SAGE (under edit)

Chapter Thirty Five - Just a Distraction

'That's ludicrous!' Cedric said, scoffing as he and Darian entered the room.

Bryce paused his sketching and lifted his gaze, unimpressed by the interruption. His eyes fell to a letter that Darian had in his hands and he said, 'What, pray tell, is ludicrous?'

'Go on, read the report again,' said Cedric, gesturing flippantly to Darian as he took a seat with Bryce at the large, oak wood table that occupied the room.

Darian looked to Bryce and said, 'One of our employs sent to collect Crest Soldiers reports spotting the Lycrart girl. As you suspected, she has joined the Shadow Soldiers with Lion Crest to aid them against Sky Expanse. Interestingly though, the employ also reports the girl wielding "weapons made of Kyra".'

'Which is impossible,' Cedric remarked. 'Kyra can't be manifested outside the body. You're medically trained, Darian, so I shouldn't have to remind you of that.'

'Yet you do so regardless,' said Darian drily.

'The employ has clearly lost his mind. Tell Bryce the other thing, go on.'

Darian's gaze lingered indifferently on Cedric before he turned back to Bryce. 'The weapons were like the blades of short-swords and just as solid, but burned like fire. They were also tinged with a colour.'

'A colour?' said Bryce, straightening in his chair.

'Yes. They were violet,' Darian revealed.

Bryce revelled silently in the news and then sat back, smiling. He turned to Cedric and said, 'Send word to the Palm Soldiers. I'd like them to move in immediately.'

'You're really going to do this, just for a Helian?' said Cedric.

'Do as I ask, Cedric, or I shall finish what that Shadow Soldier started and take your other eye,' Bryce said, holding Cedric's gaze. Cedric's nostrils flared in response, but he relented after a moment and left the room.

Bryce looked down at his sketch of a young woman's face, drawn in soft lines of black ink. He pictured the hair to be of the same black, but offset by the odd highlights of strawberry-blonde that appeared pink in the sunlight. Her eyes were colourless in the sketch, but in his mind he saw them as green.

Then he saw them as violet.

Bryce looked back to Darian, his smile growing. 'So it's true.'

*****

Toren picked up Leah's Kyra signature faster than Sage had expected, and for that she was grateful. He picked up Rhun's as well, but it wasn't until they were well into enemy territory and treading through the outlying woods with caution. Fortunately, Rhun and Leah hadn't been separated. Toren tracked them to the enemy camp known simply to the Crest Soldiers as "camp 3" which was slightly larger than the rest, and often used as a rendezvous point for Sky Soldiers.

Sage held her breath as a group of three Sky Soldiers loitered below her, unaware that she hid in the branches five feet above their heads. One of them was lighting a cigarette, the spark of the match illuminating their faces in bursts of sharp light until a flame ignited. She looked across to another tree, spying Trey's silhouette concealed amongst the foliage. If she hadn't known he was there, she might have missed him.

Toren had gone ahead to scout the camp, but not before warning Trey and Sage that three of the Sky Soldier's on patrol were heading their way. Sage's first instinct was to engage them, but Trey talked her down with logic – if the Sky Soldiers were contacted by the others and didn't respond, the camp would raise the alarm without hesitating.

So Sage reigned in every urge that told her to either run or ambush the Sky Soldiers while they loitered unassumingly below her. She held her breath as she waited, and when they finally moved off she released the breath in relief.