Born of Defiance

He was completely at their mercy.

Disgusted at his luck, he opened the canopy and descended to the waiting mob he was sure would take him into custody.

They didn’t. Rather they stood back to allow a colonel, who was a few years older than him, to approach Talyn.

The colonel saluted him.

Talyn returned it as he cast his gaze around the others, watching for any sudden moves.

“What are your orders, Commander?”

Talyn blinked twice as those words registered. He was tempted to look behind him to see if someone else was there. But actually, it made sense. With Lorens in surgery, he was their XO.

Yeah, that screwed with his head, too. He was the youngest commander in Andarion history, and that responsibility settled on his shoulders like a gravity-dense planet.

Finally recovering from the initial shock of their respect, Talyn cleared his throat. “I need stat reports.”

“The command center is still in Anatole hands. We have strike teams in position and snipers on the surrounding rooftops. If they step one foot out, we’re ending lineages.”

Talyn considered that as he led the colonel toward his new office. “Shoot to stun or wound. Let’s not kill anyone for being an idiot. Or for being loyal, even if it is to a fractured crown.” Honestly, had Chrisen not made this personal, Talyn wasn’t sure which side he’d have been fighting for. “But if it’s Chrisen or Merrell, I give full pardon to anyone who puts them in a grave.”

The colonel relayed Talyn’s orders before he returned to his updates. “We still have no bearings on the escaped tizirani, other than Jullien, who is in Triosan custody. The other two pulled their tracers out before they ran.”

“Do we know who released them?”

“From video feeds, yes. We have the names of several traitors.”

“Has anyone checked to see if their tracers are working?”

A light of respect shined in the colonel’s eyes. “No, sir. But we will now.” Colonel Tievel issued that order, as well.

When Talyn reached Chrisen’s former office, the majors on duty opened the door for him. A weird, uneasy feeling danced up his spine as he entered, not for discipline this time, but for command.

It was the first time in months that he’d entered this office without a sick lump of dread in his stomach. And the weight of his new position and responsibility hit him hard. In the past, only his life had been on the line.

Now…

He held the life of every soldier who believed in Tylie and Saren in his hands. The lives of his mother and Felicia. Of Tylie and Cairistiona.

The future of the entire Andarion empire. It was all up to him.

Don’t fuck this up.

Gods, when I said I wanted my life to change, this was not what I meant. He ran his thumb around the finger that held his homage to Felicia, and let an image of her in his mind soothe his trepidations.

Had he caused all this by daring to defy the gods and take something for his own? Was this his punishment for trying to be happy?

No, he refused to believe that. Just as he refused to believe he would never see Felicia again.

You’re no longer alone. He glanced around at the soldiers who were standing by his side.

Everything he’d ever wanted was on the line now. Even his life.

I won’t go back.

He’d fought too hard to get here. No slimy little whoreson was going to take his life or his female from him. Not without a brutal fight.

And brutal fights were what Talyn Batur specialized in. Bring it, bitch. With everything you have.

The only thing different was that this time, he wasn’t fighting for respect or rank. He wasn’t fighting for himself.

He fought for the only thing that currently mattered in his backwards, screwed-up life.

Felicia.

And he was going to end this. Once and for all.



Felicia wanted to cower and cry as she struggled futilely against the chains that held her to her chair. Before Talyn, she wouldn’t have hesitated to fall apart and beg Chrisen for mercy. But one of the two things she’d learned from Talyn was how to keep her head up in the face of those out to harm her. She would never allow them to take her power from her and make her weak.

They weren’t worth it.

The other was that she wasn’t alone in this universe. There were Andarions out there who stood up for victims. Andarions who wouldn’t let evil win.

Talyn was one of them and he would come for her. He wouldn’t let her down.

And when he got here, he would kill every one of them for taking her. She knew it with every beat of her heart.