Fire and Steel

Chapter 2: Song

"Song... Song... wake up... Wake up!"

Song awoke with a jolt, and a gust of wind blew the windows open, causing them to rattle against the grates. He slipped out of bed and rubbed his face. Cold sweat dotted his forehead... the dream, the same nightmare, the same voice in his head. All of it leading back to him... back to Hayes. Song groaned and immediately the craving took him. He stumbled to his dressing table, the bottle of pills was there. He was almost out again. He'd begun needing more and more of the medicine as of late. Song picked the bottle up and pulled out the cork emptying the four round pills into his palm.

"Don't do it... Don't lock me away again... Song... please... don't put me back there," Hayes pleaded his face in the dressing table's vanity.

Song wavered, his hand shaking. Then he closed his eyes and popped the medicine into his mouth and swallowed.

"You can't get rid of me Song! You did this to me! To us! You ca..." Hayes' voice  cut off as the bitter pills took their effect.

Song let out a few ragged breaths. Before inhaling and exhaling slowly, letting the air around him flow through his body.

'I know Hayes... I know.' Song thought.

A knock sounded at his door, three sharp albeit hurried strikes. 'A soldier' Song thought, 'probably new to the job' he quickly got dressed, putting on his general's coat over a pressed white shirt. The coat was long enough to give the impression of a cape but didn't drag along the ground, it buttoned to the sides with a wide slit for the legs. Song preferred not to button it down or even wear the sleeves, but he decided it was good to leave a strong impression on the impressionable new recruit. He stepped up and opened the door to his chamber. Giving the fresh face a curt nod.

"Sir! This letter came for you from the High Commander," The young soldier said, giving a salute with one hand making a fist over his chest before an open palmed salute from his head.

The boy looked to be about twenty years of age old enough to match Song's assessment of someone fresh to the Legion's ranks. He was tan-skinned with a complexion that looked like it hadn't seen much sun. He also wore square spectacles, a trait that somehow added to the soldier's air of inexperience.

Song took the letter and tucked it under his hand so he could gesture a dismissal. The soldier seemed to recognize the gesture but remained standing at the door.

"With all due respect sir, I think you should read that letter before dismissing me ... sir!" The boy said adamantly, but he didn't meet Song's gaze.

Song narrowed his gaze at the boy before slipping open the letter he had delivered, the frown on his face growing deeper as he read.

'So this fresh-face is going to be my new voice... lovely' Song thought grimly. If the High Commander had sent him a new voice that meant he was planning on deploying Song soon. He supposed it was bound to happen eventually.

"Lots of training for you." Song gestured grudgingly and motioned for the soldier to follow him as he made his way to the High Commander's office.

"Yes sir." He replied and followed without another word.

"You take orders... good." Song gestured " Name?"

"Ty, sir." He said, trying to keep pace with Song as he manoeuvred through Dredspine's hallways.

Dredspine was a monster of a fortress built out of a network of hallways that all lead out from the central tower. The halls were minimally decorated carrying an air of professional sterility. A structure of Cold-Iron and stone that shot straight upwards into the cloud line, it was the single most visible symbol of the Steadfast Legion's presence on Rudira. Many of the locals speculated that it was this tower that brought about the land's unnaturally long winter... they weren't entirely right, This place was the seat of the empire that had brought permafrost to Rudira's tropical land but Dreadspine was not the source.