Realm of the Sun

Chapter 25

What just happened?

Awkward did not even begin to describe what Solarie Lin was feeling right now.

There were three things that Solarie did know.

One: she was currently on a death mission to go rescue her best friend.

Two: she stole a gun from the palace armory.

And three: she may or may not have just walked away after Sylas kissed her.

It wasn't exactly as simple as she had made it sound in her head, per se, but ever since that happened, her mind was in constant turmoil, reeling over that specific event.

Oh. my. Gods.

There were a lot of important questions to ask, like is he just a friend or maybe an actual fiance, but now was not the time to do so, not while she was crouched behind a stack of crates in the middle of nowhere, about to crash into a safehouse.

As soon as she had left the armory in a most definitely orderly manner, she snuck out to the meeting spot, slamming head-first into corporal Feiyi, apologized endlessly, then made her way to the rest of the group. Sergeant Cheng had directed her to group two, the group storming the safehouse closest to the palace. She had been placed with five other members of the covert unit; all from various houses she probably would remember if she tried hard enough, but settled for learning their first names.

Bennett, Hua, Paisley, Michael, Akari. Bennett, Hua, Paisley, Michael, Akari. Bennett, Hua, Paisley, Michael, Akari. If she recited them back enough, maybe she would remember everyone's house. The one name she did know; Hua Fu, the first cousin once removed of one of the hostages, Katherine Fu. She could see the raw determination on Hua's face, desperate to save her kin with unwavering bravery. It was admirable, her courage; nothing Solarie could even begin to fathom. Family was something else completely separate from other relationships.

Every other member of the group looked like normal civilians, save for the all black clothing they donned. Most had jet black hair, with the exception of Paisley, with more chocolatey brown locks currently pinned in a tight bun with metal pins. An odd choice- those would most certainly be heavy to carry around in one's head. Everything else was the same- pale skin, hazel or brown eyes, and average heights- except for Akari. She had a much smaller frame then the rest of them, looking more like an adolescent then a full-grown adult.

Now, she was crouching behind a stack of abandoned crates in the middle of nowhere, wagering her own life for the chance Jin might still be alive. Even after all the time she had spent in the palace being told she was important, she still had no sense of self preservation. The king dropped the whole lost princess act pretty early on, anyway- it wasn't benefitting him nor convincing anyone else.

"On my count," Michael whispered to the group. Michael was the de facto leader, some kind of turn of phrase from a lost Ardish dialect. Solarie did not care to study languages when she could barely read or write her mother tongue. Everyone else around her seemed to know at least a basic conversational level of two different languages, and even though Sylas had tried teaching her, it hadn't worked out great.

Sylas. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get the memory of the armory out of her head. It was a trivial thing, really, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not let it go.

Michael ended up saving her from her own mind. "Three, two..." he lingered on the two, a weird thing to do since the whole point of a countdown was to evenly and precisely time when to move. It didn't matter though- as soon as he counted to the last number, every single one of them moved in perfect unison, with the exception of Solarie who was still new to all of the ins and outs of the covert unit.