The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide

Ever have one of those days where you wake up and you just know that is going to be a completely terrible day? Well that was how my day started out, and how it progressed for the rest of the day.

I was jolted awake to the sound of Megan’s screams.

“You witch! Get out of my head!”

I sucked in a deep breath and tried to slow my heart rate. Megan was up and storming around the campsite, throwing sticks and rocks towards the woods and screaming profanities into the woods.

“Megan? Who are you calling a witch?”

She spun around and looked at me, surprised.

“Sabin! You’re awake!” Megan shuffled her feet awkwardly. “Uh… how much of that did you hear?”

“A good bit,” I smirked, “So who was in your head?”

“None of your business, Raider,” she said, before continuing to pace and resuming her rant.

I chuckled to myself as I glanced around the rest of the campsite. That’s when I realized something wasn’t right.

“Hey, uh Megan? Where are Alia and Alec?”

Megan stopped ranting and looked around, narrowing her eyes.

“Do you think they left to get firewood or something?”

I shook my head and looked down at my watch. It was eight in the morning. I should’ve been woken up hours ago for my turn at watch duty.

“Did Alec ever wake you up for your watch?” I asked Megan.

“No… no he didn’t,” she answered, glancing down at her own watch. She looked back up at me. “Sabin, something’s wrong.”

“They probably wondered off in the middle of the night to pull a prank on us.”

“No I mean, something is really wrong. Seven years ago, they might have pulled a prank, but not now, not during this mission.”

“What do you think happened?” I asked, standing up and looking closely where Alec and Alia had been sleeping. It didn’t look like they’d been taken away by force.

Megan walked over to the edge of the woods and then back to the campsite. She was muttering to herself the whole time.

“Okay, so Alia woke Alec up and then she tried to go to sleep, but then woke up shortly after when she… oh I don’t know. Did she sense something in the woods?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, irritated and confused.

Megan turned around startled. “Was I talking out loud? Ugh, I’m sorry. I was just… you know. Doing my IGS thing. Trying to figure out what happened and all that.”

“That was extremely detailed,” I said, eyebrows raising in question.

“Yeah, well I’m good at my job,” Megan grunted, crossing her arms and turning away from me to where I could just barely see her face. “Anyway, I think I know what happened. They sensed something wrong in woods, went to check it out and then…” she paused, closing her eyes in concentration. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes wide, panic set on her face.

“And then they were captured. Sabin, they were captured!”

I gaped at her, briefly wondering how she knew all that. Then I remembered something Zig had told me last year after I had graduated and right before he had left for Inon.

“Megan…” I rolled the words around in my head, wondering if I should even voice them, “did you figure that out with your powers?”

Megan spun around and her forehead wrinkled as she shot me an incredulous look, “You know I don’t have powers, Sabin.”

“Yes, you do Megan,” I stated. “Zig told me everything, back before he was transferred to Inon. You see… at the time my sister Nicki was applying for the academy, but I was worried because we’d never told anyone about her powers…”

“Nicki’s powers?” Megan asked. “But… she isn’t a shape-shifter like the rest of your family?”

She hesitated while saying the last sentence. I could tell she knew more than she was letting on. Still, I also knew that this wasn’t going to be easy for her, so I didn’t call her out on it.

“No,” I said with a sigh. “She’s… look, if I tell you about her, you have to tell me the truth about yourself.”

“No need,” Megan said resignedly. “I know what you’re talking about. Nicki… I remember her initiation. She claimed herself as an undeveloped, but Tyler Gray and I both knew she wasn’t.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the mention of Tyler. He’d been my best friend growing up—well, my best friend after we moved from Satama. We’d both made the decision to go the Edil together, despite the fact we knew we’d be different specializations since Tyler was telepathic. He’d become an IGS when we went arrived at the academy and I’d become a PCS. After graduation he’d stuck around at the academy too, primarily to help train the new IGSs. It made sense that Megan would have known him too.

“Tyler… yeah, he was one of the few people at the academy who knew Nicki’s secret, mostly because it’s impossible to keep any kind of secret from him.” I shrugged. “He found out years ago, but he’s never told anyone. Honestly, it was nice having him as a confidant.”

“Right,” Megan said. “He was one of the few who knew my secret as well.”

I took a breath. “Look, Megan, I know Zig never actually cleared it with you to tell me about your powers but if it makes you feel better, he didn’t actually tell what your powers were… just that you had them.”

Megan pulled at her hair a moment before throwing her arms in the air and exclaiming loudly.

“Fine! But I swear, Sabin Raider, if you breathe a word of this-“ She pointed her finger at me threateningly and I threw my hands up defensively.

“Your secret is safe with me.” I said, before lowering my arms.

Megan sighed and slowly sucked in a breath.

“So my powers… have you ever heard of a minnen?”

I shook my head. “No. What is that?”

“It translates to memory keeper,” Megan explained. “It’s one of the three sights. The sight for the past. I can sense the memories of anyone I come in contact with, or even sometimes pull strong memories from whatever place I am. I also… well I also never forget anything unless I deliberately make myself which is kind of a long and difficult process and isn’t really permanent anyway so most of the time I don’t bother. I don’t have the best control over them.” She shook her head quickly, “But what matters right now is finding Alia and Alec, and my powers can do that.”

I shook my head once, understanding, “You can fill me in on the rest later,” I swung around and scooped up my pack. “Let’s go get our friends.”

After we’d been running for a while, Megan slid to a stop in front of me.

“I lost it,” she panted.

“Lost the trail? How do you lose memories?”

She threw her hands up, “I don’t know! But they’re gone! It’s like...” She sucked in a breath and waved a hand through the air, trying to find the words. “Like something is blocking me.”

“Something is blocking you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded. “Or someone. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, I know, but it’s almost as if someone knew I’d be able to trace their memories and…” Megan’s eyes widened as she let out a startling string of swear words that made me raise my eyebrows. Alia was rubbing off on her.

“What is it?” I asked, scared to know the answer.

“I know who took them,” Megan muttered, pacing. “It’s the same people who attacked us before.”

“Do you know who they are?”

She grimaced as her eyes darted away from mine, “I can’t be sure, all I have right now are impressions. ”

I frowned, knowing that Megan was hiding something, but not really wanting to push her into telling me.

“Okay, well can you tell me why they would capture the twins?” I asked.

“The only logical reason I can think of is that since Alec grew up in Einoth, they want him for information. I don’t know about Alia, it might just be because she was with Alec.”

“Can you see how they captured them?” I asked. Megan shook her head, some of the fire draining from her eyes.

I fought to keep the frustration from surfacing. This was my first mission officially as a mission leader, which made Alia and Alec my responsibility, and I’d failed them. Still, though, my mind bucked against the notion that anyone could’ve captured the twins. Fighting separate they were extremely dangerous, but together, I’d seen them in their tandem training, together they were lethal and unstoppable, a force of nature that ripped through everything in their path.

I shook my head. Where had that thought come from? I’d never seen the twins train together before.

Are you so sure about that, Sabin?

I jumped, briefly wondering where that voice had come from before realizing I’d heard it in my mind. Growing up with a telepathic best friend did have it perks at times.

Who are you? I thought back.

I heard the other person giggle, which was something really weird to hear through your mind. Then they said:

Don’t worry. I’m a friend. I’ve come to help.

Megan was looking at me oddly, probably because I hadn’t said anything in while… or I’d completely ignored her explanation for how someone could’ve captured the twins.

“Sabin are you o…” her voice trailed off as she stared at something behind me. I turned to look and as soon as I did my jaw dropped open.

Standing at the edge of the woods behind me, petting my horse was a girl about my age. Megan’s horse was on a lead rope a few paces behind her. I guess she had come from our camp, where we had been in such a rush we’d left the horses behind. Fortunately, we had left them untied last night so they could graze, and we’d already taken off the saddles while making camp.

The mystery girl was shorter than Megan, with fiery red hair that hung down freely around her shoulders and strange gray-silver eyes that were focused on me with a mysterious glint.

“Hi you two,” she said, smirking. “My name’s Emmalie. I’m here to help you find your missing friends. Oh, and also eventually save the world, if you guys are into that sort of thing.”

Megan reacted before I did. In a split second she had pulled out her gun, clicked the safety off, cocked it, and was pointing it at Emmalie’s head.

“Who the hell are you?” she asked.

Emmalie looked at her with feigned confusion.

“Are you kidding me? I just told you who I am. Don’t you listen?”

“You told me a name,” Megan said slowly. “And not even a last one at that. Not helpful.”

Emmalie sighed and flicked her wrist. Megan’s gun went flying from her hand, leaving Megan staring at her in shock, speechless.

“Wait,” I said. “You’re telekinetic?”

“Yeah? Your point being?” Emmalie responded in a bored tone. She glanced over at Megan. “Look, I get it. You’re a trained IGS. You like to get the facts before you start trusting someone. Of course, speaking from my perspective, pointing a loaded gun at someone’s face probably isn’t the best way to earn their trust.”

Megan grumbled a few unflattering words towards Emmalie while I studied her a bit more closely.

I was bothered by the fact I couldn’t get a solid read on her. Normally I was able to figure a lot about people just by studying them for a few seconds, but Emmalie was different. I couldn’t read her. As a leader I prided myself on my quick thinking, but right now all my attention was split between focusing on the curve of her smile, and wondering if she was going to kill us.

Emmalie turned to look at me, a cheeky smile on her face.

I take that as a compliment Raider.

“It was you?!” I balked. “You were the person in my head?”

Emmalie giggled. “Well, duh! I mean, do you see any other deadly girls with an amazing smile?”

Unbidden an image of Alia flashed in my mind, causing me to stumble across my words, “I uh…” Thankfully Megan seemed to have found words that weren’t swears to use.

“You’re a telepath?” she asked incredulously. “And telekinetic? How?”

Emmalie shrugged. “Long story, don’t really have time to explain it all. All you guys need to know is that I can do a lot with my powers.”

Megan crossed her arms over her chest. “Is this supposed to make us trust you?” she asked.

“Honestly I don’t care if you trust me or not,” Emmalie retorted. “I just came here because I knew you guys were going to need some help.”

I frowned. I could tell Emmalie wasn’t telling the whole truth, but at the same time she wasn’t lying. I took a breath.

“Megan, I think we should trust her.”

Megan turned to me with an appalled look.

“What are you talking about Sabin? We just met her. She’s telekinetic and telepathic, which should be impossible! How can you say that we should trust her?!”

“Look, I know it’s crazy, and Emmalie’s right, I don’t have time to explain it, but Megan, I know what I’m talking about. I can tell Emmalie is being… well, mostly truthful,” I shot a disapproving look at Emmalie. “And I expect that we’ll hear the whole truth eventually.”

Emmalie waved her hand dismissively to my prompting. “Sure, whatever. Can we go now?”

“Go where?” Megan asked.

“You’ll see,” Emmalie said with a smirk.

Then Emmalie snapped her fingers and my world flipped upside down.