Out of Evenfall (BOOK 1)

Chapter 29

KEMAL

"Keep your footwork light," he instructed his Trainees as they practised on straw Derelict dummies. Others took turns on the outskirts to provide arrow supports, guided by magick as to not strike friend but their foe. "Focus on the call of the core." He brought his hand up to push into Elias' space, quickly unbalancing them back onto the grass. "If you let your guard down for even a moment, they will take it." He moved away from Elias to investigate Styge's footwork. "It's not about the strength you put behind the strike. You must be firm, assured, and aware." He sent a hand into Styge's back, who almost tripped when he went for a strike on his static dummy. "Including what's around you. The difference between life and death is that awareness." He kept on his regular tangent of training. Nevan had yet to give him new patrol routes to test out the readiness of the Trainees, near the end of their road until they took their oaths. He tipped his head when Kayal turned to him. "What is it, Kayal? We're not taking a break yet."

Kayal lowered his arm to his side. "I just have a couple questions, Trainer Tyronai," he said, turning his back on the Derelict dummy. "Things that got me thinking while I was doing some studying on Derelict types."

Kemal crossed his arms while his other Trainees continued on their work, out of breath, but not out of time. "Can't it wait?" he questioned with a handwave at Kayal's lack of damage on his straw dummy. "If this is about your patrol routes, it is up to Captain Lotayrin to work something out." If he'd stop moping in the basement surrounded by his maps and books...

"No, it wasn't about that." Kayal holstered his crescent blade with a thoughtful hum. "It's about what we saw in those ruins. That Derelict? Or was it a Corruptor? Though I don't recall that Corruptors were more Derelict than themselves. Does that make sense?"

"You are correct, so I'm assuming this can't wait." Kemal huffed out abreath, unable to stifle the questions Kayal had. "Corrupters oft retain their 'true' forms. Their body. All the damage the Derelict does is within than without. I..." Kemal rubbed the back of his neck. "I will be quite frank and say I don't know what was different about the corruptor save the obvious." After a couple seconds of mulling over Kayal's question when the younger Warden said nothing else, he asked his own, "What is this about?"

"There have been reports of intelligent Derelicts," Kayal said. "We've read up on them — or, at least, I have. I was just wondering..." He sucked in a small breath. "Seeing as we've never seen the portal to the Echo Obscura... has there ever been anyone who's seen it? Went inside it, even?"

Kemal jolted with the rest of his Trainees who found themselves unable to hide their eavesdropping. "I—That is a question I don't know," he said. "I don't think anyone would know that."

"But we know for certain the Derelicts started appearing a thousand Turns ago?"

Kemal shrugged while the other Trainees stopped to listen in. "Not for certain... but more or less it happened within that timeframe. If you can trust the accuracy of history books in that time that aren't Obscura texts."

"Is that what Captain Lotayrin was trying to find?"

Kemal stared at his questioning apprentice.

"Does anyone really know what brought them through the echo to our star?" Kayal continued. "How did we even figure out what their weak point was?"

"Trial and error, Kayal. Obviously." Elias sniffed.

Kemal pinched his chin and his lips as Kayal turned to Elias with a shake of his head. "In the face of an unknown threat, your best weapon is what knowledge you can gain from it," he repeated the first words Kemal taught his Trainees when they entered the Order. "We found their weak points but not their origins?" Kayal faced him again, expectant, needing an answer, and he saw a younger version of himself, confused as to why, betwixt the blood and suffering, why they had yet to rid the world of their apocalyptic fiends.