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Chapter 64 - The Shadows

Ivan, commander of the elite dragon riding unit, the Shadows, walked down the halls of the Imperial Palace. He was an imposing man. His uniform was crisp and perfect. He was tall with jet-black hair and bright green eyes. He was once considered very handsome but he'd sustained a brutal burn during the war. Friendly fire had trapped him in a burning forest separated from his dragon Ahsanon. To those that knew him such a mark across the left side of his face hardly mattered, but to high society he was not fit to be seen.

He'd been summoned here today to give the Emperor an update on the situation regarding Tate Delmont and Lou Veylin. He would have to disappoint His Majesty because he didn't have anything new to report. His unit had scoured the veil, testing every point, but no one else could so much as put a fingernail through the mist. He had no explanation for what had happened, none at all. He hated that, he was used to having the answers. He was the leader of the Shadows, it was his business in life to know everything.

This situation left him with nothing. He sighed a little as he walked the long hallways. Musing on the fact that this was always the way when it came to him.

He'd met Tate Delmont when he had been newly appointed commander. He had been thirty and Tate just fourteen. He would never forget the day that baby faced little boy had approached him in his Academy uniform like he was already a real soldier. The way he carried himself, his demeanor, everything was as if he'd been in the Dragon Corps for years.

He'd heard of the boy, who hadn't, a child who'd hatched a dragon when they were only five. He was also aware that the general had taken him under his wings in many ways and that the boy had done one or two sanctioned solo missions when necessary.

Tate Delmont had stopped in front of him and rigidly soluted. Ivan had been training his unit and surrounding him in the air were his team and their dragons all looking down at the field to see what was going on, luckily they were in the middle of a break between sparring sessions.

When Ivan had opened that letter things had changed forever. They were official orders from the Emperor that effective immediately Tate Delmont was assigned to the Shadows and an official member of the Dragon Corps. He'd been furious, he didn't care who the boy was or how talented he was. He was not going to be told who to put in his unit, and most especially he wasn't about to take on a literal child.

He quickly found out that despite his desire to push his will on the subject that his will was nothing in front of the Emperor's will. He'd known that going into the fight, but he'd tried anyway as a matter of principle.

From then on he and the rest of his unit had developed a very strange relationship with their youngest member. They quickly discovered that everything that was said about him was true, he was a prodigy. The things he and his dragon Aquana could do were nothing short of amazing. They were a textbook example of a pairing that had reached maximum harmony. Watching them fly together the first time in training had actually made him tear up because it was so beautiful, not that he'd ever admitted that.

He and the other adults, though not cruel to Tate, had unspokenly agreed to remain distant from him. This had not seemed to bother the boy, who still had to attend classes at the time as well so he didn't put much effort into unit relations either.

Then the war broke out. Tate had been only fifteen when the Shadows had been deployed into a situation that was not their usual primary objective. The Shadows had been developed for espionage and assassination, not for ramming into an enemy head-on.

Head-on was what they were commanded to do whether they liked it or not. In those turbulent years, Ivan could not express the anxiety of living in such a hyper sensitive state. His whole unit had done both front line attacks and recon. They were the unit that was run the most ragged. Even though they were well rewarded after their victory, it did not make up for the mental and emotional toll it had taken on his people.

It had come as a surprise to everyone when Tate Delmont had become their rock. During that dark time, he shone like the brightest star, and he shone brighter in the Shadows than anywhere else. Somehow when things got hard he stepped in at just the right time and in just the right way to guide things back on track. They'd all found themselves turning to him for advice or help in their plans. This soon lead to him being the centerpiece of many of their operations, and eventually the combat leader in all but in name.

Yes, it was Ivan who'd written, signed all the reports, and developed most of the strategy, but it was Tate Delmont, a sixteen-year-old at this time who led them on the ground and in the air. Ivan was not ashamed of following the teenager. He'd not even felt that it took away from his official role because just as often as he asked Tate for assistance Tate came to him for advice himself. He and Tate had become quite close during that time. Much to his shame now, he'd had to shove aside his original reservations and justified Tate's presence on the battlefield. He reasoned that war was different, it was a time for all talents in the nation to come show their worth, even if those talents were too young normally.

He'd come to regret it all the day Tate had gone a different route to the randevu point in lower Eccleston Province. Ivan and the Shadows had faced many nations at this point and many anti-dragon devices, but never one shot by their own countrymen. Ivan knew who'd shot Aquana out of the sky, but he had no proof that would hold up in the halls of justice.

Ivan burned with fury and a sense of failure whenever he thought of the incident. Tate lost his partner at such a young age, cut off in the prime of his career. A case that may or may not have turned out differently if he'd sent the regulation second rider with him instead of assuming there was nothing that Tate couldn't handle. Ivan also had to bear the sight of people who had actively participated in the plans to sabotage the Empire by destroying Tate's life.

He'd not spoken to Tate since that last day they'd parted. Often he'd wanted to reach out but talked himself out of it every time. The Shadows were always busy so he was away enough not to have to face the fact that for a long time, Tate was just a wall away.

It was selfish of him, but he couldn't face him. None of them could. The whole unit had gotten just dunk enough to talk it over one night a few years ago and they found out that they all felt the same way. They didn't know what to say to him, how to comfort him, how to let it go.

They also wondered at why he didn't reach out to them, was he angry? Did he resent them? Did he even care? The worries and questions had led them nowhere. He did know that Wor and Shila had once gotten up the nerve to send him letters. They all knew that he had replied promptly and politely but with no real clues in his words that would let them know his thoughts.

He laughed to himself, well aware of the humiliating fact that in this case they were the childish ones and Tate was the mature adult. Tate was all in one their biggest pride and their greatest shame, to this day he didn't know how to move his unit on from the ghost he'd left behind in their midst. One thing he did know was that he had to get rid of it first before he could ask his unit to.

Now this fiasco had befallen them. They lost Lou, a promising new member whom everyone liked immensely. He and his dragon Lancec were excellent additions to the unit. Although, now look at what had happened. Lou had vanished before their eyes leaving a rampaging dragon behind to hurl himself at a wall of mist over and over again until the other dragons in the unit could hold him down long enough for someone to give him drugs to knock him out. Now Lancec was being hidden away in a cave and kept under constant sedation. No one was supposed to know that Lou might be alive since his dragon was alive. There was still too much unknown.

The main point of the unknown that neither he nor the Empeorr wanted people to find out about was Tate himself. Tate had looked awful as they'd landed in front of him that day. Ivan had not seen him in person in years and was struck by how grown up he looked, but also at how hollow. Gone was the life that had once blazed in the young man's eyes. Ivan had only seen a man who'd given up.

For the barest flash of a moment, Iven thought Tate had been glad to see them, but then all in a blur it had happened. Lou, who Ivan knew had been personally taught by Tate got off Lancec to approach Tate. Then Tate's face had hardened. Ivan figured out their mistake a beat too late. Tate thought they were there for them in the way that the Shadows would usually show up for a person. Death.

Tate had relaxed, said "I'm sorry." and melted back into the mist, taking Lou with him.

Even now thinking back on it made his head hurt. He was utterly baffled by what had happened.

He'd finally reached the door to the meeting chamber he'd been summoned to. He announced himself and heard the Emperor's head advisor, Tate's father, grant him entrance. The doors were opened by the two guards on either side of them and Ivan stepped into the room ready to give his report to the small gathering of the Emperor's personal council.

He stood before them confidently, or at least appearing so.

"Well, sir Ivan, please give us a brief update on the situation." Akir Delmont becand.

Ivan took in a deep breath and let it out, not knowing what to do or say. Nothing, he had nothing new to report but they wanted a report anyway.

He opened his mouth, hesitated, then said those words aloud. "My apologies, Your Majesty, but I've got nothing new on the matter."