(Photo by Victor Freitas)

Fas’ nightmares often made it difficult for her to concentrate the following day, particularly when they centered on her arrival at Isarch. Fortunately, Insef and Isarch were about as different from one another as was possible and still be habitable. Where Isarch was tropical and its day only lasting half as long as a standard day, Insef was more akin to a desert, even along the rim where most habitations had been built to avoid the worst of the hot day side and freezing night side.

Not wanting to give herself any more time to dwell on her dreams than was necessary, Fas arose and prepared for the day earlier than she was generally accustomed. Her soldiers wouldn’t be waking for another hour to begin their daily drills. In fact, the vast majority of the base seemed significantly quieter than she was accustomed to. The low grumble of some heavy machinery, probably a transport judging by the sounds of it, could be heard as well as indistinct voices calling out orders.

In years past, Fas had often enjoyed going on early morning walks. Not every base or encampment allowed such freedom so it was something she tended to take full advantage of it whenever possible. Ever since her promotion to Conflagrator, however, she’d not made the time for any early morning walks.

Rather than dwell on the past, Fas turned her thoughts to the tasks at hand. First and foremost, she needed to undo the transformation that Skith and the soldiers beneath him had undergone.

Even though Fas hadn’t intended to go directly to the Ka’Rak’s warehouse, she nevertheless found herself standing before it. There were the usual small squads of soldiers standing guard outside of it and they stood at attention. They were some of Skith’s soldiers and the irony of seeing them guarding the warehouse was not lost on her.

“As you were,” Fas told them and the soldiers relaxed.

The Ember in charge of the squads stepped forward and began opening the door for her, obviously assuming that she had come to perform a surprise inspection. She hadn’t intended to go inside yet but didn’t want to be seen as indecisive in front of the soldiers. Especially not the ones who’d been turned into Ka’Raks.

“Shall I awake the troops, Conflagrator?” the Ember asked, saluting as Fas stepped through the open door.

“No,” she replied. “I will see them as they are.”

She tapped the Ember’s hands who then withdrew and shut the door behind Fas. It was dark inside, though not to the point where she couldn’t navigate her way around. At the very least there were always a few, dim lights illuminating the perimeter of the structure. A few, additional lights shone down from above the doorway. Fas stayed in her small pool of light for a few minutes, examining the sleeping Ka’Raks. There were neat rows of bunks for them all. Ka’Raks didn’t naturally sleep in beds, preferring a sort of communal nest, so it was no surprise at first when she noted the empty beds here and there. In the far corner she could see the form of where the Ka’Raks had their nest. Fas didn’t count how many bunks were empty. Besides the bunks left empty by the soldiers standing guard outside, she wanted to assume that only an additional thirty-one of the bunks were unoccupied.

To her left stood the now massive shelves, stretching all the way to the ceiling. Effigies filled the first few shelves. Some were stone, others were metallic. The scale of the shelves worried Fas since it showed an anticipation on the Ka’Raks part that more would be coming. She strode over to the shelves and began examining the effigies more closely. Most people who looked at the effigies struggled to understand their connection to the specific Ka’Rak for which it represented. Fas knew it was a more instinctual, rather than intellectual understanding that was needed. She could feel the connections, more than she saw them. The way a certain form was carved into one effigy brought to mind a longing for home. The tint of another brought to mind certain smells.

It was harder than she’d thought it would be to separate out the original Ka’Rak effigies from the ones representing her soldiers. With over a hundred effigies, there wasn’t enough time to really study them all in detail. Instead, Fas searched for the one she had been directly responsible for creating. With Skith in mind, she found his effigy almost at once. However, now she wasn’t sure what to do. Removing the effigy wouldn’t be enough since it would just reappear back in its place. Effigies couldn’t be destroyed, either. Not in the traditional sense, at least.

“Belief,” she muttered to herself. “They believed he was one of them, so he became one of them.”

She could tell them that Skith and the others weren’t Ka’Raks, though that would run the risk of revealing to Skith and the others that they were, in fact, Ka’Raks. Perhaps she could stress that there were only the thirty-one Ka’Raks. Maybe then they’d stop seeing Skith and the others as Ka’Raks.

“Conflagrator?”

Fas spun on the spot, startled at being addressed. The dim lighting made it difficult for her to make out the Ka’Raks features but she was certain it was Skith. He was supposed to still be out on his patrols. That’s what Skith had been doing when Fas awoke from her nightmare. She hadn’t heard or otherwise noticed the door to the warehouse open to let Skith in either. Had Skith been brought to her because of her study of the effigy?

“How’s your family?” Fas asked, a sudden burst of inspiration striking her. “They’re still on Pexarus, correct?”

Skith looked taken aback by this unexpected topic and did not respond right away. Fas tried to hold Skith’s gaze, to keep him from thinking too much about what she might be doing beside the effigies. Ka’Raks tended to ignore the effigies, almost as if they didn’t notice them, until someone else drew their attention to them. Then, they could turn violent if they thought the effigies were in any sort of danger.

“You were born on Pexarus, weren’t you?” Fas pressed.

Skith nodded absentmindedly, their eyes sliding from Fas to the shelves. A distant sort of expression began to settle onto Skith’s face.

“You’re a native of Pexarus?” Fas asked, her concern rising.

The moment Skith shook his head, muttering, “No,” Fas realized her mistake. She’d been asking him, rather than telling him, and had inadvertently given him the option of contradicting her. Behind her, Fas could almost feel the effigy shifting in its form ever so slightly.

“Right,” Fas hurriedly corrected herself, “Your parents were part of the planetary transfer from Bis. I always confuse Bisians and Pexarusians.”

Skith hesitated.

“I read the report in your file about it,” Fas added.

A void seemed to open up behind her. Where she had just been feeling Skith’s effigy there wasn’t anything now. Skith shifted his weight, his gaze turning upward towards the top of the warehouse, and Fas was overly relieved when she found that she was no longer looking at a Ka’Rak. Skith was returned to his normal form, or as close to normal as Fas had any reason to hope for. There were a few differences between Bisians and Pexarusians but they were sufficiently minor that she wasn’t going to be bothered by them.

The nearer Ka’Raks shifted uneasily, as though sensing the change that had just taken place. A few eyes opened here and there, their lamp-like glow shining like pin pricks of light in the otherwise dim warehouse.

“It’s unusual,” Fas said a bit louder in the hopes the Ka’Raks would overhear and believe her, “to have so many soldiers all from the same couple of planets, though having all your soldiers from Bis and Pexarus must have its advantages.”

Skith looked confused for only a moment. Fas knew, of course, that the soldiers under Skith’s command were from dozens of different planets but she didn’t have the luxury of researching each and every one of them just to then stage another meeting like this. There were certainly going to be some repercussions from her slapdash fixing of the situation but she figured those would be easier to manage than what would happen if it became known that a full tenth of her battalion had been turned into Ka’Raks.

“It’s certainly made unit cohesion easier,” Skith said. “Not having to waste time overcoming cultural differences has made us really effective. I assume that’s why we’ve been entrusted with the task of assimilating the Ka’Raks into our ranks.”

“Exactly,” Fas nodded as she scanned the bunks once more, relieved to see that they were no longer filled with Ka’Raks. Only the nest in the corner seemed to have Ka’Raks anymore.

Turning, Fas was further relieved to find only a small shelf with a few effigies.

“See that your soldiers don’t touch these,” Fas told Skith. “The Ka’Raks usually ignore these but can become defensive if others begin messing with them.”

“I’ll see it done,” Skith replied.

“Good. I’ll see you and your soldiers on the assembly field later then.”

With that, she turned to leave the warehouse and Skith moved off to begin preparing for the upcoming day’s work. As she moved towards the exit, however, Li’Ko was suddenly standing in her way. He saluted as usual but there was something in his eyes that gave Fas pause.

“Spark Ka’Rak Li’Ko,” they said and Fas promptly tapped their hands.

“You are doing well with the Kindling,” Fas stated, still wary of Li’Ko. “They are organized and obey quickly. With such improvements I expect them to be ready for advancement soon.”

“Yes,” Li’Ko replied but quickly looked towards the shelf of Effigies and pointed as he spoke. “You see them, don’t you? Not many see them, but you do.”

Fas nodded slowly, uncertain where Li’Ko would take this conversation.

“I see them,” she admitted.

“You’ve shown them to others now,” Li’Ko went on, pointing now to Skith.

“As your commanding officer it’s important for him to see them.”

Li’Ko grunted but didn’t sound completely convinced.

“But now we see them too,” Li’Ko said darkly.

“Why does that make you concerned?”

Li’Ko turned to look at the nest where the other Ka’Raks were beginning to wake.

“You did not see them before, and our peoples fought. You see them now and we serve you with loyalty.” Li’Ko turned his gaze back onto Fas and there was a strange glow in his eyes that was more than just reflected light. “We did not see them before. We see them now. It is like waking up and we have not decided what is the dream and what is real.”

Li’Ko left her with those words ringing in her mind. The uncertainty they both felt about the future was apparent and neither was sure how to feel about it.