The Sovereign System

CHAPTER TWO

Kaiden’s legs moved before he could think properly, and he ducked next to Mira.

The visions still echoed in his head, and his arm still burned painfully. But the stone had vanished. The only sign that it had been there was a small burn in his left palm.

“Are you okay?”

He turned, sweat gathering on his brows, and met Mira’s worried eyes.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” he lied.

Those words that had appeared in his mind. ‘HOST DETECTED’…

He shook his head. There were more pressing matters at hand. That being the approaching hoofbeats.

He hoped they had enough cover behind the broken wagon. At this point, all they could do was pray that the soldiers would not look too much in their direction.

They had to be four or five, Kaiden thought as the hoofbeats stopped. Metal armor clinked and there was the sound of heavy boots thudding in the mud as they descended their horses.

“Ugh, this place stinks,” one of them growled.

“These southern monkeys always stink,” another one spat. “It’s worse after they die.”

“Damn peasants.”

A sharper voice interrupted, “Shut your mouths and let’s get to work. The quicker we finish, the quicker we can get home.”

“How are we supposed to find it among all…this?!”

“You’ll know it when you see it. Now, move.”

Kaiden’s stomach twisted. He had a faint suspicion that they were looking for the very stone he had found moments ago. The stone that had now disappeared mysteriously.

The soldiers dispersed to do the task. Mira’s eyes were wide in the dim light when she turned to him again, silently asking what they should do.

He pressed a finger to his lips, then peered around the wagon.

He was right; there were four soldiers, all in blue and black armor. They were surely from the north, probably from the capital itself, probably part of the Elite Guard. But what were they doing all the way over here, too?

‘Today keeps getting weirder and weirder,’ he thought.

He sank back into his hiding position and made a sign to Mira. They would wait till the soldiers spread out, then they would make a run for the tree line. She nodded, her lips pressed together.

Then they started creeping backwards on their hands and knees, using the wagon as cover. The soldiers wouldn’t think that anyone would still be alive here, and they had their backs to them, and the tree line wasn’t that far….

Just a few more feet-

Crack.

Kaiden’s head whipped around to find Mira’s foot caught on a broken spear buried in the mud.

Before either of them could do anything, there was a flash of blue-white light and one of the men appeared right in front of them. The air crackled with lightning, and it danced around his thick arms too. He was tall and huge, eyes sparkling with electric blue. A lightning-user.

“What do we have here?” he asked, cocking his head.

Kaiden opened his mouth to talk, but no sound came out. Mira’s face had gone pale.

“Scavengers,” said one of the soldiers, appearing behind them.

“Bloody rats,” said a third man, wrinkling his nose.

“W-we were just headed back to the v-village, sir,” said Mira.

Kaiden remained silent, mentally planning escape routes and how they could get out of this situation. But the others had now formed a loose circle on all sides.

“I see,” the lightning-user said. He seemed to be the leader, with that commanding presence.

His gaze flicked to Kaiden, then to their tattered clothes, then to the pouch Mira carried.

“And what were you two doing here?” he asked.

Kaiden found his voice. “We’re orphans. We’re just trying to survive.”

“Picking the bones of better men, you mean,” said the third.

They sniggered harshly. One of them stepped closer, and before Mira could react, he yanked off her pouch. The coins; all their savings; clinked within as she desperately reached for it.

“Please, that’s all we’ve got-”

The man backhanded her hard. She hit the ground with a cry, skidding in the mud.

“No!” Kaiden lunged at the man without thinking. A heavy smack across the face sent him into the mud as well. Pain exploded behind his eyes. He tasted blood, and a tooth shook dangerously in its socket.

“Well, that’s a generous amount,” said the man with the pouch, as he counted the coins within.

The second man sniggered again, a nasty scar on his jaw widening with the movement. He took a coin and held it up.

“A couple of rats like you have no business with something this shiny,” he told them.

Kaiden reached for Mira. Her cheek had swollen, just like his, and a tear streamed out from the other unaffected eye. There was blood on her lip.

Something hot started burning in his chest as he looked up at the men.

“We’re wasting time with these things,” said the fourth man. He was shorter and fatter than the rest of them, and stood to the side.

“What do we do with them,” the third man asked.

The lightning-user’s eyes were cold as he replied, “They’re rats. Exterminate them.”

The man with the scar flicked his wrist. The next instant, Kaiden watched helplessly as a sliver of metal shot out of thin air, and buried itself in Mira’s throat.

She barely had time to scream. She clutched at her neck, eyes wide with shock, blood pouring between her fingers…then she was still.

Dead.

Everything faded. All he could see was that single image: Mira lying in the mud, just like they used to lie under the market tables, dreaming of becoming knights and Ascendants. But right now, here…

‘She’s dead. She’s dead. She’s dead….’

The feeling in his chest exploded.

Roaring like a beast, he turned towards the man with the scar. A sliver of metal shot at him, but Kaiden dodged it in a flash, before throwing himself at the soldier.

Surprise showed briefly on the man’s face, and then Kaiden started punching him in the face. Each blow cracked a bone, and he could feel the man’s flesh rip beneath his fist, but he did not care.

A single voice went off in his head, ‘She’s dead. Mira’s dead. He killed her…’

“Get him off me!” Scar-face managed to howl.

Kaiden saw the third soldier move, shooting an frost shard at him. He ducked, dodging again, then swung an abandoned shield at the frost-user’s head. He went down with a loud yell.

Kaiden turned to face the other two, full of rage and strange power…before pain racked his body from head to toe. His muscles locked as he collapsed sideways on the muddy ground, twitching from the lightning that shocked every part of him.

The lightning-user stepped forward, dousing him with another wave of lightning. Kaiden screamed out, every single bit of his body on fire.

“The boy fights like a brave one,” the fat man said, a cruel smile on his face.

“He broke my nose,” spluttered Scar-face.

“It appears he did,” said the captain, the lightning-user. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

“You know…” He turned back to Kaiden. “This isn’t personal, boy.”

Kaiden could barely breathe through the pain that racked his body. He managed to shift his gaze, to stare up at the captain as he squatted close, his eyes glowing electric blue again.

“You could have been useful…if you weren’t a scavenger from the south.” The man held up his hand, lightning crawling up his forearm. “Which means you are weak. This world has no space for weakness.”

Kaiden saw his death before he felt it: a single, blinding bolt of lightning shot out of the captain’s hand and hit the life out of his chest.

Pain consumed everything, stopping his heart, shutting the world in darkness. The last thing he saw before his breath ceased were Mira’s lifeless eyes….

…and…

Cold blue words materialized in the darkness of his fading mind.

[LEGACY TRANSFER COMMENCING….]

[VITAL SIGNS CRITICAL….]

[SYSTEM OVERRIDE ENGAGED…]

[ACCEPT INTEGRATION? Y/N]

Rage and grief crashed together. He had nothing left, no dreams, no Mira. Now there was only cold darkness….and these blue words waiting for his response. A way out.

With the last scrap of will he could muster, he forced the answer through his dying mind.

Y.

The text flickered.

[INTEGRATION COMMENCING…]

[HOST CONDITION: CRITICAL —---> STABILIZING]

A surge of sharp, bright freezing power flooded his veins. Everything went from dark to white and dark again, then it all went quiet.