The Reforged Saga - Prologue: Great Expectations IC [M]

[Minkasha]

Kira fingers came to an instantaneous stop, giving silence back into the room. The dramatic sigh plucked her mental strings of patience. Tepidly she retrieved back her right hand, returning it to her side. And, rigidly, her golden saucer eyes bore into both older students while the words came to her. Did a name ever matter? No matter the title, if they died, they died. A group title was meaningless for the dead. Any name or label was.

A streak of rebellion came into her and promptly she spoke directly to Tancin.

"Why group with us if you think you can do better?" Her brow twitched and the same side of her lips quivered simultaneously, come off as a half-contortion of her her face.

[Imperial1917]

Jass smiled grimly. He knew exactly what to say to this. It was the one thing true Shapers knew above all.
"Because I don't. Since we are the only ones here and you two obviously intend to be Shapers, I will tell you the obvious truth that stares everyone, including Shapers, in the face but nobody wants to acknowledge: Shapers are not gods. They fail task, they lose things, they grieve for the loss. They are supernaturally powerful in their own way, but are as mortal as any other. Forgetting that is deadlier to any Shaper than a thousand blades at dawn or a knife in the dark.

I know that I come from better breeding than the both of you combined, but that doesn't make me the better Shaper here; I know better than to think that from your files. But that does not mean that I will hide what I know for the sake of humility. My father was a Guardian and he taught me well. More than any other sect, the Guardians understand that life is frail enough to shatter if handled wrong and even more so where risky endeavors are involved. And make no mistake: this is a very risky endeavor and it is my job to either be the first one to go or the one to get the lights on the way out. There is no middle ground for me. Withholding information could prove fatal for myself as much as others, so I will not do it where it can be avoided.

I was assigned to head up this group because the Council decided they needed somebody sufficiently competent to do it. But that doesn't mean that I will make it back. It is not only outsiders who have gone beyond the Barrier, never to return; Shapers have disappeared as well. Sometimes later expeditions have recovered their bodies, or at least something to show what happened to them, but more often nothing is ever found. Nothing is ever said outside of the ranks of the Shapers, of course, but the lesson spreads wide in their midst.

It would be far safer for me to stay here in the Academy and simply refute the Council's orders; it would likely slow my progress to be a Shaper, but I would probably still be able to pull the clout to get the title when I am ready and on my own time. Yet that is not the way of my sect and not what my father taught me. So I will be going. I could have chosen a better team to increase my chances of success and basic survival, but that too is not the way of family and sect. So here we are. I will be going; if you want to back out now, you still can."

[Megilwen]

Jade listened to all Jass had said in response to Kira's question. From the sound of things, he wasn't much different then they were. Given the lead to a group of students that everyone had pretty much forgotten, or ridden off. They hadn't been selected by their peers or by the other group leads or whom ever created the groups that were not a bunch of friends who thought they'd get along well together. As he said he could have chosen a better group to increase his odds, but he wasn't one to back down from a challenge and neither did she.

"Forgotten." She suggested looking up from the table and the map. "Or something along those lines for the group name. That's what we are after all. The ones left behind, underestimated. By our fellows and maybe even some of the council members. We just have to prove that we aren't going to be forgotten and that it was a mistake to think that we could be."

[Imperial1917]

Jass smiled when Jade was done. He would remember this day when the end came.
"Forgotten. That sounds good to me." Looking at Kira, he said, "What say you?"

[Minkasha]

Tancin’s angular features, his smile, were dipped in self-righteousness. Kira found it as intriguing, pulling, as it was taunting. He represented everything held over her. The teenager kept her pout lips sealed, glancing over at Jade with a purse of her mouth. She wasn’t forgotten, she was ridiculed. A person doesn’t forget what it hates. Hate burned in the memory. The forgotten weren’t stared at everywhere they went through the Grand Academy.

She thought the name was stupid, wholly ignorant.

Kira bared her teeth, sneered, and puffed up air, making her fluffy bangs blow and land back over her face. His male presence towered over both of them. Wasn’t he just a beacon of that better breeding?

He smiled because he knew he’d never be forgotten.

“Forgotten” Kira repeated slowly, saying nothing else, running a hand through her hair.