The Cyph wasn’t a terribly large ship, certainly not the largest that Fas had been on, but nonetheless was large enough to transport her battalion while not crowding out the Cyph’s crew. Of course, the vast majority of Fas’s soldiers were in a magically induced stasis. All one thousand of her Sparks were kept in stasis for the duration of the journey, along with the one hundred Embers who oversaw them. The ten Igniters were rotated in and out of stasis, with five of them being awake at a time for a week before being placed into stasis and the other five woken up for their week of being awake. Fas would remain awake for the entire trip.

With the first two weeks aboard the Cyph now gone, Fas was finally beginning to feel somewhat settled into her quarters. They were smaller than what she’d had before but more finely furnished. The walls, though still made of metal, bore intricate line-work. Many of the lines glowed with magestone giving shape and rhythm to the countless auras pulsing through the ship. To a trained eye it was possible to determine what those auras were and Fas found herself spending much of her time studying those auras.

Someone knocked on her door and startled Fas, who had once again been watching the magestone.

“Enter,” Fas called out and the door faded away, revealing Skith on the other side, his face pale and his hands shaking slightly.

Once the door had fully de-materialized, Skith stepped into the room and saluted. Fas rose and placed a hand on his clasped hands. They were cold and clammy.

“How are you feeling?” Fas asked, knowing Skith must have just been brought out of stasis, and then motioned for him to sit down.

Skith accepted the offered seat, though still only seating himself once Fas had sat down herself.

“I’m always a little uneasy with magic,” Skith told her, “or I should say that my body’s uneasy with it.”

Fas nodded. Most people didn’t react much physiologically one way or the other when it came to magic, but there were those few who suffered under its influence and Skith was certainly one of those. Those whose bodies responded positively to magic quickly found themselves in training to wield it, whether they wanted to become a mage or not. The need for magic and the rarity of those who could channel it justified such measures.

“How are the rest of the soldiers?” Fas inquired.

“They’re doing well,” Skith said. “The stasis fields are steady and the Cyph mages seem very adept. I can’t speak for the Sparks or Embers, but I at least didn’t have any issues while under their care.”

“It’s just the waking that affects you, then?”

“Not waking, specifically,” he said, a puzzled look on his face as though he was trying to find the right words to explain himself. “I can be in an aura and feel fine,” he went on, “but when I leave the aura, or the aura fades, that’s when I begin to feel it. Like it’s draining me of…I don’t know, something.”

“I understand it’s the opposite for mages,” Fas remarked, her thoughts drifting towards their assignment. “As the aura fades they feel invigorated. Strange…”

“Forgive me Conflagrator,” Skith said after Fas trailed off and did not elaborate. “What’s strange?”

“After a mage has finished channeling they have to rest before they can channel again,” she explained, “even though they feel invigorated by the process. They have to wait for that sensation to fade before they can use magic again. It just seems that the opposite should be the case, that they should feel drained instead.”

Skith only shrugged.

“Is there anything else to report?” Fas asked.

“No, Conflagrator,” Skith replied at once. “I was wondering, though,” he went on a bit more nervously, “if there was any further detail regarding our assignment that you could share with me.”

Fas became immediately aware of the folded piece of paper in her sleeve pocket, its square outline pressing ever so slightly into her arm. She’d memorized its contents and yet still refused to dispose of the paper. She even reread it every once in a while as though hoping there was some detail that she’d missed.

“There will be thirty Ka’Raks to start with,” Fas said, “though I expect more will be coming. We’re tasked with interrogating them with the goal of learning how it is that they do what they do, whether it’s technological or magical in nature. We’ll have a small circle of mages at our disposal though I’m not sure how many will actually be there.”

“Has there been any new discoveries made regarding how to best keep them contained?” Skith asked. Even though his tone was calm Fas knew the concern that had brought that question to bare.

“There is no additional information in our orders.”

Skith bit down on his lip and exhaled sharply through his nose as a sign of frustration. He knew better than to speak against orders but it was clear he didn’t like the situation.

“Someone has to lead the charge,” Fas noted. “Not everyone can play rear guard their entire career.”

“I’ve lead charges,” Skith replied, his face flushing slightly. “This…this feels different though. More like we’re walking up to a wild beast over and over and each time being surprised when it mauls us.”

“We’ve been at war with the Ka’Raks for decades now. No other race has ever lasted that long against our forces and yet the Ka’Raks remain strong and their numbers seemingly endless. If we’re going to have any hope of defeating them once and for all, we need to understand them.”

“That’s just it, though,” Skith said. “I’ve seen them stripped of all their gear, dropped onto a dead world, and then sat back to watch what happens. Within a week, a world with one solitary Ka’Rak suddenly has five of them and they’re living in cement huts even though there’s no sign of how or where they got those materials. In a month there’s a small community with basic power, shielding, and weapons. After a year they’ve colonized the planet and become so strong that nothing short of an orbital bombardment can prevent them from getting any stronger.”

“All the more reason to learn all that we can about them.”

Skith opened his mouth to speak but then caught himself, seeming to consider his words before finally speaking.

“I’ll obey every command to the best of my ability,” he stated, “but I want it noted that I am concerned regarding the potential losses we’re going to face.”

Fas nodded and Skith rose to his feet. He saluted and Fas, rising to her feet as well, placed her hand upon his but did not release him right away. She met his eyes and held them for a moment.

“There is a reason why we were chosen for this task,” she told him in a soft voice.

“I thought you said there wasn’t any more information in our orders?”

“That’s correct,” she said. “This will not be my first experience with Ka’Raks, and it is because of my previous experience with them that we were chosen for this task.”

She withdrew her hand from Skith and motioned for him to leave. He knew better than to remain once he’d been dismissed and so he turned and left her room, her door re-materializing the moment he was gone. Fas wondered if she’d said too much to him but also didn’t want to leave him stewing in his own doubts. Perhaps it would be better if she told him what the full plan was, but her plan required that practically everyone else remained ignorant of what was going on behind the scenes. That was how she’d gotten it to work before, at least, and with the risk being so great she didn’t want to deviate from what she knew.

The lines of magestone pulsed again along the wall and Fas turned once more study them. An aura of compressed time moved through the ship, followed by a thrum of various life support auras to maintain air, water, and food. The ship was fast, certainly, but even the fastest ship would take generations to cross the distances between stars. Magic compressed time beyond the limits of science and turned what would have taken centuries into mere months. Still a long trip, but not an insurmountable one, and one that gave her sufficient time to steel herself for the monumental task that lay ahead of her.