บท 4: Commander
Standing up before me is Wand Division's Commander-Sister Raehla. She is a slight, expressionless woman casually resplendent in her military habit. Confusingly, I recognise she is wearing the angular spectacles and undervestments of a reader-librarian.
Goran has brought me to this office in the Juqus Barracks. It's a facility built along the east wall of Opak City and has its own river wharf.
We greet and I am asked to sit in a high-backed lacquered wooden chair. Goran then abruptly leaves, walking past the heavily-armed patrol guard, and leaving me alone with this woman.
Unsmiling Commander-sister Raehla turns to face her organised (but heavily-stacked) desk and searches out an official-looking document.
My hands clasp pensively in my bright blue lap and I regard the looming bookcase behind her. The bookshelves are loaded with old leather-bound tomes, scrolls, tablets and a couple of strange orbs.
The commander looks at me over the top of the document.
"Jak, you may not know this but you are a very rare find and it would be almost impossible for us to let you go. However... rather than" - she waves the document at me - "compel you to enlist, I will instead ask that you hear our story in the hope that you'll find yourself compassionately drawn to assist us."
Crap! This is an offer I can't refuse situation. I smile slightly and sadly. Raehla sees it and exactly reflects my smile. I suddenly realise she's quite attractive. I smile a bit more and we somehow end up smiling at each other.
"Well then. Where to begin?" Raehla sits down and leans back. Stretching, she clasps her hands behind her nape and moves them to rest on the top of her head in thought. I catch a glimpse of a tattoo along her arm.
Raehla explains that she leads a small experimental weapons division researching powerful relics called wands. Wands were legendary weapons mentioned obliquely in battle records of old. Their nature and method of operation was thought long lost, perhaps even a myth.
The kingdom of Pūr possesses an object that she believes is a Wand relic. It was handed down over hundreds of years as a family curiosity and has an obscure pedigree. She gestures at the same small box on her desk that had recently been dangling on a chain.
Raehla tells me that her research suggests that this relic may connect to some kind of power. If it is indeed a part of a legendary Wand, then texts describe it as having the power to destroy large armies and raze cities.
After deciphering scripture fragments obtained in early Gli crusades, Raehla now believes that wands activate with what she calls an "ignition ritual". The ignition ritual is performed by a party whose members in turn are determined through a "selection ritual".
It seems that the box selected me.
"Jak, we have been unable to assemble an ignition ritual party," she says looking directly at me. "Well, that is, until you appeared."
I remain skeptical. I'm well aware of confidence trick stories. I was once completely taken in by a scheme to sell useless medical powders. However, this woman has all the credentials and even an army division to back her up. But, still. Legendary weapons? This sounds lazily fanciful.
I rack my brain to recall any mysterious weapons used by the Church. There are the Tempest Stones, silver rods fired from huge crossbows into the sky to make it hail. I witnessed them once when the city walls were being attacked. I was small and fearless back then and ran out to collect the hailstones to sell at the tavern as novelties for decent coin.
And there was that rumour about a secret division that used magic bones. The rumour said the bones send Gli soldiers mad by making them hear each other's thoughts. Someone said it was probably just a poison. I feel that I really don't know enough. But magic isn't real.
Raehla's strict teacher-like voice breaks the silence, "Now, I will tell you about the kingdom's predicament." She peers at me over her glasses. "What you are going to hear is restricted information. You will not speak of it beyond this room, understand?" I nod. Yes. Probably.
The bespectacled commander efficiently outlines how the enemy nation of Gli has been expanding, so much that the highest levels of the Pūr Kingdom expect to lose substantial territory within the year. The capital, Opak City, is the next target for invasion and spies have confirmed as much. As Raehla clinically articulates the kingdom's doom, she unrolls map after map that supports depressing Gli growth, warrior movements and projections of Opak City's inevitable demise.
I shift uncomfortably in my seat. Despite knowing little about politics, I have noticed that battles outside the city walls had been escalating over the recent year.
I'd not really thought any further than that, though. My unstable, hard-scrabble life in the streets allows me to forget about the outside world, even forget about the future.
Raehla leans forward and watches me closely. Self-consciously, I adjust myself in her visitor's chair and sullenly wonder why I was chosen by a box.
"You must have questions, yes? Then, let me introduce you to another selectee and you can ask whatever you'd like."
Raehla stands and shouts out to the guard, who opens the door impressively fast. "Immediate escort to building four. Have Lissa join us there."
Raehla looks at me without smiling. "I think she will like you."
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