Process, Part 7 (CROSSProcess) by Hildred M. Billings

Author:Hildred M. Billings [Billings, Hildred M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barachou Press
Published: 2023-04-02T23:00:00+00:00

Two mornings later, he knocked on Sulim’s door. Yet if he thought she would be joining him in the training pits that morning, he was mistaken, for Sulim was either up and gone already or sleeping like the dead.

She’s never here when I want to find her. That was the one thing that always irked him about Sulim, a woman he otherwise never had a problem with. She was so good at sneaking around that, for all he knew, he had missed her by a minute. Perhaps she had even seen him and disappeared like a ghost to avoid him.

He knew she was aching for another job, though. It was abnormal for either of them, at this stage in their careers, to be kept at the fortress for so long. It had been nearly a month since Tarka’s Outpost, and Sonall was keen on adding more money to his retirement account. Buying property on Arrah was not cheap.

So what if he was hoping to pass the time by keeping their skills sharp? It beat running into her at the mess hall and realizing he missed his chance to swing a punch or two. Ever since their first skirmish all those years ago, Sulim had markedly improved. To the point that she could keep Sonall on his ass for more than ten seconds if she had the perfect opportunity.

He wouldn’t find her until closer to noon when he happened to pass through one of the biggest courtyards linking most of the fortress’s wings together. In the days since he was first brought to Cerilyn, a large fountain had been erected in the center, offering a cool, wet respite on the hotter days and also acting as a convenient meeting point for evening outings. At that time of day, however, most of the traffic was servants coming and going on their errands and the few children who lived in the fortress having a playtime break before lunch.

Sulim was popular with them, although they were not always popular with her. She sat on the edge of the fountain, water spray in her hair as she held her digital clipboard to her chest to keep the unruly children from peeking at what she was doing.

“Not everything is about blood and guts.” That was what Sonall heard as he approached from behind. “There’s a lot of boring stuff about this work too. Like paperwork. Sooo much paperwork. If you wanna make money, you’re going to be filling out a lot of paperwork.”

“They have no idea what paperwork is.” Sonall sat down next to her. While Sulim was slightly startled at his sudden presence, the kids—the oldest of whom couldn’t be more than nine—crowded around him. He didn’t recognize most of them, but he was usually generous with any goodies he brought back from the Federation and beyond. No doubt most of these kids now associated him with snacks and toys. The kind permitted in the fortress, anyway. “Which is a good thing, because paperwork came from the saddest pit in the Void.

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