Andrus and Ayleah

 

When the identified vehicle arrived, the guards pulled it to the side and began their usual process of examining the vehicle and its contents. The passengers got out, reluctantly as they always did within sight of the guard-post. There were two brothers, one of which had produced papers and seemed to be having a surly conversation with the lead guardsman. The other kept a protective eye about the camp, staying close to the vehicle. His energy seemed to shelter the two young women they had with them, who Andrus supposed might be their sisters. They did look somewhat alike, but there was something strange about them. One of the sisters stood out weirdly to his awareness, as if she was sharper or more saturated than anything else in the scene about him. Before he had fully registered it, he was moving towards the group. He was not a person ignorant of how places and people could have energetic signatures, and this woman gave off an intriguing glow.

---

-

The hauler thumped softly across the long metal grating of the bridge deck. They drove out into open space, following and followed by military cruisers. To each side lay a great river, but it looked only like a postcard or image in a book, so far removed as it was from their senses in the vehicle. Ayleah was astonished by the bridge itself almost more than the vast view of the great Winniaska. It held its own weight with cables almost as thick as a person is tall, and those drooped with impossible grace as they reached the center of the span. As they moved across she could feel the tension around and below them as the bridge and cables took and supported their weight. It was a barely perceivable sense, but the immensity of it relative to her fragile life touched her at the core of her being. This was a transition, a true movement from one place to another, symbolized comically well by the energy transfer of a bridge. She wondered if that guard-captain could sense the bridge's energy; she wondered if he could sense her own.

---

“What is your relation to these people you are with?” Andrus asked the young woman when they were alone in the small boxy field office on the north side of the bridge.

“I-I'm their sister.” She managed, hopefully with a tone of curious innocence. Andrus took down the note, but now that she said it he did not believe it for a second. Nevertheless he let the lie slide and continued on: “Have you ever had contact with another member of the armed forces? Have you had any contact with someone who may have been a member of the armed forces in the past five moons?”

She paused minutely to think and then: “No, never.” she sounded more confident now.

Andrus held up a photo. “Have you ever met, or otherwise seen this person?”

Ayleah looked at the photo he held up of an adult woman older than herself, with short blond hair and a stiff-pressed collar. “No, I don't recognize her” she responded.

The man across the table stared at her. His eyes were an inscrutable gray, trained to betray nothing about the person inside. He had a physical build and energy that were different from the people she knew had grown up in the region. Faced with his foreign slippery energy, she refocused her own efforts at simply sliding by. She though about how small, barely visible, and not worth his time she was.

The military commander sighed, and looked away again. Grasping at straws like this was tiring. Riannath and her men were fugitives of the Imperium, why would they trust simple travelers with anything important? Andrus looked back at the young woman across from him. Her eyes held no trace of guilt or anger towards him. In fact she seemed strangely unguarded in his presence. He had no sense of her inner self, but reasoned that was likely because she had nothing complicated to hide. This woman was simply relaxed and assured of her innocence. He wondered why he had even taken an interest in them in the first place.

Out at the hauler, the guards had completed another search, further annoying Thom and Nate. The two brothers were now sat muttering about overreaching governments and the military complex across a slightly exasperated Meral. They stopped when Ayleah came back out of the low office building followed by Andrus. The acting-commander had a brief chat with a guardsman, who reported nothing suspicious about the vehicle or the other three siblings. Andrus looked to the little surly group, and suddenly had a thought to call for a boat. The young woman he had just been speaking with apparently had important business downriver and the Imperial forces would be glad to help her on her way.

The soldiers who went to ready the extra boat were loyal to their duty and were probably the least surprised at Andrus' order. Ayleah knew enough to trust when things seem to magically work out, and quickly made to gather her things and say goodbye to the Ravaels. Despite time being short, they were able to give her a proper send-off at the riverbank, and she was able to thank them profusely for all they had done for her. She knew they might never meet again, but held a quiet hope in her heart, as she did with all partings.

As she took command of the small military boat and motored it out into the wide river, she noticed a large blue duffel bag next to her. It was the same one that had been in the back seat of the hauler, but she had never seen it moved out or into the boat. “That's a pretty neat trick you pulled” she said, but the bag didn't address her back. Oh well she thought, I'll let him sleep a while longer. Maybe he can't wake up with anybody watching anyway. She occupied herself with the steering, watching the wooded muddy banks drift by.

---

When Andrus left the guard-post at the south end of the bridge, he took a few men with him to escort the hauler, and this necessitated a slight reorganization at the checkpoint. There also happened to be a change of shift at the time, and so for a few minutes there was much mobilization and movement of personnel. In the bustle, it may have been that a far corner of the blockade was less steadily watched. For at that moment a single individual emerged from the brush and slipped through, his light green cloak catching the sun like falling leaves as he stepped towards the west.