“Silas, the leader is calling for your presence,” I was told by a warrior that had been sent by the leader to fetch me from my sleeping quarters. We'd just completed training, and I'd just returned to change my clothes after washing myself at the lake.

“Do you have any idea why the leader wants to see me?” I asked.

“Word spreading around is that you and your unit are going to carry out some secret mission assigned to you by the lord, it probably has something to do with that,” the warrior answered, his gruff voice adding authority to his words.

In hindsight, the question I asked was a foolish one. Of course, the leader wanted to see me, while the mission was given to me by father, the leader still needed to authorize it. Father had the ultimate authority and could simply override the leader, but it wasn’t something father did often. I should’ve realized sooner that at some point I would need to seek the leader’s permission.

Thank God Minerva wasn’t here to witness my mistake I thought to myself, imagining the harsh words she would’ve bludgeoned me with.

“Sometimes I wonder how you manage to put your clothes on properly, with a brain like yours I’m sure it must be a very difficult task,” she probably would’ve said, a smug grin on her face. The thought gave me goosebumps.

“You’re here,” the leader said to me once I arrived in his workroom. The warrior that had accompanied me to the leader’s workroom excused himself.

The leader’s workroom was a little spacious, there was a long table in the middle of the room with chairs arranged on either side of the table; in the many strategy meetings the leader had with the heads of various units they probably sat around that table, though I’d never been in any of those meetings, I could just picture it.

On the wall was a map of the land, with various settlements marked as either hostile or friendly. Looking at the map I was reminded once again of how vast the world was and how small our settlement was. Of all the human settlements ours was one of the smallest, though we prided ourselves in our fighting capabilities and self-sufficiency, the simple truth was that our settlement was a small settlement with little territory.

“I hear Ion gave you a special mission. Given what I’ve been told about the mission and the timeframe, I suppose you will be setting off tomorrow?” the leader said to me as I stood at the far end of the table, him sitting on the other end, some books laid out on the table in front of him.

“Yes. Some of the recruits successfully completed their training, and so I was thinking of making this the first mission for the recruits that successfully completed training,” I said, my voice a little shaky due to my nerves.

As I stood in front of the leader, I began to realize I’d been very rash; even though I spoke of my plans, it occurred to me that I’d forgotten to ask for permission to set off on the mission with the recruits. The leader didn’t look offended, and from his demeanor, it didn’t look like I would get reprimanded, though the possibility still existed that I would get punished for insubordination, and that scared me. It wasn’t too long ago that I’d caused trouble, I didn’t want to be marked as a delinquent by the leader.

“Yes, Ion informed me. I called you here to let you know some veteran warriors will be joining in on your march. Ion will send mages along, so I want you to make plans to involve the additional unit. Vestergaard’s unit will be joining, it’s a 20 man unit,” the leader said and then dismissed me.

I was finally able to calm down once I left the leader’s workroom. I breathed a sigh of relief and then promised myself to never make a mistake like that again. No matter what, even with everything that had been happening, it was unacceptable that I as a warrior had completely ignored our chain of command. Even though the leader took no issues with it, I still felt remorse.

I headed for the area of the barracks where the veterans lived, in search of the leader of the other unit that would be joining us on the march the next day. I found him and some members of his unit gathered in front of the big building that served as the sleeping quarters for the veterans.

“You must be Silas, the leader informed me you would be coming,” a man who I guessed must’ve been Vestergaard said to me as I drew close to the crowd.

“Yes, hello. You must be Vestergaard. I’ve come to greet you and to inform you of what time we will be setting off tomorrow,” I said to the man before me.

Vestergaard like all other veteran warriors had an overbearing aura. He was a tall man with broad shoulders, and like me, he was blonde, although I kept my hair long and in a ponytail, Vestergaard kept his short, neat, and tidy. He had fierce brown eyes, and an intense stare; I could tell the moment I started speaking that he was sizing me up.

“I’ve just finished a formal meeting with my unit; as the leader just informed me about the march tomorrow I haven’t had time to meet up with you and come up with a strategy,” Vestergaard replied. For one so masculine, his voice sounded more feminine than even Minerva’s, the disconnect between his appearance and the way he sounded threw me off. For some time I only stared blankly after he’d finished speaking.

He cleared his throat in an attempt to prompt me to speak after some time. I had no way of knowing, but assuming he met new people a lot, this situation must’ve been one he was used to. I couldn’t have been the first person to be shocked by his voice.

“Yes, it’s fine. I planned to discuss strategy with my unit tomorrow before the march began, you and your unit can join in. We’ll be gathering at our training ground on the eastern part of the barracks before the first rooster crows tomorrow morning,” I finally said, finding my voice again after some time.

I said my goodbye and excused myself, heading straight to my sleeping quarters. The sun had already set a while ago, although the moon wasn’t fully out yet, I needed to wake up early the next day so I wanted to go to bed early. Thankfully, I had no trouble falling asleep, as I fell asleep almost as soon as my back hit the sleeping mat.

“Who are you?”

What is this? Where am I?

“Who are you?”

Huh. Whose voice is that? Is someone here?

“How did you get here?”

I found myself in a place that seemed oddly familiar yet so unfamiliar. I was conscious of the space around me, but there was nothing but endless darkness before me. I felt weightless, it felt like I was the wind, moving about simply by will. My consciousness seemed to travel as fast as I could think, but no matter how far I went, there was nothing. All my senses were gone, but I wasn’t blind, nor was I deaf, as I could see and hear, but there was nothing to see, and the only thing I heard was the voice asking who I was.

“Who are you? Where am I?” I asked, trying to find the voice in this space that seemed to go on for eternity.

“Are you lost? Strange creature, how did you get here?” the voice asked instead of answering my question.

I dug through my memories trying to figure out why this all felt familiar, but there was nothing, however, it wasn’t the nothing that meant empty, rather, it felt like trying to fetch water from the ocean with a sieve; I was overwhelmed immediately I tried to remember, but everything that overwhelmed me would vanish a heartbeat later, leaving me with nothing.

“Yes, I must be lost. Where am I?” I asked.

“I do not know. This space suddenly appeared and I came out of curiosity to see what it was, you arrived after I did,” the voice said.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Ever since I opened my eyes I have been called Order. Who are you?”

Just as I was about to answer, my consciousness was swallowed by darkness, and by the time I regained it I was back in my room. I looked outside through my window at the cloudless pitch-black night sky, the moon’s glow casting a silver light on everything on the ground, but neglecting to light up the sky. I had a mild headache, and I felt agitated, my heart was beating fast and my palms were sweaty. When I woke up, my body had been very tense, I was clutching my fist very tightly.

I headed for the training ground not long after I woke up, being too agitated to fall back asleep, I decided to head to the training ground to wait for the others, I would use the time to train a little too.

“You’re here early,” I heard my sister’s voice call out to me.

I’d been practicing when she arrived, I immersed myself completely in training to keep my mind from wandering off. I didn’t feel fatigued, and somehow I’d lost track of time, so it was hard for me to tell how long I’d been practicing for.

“Yes, I had another one of those weird dreams, so I woke up early,” I said to her.

“Really?!” she asked, approaching me really fast, she demanded, “tell me all the details.”

I described my dreams to her, making sure to not omit anything. In the end, she was just as confused as I was. “At least this time we have clues, the voice you heard that called itself Order, I believe solving the mystery of who that is may shed some light on your situation,” she said.

Not too long after the recruits and Aurel also arrived on the training ground, we waited for Vestergaard’s unit and the mages father sent to join us before we began the strategy meeting. It didn’t look like sunrise would arrive anytime soon, so we weren’t rushed for time. We discussed in depth the terrain around the Lycan settlement, how we would approach, the duties of each unit and how they would move. Aurel and I, having been there before informed the units of the enemy numbers and the composition of their settlement. The strategy talks over, we finally set off on our subjugation march.