As we make our way to the Recreation floor, I'm surprised to run into Astrid and her Guardian. "Hey!" I exclaim, giving her a hug. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," she smiles. "I think I already got my training in Death, huh?"
"Come off it," James says. "Are you sure you should be up and about? You look pale, Astrid."
"She always looks pale, she's from the North," I point out.
"You know what I mean, Callie," James says, but Astrid shrugs. "I feel better now. I mean, it comes and goes, but it's been doing that for years. Yesterday just came as a shock."
"But she didn't feel well enough to come to lesson, for some reason," Isa says. She fondly tousles Astrid's hair.
"Not at all," Astrid replies with a grin, looking up at Isa. "Couldn't possibly make it."
Isa rolls her eyes. "You guys wanna play something with us?"
"We heard that some of the older Keepers were planning on playing a film," I say. "We were going to go check that out."
"Don't bother. They were planning on playing something inappropriate, but their Guardians shut them down," Isa says.
James sighs. Upon learning of the war, and apparently angered by the fact that while they are done with Training and are legal adults, they cannot leave the training base to fight, the oldest group of Keepers has been rebelling a bit. "When will they let them leave?"
"They say soon," Isa replies as we continue downstairs. "They've been going over special training in the gym."
The gym, which makes up the majority of the Recreation floor, has never had a good use besides letting the younger group of Keepers run around. Most of the time it just stays there collecting dust.
"What type of training?" I ask curiously.
"Mainly combat. Usually they had to go to the other training camp-you know, the one for soldiers-but for some reason, they won't let them travel there."
"It's too dangerous to travel now, with the war going on," James says.
"Is it now? I couldn't have guessed James," I say with a grin.
He glares at me. "Not funny, Calypso."
And I know by the use of my full name that I said something wrong.
Astrid and I jump around from game to game, while Isa and James just stand around and talk. We leave for dinner, then James and I go back to our dorm. James sits on the couch in our little living area and I sit down next to him. "Hey," he says quietly.
"Hey," I reply, leaning my head on his shoulder.
"Something bothering you?"
I shrug. Then I sigh. "The war. The flashback. The premonition."
"Understandable."
"It bothers you too," I guess, sitting up straight to peer at his face. He nods and rests his head in his hand. "It's scary."
"I know."
He looks at me. "I don't get it."
"Get what?"
"You know why Keepers were created, right?"
I nod. "To have a special army, or something like that. Right?"
"To have an elite squad, a group of people who were unbeatable. Each power was created for a purpose. You can look into the past, see wars long-gone, look at strategies used, learn from mistakes. Your power was made so you could become an excellent strategist in war, believe it or not."
He lifts his head and looks at me. "If each Keeper is made with purpose, why are we keeping the fully trained ones from combat? There are seventy-five-or, no, 74- total Keepers alive, both trained and untrained. We have nineteen of them here, in this training base. That's..." he pauses to do some mental math, "Fifty-five in combat."
"That's barely anything," I comment.
"Keepers do a hell of a lot of damage. But you're right, that's not much. Fifty-nine isn't much more either. But did you notice something about the younger group?"
I thought for a moment. "There's more little ones."
"Five more, to be exact. They've amped up the amount of Keepers added every ten years."
"But that's against tradition."
"It'd only be a problem if Keepers had existed since the time of the Gods. They were created five thousand years ago, but the legends of the Gods have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. They didn't expect something like this to happen."
"Full-scale war?" I let out a short, bitter laugh. "Did the creators live under a rock or something?"
"No. Callie, we've had huge wars before, but not like this. This could possibly be the worst. It's not just here, the fighting. It's in the asteroids. It's all over Azera. It makes the human World Wars combined look like child's play. It's ginormous."
We sit in silence. "James?"
"Mm?"
"What will they do when we're losing?"
James sucks in a deep breath. "We're already losing, Callie. We're losing soldiers so quickly. They're winning."
"But who?" I ask. "Who are we fighting?"
James doesn't answer. So I repeat the question. "James?"
"I don't-I'm not telling you," he says quietly.
"Why not?" I demand.
He stares at a spot at the wall. "I can't," he replies quietly. "I...I can't."
"Why?"
He looks at me. "Listen, I was told I was not to share that info with you or the other Keepers. I've already said too much."
"Does it have to do with Simon?"
James demeanor changes at once. He grabs my shoulders and looks me straight in the eye. "Listen to me. Do not, I repeat, do not ask about Simon. You hear? To us, he is good as dead. He is no longer our concern, and don't go prying, because you won't find anything. It-it doesn't pertain to you."
I nod. James is frightening me. "Please let go of me."
James releases me. "I need to go for a walk," he mutters, standing up.
"James...? Are you alright?"
He nods, turns his head away from me. "Yeah...yeah, I'm okay. I just...I need to go for a walk," he finishes lamely. He leaves the room quickly, but I think I hear a sniffle before the door slides shut. I bury my face in my hands. I've upset him, I know it. I reminded him of the incident, of Baya.
***
James doesn't return until after I've crawled in bed and fallen asleep. I have to wake up early tomorrow, because it's Religion Day. It hits me that a full week has passed since I had that flashback. I sincerely hope that I don't have another one, because they're miserable to experience.
I don't. But in the middle of the sermon, the large domed room-which is the only room to have windows to the outdoors-shudders. The preacher pauses as dust lightly falls on top of us.
Then the glass dome cracks.
Some of the little ones scream, but the Trainers and Guardians quickly shush them. The preacher shouts, "Now, don't worry! There's no need to panic!" But everyone ignores him, because now the fighting is right above us, and thanks to the dome, we can see it.
A female Keeper and a Euravic (a four legged, blue skinned creature from the planet Eurava) engage in combat around the dome. The Keeper disappears from the left side of dome in a flash. Her blonde hair and blue, pleated robes twirl around her as she reappears on the other side of the dome. In her hands she clutches a pair of Kryiats- thin curved swords used in combat-which move in a blur as the Euravic climbs over the dome. The glass cracks under its pointed feet. It's quite a show, but it's terrifying to watch.
As we watch, she slices at the Euravic and disappears again, this time staying out of our sight. She must've went away from the dome, because the Euravic climbs back out of the dome and races off to the other sight, away from the dome.
The preacher clears his throat. "So..."
After the sermon, everyone is talking about the brief battle above our heads. A little boy says, "But it's Religion Day! Why wasn't she at a serpent?"
At sermon," his Keeper corrects him, just when another, older Keeper snaps at him, "'Cause there's a war going on!"
James makes a noise of disgust. "Oh, for the love of the Elders, please just let them leave already," he mutters, which surprises and shocks me. This is so unlike James. I look at him sideways, but he doesn't notice.
We go through our prayers and I go to bed. My mind is reeling. From the fight, from James's comment...try as I might, I can't make sense of it. I fall asleep and have disturbing dreams about battles and people dying, but when I wake up, only the flashbacks stay with me.