Dara, Page, and the Secrets of the Multiverse

▷ 15.2

The Premier stared them both down from behind her ornate desk. Despite them standing and her being a head shorter, her presence towered over them in ways Page couldn't ever match. "Tell me, which one of you started it?" she asked, voice toned to a deadly edge. If she didn't like what she heard, she had the power and whim to demote Page back to her trainee rank. She couldn't afford that, especially when she had worked all her life to her Senior Lieutenant.

Her rank was the last thing Dara would sabotage in Page's life, so she opened her mouth and blurted, "Dara tripped the alarm, and as we were going to devise a plan for an emergency retreat, she turned the wrong hallway and abandoned her mission partner. According to Article 4 Section 5—"

"I told you—it wasn't intentional!" Dara whirled to Page, eyes flashing to dare her to say anything more to the Premier. Page regarded it as a challenge. Oh, hell yeah. She'd say more. In fact, she'd divulge how Dara tripped the alarm—by dropping the mana sensor right into the nest of lasers protecting the Laic servers. They weren't even there to hack the database. That was more of the tech department's job. "It's just a mistake!"

Page glanced at Dara at the corner of her vision. "Mistakes in the field can cost you a soldier's life," she replied. "You don't want that, trust me."

"Page is correct," the Premier said. From Page's periphery, she watched Dara's confidence deflate. Ha, served her right. "She has also demonstrated good leadership skills by not leaving you on your own when you got lost in the facility."

She puffed out her chest. Of course. She would always return home with her soldiers breathing and in one piece if she could. That ability earned her a title among her peers. The Untouchable, they called her, because as long as she was present, they could rest easy knowing that they wouldn't be harmed by something mana couldn't heal.

"But," the Premier continued, slapping Page's ego to the side. "If you aim to be some kind of leader in the Domain, you need to take care of your soldiers. Not just by being The Untouchable, but also their wellbeing, your relationship with them, and if they are not performing well, you are also to be in charge of their additional training."

A scoff flitted out of Page's lips. In an ideal world, she would have never dared to do it in the Premier's presence, but the expectation was too much. "How am I supposed to keep on training people in the field?" she demanded. "Field work isn't for training!"

"As a senior officer, it's your duty to make it seem like it's a controlled environment," the Premier answered. "You know how to get around the area, you show your soldiers how it's done. Field work is still extended training for most of our new cadets, and you can't expect them to know something they only experienced in theory. Something was bound to go the wrong way, and it's your job to foresee that."

Page glanced at Dara at an inopportune time to see the girl smirking. Was she that happy with Page being reprimanded? Bitch. "However, I will implore you to work on your spatial awareness and attention to commands," the Premier said to Dara. "You cannot keep aggravating your commanding officers just because you think you know better."