33 Risen#re

Lirian heard Telamon clearly but he cared very little for what Telamon wanted.

"It's true that I am the sole commander," he said gathering everyone's attention, ", but every commander needs his generals," he said with simple a smile.

It was a simple rule that any tactician knew, all armies have ranks in order to bring about order and inspire the lower-ranks to work to the best of their ability in the hopes that they would reach higher ranks.

"Tobias, Edith, Cole, Wentian and Media, would you be willing to stand as my generals?" he asked while everyone was watching, it was necessary to have everyone see him handing out the roles., it was the only way to reassure them of the situation.

The candidates one by one agreed, all except for Media who seemed hesitant, "Is there something you don't agree with?" Lirian asked frowning after a while, wondering what could she possibly disagree with.

"Can we speak about this without an audience watching?" she whispered softly, she didn't want a big leadership role, in all honesty she had been dreading this expedition from the day it was mentioned.

Lirian gave her a quick nod, "I would like my generals to select the most capable mental psychics they know to come have a quick word with me," he said quickly, "Karen Eden," he called out to Karen from his class she was the only mental psychic in his class and she had proven that she was capable in analysis and commanding.

Telamon frowned at the disturbance, but soon enough the students all began to line up neatly.

Lirian pulled Media to the side as the other candidates went to find suitable psychics, "Is there something that you'd rather do than lead your classmates?" he questioned, trying to understand what was wrong with her.

"Don't you remember what happened to me during my expedition last year, I was only leading my class but I still lost three people..." she paused to take a breath, "I'm not suited to this like the rest of you are," she said with a hint of guilt in her voice.

Lirian sighed as he remembered her disaster of a year, she had asked to leave the candidates program at one point after her failure.

He raised his hand to her shoulder and only to late did he realise how embarrassing it must look, it's usually the tall ones that give the big believe in yourself pep talks.

And there was supposed to be eye to eye contact but firstly he was too short and secondly, he was blind, which really put an asterisk on the whole eye contact part.

He put a little pressure on her shoulder and made her sink until her head was slightly lower than him, it earned him a sweet giggle from Media as she was reminded of his height complex.

"You failed once, and you're going to fail a hundred times no matter what you do," he began, and he practically felt Media's heart drop and heard her hold back a sob at his words.

Lirian almost slapped himself in the face as soon as the words left his mouth, somethings just sound so much simpler in your head but then you open your mouth and it's like a whole other set of words come out.

"What I mean, is that we all make mistakes, we all end up failing when it matters, but the difference between us and a normal person is that we have no choice but to get up and try again or die trying,"

"No one else failed like I did," she said indignantly.

Lirian wanted to snap at her for spouting nonsense but he realised that it would be counterproductive, "You think that I've never failed, do you think that everything that I can do is just some god given talent," he said shaking her slightly.

"Look at me Media, I'm blind," he said with his voice barely louder than a whisper, "I didn't let it stop me, when I knew that everyone would look down on me because of it, and neither should you."

"It's like I said in my speech the other day, we are the ones that lead from the front, where others do not wish to stand, that is our duty, we do what others cannot even if can't do it by ourselves,"

"Think about it last time you were on your own this time you have all of us to help you out if you mess up," he finished.

"Now, go and find me the best psychic in your grade," he ordered her turning around and walking away.

"Thank you," she whispered too softly for anyone to hear as she watched his departing back, he really made no sense to her, he was so tiny, yet from behind she felt like she was looking at an unending mountain, that could never be toppled.

When the psychics arrived, he quickly assigned them roles such as intel gatherers and, to send orders down to the students, they were going to act as the messengers for the generals and Karen was going to handle the commands he gave out.

By the time he was done half of the students had already slipped through the portals.

He steadily stepped through the portal and experienced that feeling of being caught by his feet and flung around in every possible direction known to man.

Just moments after he arrived, he was happy that he didn't have to witness a scene so disgusting that every person present on that day wished they could forget it.

'Ah, the perks of being blind,' he mused to himself as he heard several barfing sounds, he walked cautiously making sure to tap every inch of the ground before stepping forward to ensure that he didn't step into a puddle of vomit.

As the students slowly got back to their feet, they could see a massive steel base, filled with military vehicles moving up and down and as they slowly looked around, they spotted an Altien race (pink skinned and blue haired) sergeant looked at them with disgust.

"I am supposed to guide you through the basics, but that isn't happening until the lot of you wimps clean up all that filth you spilt on the ground," she shouted with flaring nostrils, being forced to witness about 500 people throwing up was enough to put anyone in a horrible mood.

He words caused the students to shrink back in disgust, and the students from noble families especially had the sudden urge to refuse her order.

"If anyone has a problem with that then I'll have them lick it of the ground, now get to it all of you," she shouted.

"Uhm, I have a problem," someone said raising their hand.

The sergeant looked at the student with a sunken face, she had received a list of all the problem children, and it was the one at the top of her list that chose to speak out.