The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Three: Megan

“It was her,” I said to Zig.

His head shot up as he looked at me with worry. I didn’t even haveto clarify who I was talking about. He knew.

We were sitting in the kitchen of his house in the Inon territory.When we had first gotten here, I’d been surprised at the size of it, but Zigsaid he actually shared it with someone else, a guy named Damon Moniz, who wasa high-ranking technician around here. Apparently, Damon was on leave in thecity currently, which is why he wasn’t here.

After we had left Alia and Alec in the bunker (the bunker was moreor less the basement of the house, only unlike a normal basement, it wasreinforced to be able to withstand powerful attacks from the outside), Zig hadgiven me the “grand tour”. We’d ended up in the kitchen, since our goal hadactually been to get Alec more water.

Unfortunately, our topic of conversation had shifted away fromcasual catching up into much more dangerous areas.

“You’re sure?” Zig asked, his voice calm but forceful.

I nodded. “I didn’t see her, but I knew she was there. Maybe notphysically, but she’d definitely had a hand it all. She was the one who sentthem to attack us.”

“Did the others…”

“No, I don’t think they did,” I replied. “Like I said, I didn’t seeher. I could just tell. Besides… I was the only one who didn’t get attacked.”

Zig was quiet for a few minutes before standing up and walkingacross the room. He stood with his back to me for the longest time. Neither ofus spoke.

“You know what this means, right?” he finally asked, still not lookingat me.

I stared at him wide eyed, though I knew he couldn’t tell.

“Zig…”

“We’ve talked about this, Megan,” he said, turning around towardsme. “We knew that this could happen.”

“So what?” I asked. “All I said is that she was there in one way oranother. It could’ve been that I was just sensing that she had been near thepeople that attacked us recently. Her soldiers didn’t even attack me. They wereafter the other three—Alec especially. Why do you think he’s the one that endedup unconscious on your couch?”

“That’s not the point Megan. Even if they didn’t know you werethere tonight, she’ll replace out. The more you put yourself out into the world,the more likely it will be for them to replace you.” Zig looked at me with cold,hard eyes. I forced myself not to shrink away.

“It doesn’t matter, Zig,” I said firmly. “I’m not removing myselffrom the world just because there’s a chance she might replace me.”

“And if she does replace you?”

That made me hesitate. Zig and I had always talked about thepossibility of her replaceing me. We knew she would probably want to… after whathad happened the last time we had seen her. We didn’t understand what it meantfor me though… why she would want me at all.

“Look, I know it’s a risk. But this is something I have to do.” Itried to sound as calm as I could. “I can’t sit by and not do anything. I wentto the academy because I thought I could do something to help.”

“I know,” he said. “I backed you on that. But we never thought thatyou would end up going on a mission like this.”

“It’s too late for me to back down now,” I said hotly.

Zig and I had had these arguments before. For most of my teenageyears—ever since my powers developed when I was twelve—we had always haddisagreements. Should I keep my powers a secret (Zig won that one); should I goto Edil to train at the academy (point for Megan, but with many restrictions).The last time we had argued had been right before Zig had left Edil. He wasworried about leaving me at the school alone, since one of the only reasons hehad agreed to let me go in the first place was because that was where he wascurrently stationed and he could keep an eye on me. Since we had been the onlytwo who actually knew the truth about my powers, he was scared I would end upin trouble. I, being the stubborn sixteen year old I was, had of courseinsisted that I would be fine, that I had been keeping this secret for nearlyfour years without incident, and I could easily handle myself. Still, Zig hadinsisted that we replace someone I could go to in the event that some disasterwould befall me. I’m still not sure how, but eventually Zig managed to convinceme to trust my secret to his girlfriend KC. KC was really nice, and I didn’treally have a problem with telling her my secret.

So, yeah, Zig and I arguing wasn’t anything new. Me losingarguments also wasn’t anything new. But this time I was determined to stand myground. I wasn’t going to be taken off this mission for any reason at all.

Zig sighed and slumped down in the kitchen chair he was sitting in.

“Meg, I’m not saying that you have to leave the mission. I knowthat’s impossible. All I want is for you to be careful though. I can’t risklosing you.”

I relaxed a little when he said he wasn’t going to make me abandonthe mission, but I also took in how completely spent he looked. There was a lotmore on his plate than he was letting on about.

“Zig, is there something else you’re not telling me?” I asked.

“What? No.”

“There is,” I said, walking over to the table where he was sittingand pulling out the chair across from him. “Zig, I can tell there is. Now tellme what’s wrong.”

“Meg, don’t worry about it, okay? I’m fine.” He was lying, though.I could tell.

“Zig…”

“It’s getting late,” he said, standing up abruptly. “You should getto bed. I’ll take Alec his water and make sure those two haven’t killed eachother. Sabin should also be getting back soon. I’m sure he’ll have a lot toreport.”

Without another word, he stood up and walked away. I sighed anddropped my head down onto the table. That was another problem between Zig andI. No matter how close we were as siblings, there were always things we kepthidden from each other. And despite the fact that I had years of training to beable to pull information out of people, none of that worked on Zig. Or maybe…

My eyes drifted to the door of Zig’s office in the corner of theroom. The door was closed, but I doubted Zig had actually locked it. He wasnever the locking doors type.

I got up from my seat at the table and walked over to the door. Ihad seen Zig in here earlier, on one of my passes through the kitchen to getbandages for Alia’s arm. He had been holding up a few papers with both of hishands. An envelope that I assumed that the papers had come in dangled out ofone hand. Despite the fact that the address side of the envelope was facing me,I hadn’t been able to catch what it said. But I remembered the script of thefront. It was our mother’s handwriting. Since I had started at the academy afew years ago, I hadn’t even heard from Mom. It was against the rules to haveany kind of outside contact during your first year, though it is allowed inlater years. Mom hadn’t written me anything though. Zig had told me not toexpect it. I guess I could’ve tried writing her, but honestly that had neverbeen something that I chose to make a priority. But now apparently Mom waswriting Zig, which I didn’t really know what to think of.

Curiosity got the best of me and I pushed open the door. It openedsilently into the dimly lit office. I carefully walked in and took in Zig’sworkspace. As I had expected, both the floor and desk were strewn with papersand books. All of the chairs except for the one behind the desk were piled highwith books, most of which were about the Ancient Wars—the first wars ever to befought between the sankrin and the konna. My brother had always been interestedin those stories. As I walked around the desk, I noticed Zig had left just asmall enough space for him to be able to work on his desk, while the rest ofthe surface was covered with stacks of papers on stacks of books. As luck wouldhave it, I discovered Zig had left the letter in the cleared off space. Ipicked up the envelope and took in the fact that it was, indeed, our mother’shandwriting.

Suddenly growing very nervous, I pulled the papers out of theenvelope and began to read:

Dear Zachary,

First, I would like to thank you for your letter. It’s sogood to hear from one of you after so long that just the sight of your name onthe return address almost brought me to tears. I’m also very surprised that youwere transferred to Inon… even more so that you accepted it. What about yoursister? Did you just leave her alone in Edil? Honestly, I thought I raised youwith more sense than that. Megan is young. She can’t be left on her own yet.

I was only on the first paragraph, but I was already growingirritated. I was not too young totake care of myself. Mom had alwaysdisagreed about me going to Edil, though when Zig had left she had beenextremely supportive of him. I guess it was just because I was the youngest. Iwas her baby girl.

It’s not that I didn’t love my mom. I really did. It’s just thatthere were times when she was so suffocating I didn’t know what to do. It’s oneof the reasons I went to Edil in the first place. I took a deep breath,smothering the irritation building inside of me and continued to read.

I suppose you know what is best for her though. You twoalways did have your secrets.

Anyway, you didn’t write to ask me to scold you about yoursister. You asked me what I knew of your father. I guess I should jump straightto the point. Your father is dead.

I almost dropped the letter. My dad was… dead? The word rang in myhead like the echo from a bell. Despite the fact the he hadn’t been in my lifefor a long time I had never thought that he could be dead. Dad just wasn’t oneof those people that it seemed possible they could die.

He’s been dead for a long time now. I’ve just never told youor Megan. I didn’t want to remind either of you about him. But you are gettingolder now, so I suppose you have a right to know what really happened to himand furthermore, what really happened the night that he left us.

I knew what had really happened that night. Zig and I both hadknown for a while. We’d just never told Mom that we knew, or how we’d come toreplace out. But I was confused as to why Mom was choosing now to finally tell Zig. I mean, from what I knew, the real eventsof what happened the night Dad left were pretty important. But then again, itwas probably a good thing Mom had never actually told us… otherwise neither Zignor I would’ve had an easy time getting into the academy.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs that broke me from mythoughts and rushed to scan the rest of the letter and then put it back in theenvelope. I wasn’t worried about processing all of it just yet. I wouldremember every word of it when I needed to.

I quickly moved out of the office and across the house to replacesomewhere to get some sleep. I wasn’t ready to ask Zig about the contents ofMom’s letter yet. But it did make me wonder… with the attack earlier, and nowZig asking Mom about our dad… there was something stirring. And whatever thatwas, it wasn’t good.

The dream I had that night was a recurring one. It was the samedream I had had for about a week, ever since Commander Mecah asked me toapprove of the members of our mission’s team:

It was night. It was cold and snowing. I was tucked away in my bed,covered by a mountain of blankets in an attempt to keep warm. (My room wasalways the coldest in the house, and Mom constantly worried about me gettingsick). I had been sleeping peacefully, dreaming about our trip to visit mygrandma in Suba, when suddenly Zig was shaking me awake.

“Megan! Megan wake up!”

I grumbled something incoherent and burrowed further into myblankets. Zig shook me harder.

“Megan, come on you have to wake up!” he said urgently. “Satama isunder attack!”

That was when the sound of alarms ringing penetrated my ears. Ibolted out of bed and quickly threw on the coat and boots that my brother threwat me. Then he grabbed my hand and dragged me downstairs.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Who’s attacking?”

“The konna,” Zig replied. “No one knows how they got in… butthey’ve nearly destroyed all of Satama.”

“But… how?”

“I don’t know,” Zig said. He stopped us as we reached our frontdoor. He turned around and bent down to look me straight in the eye. “Mom saidDad and Bri are gone. She told me to make sure you were safe. She said for usto go over to the Parkers’ house… they have a raid shelter in their basementwhere we’ll be safe until Mom can come and get us.”

“But… why would Daddy and Bri leave?” I asked.

Zig just shook his head. “I don’t know Megan. Come on, we have togo.”

He pulled me out the door, holding tightly to my hand as we madeour way across the street. There were people filling the street, all shoutingand trying to do something about the fires that were spreading among thehouses. It didn’t seem like there was much of the attack still going on. Zigcontinued to lead us in the direction of the Parkers’ house. I tried to drownout all the noise going on around me and focus only on running, but it wasalmost impossible.

We were only a few yards away from the house when a voice calledout Zig’s name.

“Zig! Megan! Wait!”

Zig stopped and turned to the voice. It was Mr. Raider. He had justcome out of his house, which was right next to the Parkers’ house. With himwere his wife and two children: Sabin, who was about a year older than I was,and his younger sister Nicki. Alia Parker was also there. She looked terrified,which was an expression that I had never seen on her face until that night.When she saw Zig and me, she ran over to us.

“Have you seen my parents?” she demanded, raising her voice overthe chaos of the street. “Or Alec? Do you know where my family is?!”

Zig shook his head sadly. He didn’t know the whereabouts of Alia’sparents or her twin brother, Alec, any better than Alia or I did.

“I don’t know, Alia!” he shouted in return.

Just then, something in Alia’s house exploded. Flames shot into thenight sky as all of us stood completely paralyzed.

Well, all of us that is, except one.

Alia’s eyes widened as her home when up in flames. She screamed andbefore either Zig or I were able to react, we were pushed into a bush behindus. A small part of me registered that nothing had even touched us, but thatinstead we were pushed back by an unseen force. I was able to dig my head out justin time to see Alia take off across the street.

She would’ve run straight into the flames if it hadn’t been forSabin. He was the only one of us who reacted quickly enough. Before Alia wasable to make it to her yard, Sabin tackled her. Alia shouted in protest,screaming and punching Sabin, but he held on. Zig and I pulled ourselves out ofthe bush and ran over to them, followed shortly by Sabin’s family.

We all gathered around Alia who had stopped fighting and wassitting on the ground with her knees curled up to her chest. She was staring ather house with wide and frightened eyes. Sabin still had his arms wrappedaround her.

“Alia?” I asked carefully as I sat down next to her.

She didn’t move from where she was. Nor did she speak. She just satthere, silently staring at what had once been her home while tears trickleddown her cheeks.

“So this is what happenedthat night?”

The voice pierced through my mind with a force that nearly made mefall to the ground myself. I inhaled sharply.

“No,” I said softly. “No, it can’t be. You can’t be in my dream!”

“Oh can’t I?” the voice taunted. It was a voice extremely familiarto me, in both real life and in my dreams. But it was one I hadn’t heard inyears… not since before I started at Edil.

I looked around for the source of the voice. She always showedherself. Always. It never made a difference what the setting of the dreamwas—whether it was Satama, the territory I lived in until I was ten, or my homein Suba. Even when I wasn’t already having a dream, and the setting was acompletely void space with nothing but white or gray or some other color. Shewas always there.

Sure enough, as I turned to look around behind me, my visiontunneled and there she was. Her dark blonde hair was cut short in a sort ofpixie-cut, with long bangs in the front and barely reaching the nap of her neckin the back. It was the same way she had always worn it. Her blue eyes—manyshades darker than my own—were filled with malice, despite the smile she woreon her oh-so-familiar face.

“Get out,” I said, trying to keep my voice level even though I wascompletely panicking. She shouldn’t behere, was what I thought.

“Oh, I know I shouldn’t be here,” she said. She laughed at theshocked look I guess crossed my face. “Oh come on, Meggy. You know that indreams, all of your thoughts and feelings are open to me. There’s no stoppingme from knowing what you are thinking when you’re asleep.”

I silently cursed myself for forgetting that. Not that it matteredwhether I did it silently or not. She heard everything I thought and said.

“Mmm, Meggy such foul words. Tell me, did they teach you to speaklike that at the academy? I can’t believe that’s the place the people ofSankruus trust to produce their soldiers. It’s pathetic.”

“Don’t call me Meggy!” I snapped. “What are you doing here? If youdon’t have anything worthwhile to say, why don’t you just go away?”

“Temper, dear one, temper.” The way she talked was as if she werescolding a child. Of course, to her, I always would be a child. “You want to know why I’m here?”

“No, I just asked what you were doing here because I wanted to knowwhat the weather is going to be tomorrow.”

A smirk spread across her face. “You’ve been taking too manylessons in sarcasm from the Parker girl, Meggy.”

I gasped, eyes wide. “How do you know about Alia?”

“I’m inside your mind right now, Megan,” she answered, her voicecalm and nearly soothing. “I know the reason that you keep having the samedream about the night Alia and Alec’s parents died. Because finally, afterseven long years, the four of you have finally been brought back together.”

“It’s just a coincidence that we’re all from the same areaoriginally,” I said.

“Ha, I know you don’t believe that,” she said. “Come on, Meggy. Youknow there is no such thing as coincidences, especially not in your life.”

“Well this one is. The fact that the four of us were put on thesame mission has no relation to anything from our past.”

“Or does it?” she asked. “Think about it Megan. You are all back inthe same positions you were always in when you were kids. Sabin as the leader.You as the brains. And your fighters… who would be more perfect than the twoParker twins. They’re the ones who will get things done. This is not acoincidence Megan.”

I clenched my fist. She was taking words from my own thoughts. Eversince I had found out I was going to be the four of us on this mission, I hadbeen consumed by thoughts of what it meant… whether it was coincidence or notthat we had been brought back together in this way after so many years.

“If it weren’t just a coincidence…” I said cautiously. “Then forwhat other reason would this have happened?

“Ah, now you’re thinking right,” she said with a grin. “But why onearth would I tell you that? Telling such a thing would be giving too muchaway.”

“Then I’m going to ask again: Why. Are. You. Here?”

If it were possible, her eyes turned colder as she smiled evenwider at me.

“To deliver a message,” she said. “Change is coming, Megan, andit’s coming very fast. Everyone will see it coming, but no one will see iteither.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked.

“I wasn’t finished,” she said. “You see Megan, when this changecomes, things are going to be put into action… ancient powers that no one haseven thought about in centuries. And once that happens… oh, let’s just stickwith the fact that it is going to be spectacular.”

“Why would you tell me this? What happened to giving too muchaway?”

“All of that information is leading up to the real warning. Yousee, with these ancient powers, there’s a sort of… well, there’s aprophecy-type-thing that goes with it.”

I raised an eyebrow and scoffed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Aprophecy? As in…”

“As in set-in-stone, going to happen and there’s nothing you can doto change it,” she said with a grin. But the grin no longer even had the smallsliver of warmth it had held earlier.

“What is this prophecy?” I asked.

“Hmph I figured you would ask. Unfortunately, I can only give you ateensy summary of a teensy part of it. It describes four. Four of what, I don’tknow—people I assume— but four all the same.”

I didn’t like where this was going, but I had to ask.

“And what of these four?”

“The prophecy, in simple terms, says that one will fail, one willlose, one will turn, and one… will die.”