Chapter Nine
Leaving Borreal’s office, Dahlia located her barrack members back in the main area of her barrack. If there was any chance Ahriman was involved in this then they needed to have their defenses ready. Often times drills to train mental defense left the trainee worn and vulnerable afterwards but she had developed an exercise that would reinforce their defenses. Unfortunately that required her to work intensely with each of her barrack members individually instead of enlisting Fidelity and Arreal to help. More strain for her but better for the soldiers.
She decided to work from her lieutenants down. Reasoning that, though their defenses were the strongest, they were also most likely to be targeted. Especially if she was a target. Locating Sabir she pulled him into her walled garden located off her office. She explained which drill she wanted to work and then began. She lit a perimeter of candles similar to the ones in her room so she could lower her shield and focus all her efforts on his mind.
She spent the next while poking into his shield, identifying areas that were vulnerable, working with him to build them up, and then poking at them some more until she was sure they were solid, no cracks. She’d found that once someone became aware of their vulnerabilities through gentle probing their awareness and ability to self monitor grew and the fixes they worked out were sustained.
Sabir sent in Arreal and she went through the same exercise with him, working her way through her entire barrack until night had long past fallen and she was exhausted.
Normally the exercise wouldn’t have taken so much out of her, even repeated so many times. She was just already so strained after encountering Ahriman’s barrier in Macada’s mind. She shook her head wearily, put up a very light shield, and returned to her room. Once she’d closed the door she immediately lit her own perimeter and released the last of her effort that held her frail shield in place. She sunk to her knees and sat back on her heels, letting her mind fall silent and rest.
Her door opened and she leapt to her feet, adrenaline pounding, axes in hand. Kenny appeared, holding a teapot. His long black hair was disheveled as usual and hanging in his face. He’d foregone a shirt again.
“Seriously? You didn’t think to knock?” she snapped at him. “What if I’d taken your head off?”
His smile was oddly disarming, “You’re too slow right now. I think I could have blocked it.”
Dahlia growled at him. This was not a good time for her to deal with him.
He held up the teapot, “Peace. I bribed Nallia to make this, she says it’s good for your mind. I figured you’d had a rough day. Noticed you weren’t with your barrack on their run and then I felt energy exploding in the prison. Thought you’d have something to do with it. Can I sit down?”
Dahlia dropped her axes, nodded in resignation, grabbed two cups, and plopped down at the table across from him. Whatever was in the brew it smelled wonderful. The pressure behind her eyes lightened just from inhaling the steam.
“Thank you,” she said grudgingly.
“Least I could do, though from what I gathered you killed my prisoner. After all the effort I took to take him alive,” his tone was light. Dahlia supposed it was meant to be a joke.
“I triggered an implosion,” she glared at the cup as though it had contributed to the event.
“Oh, that all?” His grin broadened as he watched her sip the brew. It was spicy and a bit bitter but the storm in her mind quieted and the exhaustion was held at bay.
“There’s alcohol in this.”
Kenny was still grinning, “Well yeah, I mighta added something. Don’t tell Nallia. She wouldn’t like me messing with it.”
Dahlia finished the cup and felt her eyes grow heavy, “There better not be anything added to this besides alcohol.” She tried to glare at him.
“Nah, I wouldn’t do something like that.” His face was a mask of innocent as Dahlia’s eyes grew heavy and slowly drooped closed.
She felt him scooped her up as if she weighed nothing and place her gently on the bed. The last thing she heard before falling into a deep sleep was the sound of the door shutting behind him.