Pithea by Kristi Drillien

Author:Kristi Drillien [Drillien, Kristi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-09T22:00:00+00:00

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Naolin had been working with the same group of people for days. They searched the section of the building they were assigned, slowly and methodically all day, stumbled back to town in the evening for supper, crashed hard overnight, and woke up to do the same thing all over again. The Madness run had been expected to last a while, because the monsters were thought to be hiding all throughout the massive, many-roomed buildings. And that had turned out to be the case. However, Naolin wondered if the mission would ever end. It seemed like every time they went back in the next morning, they had to start from scratch, almost right inside the door.

Each of the units consisted of six people. Naolin had expected more than that, but it didn’t take long for him to realize they wouldn’t have been able to move as quickly or quietly with too many people in tow. Even with six, his unit had needed to develop a specific pattern to how they entered each room, how they fit everyone into a room, and who, if anyone, would wait outside.

Naolin’s unit was well-rounded, as all of the units were. The man who had been designated as the leader was named Aeldrim. He was a Bonder with the Bhorpal militia. The unit also had a Bowman from the Jaffna militia—a man named Dimir. There was a young woman who had trained as a User, but was not in a militia. Her name was Sarita. Naolin acknowledged that it was probably not a good thing that he didn’t seem to mind a User who was a woman nearly as much as he minded a male User.

The unit had almost been sent in without a Shadow, but just before they left Drayune on the first day, they were set up with a Shadow named Larinn. She never said if she was in a militia or not; she actually said very little in general. The unit also had help from a Cleric named Selunya. She was Aeldrim’s girlfriend, a fact which the Bonder exuberantly shared with everyone when the unit first met.

Aeldrim was incredibly outgoing—enough so that he drove Naolin crazy. When the unit ate supper together in the evenings, Aeldrim was always talking, usually to ask questions about Naolin’s personal life. Fortunately, when they were hunting, he was all business. And he was very competent with a sword, having trained as a Swordsman before becoming a Bonder. Naolin was smart enough to know that he could learn a lot about his own craft from the older man.

Selunya was quite the opposite of her boyfriend. She was quiet and certainly never bothered the others with any unnecessary chatter. She suited Naolin just fine. And, though there hadn’t been a lot of opportunities for him to see her skills, Aeldrim clearly had confidence in her, so Naolin felt he could too.

Naolin did feel like he was dragging his unit down, though, being the only initiate. He almost wished the people in charge of the run hadn’t let him be involved.

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