Daughter of Nox

Chapter Twenty-Two

Freya was on top of a dead Esque when the man appeared.

He came from nowhere. As in, literally nowhere. One moment she was gaping as the mangled buildings around her became whole, and the next she was staring up into the face of a uniformed Ministry officer.

"Greetings, Novice."

Freya would have screamed if she hadn't been so shocked. She rolled away from the officer, trying to untangle herself from the lifeless Esque and rise to her feet at the same time. The effort was less than half-successful.

"I know you feel disoriented," he said, looking down at her, "but I assure you that the simulation is over. My name is Commandant Reynard, and I'm here to tell you that you're safe."

Freya had gotten herself up to her knees when he said this. She stopped moving.

"You're lying," she said, looking up at him. "This wasn't a simulation. Nox is under attack. We're under attack."

"Nox is not under attack, and neither are you." The officer's face was calm as empty space as he spoke. "You have been part of a simulation–your first at Academy. But it was nothing more than that."

She shook her head. "There were Separatists in the armory." She pointed to the pyramid still ten meters away. "They were shooting at us. They shot the Esque."

The officer looked down at the three bodies Freya had finally managed to untangle herself from.

"I think you'll find that these Esque are merely unconscious."

Freya followed his gaze down to the Esque, and took in a sharp breath.

Two of the Esque were face down, but the last one, the Esque she'd seen shredded by a plasma blast to the chest, showed no sign of having been shot. In fact, the longer she stared at him the more she noticed the slight rise and fall of his chest as if he was sleeping.

Freya looked back to the officer. "How?"

"More will be revealed, Novice." He smiled as if explaining something very simple to a small child. "For now, I ask that you follow your path to the mess hall. You'll find further instruction there."

Before Freya had a chance to ask anything further, Commandant Reynard's image evaporated, replaced by a line of glowing gold rectangles on the ground that disappeared around the corner of a nearby building.

Freya's legs shook as she stood. Less than a minute ago she'd been surrounded by a war zone, facing off with an enemy who almost certainly about to kill her. Now it was gone, replaced by the safety of Academy and a stillness that seemed as foreign as an alien landscape. Her mind was beginning to believe that Commandant Reynard hadn't been a near-death hallucination, but the tension in her muscles said her body wasn't quite ready to believe.

The quiet of the grounds seemed to press in on her, and after a moment she found herself following the trail the Commandant had left for her.

"Freya?"

The sound of her name was like a slap in the face after the silence.

Freya looked up and found Etta staring at her, the rest of the Novices Freya had sent with her in tow.

Etta crossed the distance between them and hugged her. "You're alright."

"I am," Freya said, hugging her friend back, the feeling of her friend's touch driving back the insanity of a few minutes before. "But I guess all of us are, right?"

Etta let go and stood back from her. "You saw that Reynard guy too?"

Freya nodded. "I thought I was hallucinating or something."