-Chapter 27-

Ashley Gardner he repeated to himself. Usually Dex wrote off the Lilies that came because most didn’t survive their first battle. But there was something different about her. Maybe it was the scar. It showed she’d actually seen some hard times and lived through them. She was Academy-bred so he knew she hadn’t just been spoon-fed the propaganda of the Princes at home and joined up to “make her country proud.” If there was one thing he couldn’t stand it was arrogant assholes coming in and telling him how to fight when all they’d ever done was wrestle in their back yards. She’d definitely been tired when he’d met her, but she’d also seemed ready for anything, and he liked that. That gray uniform confused him though. Seren had said something about building another House, but the details weren’t specific. He was headed to check out her file now.

The personal files were off limits as a general rule, but anyone considered a Leader in the computer system was welcome to access them as a means to strengthen his platoon. Dex more than qualified. He approached the window that bore the sign “Records” above it, and lightly tapped on the glass. The older woman sitting behind it at her computer looked up and slid the pane to one side. “Hey, Dex.” He didn’t even have to show his identification anymore, as was customary. He’d been here so long that most of the staff recognized him. “What can I do for you?”

“I’d like to pull a file if I could, Nindi.”

“Sure, Honey.” She clicked a couple of things, and then looked back at him. “What’s the name?”

“Gardner; first name Ashley.”

Her fingers moved quickly across the keys, tapping the letters in. “Is she Academy?” she asked.

“Yeah.” A few more taps sounded.

“Alright, one second.” She wrote down a number on a small piece of paper, then got up and headed back to the farm of file cabinets behind her desk. Her finger trailed along the drawers until she found the correct one and opened it. She pulled the file, nearly dropping it. “Ooh, that’s a heavy one!” she exclaimed, grabbing the bottom with her other hand. She elbowed the drawer shut and carried the file back to the window. “You know the drill.”

He set his thumb on the fingerprint scanner, and she handed him the folder. “Wow, she must have been a trouble maker or something,” he commented, accepting the file and noting its weight. “Thanks, Nindi.”

“No problem, Dex.” He clamped his hands on either side of the folder, not wanting to spill any of its contents. It was probably one of the biggest files he’d ever come across. When he finally made it to the hall of conference rooms, it was burning in his hands. He chose the first available room and ducked inside, closing the door to indicate that it was occupied.

The first page was her application to the school, no surprise there. She had apparently been recommended by her counselor at school. She was originally from Euranica—the address said New Dublin Proper--so it made sense that she was now a part of its army. He continued to find the section that was her One Year Review. In most, this area was filled with grade reports, records of volunteer work, awards, sporting events, etc. But hers was a single transcript showing adequate marks and a number of police reports paired with hospital documentation. Gods above, she’s a fighter. Nearly all the reports featured a Mick Gardner as the perpetrator; she was an abuse victim. He turned another page to find her picture taken at her acceptance to the academy. The scar wasn’t there, which meant she’d received it sometime in the past six years. The portrait reminded him of all those that hung on the Wall of Memory outside the mess hall. She didn’t look especially happy, but she looked young and innocent like all the rest.

The next page was her sibling report. She’d been given to Rafarin Lucas, call sign Apollo, and shortly thereafter given the call sign Artemis. Next came her first medical report. Before her first battle? It outlined an altercation with another student in which she’d ended up receiving stitches. There’s that scar. He expected the next page to be her first battle report, but was instead another medical one. Another incident with the same student, more stitches and an added concussion this time. He continued through her First Year, amazed at what she’d been through, and was beginning to develop an idea of what she was capable of enduring. He flipped to her Second Year, and the paper changed color. The originally blue-outlined sheets were now gray, and there was another entrance report. No sibling this time, just a new call sign: Scathach. What in the sphincter of hell is Silver House? But what mattered more was the fact that she was listed as its High Goddess. Her Second Year? What was going on in this place?

Odd battle reports followed and with them, other various injuries: a broken foot, hospitalization for respiratory monitoring, a dislocated shoulder. Then he came to a random medical report. It was drawn up in a manner similar to her first at Blue House. He found himself reading it out loud to the silence of the room. “After receiving a phone call from outside the Academy, she proceeded to her room where she was later found by Cadets Tristan and Aeron unconscious on the floor, a shard from her broken mirror near her hand. Cadet Scathach had sustained a wound across her right thigh, presumably self-inflicted . . . ? What was that phone call about?” He ran a hand through his hair, slightly unnerved by this report. “Why the hell did they let you receive a phone call from outside the school anyway? I thought that place was supposed to be cut off from society.” He made a mental note to find some way to get her to tell him about it without asking her outright; though he felt the information was important, he also didn’t want her to get angry and not talk to him at all.

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He hesitated for a moment as he approached her bed. Normally he didn’t have a problem rousing soldiers, but she looked peaceful, as though in this past week she’d finally learned how to rest. The fact that she’d led her own House worried him, not because he felt that as a woman she was less capable, but rather because if she was anything like Seren, she would have taken the full weight of it. He and Darko had discovered early that they should keep Seren in a supporting role instead of a purely leading one. The only question was, how did Ashley lead? Was she a mother, or a matriarch?

Not wanting to wake the rest of the room, he knelt down and gently pushed at her shoulder, coaxing her to open her eyes. She blinked and sucked in a deep breath that ended in a yawn. Finally, she recognized him. “Dex?”

He held a finger to his lips and drawled, “’Mornin’, Sunshine. I’ve got a couple questions for you.” She blinked a few more times and furrowed her brow at him, as if needing time to remember where she was. “Come on,” he smiled. “I’ll buy you breakfast.” He stood and offered her a hand.

The floor was cool on her bare feet, making her thankful for the full length pajamas that had come in her new footlocker of uniforms and supplies. The Euranican black was growing on her almost as easily as the Avalon gray had; maybe it was because they were both drab colors, if you even considered them colors. “Do I need to change?” she asked, wiping sleep from her eyes.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Nobody else is up yet, and we’re not going to be doing anything. Like I said, I just want to talk to you a bit . . . if that’s okay.”

“Yeah.” She gave him a confused look. If that’s okay? He closed his eyes briefly as she stretched her arms over her head, pulling her shirt just up over her navel. He already had too much to worry about, and he was far too old for her anyway. Together they headed quietly for the main door.

She nearly floated next to him, the padding of her bare feet disappearing amid the sound of his boots. “So, you and Seren were in the same House at the Academy?”

“She was in line for High Queen my first year,” she affirmed. “And there were only eight Greek women, so we all tried to stick together as much as possible.”

“I’ve heard Greece is the place you want to be sent there.”

“Well, it was,” she laughed. “Zeus did a really good job building it up, and his successors continued well, but technically Avalon was Top House in terms of percentages.”

“Avalon . . . is that what you called Silver House?”

“Yeah.” She seemed a little surprised. “You know about that?”

“Well, Ser had told me that there was a new House formed during her final year, and then I took a look at your file.” He held the door open for her as she walked through giving him a look that held more fear than astonishment. He followed behind her, setting a hand on her shoulder and whispering, “Don’t worry; the only person I discuss you with is Dark.” The two of them went through the food line and then sat down at a small, two-seated table.

Ashley stirred cream and sugar into her coffee and took a bite of her oatmeal, sighing at the blandness and wishing she had something to flavor it. “So you know everything there is to know about me then, huh?” Her voice sounded slightly bitter, like he’d gone behind her back. Nevertheless, his eyes and voice remained soft, soothing the resentment in her.

“I know what they chose to put on paper.” He pulled his spoon from his coffee and set it upside down on the napkin he had folded and placed beneath his cup. “What was in your file were facts, history, the bare bones of what happened. They remove the detail in an attempt to remove the emotion, but what they don’t realize is that our emotions entirely shape what we do and why. So, yeah, I know that you got into a fight with a kid and ended up with that scar on your face, but I don’t know what the fight was about. I know that in your Fifth Year, you snapped and sliced a line into your thigh with a piece of your mirror, but I don’t know what drove you to it.” She hadn’t eaten a bite of her food while he talked. She simply stirred it around and looked at the table. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment, and she looked on the edge of tears. He reached out and laid a hand on hers, stopping her spoon mid-stir. “Hey.” She looked up at him. “There’s a reason I pulled you aside, Ash. As far as I’m concerned, no one else has to know what happened at the Academy. But if I’m gonna be able to keep you alive out there, then we need to trust each other.”

She held his gaze for a long moment, then started in a flat voice. “He was an arrogant jackass, who punched me when I tried to walk away from him. And when he got in trouble for it, he threw me against the wall, ripping through my stitches and giving me a concussion.” She hesitated, briefly re-living the pain of the second scenario and trying to decide where to begin. “For most of my life I was angry at my dad, but he was still my dad. I still love him, no matter what. So it was a bit of an emotional overload when I talked to him on the phone for the last time and wasn’t allowed more than two minutes. He was dying, and I wasn’t going to be there to say goodbye properly.” A tear slid involuntarily down her cheek, and before either realized it, Dex’s thumb had swiped it away.

She caught her breath, and he smiled weakly. “And now I know you’re human.” A sudden shiver swept through her, and he chuckled, forcing a smile from her as well. “Eat your food before it gets cold,” he suggested, nodding toward her bowl. As though she’d forgotten it was even there, she looked down at it and pulled a spoonful of mush to her mouth. They ate in silence for a few seconds. He’d made her open up, and now he knew she could feel without being completely broken. He’d still keep an eye on her, but he didn’t have to worry as much. Then he decided it was time to lighten the mood. She’d been through enough in the past . . . ever. “Ser also told me you were a badass when you were in school.”

“What?” It had worked; she inadvertently giggled as the question escaped her lips.

“She said none of the boys could ever beat you in sparring.”

“That’s not true; Tel beat me plenty of times. Of course, I probably kicked his ass just as often.” She found herself rambling. “See, it’s not always about weighing more than your opponent or how much muscle you have. You just have to think about strategic positioning.”

He laughed through a sip of coffee, and then set his cup down. “Dear, I’m 1.7 meters tall, and therefore shorter than most of the other men here. I know a thing or two about strategy versus power.”

“You’re not that small,” Ashley exclaimed.

“Maybe not compared to you.”

“What?!”

“Well, yeah, I’m bigger than you, but that’s not hard.”

“I’m not that small.”

“Yes, you are.” Her eyebrow shot toward the ceiling. “Don’t give me that look, you might be more solid than some of the others, but you’re still tiny.”

“Forgive me if I don’t agree.” She dropped her eyes and lifted her mug to drink her coffee while it was still warm.

“You’re forgiven, but you’re wrong.” Without giving her a chance to argue, he stood, leaving his dishes for the kitchen staff. He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Come find me later, and I’ll show you the shooting range.”

“Where are you going to be?” She still wasn’t entirely sure of her way around here.

“In bed,” he laughed. “I don’t sleep at night.”

“Ah, hence you waking me up at the butt-crack of dawn to talk.”

“That, and I just wanted to spend some time alone with you.” She snorted laughter, and he winked at her before turning to leave.