Tabitha Chirrick - Overshadowed

He stared at his food, untouched. “Not afraid , Red. Appropriately cautious. Could you imagine what the dock workers would have done if they’d seen this?”

“Especially considering the council they report to is run by Rokkir,” Shy said. “You were smart to resist examination.”

“Sure, you say that now,” he said.

“Could you wield any kind of aether before?” Locke asked.

“No.”

Locke paused mid-stitch. “I have a proposition for you. I’ve been working on a new type of aether shielding — a prototype built specifically to deflect dark aether.”

Tayel’s eyes went wide. Every single one of her muscles were still sore from the fight with the Rokkir councilwoman. She could still feel the sensation of being slammed into the ground. A shield against dark aether would be invaluable, and the same thought was written on everyone else’s surprised faces.

“How far along is it?” Shy asked.

“Well, it’s a prototype,” Locke said. “It’s never been tested. Hard to get the Rokkir to agree to help us out. But with you, Fehn, that can be remedied.”

“So what do you want me to do?” Fehn asked. “Attack you?”

“That would be an advantageous start.”

“You’re not going to cut me open like your father did, are you?”

“Not if I can help it.” He winked, but Fehn’s scowl only deepened. “How about we talk more after we’ve eaten? In the meantime I’d like to hear how much you’ve all learned about the Rokkir along the way, other than what you deduced from the journal you stole — and yes, Shy, I figured that one out.”

“Wait,” Tayel said. “Would your shield prototype be done soon? Like, could we use it?”

“It depends on quite a bit,” he said. “But rest assured, if Fehn agrees to help, I’ll keep you all abreast of my progress. Until then, what have you been up to, dear sister? Other than splitting your face open, that is?”

Shy explained her voyage to Elsha while Tayel chewed through whatever meat she’d been given. It didn’t taste as salty as the canned stuff back home, and it didn’t leave grits under her tongue like the gruel in camp. She guzzled the cup of water they’d brought with the bowls and swallowed the mushed, starchy vegetables on the side. Her bowl sat empty before Shy got to explaining how they escaped Castle Aishan. By the time she finished with “and here we are,” her wound fully stitched, Tayel’s eyes struggled to stay open against the groggy sensation of fullness.

Locke scratched at one of his thick eyebrows. “I suspected the Rokkir were using some method of control, but I didn’t know what. We’ll find out why father set this up, and what he was given in return.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Shy said, “To bring you home.”

“I can’t, Shy. Not now. The Rokkir have to be stopped, but they especially have to be stopped here. I can’t leave until that’s done.”

“Why? What’s so important here that home doesn’t matter?”

Locke leaned forward. “Don’t misconstrue. Home matters, but the Rokkir are here in force. Communications have been cut off completely, villages are destroyed every day, and the capital is under constant siege. It’s a warzone.”

“Why Modnik?” Fehn asked.

“And Delta, too,” Tayel said. “It was this bad there when Jace and I fled.”

Locke shook his head. “I apologize, but I don’t believe that is a fair comparison. You made it to Elsha, while not a single Varg has.”

Heat rose in her face at the implication: that she, Jace, and the people of her homeworld were somehow luckier than the Varg. She’d lost everything in that invasion.

“It is strange that the Rokkir would let millions of people escape to Elsha while keeping Modnik under lockdown,” Jace said.

“Exactly,” Locke said.

Tayel dug her nails into her cup.

“And what’s worse is they’re abducting Varg,” he finished.

“ Abducting them?” Shy asked. “Why?”

“I have no idea — no one does. The Rokkir kill as few Varg as possible. They carry weapons which daze rather than harm, though on non-Varg targets they aren’t as nice. We’ve seen Rokkir soldiers clearing battlefields, picking up Varg and flying them back to the mothership above the capital.”

“They have a mothership here?” Fehn asked.

“Yes. A city-sized behemoth currently casting Cryzoar in shadow. Hundreds of fighters, cargo carriers, and scouts fly out of it constantly. Some land troops, some deliver supplies to the enemy, and others remove still-living Varg from the battlefields. We’ve tried several assaults on the mothership, but it’s impenetrable. Nothing has gotten through the shields, though the Varg war packs are currently working on another plan to destroy it.”

Tayel felt sorry for the Varg, she really did, but they weren’t the reason she was here. “What about a Delta shuttle?” she asked. “We were told one crashed here.”

“Ah, that,” Locke said. “Yes, one shuttle crashed into the capital’s northern city wall a few weeks ago — brought a part of the city down with it.”

His voice dripped accusation, but Tayel didn’t care. If the shuttle crashed here, then maybe Jace’s family made the trip with it. “Has anyone made contact with survivors?”

“You’ve quite the one track mind, don’t you?”

“My family might be there,” Jace said. “Please, if you know anything, we need to know.”

“Red helped your sister off of Elsha as part of an agreement,” Fehn added. “Though I’m sure she understands the gravity of the situation, her and Feathers are here to solve their own problem, not fix yours.”

Shy caught Tayel’s gaze for an instant and looked away, down into the remains of her dinner.

Indecision split Tayel’s thoughts in two. Fehn was right to stand up for her — something she hadn’t expected — but he was also wrong. She didn’t help Shy just to get here. She wanted to stop the Rokkir, but every minute was one more tick toward being too late to reunite Jace with his mom and dad.

“I do want to help,” Tayel said. “But Fehn’s right. We Deltians may have been lucky to escape our besieged planet at all, but we have just as much right as anyone to try and help our loved ones.”

“Yeah,” Jace said.

“Fair,” Locke said. “I suppose it’s easier to see the grand picture when the only loved one I have is sitting right next to me.” He drained the last of his drink. “When the shuttle landed, the Varg diverted a large number of forces to assist any survivors. One revered war pack leader insisted on the importance of the rescue, and so many went — including me. And Itah. We met with the survivors — and there were many — but it was a trap. The Rokkir knew we were coming. The war pack leader had been a Rokkir in disguise, and we lost hundreds of good people to ambush.”

“But obviously you didn’t lose everyone,” Fehn said.

“You’re right,” Locke told him. “I made it back. And many Varg were left to fight the enemy at the crash, but it’s been weeks since we’ve heard anything. Communications were scrambled, and we don’t have the numbers to investigate, much less take the area back. The Rokkir have our already limited forces divided.”

“Would there be a way for us to go there?” Tayel asked.

“Not without significant risk to your life. Rokkir forces were reported constantly in the crash zone, and the truncated communications suggest that our men have lost.”

Tayel understood. It had been weeks. Everyone at the crash site could already be dead.

“Of course, it could also be that the mothership locked onto our transmissions, and cut them short. Bit of a happier thought than assuming everyone is deceased, I suppose.” Locke rapped his fingers on his knee.