[this is what she gets for coming from what is apparently an unusually complicated universe. to her, it's so normal that it's hard to describe.]
We were trained like that too, but if everyone holds fast, Kel formations can make other things happen. Shields, kinetic lances, illusions. Things that don't happen in nature. It only works if the formation is completely united, so formation breaks are severely punished, even for cadets. Even when it was just a drill.
[it was such a stupid situation, too. someone else's calendrical sword switched to lethal instead of practice mode, bodies trampled underfoot, the formation's cohesion shuddering as Stes, against orders, furiously wrenched free to intervene. the instructor's icy response: at least they died Kel.]
She was given a choice: outprocessing and having her name burnt, or dying with honor.
We all assumed Fourth Formation with one place empty, and Stes stepped into that place and burned like a torch. I was the one who unspidered her so she could move freely, so she could complete the formation of her own free will.
[as much free will as first-year cadets could have, being told from all sides what it meant to be a Kel -- what it meant to be worthwhile, to be loyal, to belong.]
She never saw a battle, but she was remembered as a Kel.
no subject
We were trained like that too, but if everyone holds fast, Kel formations can make other things happen. Shields, kinetic lances, illusions. Things that don't happen in nature. It only works if the formation is completely united, so formation breaks are severely punished, even for cadets. Even when it was just a drill.
[it was such a stupid situation, too. someone else's calendrical sword switched to lethal instead of practice mode, bodies trampled underfoot, the formation's cohesion shuddering as Stes, against orders, furiously wrenched free to intervene. the instructor's icy response: at least they died Kel.]
She was given a choice: outprocessing and having her name burnt, or dying with honor.
We all assumed Fourth Formation with one place empty, and Stes stepped into that place and burned like a torch. I was the one who unspidered her so she could move freely, so she could complete the formation of her own free will.
[as much free will as first-year cadets could have, being told from all sides what it meant to be a Kel -- what it meant to be worthwhile, to be loyal, to belong.]
She never saw a battle, but she was remembered as a Kel.