Dinner

The Nest, Rebellion-Held Aviye

Amri

The Hegemony created its Ascendants by extracting others souls. It only took a few dozen to make a person like the Ascendant of Lightning. Enough people accidentally became Risers without even knowing it to where the Hegemony simply had to keep an eye out within their own borders for candidates, though they preferred to snatch up Risers from the peripheral nations.

Amri had managed to keep her status hidden by virtue of her studies and odd hours, but the requirement that she teach what she knew was what had generated her talent in the first place.

Being able to sense understanding had given her an edge when educating her students, but it was accidentally producing more Risers that put her in the Hegemony's sights, once some of those students were reaped by Aviye's former occupiers.

The final confirmation had come from bringing her in the presence of the Ascendant of Lightning. Somehow, the woman had been able to tell right away what Amri had become, and Amri's gift let her understand exactly how she was seen by the Hegemon's attack dog...

She saw her as food.

In that moment, sensing the understanding in the twisted mind of the Ascendant before her, many things Amri had researched suddenly clicked together. Dark legends and terrible warnings... Fragments of catastrophes wrought by those who had turned to a brutal path of blood and deception...

For to steal the soul of another required not just the Riser's status, but also the sense of connection. The bonds between Risers created a deadly temptation to take power instead of earn it, and the deeper the connection, the more power could be taken.

But the Hegemony was more interested in using Amri to make more Risers, and so she'd been captured instead of killed, sent by a back road towards the capital, and right into the hands of the rebels, who weren't expected there at all.

She looked to each as she finished explaining the difficult path, sensing an equal lack of understanding, even from the Captain. She could not bring herself to tell them the dark and easy way.

"How do they steal a person's soul?" Captain Zai asked.

"It's... complicated... and I'm not entirely sure..." Amri lied. "What's certain is that they can only do it to Risers... otherwise they'd have a lot more Ascendants..." She looked away, not wanting to give away that for the Ascendants who received such a terrible power by stealing from others, repeating the act was necessary...

This explained why the Hegemony would field only one or two to each of the nations they'd declared as needing to "stabilize." Overhunting would deprive them of their own Ascendants if they focused too many in one place.

Something nibbled at the edges of her perception. Not understanding, but something close to it from the Captain and Sergeant Lorn. Amri didn't recognize it.

"Alright Doctor... I can see why this might be a heavy burden. Tomorrow when we head out, I'll still do my best to make sure you get to Command."

"Tomorrow? Why not now?" Amri blurted out.

"My people are exhausted. They need food and rest, and if we're to stand the best chance, we'll need to repair my frame so we can have some consistently heavy firepower... especially now that they've seen fit to send planes after you. I don't know if you've noticed, but communication between the Kingdom and the Hegemons isn't exactly conducive to fast moves, at least not without the Hegemony stepping on some toes."

The Nightravens chuckled at this statement.

"I... see your point... Captain." Amri said after a long moment. She wasn't afraid of the Kingdom or the Hegemony coming after her at the moment, even though fear of them lurked at the back of her mind. What she was afraid of was a woman garbed in Hegemon purple, striking like a flash, a predator's smile on her face...

"Everyone, you're dismissed," Captain Zai commanded, and throughout the room people relaxed before standing or remaining seated. "Make sure you're all set for tomorrow before dinner. Full packs. We're leaving with only the necessities and packing up the rest. Help the Sergeant get everything stashed so some random z'gach doesn't trip into our base and, with luck, we'll be back someday."

Amri waited as everyone moved about, until it was just her, the Captain, and Sergeant Lorn in the room.

"Captain... since we're staying here for now... is there anything I can do to help?" Amri asked.

"Can you cook?" Zai asked.

"A little... mostly noodles and dumplings." Student food.

"That's still better than a lot of what we normally eat. Fengri, want to help her out?"

"No thanks, Captain. I'll get started on splitting up ammo and taking down the radio." She stood off the wall and leaned in, whispering something to Captain Zai.

Amri felt understanding bloom in the womens' minds... an agreement of some kind, shared in a single nod from the Captain. Once she was out of the room, the Captain turned to her. "Well, looks like it's you and me in the kitchen. Shall we?"

The Captain gestured towards a side tunnel, before standing and leading Amri deeper in.

A small handpump well was in one corner of the slightly musty kitchen. The Captain operated it to help prepare, pumping the water out into a metal bucket.

"There's something I want to ask you, Doctor..." she said almost absently as she worked the handle.

"G-go ahead." A spike of fear rose in Amri's heart. She'd given away so much away, there was nothing to protect her if she needed to bargain for her life...

"How quickly can a person become a Riser?"

Amri almost exhaled in relief. That was a question she could answer. "I'm not sure. It depends on if they've cultivated some skill or trait that lets them take the next step through meditation. Warriors tend to achieve it because they are motivated to actively improve, at least historically, and some mental states seem to be conducive to certain people gaining the status... There's one story about a man who simply swung a sword every day for twenty years, and became unblockable."

"I doubt we'll have that long... if things got bad enough for us to give up a whole front."

"That's why I want to find people who might already be there... there has to be at least a couple in the Sunrise Sword."

"Would two Risers be able to take down the Ascendant of Lightning?"

"No, but they could serve as an example... and if at least one became Ascendant we might be able to at least hold her at bay."

The captain added flour and some of the water she'd pumped to a bowl. "I'll make the dough, if you wouldn't made shaping it once I'm done." She proceeded to knead the two together. "I think I understand the hurry, but remember there are other ways to deal with Ascendants. That's why it's the Second Lightning out there and not the First."

"I'm not sure what you mean," Amri admitted.

"The Sunrise Sword killed the First years ago. Dropped a mountain on him, with all the explosives it took. It was a big operation to make the Kingdom think they'd driven us back to her headquarters before..." she mimed an explosion with a hand, scattering flour into the the mixing bowl.

"I didn't hear about how he died, just that he did... Likely the Hegemony covered it up. I do remember more troops came into the capital though."

"Yes, the Hegemony stuck their neck out enough to keep the Kingdom from falling. I think inside they announced that he'd died of natural causes... which is true if you count a mountain exploding on you as natural." She chuckled. "We made good gains despite the occupiers though... But it was still a surprise when they sent the Second Lightning to us last year..."

"It's too bad she didn't fall for the same tricks."

"If she had, we wouldn't have met." Zai said, surprising Amri as she felt that the Captain was also surprised she'd just said that. "Ahem... Yes... so..." The captain handed her the dough before gesturing at a roller, moving to another bucket to wash her hands. "What's the meditation like for becoming a Riser? Does one have to say a prayer or...?"

"Not typically," Amri said as she flattened the dough. "The first step has often been called 'becoming void' or 'ending thought.' There are whole treatises that try to account for this form of meditation but I think the point is to create an internal emptiness into which one gets a sense of their life energies, a sense of soul, followed by guiding this sense into what one has cultivated... like swordsmanship or..."

"Teaching others to understand." Captain Zai interrupted.

"Yes..." Amri said, blushing a little. "I can tell you understand enough to start trying for yourself now." She started rolling out the dough for the cuts, casting about for a knife until Zai reached across and handed her a field knife.

The Captain sorted through a few boxes until she found one that had a few cans in it. Opening all four of them, she produced canned vegetables, before she dug around for another box and produced some soft jerky. "I'll take care of the mincing. Tell me what it was like, when you realized you were a Riser."

Amri paused her efforts. "I... didn't know it at first. I thought I'd just gotten to know my students well enough that what I was teaching them..." she resumed cutting the circles for dumplings. "I could feel whether or not it was sticking.

Then, earlier this year... some of them started to disappear. I wondered if it was just a sickness at first but when more and more of the class went missing... I tried to get help from the faculty, but instead I got reported to the government. I started... I started recognizing that I wasn't just feeling what my students understood, but also the staff, the police... anyone I tried to explain something to...

A week ago I was taken to a base... brought before the Ascendant of Lightning. She looked at me and... and she just knew... what I was. She thanked me for teaching them... my students..."

Amri felt an overwhelming surge of guilt. Fear. Sadness. "I killed them... I gave them knowledge and it killed them..." she started weeping, leaning against the table and the knife until Captain Zai came around and gently pried it from her fingers, laying it aside.

"You didn't kill them... Amri." She brushed her hair, speaking softly. "It was the Hegemony that killed them... it's what they do. They can't stand other people being equal to them, and so they break them, one way or another..." She placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "They kill us, one way or another. The only thing you did is what any decent person should. You tried to help your people overcome ignorance. There is no blame in that..."

Zai gently took Amri by the chin until their eyes met. "Do not take on the sins of your enemy."

Amri stared into her green eyes for a small eternity. There was wisdom there, written in pain and loss. "Thank you... Zai... I think I understand..."

Zai smiled. "Are you sure? Does your talent work on yourself?"

"No, thank the gods. Otherwise, I'd drive myself insane, knowing for sure how little I know," she laughed a little. Captain Zai held on until she was standing fully, before moving to hand her the knife once more.

"I never get the cut right for dumplings. Took some nerve damage in my right arm years ago... getting shot. I can still hold a rifle, but after a few shots my accuracy goes to hell if I'm not in a frame."

"Maybe being a frame soldier is your cultivation," Amri smiled, finishing a few more circles.

"Nah. I know what mine will be."

"Oh?"

Zai smiled. "It's being too dumb to die," she laughed.

"Captain, you are anything but dumb," Amri smiled.

Zai shrugged, taking back the knife to mince the jerky and vegetables.

Later, everyone gathered around in the common room to enjoy a dinner of steamed jerky dumplings, remarking at how good it was despite Amri's sense that they knew what real dumplings were like. Most of the flavor was salt and jerky, but even so, not a single person complained and everyone smiled, grateful for the meal.