before our third year that was replaced… I made those up.”

“But why?” Alecasked.

Megan took abreath. “A little bit before our third year began, I ran into Brittany in Aelstonwhen I was down there doing an IGS intern tour with Tyler. It was our last daythere, and we didn’t have any meetings or anything, so I decided to walk aroundthe city while Tyler visited with his brother. While I was walking, I ran intoBrittany. Somehow, she pulled me into a takotvision and convinced me that everyone at the academy had found out about mypowers and the fact my dad was a konna.”

“Even though Ihad already told you guys about my powers, the consequences I saw in my visionwere so horrible… I don’t really know how or why, but it triggered my minnen abilities. Without meaning to, Irewrote the memories of anyone I was even acquainted with at Edil.” Meganpaused, then added quietly: “I didn’t even know I could do that.”

We sat in stunnedsilence for a few seconds, not really sure what to say. Megan pulled at thefabric of her pants nervously, looking at all of us for any sign ofunderstanding.

Finally, Aliaspoke.

“What I don’tunderstand is how Alec and I both had flashbacks of our real memories while we weren’t suppose to have those memories.”

I frowned at her,not remembering her mentioning anything about having flashbacks. We all knewAlec had… since that’s what triggered Megan fixing everyone’s memories in thefirst place, but I didn’t know anything about Alia having flashbacks as well.

Then there werethose memories I had had. The ones about the twins training together. Ishouldn’t have been able to remember that, but I had.

Obviously, Meganunderstood something I didn’t because she went on to say:

“I don’t reallyknow why that happened, except maybe the fact that all four of us beingtogether again weakened what my powers had done, letting some memories slipthrough the cracks.”

The twins seemedsatisfied with this answer, but I couldn’t say I was satisfied with thecomplete explanation. There was something else about this whole ordeal that wasstill bothering me.

“Megan, I don’tknow exactly how to say this,” I started. “But… how much power would it havetaken you to alter that manymemories?”

She frowned andstared down at her bare feet. “Honestly? I don’t know. A lot. Like, an absurdamount that I shouldn’t be able to access.”

“But you did,” Isaid.

Megan bit her lipbut didn’t answer.

“Megan, does thishave anything to do with what happened to Zig? Or the dark energy that almostconsumed you?” Alec asked, catching on.

“There… there is something,” Megan said slowly, meetingAlec’s eyes just barely. “But I don’t really understand it myself, and I don’tlike thinking about it.”

“What is it?”Alia asked. She was never known to be the sensitive one of our group. It wasalways directly to the point with her, at least when the focus of theconversation was someone else.

“My powers,”Megan said, letting out a breath. “I’m not really… I’m not really just a minnen.”

“What?” I asked,after a moment’s silence.

Megan shifted hereyes back down to the ground.

“My familypower…” she started. “It’s hard to explain. For the longest time, Zig and Ididn’t think there was one, since our powers are so different. I mean, a minnenand a shield? Then you throw in Brittany’s takotabilities… well, it just didn’t seem like a possibility. Even when Brittanycame to see me, and she would drop these little hints… I didn’t believe her.”

“But then, bothZig and I started to notice these slight… changesin our powers. Suddenly, I was able to see the memories of places and peopleI’d never been in contact with. I… I saw yourmemories, even though I hadn’t seen any of you in years.” She took a breath.“Zig realized he could suddenly sense the emotions of people around him. Imean, he had always been good at reading people, but this was different. Hecould actually feel if someone was angry, or sad, or scared. We wrote eachother a lot, trying to understand what was going on. But it wasn’t really untilZig’s graduation mission that things started to fall into place.”

She met my eyesthen. Since my first year at the academy had been the same year Zig and his teamhad graduated, I had of course heard about the mission that placed their teamat the top of every other Edil graduation team. I had never heard the fullstory—no one had—but everyone who had been around the academy at least knewthat the Z Squad had surpassed seemingly impossible obstacles to complete theirmission.

“I rememberhearing about it,” I said. “But no one was ever told the full story… at least,not the one I’m sure you’re about to tell us?”

I raised aneyebrow at Megan, who responded with the faintest smile. The smile faded ofcourse, at the same time she reached up to tug nervously on her ponytail withher hand that wasn’t still confined to a sling. Alec reached over and took herhand in his and squeezed it. Megan glanced at him thankfully as Alia and Ishared our own skeptical glances. It was weird for all of us, the fact that thetwo of them had actually been a couple (even though they had been asurprisingly good fit for each other). After Megan had changed our memoriesthey hadn’t even really been aware of each other’s presence at the academy. Nowthey (and the rest of us) remembered they had been together, but they didn’treally know how to handle the situation now. In the past few days, there hadbeen a few little moments like this, but even so Alia and I could tell thatthey weren’t quite as comfortable with each other as they had once been.

“When Zig went onhis graduation mission, they ran into some… complications. He lost control ofhis powers and his team almost got destroyed because of it. After that, herealized there was a lot more to our powers than we thought. So we started inon researching what we could.”

“What we foundout scared us, to be honest,” Megan continued. “On my dad’s side of the family,there’s a very… unique family powerthat’s been passed on for generations. The Curse of the O’Carrolls it’scalled—whether it’s a curse for those with that power or for those who goagainst someone with that power, I don’t know. The point is, this powerrevolves around the entire idea of seeing what other’s don’t want you to seeand being able to make people see what the power holder wants them to see.”

She kept goingbefore any of us could speak up.

“All three of ushave these powers: Brittany, Zig, and me. Since Brittany is fully sided as akonna, her powers are fully developed. Zig and I… since we aren’t konna… ourpowers manifest in a different form. For Zig, he can create shields to protectpeople, which is what his perception manipulation power is. Him being able tosee other people’s emotions is the other part. For me, my powers manifested asmy minnen abilities. I see otherpeople’s memories and manipulate them… though I didn’t know I could do thatuntil a few days ago when I fixed everyone’s memories.”

Megan took abreath and looked at us, as if searching for some kind of sign of what to do.After a few seconds, she spoke again.

“The thing is…since these powers come from my dad’s side, they’re connected to our konnaselves. The more we lean towards the konna side, the more our powers increase.If we lose control of either side, our powers go out of whack. That’s whathappened to Zig on his mission. He didn’t tell me the full story, but I suspectBrittany was probably involved. Either way, Zig almost turned. It took hiswhole team to pull him back.”

She shiftednervously before continuing.

“When Zig and Ifought Brittany last week, he… delved into his konna side to be able to use hispowers offensively. Because of that, the dark energy almost consumed him.”

“And the samething happens to you?” Alec asked. “Or did happen. When you created thoseboxes?”

Megan nodded. “Ididn’t know I could do that, but when I created those boxes to hold the konna…I wasn’t conscious about what I was doing as far as using dark energy. I guessI should’ve paid more attention, but at the moment I was just thinking ofkeeping us safe.”

“I probablydidn’t help,” I admitted. “I pushed you to create those barriers.”

“No, Sabin. Ican’t blame you,” Megan said, shaking her head. “You didn’t know what wouldhappen.”

“Still, I shouldhave listened to Nicki. She knew something bad was going to happen, but Ididn’t listen.”

“Sabin, it’snothing we could’ve predicted,” Megan said. “It’s a constant struggle for meand Zig to keep the dark energy inside us in check. He’s only lost controltwice, and this was really the first time I’ve lost control. The konna side… itdoesn’t like being smothered. Every sankrin has a bit of darkness in them,because that’s just how people are. Everyone has the option of doing good orbad. My dad is proof of that. He was a konna who decided to do good. Somesankrin choose bad, like some of the Commanders here. But for kalahatis – those of us who are halfkonna-half sankrin – our choices don’t come as easily. Some kalahati can make it off with littledifficulty, if they have a power that works well no matter which energy it’sfueled by. But some, like my siblings and me… our power has to be fueled by dark konna energy, otherwise it’ll never reachfull potential. It’s always crying out to become stronger, and it responds toour emotions. Zig and I… we’ve worked years to figure out how to minimize ourinner battles but sometimes we just slip.”

“So wait,” Aliasaid. “Every time your eyes flash between colors…”

“That’s my twosides fighting each other,” Megan answered. “The same thing happens to Zig, andeven Brittany, when she was younger and less of a psychotic witch. It all hasto do with which energy is more in control at the moment.”

“Energies…” Alecsaid. “I don’t understand what this is all about. I mean, yeah, I can sensedifferent energies and people’s change in energy, but when it comes to thedifferences… what are dark and light energy?”

“It’s probablybecause elementest powers are different and aren’tfueled by the different energies,” Megan said. “And the differences in energiesaren’t really something taught in full detail, just because there hasn’t been aneed for soldiers to know about them.”

“A fact that willprobably change soon,” Alia muttered, interrupting her. Megan shot her a glare,but continued to speak.

“But basicallythere’s konna or dark energy, and there’s sankrin or light energy. The energyyou powers use depends on which side you take. As you probably figured out, toomuch dark energy to a sankrin can be fatal because it literally drains theirenergy. Same for a konna and light energy. But kalahatis aren’t affected by that. We can use either energy, butthe energy we use often determines which side’s mindset we follow.”

“Which is why thetainted bullet had more effect on me than you,” I said, barely remembering whatMegan had said while I’d been bleeding out on Commander Mecah’s office floor.

“Well, that andthe fact you were shot in the gut and she was only shot in the shoulder,” Aliasupplied. I sent her a look, to which she only grinned in response before shelooked back at Megan. “What I don’t understand is that your eyes change a lot - or at least they have in thepast few weeks - but you don’t seem to lose control of your powers that much.Like you said, a few days ago was the first time you’ve ever experiencedsomething like that.”

Megan shrugged asmuch as her shoulder would allow her. “I don’t pretend to understand it. Maybesince my power is already an uncontrollable sight, it isn’t as affected?Because what caused my reaction to the dark energy was when I created thoseprojections.”

Alia didn’t seemconvinced with Megan’s explanation, but she didn’t press the issue. Instead,she started snickering.

“What are youlaughing at?” I asked.

Alia shook herhead. “Nothing. I was just thinking… You know, when we were little kids growingup in Satama, I never expected things to turn out like this for us. I mean,none of us would’ve expected Megan orZig to be half-konna with power control problems, or for Brittany to turn intoa psychotic witch as Megan so eloquently phrased it.”

“I guess it ispretty funny when you think about it,” Megan agreed quietly. “I mean, before weleft Satama I never planned on joining the military.”

“Me either,honestly,” Alec shrugged his shoulders. “I mean, I had thought about it, but Ihad never considered it as something I would actually do. Alia on the otherhand…”

“Yeah, yeah weall know I had bragged about joining the military and kicking everyone’sasses,” Alia cut in, a smirk dancing on her lips.

“You bragged youwould be the best out of anyone, if I remember correctly,” Megan countered.

“Well then youshould remember correctly that I pretty much am one of the best,” Aliaresponded smugly. She grinned brightly but then her smile faltered. “Of course…that was when everyone expected me to be an elementest.”

Her last sentencewas so quiet, it could barely be heard.

We sat in silencefor a few seconds, Megan, Alec, and I all staring at Alia in shocked confusion.Alia rarely showed her changes in emotion like that.

“Where did thatcome from, Als?” Alec asked.

“Where do youthink?” Alia asked, her voice filling with bitterness. “We were just talkingabout how elementests don’t use the same energies that other powers do. WellI’m from a family full of elementests. How come I’m the only one whose powersuse these energies?”

“Alia, it’s not…it’s your fault you didn’t inherit—“ Alec started, only to be interrupted byhis sister.

“Shut up Alec,”Alia said. “I don’t want to hear it. We all know it doesn’t make sense. We allknow it’s not my fault. So I don’t need to be told it’s not my fault.”

She glared atAlec until I finally cleared my throat.

“Als, we get that.We get it isn’t your fault. Just like Megan, who did inherit her family powers. It wasn’t either of your faults, andnone of us can really explain why this happens,” I said. “But maybe one daywe’ll figure it all out.”

Alia rolled hereyes at me. “Gee, thanks for the cheesy motivational speech, Raider. But asMegan said, elemental powers aren’t fueled by the same energies that otherpowers are. So how is it, that I come from a family full of elementests butsomehow I am the only one who doesn’t inherit elemental powers and has to relyon these different energies?”

“We don’tunderstand why, Alia,” Megan said. “We don’t know why.”

“Actually…”

We all looked upto see Nicki, Tyler, and Emmalie walking into the room. Tyler and Emmalie werelooking at Nicki with a fair amount of shock. Nicki, who had spoken, was movingher gaze between the four of us, lingering longer on each of the twins.

“I havea theory for why Alia is a telekinetic,” Nicki said. “It’s a bit of a wild guess,and you guys probably won’t think it’s very likely, but I think that this iswhat the dreams I’ve been having lately are pointing to.”

We all exchangedglances before I spoke up.

“What is itNick?”

“There’s… aprophecy. It’s hard to explain, and I unfortunately can’t tell you the wholething right now, but—“

“Wait, I’ve heardabout this,” Megan said. “Brittany… that night we stayed at Inon, Brittanyinvaded my dreams. She spoke about a prophecy that mentioned four. She didn’ttell me anything about these four other than what the prophecy would happen tothem: one fails, one loses, one turns, and one dies.” She looked at Nicki foraffirmation, her stance rigid. Alec reached up and took her hand, squeezing itgently. Megan’s shoulders relaxed slightly.

“What does thisprophecy have to do with us?” she asked.

Nicki glanced atEmmalie, which I found surprising. Even with our renewed memories, I stillhadn’t met Emmalie until a few days ago. Sure, Tyler knew her, which gave mesome comfort. But the way Nicki and her seemed to have a silent conversation injust one look… it was as if they shared a huge secret from everyone. Which madeno sense at all.

Nicki bit her lipas she turned back to us. “The prophecy,” she said. “It’s known as the Prophecyof the Return the Sankari. It predicts the… well the return of the four Sankari.”

“Or, the callingof four new heroes to become the Sankari,” Emmalie added. “That’s a commoninterpretation of it at least.”

“The Sankari?” Iasked, trying to keep my skepticism out of my voice. Nicki had always lovedthose old stories about the great heroes and what not, but I’d never reallyfound much time for them myself. But I didn’t want to hurt Nicki’s feelings nowby completely shutting down her ideas.

“Look, I hate toconstantly be the one out of the loop,” Alec said. “But Alia and I weren’traised on the same stories you guys did. Our parents followed the Einothianreligion.” He glanced at his sister who nodded in agreement, her arms crossedover her chest.

“Not to mentionthe four years he spent in Einoth,” she added. “Even living in Valta I neverheard those stories. All the elementests there still follow the Einothiantraditions too. So could someone could kindly fill us in? Starting with whatthe hell is a Sankari?”

“Sankari meanshero,” Nicki started. “The Sankari are known as the greatest heroes who everexisted.”

“They basicallyended the original war between the konna and the sankrin,” Emmalie said.“Surely you’ve heard of that atleast.

Alec looked atthem blankly, still not really understanding what they were saying. Alia shookher head.

“Look, despiteliving in Valta, which is a territory of Sankruus, I know, Mom’s family hasonly been there for a couple of generations. And the village is so far removedthat they never really bothered to learn all of the old Sakruunian legends.”

Emmalie gave animpatient huff, to which Nicki responded with a harsh glare.

“Basically, whenSankruus was founded, it was originally founded with two political parties,”Megan explained, jumping in before Emmalie totally lost her patience.

“The konna andthe sankrin,” Emmalie supplied, though her voice was terse.

“Right,” Meganagreed. “Back then, no one had powers like we do now. It wasn’t until some ofthe konna leaders were… exposed to the dark energy we now associate with thekonna that people gained powers.”

“They wereactually given or led to the power by the Deceiver who was corrupted by theenergy himself,” Nicki clarified. “In retaliation, the sankrin leaders weregiven the light energy by the Creator, who wasn’t corrupt.”

“The exposure tothese two energies created the division we have between the konna and sankrintoday,” Megan said. “And also gave the people powers.”

“The Great Warstarted shortly after,” Nicki said. “Lasting nearly one hundred years, it wasthe struggle for who would be the ruling group: the sankrin or the konna.”

“The Legend ofthe Sankari is set at the very end of the war. According to legend, the war wasdecided by the sacrifice of four young sankrin,” Emmalie said.

“The legend alsoreferences what Nicki says this prophecy says,” Megan concluded. “It says thatwhen it seems the konna will finally come to power, the Sankari will return tofinish what they started… clearing the world of konna.”

“I fail to seewhat this has to do with me being telekinetic,” Alia remarked.

Nicki bit herlip. “Well… you see…”

Alec frowned atthe three of them, but mostly at Nicki.

“Wait, you aren’tthinking we’re these ‘Sankari’, areyou?” he asked. Alia snorted loudly at the question. Megan and I didn’t eventry to hide our shock. We exchanged brief glances before looking back at my sister.

Nicki’s eyeswidened, but not necessarily with surprise. At least, it wasn’t entirelysurprise to me. To people who weren’t related to her, it probably just lookedlike one emotion on her face, but I couldn’t miss the faint twinkle in her eye,or the slight quirk of her lips that suggested a grin. I realized then thatNicki did suspect a connection withthis Sankari prophecy and us. Which wasn’t really something that I was excitedabout.

Dude, I don’t need to be a telepath to read that look on your face, Tyler said. But before you callyour sis out on this, think about it. Is now really the best time to bring upthe possibility of the fate of the world being placed on your guys’ shoulders?

I frowned,irritated at Tyler’s logic. You’reprobably right, I muttered, which was an interesting thing to do over atelepathic conversation.

“I can’t sayanything about that yet,” Nicki said. “But I do think that this prophecy hassomething to do with why Alia’s a telekinetic. I just… don’t have enoughinformation to really explain how yet.”

She gave a smallsmile that stopped Alia from speaking up in protest. Instead, she slunk furtherinto her chair, muttering something about “unhelpful sights”, which earned hera glare from Megan.

“That’s not allthough,” Emmalie said brightly.

“It’s not?” Iasked.

Emmalie grinned,a mischievous grin that only increased my wariness of her.

“Mmmm hmmm,” shehummed. She looked at Tyler and Nicki, who gave her puzzling glances beforeseeming to realize what she was going on about. They nodded, which Emmalie tookas the sign to go ahead.

“See, while wewere at lunch, we happened to… overhear some information about the search forthe missing elementests, and theories on what the konna could want in Einoth.Funny enough, it relates to an Einothian legend I’m sure you’re pretty familiarwith, Alec. An old story about how elementests get their powers.”

Alec blinkedbefore seeming to realize what Emmalie was talking about.

“You mean theElemental Source?” he asked. “That’s not a legend or a story. It’s a realthing.”

“But it does havea legend around it, right?” Emmalie asked.

“Yeah,” Alecsaid, frowning. “When the lands were still young, and the Creator still walkedamong the people, four of the Creator’s chosen followers, who he had taskedwith the job of caring for the elements, traveled to the northern land that hadyet to be inhabited. That land would become Einoth.”

“I remember thisstory,” Alia said. She picked up where her brother left off: “In the northernland, the followers discovered the four-sided lake with the island in themiddle of it. That island is where the four of them decided to live. The islandthey named Koti.”

She said the wordwith awe in her voice. I didn’t know much about the Einothian traditions andbeliefs, and I couldn’t recall either of the twins being very religious at all,but I did know that “Koti” was a sacred concept for Einothians.

“As the yearswent on,” Alec continued. “More people found refuge around the lake.Eventually, they began to draw the attention of power hunters from both thesankrin and konna sides. There had been rumors about the elemental powers, andhow strong they were. Both sides wanted them for themselves. The four followersknew it was only a matter of time until they were captured. But when that daycame, the people who lived around the lake stepped up against the hunters andprotected the island.”

Alec paused for abreath. “After that, the followers decided to bless the people who lived aroundthe lake. So they created the Einoth barrier. Then they all poured their powerinto a source that would grant anyone within the barrier elemental powers, aswell as their descendants. It’s saidthat source is still located on the island in the middle of the lake, on Koti,but it’s impossible to get to.”

“That must bewhat the konna are after,” Megan said after we were quiet for a few minutes.“They want the Elemental Source so that they’ll have elementests on theirside.”

“Do they not haveany already?” I asked.

Alec shook hishead. “The elementests of Einoth are too stubborn to get involved with theproblems in Sankruus. It’s very rare for one to decide to leave to go live inSankruus, let alone decide to join in with the fight. Most of those who do,join because they’ve been victimized by konna in some way. Obviously, thesankrin don’t have any reason to bother them.”

“What about elementeststhat aren’t from Einoth?” Tyler asked.

“They don’t caremuch either, to be honest,” Alia answered. “I mean, they care more than thosefrom Einoth, but speaking personally from my experience with my mom’s family inValta, they don’t worry about much accept how much fish they’ve got for theday, or if a storm is supposed to come in soon.”

“The thing is,”Megan said, “since elemental powers aren’t driven by which energy they use,elementests have more of a choice for which side they want to support.”

“So they alwayschoose the sankrin side, if they pick a side that is?” I asked.

“As far as Iknow,” Alec said with a shrug. “I mean, it’s possible that somewhere along theline the konna have recruited elementests, but it must not have been anyonefrom Einoth, otherwise they would’ve infiltrated it long before now.” He pausedfor a second. “But there is another reason they would want to get to theElemental Source.”

“What is that?”Alia asked.

Alec met hissister’s eyes. “To destroy it.”

We were silentfor a few minutes before Tyler finally cleared his throat and spoke up. “Anddestroying it would be… bad?”

“Best casescenario all the elementests will lose their powers,” Alec said hesitantly.“Worst case scenario is that destroying the Elemental Source will kill everyonewith an elemental power… possibly even everyone who has elemental blood inthem.”

Alia expressionturned to one of shock as she looked up at her brother, realizing that theinclusion of those with elemental blood meant her as well.

“So basically, wereally don’t want the konna getting their hands on that,” I said. “Someoneshould probably let the Z Squad know.”

“They know,” Alecsaid. “They, uh… they actually called me in the other day. I’ve alreadyexplained this to them.”

“They called youin?” Alia asked. “But I thought they didn’t want any of us involved?”

“They don’t,”Alec said. “But since I’m really the only elementest in the military at thispoint, or at least the only one from Einoth, they needed my help.”

“So wait, are youjoining their search?” Megan asked. I could tell she was trying to be casualabout the question, but her voice still carried a hint of worry in it.

Alec shook hishead. “No, they said that it’s better for everyone if I go ahead and graduate.After that… who knows?”

Relief crossedMegan’s face.

“So until graduation then,” Megan said. “That’sall we can do now anyway. We graduate, and worry about the rest after.”