Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stationed in a rural town for the past five years for training, Sorey was finally transferred to the city to begin real assignments.

In the back of the Shepherds’ wagon with him were five others. He was a Shepherd Paladin, and so was his friend, Alisha. That made them the party’s protectors, and they scanned the landscape around them for danger from the back of the cart.

Alisha smiled whenever they passed a familiar landmark and told Sorey the stories behind them. Ladylake was her hometown, and she knew the area well.

When they came close to the bridge, Alisha urged him to stand up and look over the front of the wagon. She waited eagerly for his reaction as he saw the city at the edge of the largest known lake for the first time.

The bridge itself was made of stone that dated back almost a thousand years to the city’s founding, with carvings worn by the elements decorating every column and railing.

The lake was choppy and grey under the overcast sky, clouds clearing in the distance letting beams of golden sunlight pour down like a beacon guiding them. The air was cool and smelled of horses and people as they rode behind another cart hauling merchants wares.

Beyond all that was the city, rising up over the horizon with structures taller than Sorey could have imagined, the tallest of which were the ornate spires of the royal castle.

“Is that really where you live, Alisha?”

Alisha laughed at the awe in his voice. “Not at all, although I did grow up in a manor in the high quarter.”

Sorey turned to her in excitement. “Can I see it?”

“I see no reason why not, once we’ve been settled in.”

Sorey was about to shout for joy when he was interrupted by a loud cracking sound that rocked the cart and sent him flying. The horses whinied and the cart came to a stop.

“Are you all right?” asked a middle-aged man, one of the Shepherd’s doctors, who had been traveling with them.

“Yeah, how about you?”

The doctor helped him up and Sorey began to survey the situation. Alisha was still on her feet, and the others had been seated and were unharmed. Sorey was the only one who’d been thrown down, and his only injuries were a few bruises.

“What happened?” He asked, looking over the side of the cart where the driver had gotten down to inspect the undercarriage.

“Axel’s broke,” said the older man. “And it looks like when it gave way, it messed up one of the wheels too.” He grunted. “I’ve got a spare wheel and bearings, but not a whole axel. Just had the darn thing put on before we left, it shouldn’t have broken already.”

Sorey turned to Alisha. “Well it’s only a few miles for us to walk from here, but this poor guy won’t be able to make the trip back.”

“Doesn’t seem very Shepherdly just to leave him here,” Alisha answered. “Let’s see what we can do.”

They hopped out of the cart and began to take a look around. It wasn’t like wagon axels grew on bridges, but maybe they could ask a fellow traveler, or at least bring one from town.

He spotted another cart that had stopped behind them and waved Alisha over. She joined by his side and they began to walk toward it. It was a bigger cart with a hooded wagon, likely for transporting goods. It had colorful banners on either side announcing that they were the Sparrowfeathers.

As they approached, the occupants began to jump out of the front. A red-haired girl went first, shouting something to other two men who were with her. One of them joined her on the ground, and the other stayed behind with the horses.

She smiled as they walked up. “Are you guys Shepherds?” she asked, bright blue eyes sparkling. She was young, couldn’t have been much older than Alisha, who’d recently turned twenty.

“Yes,” Alisha said. “I’m Paladin Alisha, and this is Paladin Sorey.”

“I’m Rose of the Sparrowfeather trade group and this is Eguille,” she said. “What’s your trouble?”

Eguille was a tall middle-aged man graying slightly at the temples. He stayed quiet as Rose spoke. From this, Sorey got the impression that she was the boss and not him. It was interesting to see a girl not much older than himself at the reigns of a trading organization.

What was even more interest to Sorey, however, was the other worker who had stayed behind. He tried not to be too transparent about staring at the young man as he went about calming the horses. He wore an emerald green hood over his head so that Sorey couldn’t make out his face or the color of his hair, but the wave of calm that washed over him was unmistakable. That man was an empath, and a very well trained one at that.

“We’ve got a broken axel,” Alisha said. “Sorry if we’re blocking your way.”

Sorey returned his attention to the conversation so as not to be seen as prying into their affairs.

“This bridge is smooth as any road you’ll find though,” Rose groaned. “I’ve heard about this tomfoolery.”

“What do you mean?” Sorey asked.

“Some merchant has been sanding down old worn out parts to make them look new, and selling them as such. Out in the smaller towns they don’t get word fast enough to avoid scams like this that. Whoever buys them gets far away enough before they break that they can’t very well turn around. He ought to be arrested.”

“Oh no...” Sorey looked behind him at the poor elderly man who had agreed to transport them for very little money as a favor to the Shepherds. “Sorry to bother you, but you guys are merchants, right? Do you sell anything that could help?”

“Not so much, but maybe we can connect our wagons and yoke our horses to get him as far as a repair shop in Ladylake.”

“That would be wonderful,” Sorey answered.

Alisha bowed gratefully. “Thank you so much for your kindness.”

“You guys will have to do the heavy labor though,” she laughed.

***

Sorey laid in an unfamiliar bed at the boarding house for Shepherds in the city. It was dark, only a faint sliver of light from a street lamp through the window. Sorey had never seen a flame lit all night that way for the sake of late travelers. Despite his fatigue, his mind flickered through hundreds of thoughts and questions. Who traveled so far at night and what for? How did those lights stay lit, did they have a fuel source hidden inside the shaft? Who lit them, and did they snuff them again in the morning?

His errant thoughts drifted among the many new things he’d seen glimpses of in the city and the excitement of what tomorrow could hold for him.

Slowly, a fog rolled into his brain, cool and comforting. It was melancholy and nostalgic, bringing with it the scent of his mom’s pot pie and the image of her smiling face, and Muse’s as well. She’d come over and bake pies with his mother, and he’d hide under the table, its cloth like a secret tent just for him.

For them.

The two of them. Their small hands intertwined around a fuzzy blanket they shared. Why this memory, now?

He sat up in his bed. Alisha was in the one nearest his sleeping peacefully. The other recruits were snoring. He was the only one who felt it.

The sensation was still there at the back of his mind, bittersweet. He shot out of bed and grabbed his cloak and shoes, trying to keep his shaking hands from making any sound.

It had to be him, there was no one else’s mind that could feel so calming and familiar.

Outside it was quiet without the murmur of townsfolk. He could hear the sound of rushing water as a stream flowed behind the buildings from the lake. He couldn’t stop to marvel over the ingenious design of the city waterworks. His heart was racing. The intricate wave of emotion he hadn’t felt since that day seven years ago was stronger in that direction, toward the lake.

He walked as fast as he could. Past the city square, the feeling grew more intense. He felt loneliness like a twisted knife in his heart, bleeding the joy and warmth of childhood memories. He broke into a run.

Stronger still, the softness of Mikleo’s hands and the warmth of a gentle kiss as he said goodbye. But Mikleo hadn’t kissed him that day, a cold November evening seven years ago. He’d summoned his courage through his grief and kissed Mikleo’s cheek.

This memory was Mikleo’s last recollection of him, tender and fragile like his heart had felt that day, the same way it felt right now.

The cobblestone path led up a set of stairs to a stone platform that overlooked the lake. Still and motionless as a black mirror, reflecting only the silver glint of the moon peeking through the clouds overhead.

Sorey’s breath stopped. He froze in his path. A hooded figure broke the straight silhouette of the railing.

He was too afraid to call out, part of him sure this was a dream, and that any sound would wake him. That he’d never see him again, that he’d evaporate into the misty night air.

His fear was realized as the feelings welling in him spiked and then vanished in a moment, leaving nothing but the sobering cold of the night.

But that figure was still there and it turned, revealing a pale hooded face and distant eyes that shimmered violet in the light of the moon.

Sorey gasped. The emptiness left by the sudden withdrawal of Mikleo’s empathic wave became filled with Sorey’s own anxieties and new feelings unnamed as he looked upon a face he had not seen in seven years.

He was taller now, at age eighteen, but still shorter than Sorey. His body was hidden by a deep indigo colored robe with a pattern of silver dragon’s scales embroidered around its edges, and gossamer layers underneath.

His hands lifted to his face. With the grace of a swan, long white fingers pulled back the hood to reveal his pale hair, the color of moonlight.

Still, those unearthly eyes stared into his souls with little recognition in them, devoid of any surprise or heartache.

“Mikleo,” he said in a breath. “Is it really you?”

“So it is you, Sorey.” His voice was matter-of-fact. “It makes sense that you would become a Shepherd.”

Sorey felt his heart drop. He had wanted to fly into Mikleo’s arms and hold him, spin him around and cry together, a promise finally fulfilled. This passionless greeting left him empty inside.

“Yes.” He couldn’t think of what else to say, or what to do. “Mikleo, it’s me.”

Mikleo turned and looked back at the lake. “A minor coincidence, as you’ll surely learn tomorrow. The royal empaths and the Shepherds have agreed to a long term collaboration.”

Sorey didn’t register what he was hearing. This situation was too surreal. “Is that all you have to say?”

Mikleo paused. “Is my mother well?”

“Yes, she’s living together with my mother now.”

“That’s good, I am glad to hear it.”

But there was no hint of his gladness in the air, no empathic feeling to wash over Sorey.

Mikleo turned again and began to cross the platform back towards Sorey. “It’s late and I need to return to my quarters. I’ll surely see you soon.”

As he passed, Sorey remained frozen still. Mikleo was several steps behind him before he turned around and spoke, his voice shaking. “Do you remember our promise, Mikleo?”

Back turned to him, Mikleo stopped in his steps. There was a silent pause, but at the end of it, he continued walking on without looking back. “I’m sorry, I don’t recall.”

With that, be disappeared into the dark city, leaving Sorey alone.

Chapter Text

The next day did bring with it a new assignment. Sorey and Alisha were roused early to have their breakfast before the briefing.

“Are you okay?” Alisha asked, examining Sorey’s face.

They sat down at one of the tables in the economically sparse mess hall. Sorey sighed. “I didn’t sleep,” he said.

Alisha took that at face value and laughed. “You’re always excited about new places.”

Sorey looked down into the porridge he was served and stirred it with his spoon. He couldn’t get Mikleo’s face out of his mind, or how pale his hair had been. He couldn’t believe that their interaction had been real, and wasn’t sure if he’d rather it had been a dream, the way Mikleo disregarded him like some minor acquaintance he’d forgotten about.

“I’ll be fine after a night or two,” he said. “And some food.”

“There isn’t much funding for the Shepherds in Ladylake, but this breakfast isn’t too bad.”

Sorey hardly heard her. “Yeah.”

They spent the rest of breakfast in silence, and then they were summoned to be briefed along with a few fellow Shepherds.

Alisha and Sorey were both trained as Paladins. They carried blunt weapons that could be used in the case of unavoidable violence, but their policy was to avoid inflicting mortal injuries even in the most extreme of cases. There were other types of Shepherds. Anyone who knew a trade, like the doctor who had helped Sorey in the wagon, was very valuable to them, as were teachers and caretakers. Even if you had no idea what you could do to help, they’d put you to work doing something.

The group assembling outside were all paladin shepherds, and that struck Sorey as strange, since their jobs were usually to escort and protect those who couldn’t fight for themselves. It meant they’d be assigned to protect something else, and he thought back to what little Mikleo had told him.

“Do you know much about the royal emapths, Alisha?”

Alisha was waving at another Paladin she knew from her early training days, named Clemm. She stopped and turned back to look at him. “Well yes, the crown uses them for special operations. They’re pretty elusive, though. Why?”

“I heard that our next assignment involves them.”

“Where did you hear that?”

Before he had to come up with an answer that wouldn’t give him away, the group was addressed by a tall female Paladin with auburn hair who looked to be about to her forties, much older than everyone who had been assembled, the eldest being a pair of siblings whom Sorey had not met, but looked twenty-five at most.

“Is everyone here?” she asked, looking around the courtyard. “Please stand at attention.”

Sorey looked around and saw that there were ten of them, including himself, Alisha Clemm, the siblings, and some a few others. Alisha was standing up straight with an intense expression on her face.

“All right, then.” The woman cleared her throat and spoke loudly. “I am Shepherd Paladin Maltran, and I will be acting as your captain for this mission.”

Sorey had never had a captain outside of his training. It was usually just him and Alisha escorting the other Shepherds on their errands and the like. The formality felt a bit ominous.

“The ten of you have been nominated for an experimental project, due to your exceptional moral judgement and purity of spirit. This will be a collaboration with the crown of Ladylake’s empath program.”

It was true, and that confirmed for Sorey that meeting Mikleo last night had actually happened.

“As you probably know, empaths are people who naturally possess the ability to sense and manipulate human emotions. What isn’t as well known is that particularly powerful empaths can also communicate memories and thoughts, and can affect others with a large area of effect. You can see how such a power could be useful to the military for gathering intel, or keeping morale high.”

Sorey wondered if Mikleo had been doing that sort of thing all this time. If the government had him prying information out of prisoners, or something like that.

“For us, the Shepherds, the empaths possess the great potential to bring about peace. Imagine being able to calm tempers, ease pain, or convey feelings without the use of words. To treat those with mental ailments, or lessen the grief of the bereaved. It has taken a long time to convince the royal council to allow a third party like us to employ their empaths, but they have agreed to a mutual arrangement.”

Sorey’s head was racing with ideas. There was a possibility that he could work side-by-side with Mikleo.

“The issue is that powerful empaths are quite unstable,” Maltran continued. “Especially in tense situations, they can absorb and amplify the fears and anxieties of those around them. Over time, the strain of carrying so many feelings has a negative effect on their mental health. They may lose their individual identity, or have a mental breakdown and lose their powers.”

He had never heard that before. A shiver ran through him as he remember how coldly Mikleo had regarded him. Was this the reason? If he had known that using his powers would put him at risk like that, he would have never let Mikleo leave. He’d been told that Mikleo leaving was the best thing for him. Even at the age of 11 he would have fought it as hard as he could if he had known Mikleo was in any sort of danger.

“That’s where we, the Shepherds, come in.”

Her words snapped him out of his thoughts.

“It is theorized that those of us who have pure hearts and clear minds can act as a sort of buffer, or a filter maybe, for the negative emotions that empaths are exposed to. The crown would like us to test this in action, in return for their cooperation in our peacekeeping efforts. All of you here are young and bright, and you’ve been commended on several occasions for your altruistic deeds.”

She paused a moment to look at each of them in turn.

“There is risk that goes along with this,” she said in a foreboding tone. “If you are not confident and resolved, it’s possible that these same effects could take their toll on you. We will monitor everyone regularly to prevent any problems, but I want you to think carefully about this mission before you agree to it.”

The Shepherds were a volunteer force, and as such it was customary to take a half hour’s recess after a briefing. Anyone who decided to back out could do so, and wouldn’t judged or punished for it.

He and Alisha sat together on a stone step under the shade of a tree.

Sorey didn’t have to consider it. If volunteering himself would help Mikleo in any way, he would do it.

“What do you think about this?” Alisha asked him.

“I’m in,” he said. “But I have my own reasons. You don’t need to volunteer yourself if you don’t want to, though.”

“No, I want to go too.” Alisha sighed. “I’ve always been more sensitive to empaths than other people. I could feel it yesterday, couldn’t you? That man who was with the merchants.”

“Yeah, I noticed him too. I didn’t know that about you, Alisha.”

“Yes, I ran into them occasionally whenever I was summoned to the castle. They always feel a little sad to me.” Alisha clutched the front of her tunic. “I know the ones in my father’s employ are doing a great service to the crown, but I feel for them.”

“You looked like you know our captain,” Sorey said. “You went rigid soon as you saw her.”

“Yes, well…” Alisha stopped to ponder for a moment. “She used to be a teacher in the royal knights’ training grounds. I studied under her a few years until I decided that I didn’t want any part of these wars with Rolance, and left to join the Shepherds. I had no idea she had become a shepherd, too.”

“Aren’t you happy to see her?”

“Partly, yes. She was a good teacher and I think she instilled my sense of justice into me. That’s why I’m not surprised to see her here.”

“But…” Sorey nudged her with his elbow. “You don’t seem happy.”

“She always criticized me for splitting my responsibilities,” she said. “It’s not like I’m in line for the throne, but joining the shepherds meant that I had to give up my duty to the crown. I could tell she was looking at me, as if she was wondering what I’m even doing here.”

“I didn’t know it was so complicated.” Sorey sighed. “You just want to do the most good, right? That’s something anyone who calls themselves a Shepherd should be proud of.”

“Yeah.” Alisha stood. “Well, I’ve made up my mind. Should we go back?”

“Sure.”

- -

Four of the shepherds had gone, leaving only himself, Alisha, and four other recruits.

Maltran smiled. “Well, congratulations on joining the mission. This turn out is better than I expected.”

“Really?” Sorey asked, not sure how formal they were supposed to be now that they had a captain. “Did you expect less?”

Maltran smiled at him wryly. She seemed entertained with him more than anything. “Many people fear the empaths for their abilities, and some of those fears are not unfounded. Any prejudice could interfere with our goals here, so I’m glad that they’ve left.”

Sorey clenched his fist and looked down. When he was a naive child, he hadn’t noticed how other people looked at Mikleo. He didn’t think about the polite excuses or the hushed rooms until much later into his maturity, long after Mikleo had already gone.

“I assume you are ready,” Maltran said. “Today we will meet our new associates in the fields outside Ladylake.”

“Why out there?” Alisha asked.

“Yeah, I was kind of hoping to see more of the city.”

Maltran shook her head. “The exercises we will be doing today could have unintended side effects on those around us, so we’ve chosen a peaceful and uninhabited location.”

“Oh…” Sorey didn’t know that their powers could affect such an area. “That makes sense.”

---

The six Shepherds and their captain loaded into the back of a cart and were carried out the same way they’d traveled the day before. Today the sky was clear and Sorey was delighted to see the lake under the blue sky.

“Your spirits seem to have improved,” Alisha said.

“Oh.” Sorey realized he must look as excited as a child. “I’m sorry I was weird earlier.”

“Are you ready to tell me what really happened last night?”

“Uh…” he scratched the back of his head. “So you saw me sneak out after all?”

“I felt a strange presence last night. It isn’t unusual for me, especially if I’m in the city where know that empaths are stationed. But when I looked up, you were gone.”

“Sorry. It’s uh… personal.”

“Very well. I would never suspect you were up to anything But remember, I am here to help you if you need me.”

“I know. Thank you, Alisha.”

- -

They traveled a few miles from the city where they were instructed to get out of the cart and walk the rest of the way into a grassy field. They marched until they couldn’t see the road on the horizon anymore, and no one passing could see them, either.

Alisha quickened her pace to walk shoulder to shoulder with Sorey. “I’m concerned with the secrecy of this mission,” she whispered. “I’m not sure that anything is amiss just yet, but keep your eyes open.”

“I will.”

As they approached the site, Sorey could make out the shape of hooded figures sitting in the grass, cloaks pooled around them. He scanned to see if he could make out Mikleo, but they were too indistinct at this distance. Their robes all had dark colors, and he wasn’t sure if the different purples, reds, and blues meant anything. He stilled his mind and tried to sense which one could be Mikleo. When they were young, he could always find him in a crowd just by feeling him out. He did sense a mixture of faint emotions--a bit of anxiety from meeting their new allies, maybe. But it was like trying to pinpoint one voice in an audience full of hushed whispers.

“Please stand at attention,” Maltran said to her unit. The six of them formed a straight line.

There were seven empaths in robes of different colors. One in black stood and shook hands with Maltran. They removed their cloak, revealing the face of a mild-featured man with jet black hair.

“Lord Uno, it is a pleasure to see you again.”

“For me as well. I have high hopes for this cooperative effort.”

Uno waved to the others and they stood. They lined up behind him in the same way the Shepherd Paladins were arranged behind Maltran. From this angle Sorey could make out more of their faces. He spotted Mikleo, at the end of the line.

Like the night before, his heart skipped a beat. He was a breath away from shouting out to him, with no regard for where they were or what they were doing. But Maltran spoke again before he could.

“Shall we read the assignments, then?”

Uno handed her a list. “You can do the honors, Lady Maltran.”

“Very well.” She unfolded the list.

Sorey began to panic as he thought, the odds were that Mikleo would be paired with someone else. If he known, if he had been given more information, maybe he could have requested he be paired with Mikleo.

“Shepherd Paladin Sorey shall be paired with Miss Lailah.”

His heart dropped to the bottom of his stomach.

One of the empaths, this one wearing a dark burgundy red cloak with the pattern of a crane around the hem where Mikleo’s had dragons, stepped forward from the line and positioned herself in front of him. She removed her hood, revealing bright blue eyes and hair as white as clouds on a good day.

Sorey felt pure happiness washing over him, tinged with excitement. It was so strong as to trigger a wave of relaxation in his body that felt like the adrenaline he had felt in training.

“Oh, sorry!” she said, covering her mouth with a delicate hand. She giggled. “I’m just so pleased to be working with you.”

“No, it’s my pleasure, Miss Lailah…” He trailed off, wondering why he felt so comfortable suddenly, despite the situation with Mikleo still weighing on him.

Maltran went on to assign the other pale-haired men and women to the other four shepherds who had come with him and Alisha. Kaim and Natalie to the twin siblings Talfryn and Felice. An empath named Sindre went to the Shepherd named Clemm, who was an acquaintance of Alisha’s. They’d all been introduced to each other in the wagon on the trip here.

And that left Mikleo and Alisha.

“Shepherd Alisha, your partner shall be Mikleo.”

“I’m honored,” Alisha said, smiling and holding out her hand to shake as Mikleo approached her.

“Mikleo!” Sorey tried to interject, but Mikleo ignored him and didn’t so much as make eye contact as he walked over to stand in front of Alisha.

“Sorry,” he said. “I don’t shake hands unless I have gloves on, and I didn’t bring them today.”

“Well it is quite warm,” Alisha said in an awkward laugh.

Maltran spoke again to give their instructions. “Please be seated with your partner and introduce yourselves. You’ll be working closely together, so we’ll expect you to form at least some level of rapport.”

As soon as they were at ease, the group broke off into more casual groupings. Sorey immediately turned to Mikleo. “Mikleo, hey!”

Alisha looked at him strangely. “Do you know each other?”

Lailah seemed interested also. “Mikleo, you didn’t tell me about this.”

“Sorey and I grew up in the same town. That’s all.”

“That…” Sorey was crushed. “That’s all?”

“So this is the personal thing,” Alisha said, pondering.

Sorey didn’t respond. “Mikleo, do you think me and Alisha could trade so that we could pair up?”

Lailah looked down awkwardly. “I… I guess that wouldn’t be a problem, but…”

“Sorey.” Mikleo looked at him straight in the eyes finally, but his expression was stern, almost angry if not as lacking in emotion as he had been all day and the night before. “I came here to help the Shepherds search for a peaceful resolution to this war, not to catch up with you. I was assigned to Paladin Alisha, and I shall serve her. Please stop distracting us from our work, and tend to your own.”

With that, he turned and walked away, to the far end on the group. Alisha shrugged at him with the most sympathetic look on her face she could muster. “We can talk later,” she said, and followed Mikleo.

“Oh dear,” Lailah sighed.

“I’m sorry, Miss Lailah,” Sorey said, after taking a moment to deal with the state of absolute emotional decimation Mikleo had left him in. “I didn’t mean to imply I didn’t want you, it’s just Mikleo…”

“I know,” she said, putting those fingers to her mouth again to giggle. “Your emotions are as bright as the sun. Mikleo must be very important to you.”

“Yeah,” he groaned. “He doesn’t seem to think the same of me.”

“I would have warned you if you had given me the chance.” Lailah shook her head in dismay. “Mikleo doesn’t let anyone close to him. He even keeps the empaths who trained with him, like me, at bay. He is the one of us who needs a shepherd to help him the most.”

“Really?” Sorey watched as Mikleo sat out of earshot with Alisha. He didn’t seem to be speaking much except to prompt Alisha to do the talking. Her mouth was moving the most. He’d always known Mikleo to be a bit introverted, but not to the point of self-isolation. “That just makes me worried more.”

“Shall we sit?” Lailah asked, waving her arm to a nice soft patch of grass. “I can tell you what I know about him.”

Sorey took her invitation to be seated, then watched as she sat delicately with her legs underneath her, letting her robes pool around her. Her knees poked from underneath the cloak, slender and covered with a flowing gown, shimmering and sheer as a dragonfly’s wings.

“No,” Sorey said. “I mean, maybe another time. Mikleo was right, after all. I should be learning about you, not him. I am really curious about empaths in general.”

“Well, I found out about my powers about fifteen years ago, when I was ten.” She reached her arm behind her head and pulled a long ponytail from underneath her hood. Hanging over her shoulder, it fell and touched the grass. The tip of the shock of hair was a strawberry red color that faded into white. “That’s when my hair started to lighten, you see?”

Sorey’s eyes widened at the sight. “Wow, and you haven’t cut it ever since then?”

“I haven’t,” she answered. “It helps me remind myself of who I was before. Because you see, the more an empath uses their powers, the more their mental stability becomes an issue. I’m an old hand at this compared to the others here. The very reason I’ve been selected for this exercise is because I’m at greater risk. I never want to forget who I was, so this is kind of my way.”

“I see.” Sorey thought long about that. To lose your own identity in a cloud of others must be the worst kind of fate, he thought. And Mikleo had known about his own powers since the two of them were old enough to form memories. He wouldn’t have even known who he was before their emergence. “Did you have to leave your family?”

“In a way, yes.” She laughed softly, not as amused this time. “I was an orphan and grew up in Ladylake’s cathedral. I would have become a nun, but when my powers came, they sent me into the crown’s empath training facility. Leaving wasn’t the issue, since the training house isn’t that far from the cathedral. I could visit any time. It’s more that my early caretakers started to look at me differently.”

“Differently?”

“Yes.” The cheerful smile she gave him while telling this story seemed incongruent with what she must have felt inside, but Sorey still couldn’t sense anything but happiness and light coming from her. “I liked to pray when I was feeling sad or worried. But before I learned to control it, my feelings would creep out from me and infect others. I’d end up making the other visitors to the shrine feel worse than they had when they arrived. First they asked me to only come during times with the cathedral wasn’t as crowded. Then eventually, they began to act annoyed any time I showed up. So I stopped going. Now I pray in my own room.”

“Wow, that’s…” Sorey clenched his fist in his lap. “That’s awful, Lailah. I’m so sorry that people treated you that way.”

“It’s all right, I learned to deal with it.”

“But still..”

They were interrupted by Uno’s voice raised over the rest. “Well then, I hope you’ve all shared a few words. We’re about to start our first exercise, which can be quite intimate. Please, take your partner’s hands.”

“Ah,” Lailah looked down at her hands on her lap. “I’m so sorry, Sorey. If anything happens--”

“Why would something...?”

Uno had overheard them. “It’s better to show than to tell, young Paladin Sorey. Lailah, please continue.”

“Ah, yes…” Lailah swallowed hard and placed her hands with her long, elegant fingers, over Sorey’s rough ones.

Instantly, Sorey felt the sense of euphoria coming from Lailah grow more intense, until the field around him was spinning, and he had to focus on the horizon to steady himself.

“I’m sorry!” she said, and took a deep breath. “I’ll try to tone it down!”

Lailah was silent and concentrated for a moment. After she calmed herself,Sorey felt the euphoria subside.

“There.” She sighed, and he felt the grip on his hands relax. “Sorry, I’m not as good at controlling myself when it comes to skin to skin contact.”

“It’s okay,” Sorey laughed. “It felt kinda good. Just made me a little dizzy is all.”

Uno and Maltran were standing among all the seated empaths and paladins, walking between them and observing them closely. “Is everyone stable?” Uno asked. “Anyone having problems?”

Sorey looked around himself. Alisha and Mikleo were having no trouble at all, hand in hand. He found himself wishing even more that he could have been Mikleo’s partner, the way they were touching. He wondered what Mikleo’s hands felt like now that he had grown, and his fingers were long and beautiful.

“Careful, Sorey,” Lailah giggled. “I can feel you too, you know.”

“Ah! You can?”

Uno stepped over to Alisha. On second glance, Alisha’s eyes were wet. Mikleo showed no emotion at all, but Alisha was beginning to tear up.

“Easy, Mikleo,” Uno said, kneeling and placing a hand on his shoulder.

“W-why am I crying?” Alisha whimpered, and then broke down into a full-on sob. “I’m so sorry, Mikleo! I can’t hold it back!”

“It isn’t you,” Uno said. “The goal for now is to learn how to level out the emotional bond created with an empath touches another person. Building this bond over time is what will allow you to absorb some of the strain from the empath’s powers.”

“But he’s…” Alisha looked to Mikleo. “Mikleo, you don’t seem upset at all.”

“I’m just used to it,” he said. “It’s my fault, Alisha. I’m sorry for leaking like that.”

“Leaking? No, no! I’ve always been a little more sensitive to empaths than other people. I need to toughen up so that I can assist you!”

Uno laughed. “Both of you, calm down. It’s only the first day. I’m happy to see that you are enthusiastic, but this exercise is just about riding through the emotions, and finding a calm space between you. Take as much time as you need. Mikleo, it may help if you think of something calming, or neutral.”

Mikleo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Soon, Alisha’s tears dried up, and she smiled.

“There, we’ve done it!” she said. “You’re amazing at this, Mikleo.”

Mikleo grumbled. “Embarrassing…”

Lailah laughed softly. “Looks like they’re getting on.”

“Yeah. I’m glad that if it’s not me, at least it’s Alisha. I know she’ll protect him.”

Maltran stepped up next to Uno. “That is enough for today,” she said. “We will part for the evening and make sure there were no negative effects on any of you from this exercise. Tomorrow we will stay longer and so on,until we reach a safe equilibrium.”

Uno nodded. “You may separate.”

Lailah dropped Sorey’s hands and pressed hers to her chest. “It was lovely meeting you today, Sorey. I enjoyed talking. Even holding hands like this, it was nice once I got used to it.”

“Then I’m glad,” Sorey said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow.”

Sorey stood and saw that Mikleo was walking away from Alisha, putting his hood over his head.
“Mikleo!” he shouted, and ran up to him. Mikleo stopped, but didn’t turn to face him. He stood, staring at the back of Mikleo’s hood. Sorey gathered himself and spoke. “I’m sorry, I know you don’t want me to distract you but--I just wanted to tell you this.” He took a deep breath. “You may not remember me very well, maybe I’m the only one who remembers how we used to be, but you’re still important to me and I’ll do anything I can to help you!”

“You should focus on helping Lailah,” Mikleo said. “That’s your job.”

“I know. And I know Alisha will take good care of you. So I’m glad. I’m just happy that you’re in good hands, Mikleo. That I got to see you again.”

Sorey saw Mikleo’s shoulders heave under his cloak as he released a sigh. “You’re strange, Sorey.” Then he walked on.

“Sorey,” Maltran called. “We’re leaving now. Don’t fall behind.”

“I’m coming!”

He took one last look a Mikleo, then dashed back to the others as they left on their march back to where their transportation waited.

Chapter Text

Alisha woke bright and early as usual. The Shepherds in general woke up early to make the most of of the daylight hours. Her roommates stood dressing and readying themselves for their various activities. Despite the activity, Sorey was in the next bed sleeping on his back with his arms sprawled out around him like a cat in a sunbeam. It made her happy to see him sleeping so soundly, and decided not to wake him. Their lessons weren’t until later, anyway.

He’d been visibly upset over Mikleo, though he still hadn’t come to her to talk about it. She gathered that they were childhood friends. Alisha had trouble relating to that kind of relationship, and felt she couldn’t completely understand unless one of them wanted to talk. She doubted that the stern, cold natured Mikleo would open up to her any time soon.

Sorey stirred awake with a yawn, sitting up with his hair stuck up all over his head. “Alisha, what time is it?”

“It’s still morning, I was just about to go for breakfast.”

“Wait for me!”

Alisha laughed as Sorey hurried to dress himself and brush his hair, as if she was going to leave him.

- - -

It was day two, and they met in the same place as last time. The weather had been clear for a few days now, and looked like it would continue to hold.

Their empathic partners waited for them on the grassy hillside. Alisha thought it felt weirdly like a picnic, or tea time. It certainly didn’t feel like a military operation of royal importance. She supposed that no one else here knew what those were like, except for Lady Maltran of course.

Sorey rushed into the group ahead of her. “Good morning, Mikleo!” He waved and did his best to call Mikleo’s attention, but received nothing in return from the silver-haired young man sitting on his knees in the grass, swallowed up by his midnight blue robes.

Alisha wasn’t sure if it was anything, but she could swear she could feel Mikleo react even if only slightly, like the rings from a drop in a pond . If that was what she felt, it meant their union was growing strong, but she had to wonder why Sorey of all people would disturb Mikleo’s calm.

“Good morning, Lailah!” Sorey said, without letting Mikleo’s cold shoulder deter him. Alisha laughed as Lailah greeted him in kind.

They seemed a better pair, at any rate. Sorey could bring out the warmth in Lailah, and she could already see the effect of Lailah’s focus on him. Alisha looked at her own partner, Mikleo, and wondered how in the world she would ever get closer to him.

“Morning,” he said to her, keeping his voice low.

“Good morning,” she said back.

Mikleo was beautiful in his own haunting way, with big doll-like eyes looking back at her from under his dark hood. “Any negative effects?” He asked her. “Trouble sleeping?”

“I can’t say so,” Alisha answered. “How were you?”

He answered in a gruff voice, turning his head down and letting his hood slip down. “I slept fine.” It didn’t sound like it.

“What should I be looking out for?” She asked. “I’ve known for a long time that I’m sensitive towards empaths, but I’ve never been told much about what effects might be common.”

“Anything you feel that doesn’t seem like you,” Mikleo answered, looking up again. “If you’re normally happy and you start to feel sad, that would be obvious. Unfortunately, it would probably be something more subtle than that.”

It was then that Alisha became aware of Uno walking between the groups, and listening.

She whispered. “Are we being evaluated right now?”

Mikleo huffed in annoyance and glanced aside to where Uno was now talking with Maltran. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Is this how your training usually is?”

Mikleo shook his head. “Under normal circumstances, we’re deep underground. Stone and earth interrupt the transmission of our powers more than air. It’s like insulation.”

“I never knew that. It must have been awful down there.”

“On the contrary, it’s up here in the open that I feel exposed.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, as if trying to piece her together. “They didn’t tell you people a lot, did they?”

“Not at all.” She sighed. “To the point that I’m worried about it.”

Mikleo hummed thoughtfully. “Nevertheless, I’m glad you’re my partner.”

Alisha gaped at him, shocked. “Really? I had the feeling I was annoying to you.”

“Not at all. Compared to the others, you’re quite unobtrusive.” She got the feeling he was talking about Sorey. He went on. “You’re a perfect candidate. But if we continue, I need you to understand that I could be processing dangerous emotions at any time. It isn’t always safe to connect with me. In fact, I try not to feel much at all for that reason. Don’t take it to heart.”

She nodded, feeling that her partner had just exposed something very personal to her. “I understand. I will not burden you with unnecessary worry, and I’ll make sure things are all right before I initiate any connection on my end.”

“Thank you.”

As they spoke, Mikleo kept his eyes on Uno and Maltran. She followed his gaze to find Maltran arguing something, and Uno looking apologetic. After a heated exchange, Maltran pushed him aside brusquely and began to walk toward Alisha.

“I need to speak to you.”

Alisha stood and brushed herself off. Her shepherd’s cloak had earned a few grass stains after all of this sitting around. “Alone?” She asked.

“Yes,” Maltran said, then amended herself. “No, your partner may as well come along. I need his input, too.”

Alisha looked to Mikleo and he stood to join her. She caught the worried glances of Sorey and her other fellow shepherds as they walked down the hill and out of earshot.

Maltran turned to face them once they’d gone far enough. “The crown wants to send us on a tactical exercise,” she said. Alisha understood why Maltran had singled her out, she was the only other former member of the knights.

“But we’ve only been training for two days,” Alisha answered.

Mikleo added his thoughts as well. “We don’t yet know how stable our connections to you shepherds are. It wouldn’t be wise.”

Maltran frowned. “Yes, and apparently the crown thinks the best test of this program’s viability is to put you to work right away and figure out what works in trial.”

Mikleo’s expression went even more sour at that, but he held his tongue.

It didn’t surprise her at all. Alisha remembered how it felt to take orders even when you disagreed with them. “What sort of tactical exercise would this be?”

“Mind reading, or whatever the royal empaths call it.”

Mikleo gave a bitter laugh. “Telepathy,” he said. “Only a few of us can get more than a few random thoughts.”

Maltran went on. “A group from Rolance was captured just a few days ago, and they want us to fish in their heads for any new intel.”

Alisha groaned under her breath. “At least they aren’t dead.”

“Sympathy for the enemy?” Mikleo asked. “Is that why the Shepherds have agreed to help the crown with these problems?”

“That’s why I needed to speak to Alisha.” Maltran looked at her. “When you left the knights, I thought you were running away. Over these past two years, I’ve seen some things that made me wonder if maybe you had the right idea.”

“I’ve told you my reasons, and you may think me naive, but I still believe in my answer. It isn’t running away.”

Maltran groaned and shook her head, but there was a slight smile on her face in spite of that. “In either case, I know that you can command a unit, and that you’re plenty familiar with what to look out for when it comes to royal scheming.”

“You want me to lead this group on a mission?”

“When the time comes. For now, I only need two shepherds and two empaths. You and Sorey should go, and you’ll be the superior officer.”

Alisha turned to Mikleo as if she’d heard him make a noise, but he hadn’t. It had been another empathic reaction, a feeling of anxiety, gone before she’d had the chance to understand what it was.

“I’m not sure that Sorey will work well on my team,” she said. “Is there anyone else qualified?”

Her strange behavior hadn’t gotten past Maltran of course, who gave her an annoyed look. “I wouldn’t say any of you are qualified, but he is leading the group so far in terms of empathic resonance.”
“But…”

Mikleo cleared his throat. “Lailah is an experienced empath,” he said. “She and her partner would make good assets.”

“If you’re sure.” Alisha tried to read his face, but he kept angling his head so that his hood obscured her view of him.

Maltran scowled. “You’re taking Sorey, it’s not a negotiation.”

No arguing with her. “I accept the mission.”

“Fine then. The two of you go find your partners and make for the wagon cross, you’ll be properly briefed there.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Maltran turned and walked back up the hill to the trainees on the other side. Alisha could hear her call everyone to attention so that Uno could tell them about their progress.

She stood with Mikleo, digesting what she had just been told.

“You don’t need to make any concessions for me,” Mikleo said.

“But something about Sorey upsets you, I can feel it.”

He shook his head. “That just means I need to learn to control myself better.”

Alisha nearly let that go, but no. “I have something that I need to say,” she started, with a hardness in her voice she hadn’t heard out of herself since her days as a knight. “If you’re going to be my partner, then I need some things of you as well.”

“That’s reasonable.”

“You can’t be an island to yourself in this. You need to let me in on what is going on between you and Sorey. I can’t have my subordinates distracting each other from the mission.”

Mikleo was silent for a moment. She could feel the edge of his turmoil as he contemplated.

“It’s better if I show you,” he said, and held out his ungloved hand to her. “If nothing else, it’ll be a good test of whether or not you can handle me.”

She steeled herself and took his hand.

The feeling from the first time she’d touched Mikleo came again, and she braced herself against it so that it wouldn’t sweep her off her feet. Instead, it settled around her and became like a tepid pool of loneliness and remorse.

She waded through it and opened her eyes to find herself face to face with a small boy, the age of ten or eleven she guessed, with a mop of brown hair and green eyes that crinkled up in a familiar way. Tears were streaming down his face as he held her hand.

“Sorey?” Her voice was as a thought, unable to change this memory.

“I promise,” she heard herself say, but it was a smaller voice. It belonged to Mikleo, as this memory must have. “I promise, as soon as I learn to control it, I’ll come back. Then it’ll be safe. We’ll see each other again.”

The younger image of Sorey hugged her--Mikleo--tight. She felt the wetness of tears on her cheek. “Then I promise, too!” Sorey sobbed and squeezed harder. “I promise I’ll never forget you, and you’ll always be my best friend in the whole world!”

Then Sorey kissed her cheek, and she felt the flush of young love bubble up in her heart. How confusing, feeling that for the first time, at this exact moment.

Confusion. Did Mikleo not know? Even now?

Then the memory withdrew from her like a tide, pulling with it grains of other memories. She saw flashes of a woman crying, a woman who had the same delicate features and big haunting eyes as Mikleo. The smell of the horses as he rode out of town on the back of a royal knight’s horse. The burn of tears in his eyes as he looked back one more time.

And then she was back. Back in the field with Mikleo, the others still a stone’s throw away. Mikleo stood in front of her, seemingly unphased.

“Did you see it?”

She blinked and felt wetness in her eyes. “Yes.”

“How do you feel?”

She wiped her face and smiled at him. “Mikleo, do you not understand what that feeling was?”

His eyes widened and he stepped away, taken aback by her question. “Uh…” He shook his head. “Regret, and a lot of shame.”

“No, that’s not all of it,” Alisha said. She could swear Mikleo was trying to hide his blush with his hood. “Sorey is very dear to you. Why not tell him that? It would make him so happy.”

“I can’t.”

She felt a wind of anger and frustration blow up against her, then Mikleo settled himself.

“I haven’t kept my promise,” he said. He clenched his fists and tightened the cloak around him. “I can’t control it. I’m the most powerful empath in the group, I can use telepahy, I can even overwrite memories, change attitudes… but I can’t control it.”

He pulled his hood down and took a deep breath. “I was hurting everyone in my village. When I was even the least bit sad, I’d find my mother crying. If I got angry about something superficial, people around me would start fighting. And when I… When Sorey...”

He was shaking.

“It’s okay,” she said. She wished she could take his hands again for comfort, but the link was definitely unstable if he was like this. “That’s what I’m here for. Let me help you.”

He took a deep breath and steadied himself. She was relieved to see him relax his hands and straighten up. Soon, the cool feeling that came from standing next to him returned. “Okay. I’ll try.”

“Sorry to drudge everything up,” she said. “You could have just told me.”

“No. Thank you for doing that.” She watched him slip his gloves back on, then hold at his hand to shake. “More than anything, I needed to know that my feelings wouldn’t hurt you.”

She shook with him. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Well then.” He sighed and looked up over the hill. “Shall we collect the rest of our team?”

“Are you sure you’re ready to be on a team with Sorey?”

“Yes.”

She laughed. “You know, being at least a little friendly with him might get him off your back.”

“Uhg. No. You don’t know him as well as I do.” He began to walk in that direction, and she followed. “He’s like a puppy. Once you let him in, he’ll never go away.”

Alisha thought maybe she knew Sorey better than Mikleo gave her credit for. She may even have known something about Mikleo that he didn’t yet realize. But it wasn’t her place to pry. Now she knew what laid between them, and she could solve problems within the unit if they arose. Other than that, it was up to them to work things out.

She followed Mikleo up the hill. It was an eventful second day so far.

Chapter Text

Sorey found himself in an awkward situation, packed into a small carriage with Alisha, Lailah, and his once-childhood-friend, Mikleo.

He sat next to Lailah, and Alisha was facing him, their knees knocking together in the small car. Mikleo was in the seat facing Lailah. Both of them were swimming in the many layers of their robes, the cranes on Lailah’s trim mingling with the dragons on his.

Mikleo avoided acknowledging him at all, and when he did he was curt. To see him like this was like learning that a distant loved one had died, the way a sudden hole opened in his heart. The only thing that kept Sorey from grieving was that he had felt something that night in Ladylake, he knew he had. There was some sort of homesickness in Mikleo that he was hiding for some reason, and Sorey had to wait for him.

Sorey was not the most patient person however, and kept stealing looks over at Mikleo.

The elegant young man kept his eyes trained on the countryside as their carriage rode through the lands that laid beyond the hillsides around the city of Ladylake.

According to Alisha’s concise briefing, their team was meant to circle around Ladylake to a remote military prison camp. This afforded them some privacy. Mikleo let his hood down. The breeze played with silver wisps of his hair.

Sorey had always thought that Mikleo was pretty. As children, he used to put flower crowns on his head that matched his violet eyes. But this was different. The years had matured him into a true beauty. Sorey had never been one to ogle at a pretty face, but couldn’t stop himself from staring.

He was growing restless. Even if it wasn’t Mikleo, how could he be stuck in a carriage with another boy his age and not talk to him? The fact that it was Mikleo made it much harder. He wanted to tell him everything about what had gone on at home while he was away. Sorey wanted to ask about how his empathic training had gone, wanted to tell him all about his time with the Shepherds. It was killing him to stay quiet.

Lailah must have sensed his agitation, because she spoke just as he was about to say anything at all just to fill the silence. “It’s wonderful that we will be working together,” she said. “I’m sure that our group’s resonance will improve.”

Alisha answered. “You mean, between you and Sorey, and myself with Mikleo?” Mikleo looked up too, at the sound of his name.

“Not only that, but our cohesion as a group.” Lailah pressed her hands together excitedly. “My experience can help to temper Mikleo’s considerable power, and the two of you can learn to switch off between us, or even connect to both at once if need be.”

“Lailah?” Mikleos voice was terse. “Isn’t that a little advanced for them?”

“Sorry, maybe I’m just excited.”

She placed her hands back into her lap.

—-

Even as they rode up to the location, Sorey knew that something was wrong with the place. The camp was settled into an unscalable mountain side, and the trees had been cleared for miles around.

It’s walls were new and made of thick logs sticking straight up and edged with metal spikes. In the peaks of each corner and by each door were archer’s nests. It was like a fortress, but he supposed they were less concerned with outside forces than they were with threats from within.

Lailah placed a hand on his. He hadn’t even noticed how he had been gripping his knee until he felt her touch.

Mikleo seemed to take note of the gesture. “If you can’t stomach something like this, maybe you should have stayed home.”

Had his anxiety spiked so much as to catch everyone’s attention?

“Sorey has been to prisons before,”
Alisha said. “Shepherds are often called on to transport political criminals, after all. They’re often political targets.”

Lailah took her hand away, looking apologetic, as if she’d blown his cover. He was sure he’d done that all on his own. She touched her lip and mused. “I’m surprised that the Shepherds are able to function as an autonomous group within Hyland.”

Sorey knew that this was one of Alisha’s favorite things to talk about, so he stayed quiet and let her answer.

“It’s very handy to have an apolitical group,” she began. “It benefits the people the most, since we are free to travel where we like and help those who need it without waiting for government approval. But it also benefits the ruling class in cases like this, where any faction within the government might take advantage of the situation.”

Mikleo scoffed. “So the parties came together to approve this whole empathy-tethering thing, and they couldn’t find anyone trustworthy among themselves, so they said ‘why not make the Shepherds do it?’ so then none could accuse the other?”

“Yes, sort of like that.” Alisha said. She looked like the wind had been knocked out of her sails.

Mikleo’s expression changed slightly, but even Sorey could catch it. “It’s not like I insulted you guys,” he said, his tone apologetic.

“Alisha is a daughter of the noble house of Diphda,” Sorey said. As soon as it left his mouth, he wondered if he should have shared it. Alisha never seemed ashamed of that before, but she kept looking down.

Mikleo’s eyes widened, as most people’s did when they learned that fact. “I uh,” he stammered. “I knew you had been a soldier, but I didn’t think—“

“It’s all right.” Alisha laughed it off. “You haven’t said anything that isn’t true. I left the courthouse and the knights alike because of how political and backstabbing it all was. I hope to go back once I’m a little more experienced and try to change things. For now, I just want to help the people I can in the most direct way possible. The shepherds allow me to do that.”

“It must be really bad if Maltran left too,” Sorey said. “She seems like such a tough woman.”

Alisha opened her mouth to go deeper into the politics of the knights, but before she could speak again, there was a whistle and the carriage came to a halt.

“Looks like it’s time to go,” Lailah said, as a soldier opened the door of the carriage to inspect them. Lailah and Mikleo pulled their hoods up.

The soldier wore a face guard that concealed his eyes, but the stern line of his mouth expressed everything. “Two Shepherds, two empaths,” he said. “Crap, I didn’t believe it when they told me.”

“Believe it,” Alisha said, jumping down from the carriage without taking the soldier’s hand extended to help her. “I’m Captain Alisha. Please show me to your commander immediately.”

“Right away.”

—-

The front of the camp was walled off for soldiers to live in when they weren’t on patrol. Their living conditions didn’t look too terrible, with soft cots and clean water. That gave Sorey hope that maybe the prisoners weren’t being too poorly treated, either.

Mikleo put a gloved hand over his mouth as they passed between some tents.

Sorey remembered that he had always been sensitive to smells, but he was sure it wasn’t the vague smell of unwashed people that made him sick.

Lailah stopped to look him over. “It’s thick here. Will you be all right?”

“Of course I will.”

He twisted his face up like a child being fussed over by an overbearing mom. Sorey almost smiled. At least it wasn’t just him keeping an eye on Mikleo.

They were led to a hut at the center where the commander was set up to oversee operations. It was furnished more adequately than the soldiers’ arrangements, but not by much. He had a mattress with a bug net and a small collection of books. Other than that, there was not much more other than a table piled with documents and scrolls.

He was surprised to find an small man well past middle age swimming in his armor. He was completely bald except for a stately white mustache. He stood straight up, and he had a lean build despite his age and his stature.

“Lady Lailah?” He asked, looking past Alisha and Sorey.

Lailah pulled her hood back from her face and smiled. “Yes, Sir Nief. Good to see you again.”

Alisha looked between them. “I wasn’t informed of any past acquaintances with the commander.”

“Oh, he was one of the guards at the training facility before he was promoted.”

Nief smiled warmly. Sorey began to wonder if he didn’t have a soft spot for her. “Good to see you out and about. I didn’t think they let you empaths out of the training halls.”

“We are on a mission,” Lailah said. “So we have limited freedoms, but some at least.”

Mikleo interjected. “What are we to do here?”

Nief made a sour face at being addressed so bluntly, but couldn’t seem to figure how he should react. None of them were his subordinates. He cleared his throat and went on. “I need you to conduct an interrogation, if you could.”

Mikleo scoffed. “You needed two of us for that?”

Alisha waved Mikleo to be quiet. “I’m sure the commander will explain.”

“This is classified. Even though you aren’t soldiers, sharing this information is tantamount to treason, you understand?”

Alisha nodded. “We’re all aware.”

“We captured a high ranking officer of Rolance’s army trying to breach our territory. Naturally, if word of this were to get out to the public, there’d be an outcry for retaliation.”

“That’s understandable, if they struck first and without provocation.” Alisha sighed. “I hope there is more to this story?”

“He claims he didn’t intend to attack,” Nief explained. “In fact, he and his men laid down their weapons as soon as we surrounded them.”

“What were his intentions, then?”

“Sergei Strelka,” he grumbled. “Says he saw something weird and wants to warn us of it before it leads to a war. I was willing to talk to the higher-ups, tell them they simply got lost and ended up in our territory. We could trade them back to Rolance for prisoners of our own, no problem. But he says he doesn’t want to go.”

Alisha touched a knuckle to her lips, looking away in thought. “Sergei Strelka is well known, one of the influential members of the Royal Knights of Rolance.”

“Yes, and he’s telling some weird stories, too. Talking about ghosts and mind control. Sounds like a empath kind of thing to me. That’s why I reached out to Lord Uno first, before the official report goes in.”

“Well, that would explain the haste in which we were summoned.” Alisha took a deep breath to center herself, then looked at the three of them. “What do you think?”

Sorey had been holding his outburst in for a while. “I think we should give him a chance!” He realized he’d spoken too loudly and composed himself. “I mean, war with Rolance could hinge on this. We should let him explain himself, at least. Maybe he does have something important to say!”

“Or it could be an elaborate trick,” Mikleo said. “Or maybe he’s just crazy.”

“Ah, but...”

Lailah laughed. “Come now, Mikleo. Don’t be so dismissive. You know very well that we can find out beyond a doubt.”

Mikleo rolled his shoulders with a sigh. “True. Sorry, I think I’m absorbing the
ill air of this place.”

Lailah just smiled and clapped her hands onto his shoulders, turning him around to face Alisha. “She’s here to help you with that!”

Alisha began to blush a little. Sorey held back a laugh. “Am I not doing my job to the fullest?” she asked meekly.

Mikleo turned his nose up and huffed. “I just don’t want to be a burden to anyone.”

“Aw, Mikleo!” Lailah mocked a sympathetic tone, but she was obviously teasing him. “The four of us together can disperse the negative emotions of this place easy-peasy, you just have to open your heart!” She cupped her hands together and leaned into his shoulder, grinning.

“Okay, okay!” Mikleo struggled to regain his personal space, then dusted off his cloak. “I’ll rely on you more, okay? Just don’t hug me or anything.”

It was the first time that Sorey had seen that exasperated look, the hint of a blush on him, or heard his voice hit that annoyed pitch in many years. It took him back, with a rush of warmth and fondness.

Mikleo locked eyes with him for a flicker of a moment before pulling the cowl down over his face.

—-

The interrogation room was barren, all cold walls except for a chair bolted to the floor and a hook that he had to assume was for the prisoners’ chains.

Lailah shuddered so hard that he could feel it. “Are you all right?” He asked.

“Things have happened in this room,” Lailah said. “I have faith that Nief would never use such barbaric tactics, he doesn’t seem the sort. But he has only been commander here for less than a year.”

“So, even a physical place can absorb the negative feelings that affect empaths...” He glanced over to Mikleo, who showed no sign of the same problem, except for that he had placed his hand on Alisha’s shoulder.

“Do you need me to absorb it?” Sorey asked to Lailah.

“If you’re ready,” she said, and held out her hand.

Sorey took it. It wasn’t an immediate flood of negativity, but more of a dull ache. Like nausea creeping up after eating something bad.

He looked inside himself for something happy. His mom’s pies. They were always crispy and a perfect balance of sweet and savory. Whenever he felt lonely, he’d think about those pies and he’d plan a trip to see his mom.

“How wonderful,” Lailah said. She withdrew her hand, and smiled. “That helped me ever so much, Sorey.”

“I didn’t really do anything,” Sorey said, with an awkward laugh.

The metal door clanked. A soldier wearing a masked helmet led a man in, in chains.

He was a tall and broad man with a square jaw and short brown hair, well manicured. Upon seeing him, Sorey thought that he looked too heroic to be evil.

Along with the soldier and the prisoner who he assumed was Sergei Strelka, Nief followed.

“Sorry if the room is crowded,” he said, as the soldier chained Sergei to the chair. “Never had so many interrogators in here before.”

Sergei’s arms were bound behind his back, and there was no chance that he could break away. But he didn’t struggle. He sat and waited, silently, with intent burning in his eyes.

Nief sighed. “Son, you’re allowed to speak as long as it’s civil.”

Sergei’s voice, once he spoke, was loud and clear. “Thank you, honorable ones, for this audience. I would bow were I not so chained.”

He bowed his head in lieu of a full kneel.

Mikleo scoffed. “Yeah, he’s real dangerous.”

Alisha hushed him. “It could be a ruse. Better to be careful.”

“Of course,” Sergei said. “I understand these conditions and I’m actually quite grateful for the treatment I’ve been given.”

Nief sighed. “You see, he’s like this all the time.”

Lailah clapped him on the shoulder. “Thank you so much, commander. Since he is so secure, could I ask you and your man to step out? The fewer thoughts to muddle the air, the better.”

“All right, but we’ll be right on the other side of the door in case there’s any trouble.

Lailah waved her hand goodbye to him and smiled as he locked the door behind them.

“There now,” she said. “Sir Strelka, is it?”

“Yes,” he said.

“In order to verify your story, or to even make sense of it in fact, we must delve into your mind a bit. It can be somewhat invasive, so if there is anything you wish to say first—“

“Not at all,” he said. “I have been waiting for you to come so that I can finally prove myself.”

“No government secrets from Rolance or anything?”

He huffed a bitter laugh. “I’m afraid I’m out of the loop in regards to Rolance‘s inner workings these days. In my head you’ll only find my desire to protect my people.”

Alisha spoke. “Then let’s commence.”

He raised his head and looked up at her for the first time. Sorey wondered if he recognized her, or if they’d crossed paths. He doubted it. It occurred to him a moment later that maybe it was just that she was pretty. He tended to forget about these things.

Mikleo stepped forward. “Shall I?”

“Yes,” Lailah said. “I’ll cover you in case of any problem.”

Mikleo stepped forward and gestured to Alisha with his hand to come closer. “I may need you, so stand here, please.”

Alisha did so.

Mikleo carefully removed one of his gloves and reached out slowly. He placed his hand against Sergei’s forehead and closed his eyes.

A moment passed. Sorey observed Lailah, and saw that her eyebrows were furrowed. Her usual confident positivity was gone. She watched Mikleo intently, and with worry.

Alisha’s head turned from Mikleo to Sergei and back every few seconds.

Sorey tried to take in everything, all of them, and what they were worried about. If he couldn’t connect to Sergei directly, he could at least be a sponge.

“He met a girl,” Mikleo said.

Sorey could see his eyes moving beneath his lids.

“Small stature, dark hair. Purple
eyes like mine.” A pause, as if he was struggling in his concentration. “An empath, if I was to guess. Rare that her hair did not pale.”

Eyes still closed, his hand curled against Sergei’s skin util he was touching him with only the tips of his fingers. His shoulders hunched.

“Guilt. So much guilt here. He had to stop them.”

Alisha leaned in and touched the only exposed skin she could find, the back of his neck. She took on the same posture and pained expression as soon as the contact was made.

“They went crazy,” Mikleo said. “Rushing towards the border in plain sight. Trying to get caught? Under her control—“

Lailah spoke low so as not to interrupt his concentration. “This Captain Strelka must have some talent of his own if he resisted that kind of mind control.”

Mind control. The idea of it made Sorey shiver.

Mikleo went on. “He stopped them. Didn’t kill any, but some took injuries—guilt. Nothing wrong. There’s guilt but it wasn’t wrong. He didn’t—”

Mikleo’s sentence ended, and a half-second later everything went out of hand.

Mikleo shrieked. In alarm or pain, or was hard to say. His voice bounced off the stone and metal walls.

His hand whipped away from Sergei as if he’d been burned and he crumpled writhing to the floor.

Alisha’s reaction was to catch him in her arms, although soon as she touched him again, her body wracked with whatever pain afflicted him.

Sorey jolted forward only to have Lailah stop him with a strong grip around his upper arm. “Don’t!”

I can’t just leave them like this! he wanted to shout, but in the split second which this occurred, Nief and his man were already coming through the door to inspect what had happened.

Seeing as the prisoner himself was in a catatonic state and hardly in control or even conscious of what had happened, they stopped short, unsure of what to do.

Mikleo’s breath hitched and he screamed again, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Lailah was already moving to shoo Nief and the soldier out of the room.

Every instinct told Sorey to scoop Mikleo up and comfort him, find out what was wrong, stop it—make it better, somehow. Like when they were kids and he cried, and he’d hug him under a blanket fort until it went away. Every millisecond it continued was like a dagger in his chest.

“It’s a trap,” Lailah said in a raised voice, frantically trying to explain over the sound of Mikleo’s cries. “Touch it and we’ll be drawn in as well!”

“But we have to do something!”

“Carefully!” Lailah shouted. “Don’t touch his skin, lift him and carry him outside!”

Sorey nodded and knelt to scoop Mikleo up. It was fortunate that Mikleo kept himself covered even more so than Lailah did. Only one of his hands was ungloved and aside from that, the only bare skin was around his head.

Sorey flipped Mikleo’s hood over his head to prevent any skin to skin contact as he lifted him up and carried him out of the room.

The soldier, who was wearing full body armor and gloves, did the same for Alisha, hefting her up over his shoulder.

Lailah led them out to the courtyard where she instructed Sorey to lay Mikleo down. “Be careful,” she said.

At least he had stopped screaming. It took every bit of his willpower not to cup his face in his hands and press their foreheads together, or hold him tight to his chest until the shaking stopped.

A moment passed and both Mikleo and Alisha laid silent, breathing steady. Alisha hadn’t screamed, but her pain tolerance as a soldier was much higher than most. Sorey had once seen her shake off a snake bite as easily as a mosquito’s only saying to him, “relax, it isn’t venomous.”

Mikleo opened his eyes, and soon after, so did Alisha.

He sat up.

“I feel like I’ve been stabbed all over,” he groaned. “What the hell was that?”

Lailah sighed, relieved. “I’ve only heard about a power like that,” she said. “To make a person see anything, feel anything they can imagine. It may have very well felt like being stabbed repeatedly, Mikleo.”

“As someone who has been stabbed before, I can confirm that,” Alisha said. She was doing a bit better than Mikleo, but not by much. “An empath can leave such a thing in another person’s mind?”

“If their resonance is high enough,” Lailah said. “It can’t kill a person, but they say it has driven men to suicide.”

Sorey didn’t want to think about that right now, he preferred to focus on the matter at hand. “Wait, so during the interrogation you said that Sergei must have resisted the mind control because of his resonance.”

“Yes,” Lailah said, a regretful tone in her voice. “But it was that very blessing that allowed her to set a subliminal trap.”

Sorey hissed. “That’s...”

Alisha forced herself to stand. “Mikleo,”
She said. “You said she made his men want to rush the border?”

“Yeah.” Mikleo tried to sit up, but began to sink again. He didn’t object when Sorey wrapped an arm around his shoulders to hold him steady. “I’d say someone is trying to start the war with Hyland, and has recruited an incredibly powerful empath to do it.”

They fell silent.

Nief approached now that the danger was past. He looked to each of them, assessing. “It would seem that the two of you and Strelka could all could use a night’s recovery,” he said. “Please, let me offer you my tent. It’s the best accommodation that I can offer.”

Lailah smiled. “Thank you so much, Sir Nief. I believe that Mikleo could use your bed there most.”

“I’m fine with a soldier’s cot,” Alisha said. “Let the boys have it.”

Sorey sputtered. “B-but...”

Alisha laughed. “I’m in no shape to provide support to Mikleo.” She smiled. “So figure it out, Sorey. That’s an order.”